Tarnish (Philadelphia, pay-what-you-wish)

PRISM QUARTET
Timothy McAllister, soprano
Zachary Shemon, alto
Matthew Levy, tenor
Taiur Sullivan, baritone

PRISM Quartet presents a far reaching concert of new music by several of American’s most revered composers. The program, named after Nina C. Young’s otherworldly composition, Tarnish, features a series of seminal works composed just for PRISM, including Yarn by Marcos Balter, Graffiti II by Roberto Sierra, Keen by Roshanne Etezady, and select movements from Fair and Balanced by Frank J. Oteri.

Winner of the Rome Prize and Guggenheim Fellowship, Nina C. Young serves on the composition faculty of The Juilliard School. She describes Tarnish as “inspired by the alteration of material on the surface of metal, the thin layer of corrosion that forms as certain metals undergo a chemical reaction. Only the top few layers react; the outer destruction seals and protects the underlying structure. Tarnish begins and ends with gentle noise. From this initially unpitched sound world the Quartet uncovers (wipes away the tarnish from) timbral layers to expose nostalgic, tonal, almost-saccharinely beautiful music.  These sections are intended to be very precious, but short-lived. When exposed for too long, they oxidize.”

Marcos Balter is the Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition at Columbia University whose work has been praised by The Washington Post as “dark and deeply poetic.” Mr. Balter describes his work, Yarn: “The type of fiber and the tightness of the thread dictate a yarn’s character. While thicker and tighter yarns are more durable, a quality yarn is typically loose and lightweight; fragility and exquisiteness are intrinsically correlated, where the ultimate price of refinement is ephemerality.” Yarn is dedicated to the memory of the Ryan Muncy.

Roberto Sierra’s Graffiti II is a set of 14 miniatures. He writes, “My work is evocative of graffiti, with the juxtaposition of highly contrasting gestures, rapidly shifting colors and dynamics, and swooping gestures. Graffiti II portrays graffiti’s immediacy and lyricism in some movements, but also its radical, aggressive, uncontained quality in others, a sense that the music, like the artwork, is spilling out of the frame. Even when multiple graffiti artists utilize the same surface, the best graffiti conveys a sense of freedom, but is cohesive, with its own internal logic. The saxophone quartet is the perfect medium for my musical explorations of graffiti, since it seamlessly incorporates coloristic extended techniques, like multiphonics and the use of microtones, into its performance practice.” Grammy-nominated and Latin Grammy winner Roberto Sierra was awarded the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize, the highest honor given in Spain to a composer of Spanish or Latin American origin.

Roshanne Etezady serves as Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Michigan. Her music has been described as  “fresh, effusive, and immediately likable” by Fanfare. She writes: “The word ‘keen’ has several different meanings: as an adjective, it can mean ‘ardent’ or ‘intense.’ Once upon a time, ‘keen’ had a colloquial meaning that suggested something pleasant or exceptional. Used as a noun, however, the word ‘keen’ signifies a wailing lamentation for the dead. It is this latter meaning that I particularly was mindful of when I wrote Keen. I wanted to write a piece that took advantage not only of the homogenous nature of the saxophone quartet, with its evenness of timbre across the four voices, but also allowed the instruments to display the subtleties and nuances that make saxophone one of the most versatile instruments in existence. Keen is ‘bookended’ by two sections that call to mind a vaguely Middle Eastern-sounding lament. The use of the drone at the beginning and the end of the piece evokes a sense of solemnity and perhaps spirituality. The body of the piece is characterized by episodic sections of varying moods and colors that culminate with all four instruments in their highest registers.”

Frank J. Oteri  is the President of the International Society for Contemporary Music and serves on the faculty of The New School.  He writes: “Since 1998, ‘Fair and Balanced’ has been a slogan for the conservative-leaning FOX News Network who have even sued liberal-leaning political commentator Al Franken for using their patented phrase in the subtitle of a book he published last year. (Perhaps I should be afraid of a lawsuit here as well.) But with Fair and Balanced?, I have attempted to create music that is just that. Scored for saxophone quartet, an ensemble as equally matched as a string quartet, the four movements of Fair and Balanced? treat the four members of the saxophone quartet equally (for the most part, hence the question mark) and present musical material in which the 24 tones of the quartertone system carry equal weight. The departure point for each of the movements is an interval that cycles the entire gamut of the 24 tones of the quartertone scale.”

PROGRAM
Yarn (2023) by Marcos Balter (b. 1974)

Tarnish (2019) by Nina C. Young (b. 1984)

KEEN (2004) by Roshanne Etezady (b. 1973)

Fair and Balanced (2004) by Frank J. Oteri (B. 1964)
Remaining Neutral
Incremental Change

Graffiti II (2019) by Roberto Sierra (b. 1953)
1. Vivo
2. Fluido
3. Expressivo
4. Preciso
5. Inquieto
6. Lento
7. Salseado
8. Triste
9. Fugaz
10. Doloroso
11. Rapido
12. Abrupto
13. Vertigiroso
14. Furioso

Nina C. Young

Marcos Balter

Roberto Sierra

Roshanne Etezady

Frank J. Oteri

TICKETS
This concert is presented on a pay-what-you-wish basis, with three levels of tickets for general admission — $10, $22.50, and $35 — in order to make it affordable to the widest possible audience.

SUPPORT PRISM QUARTET
Ticket revenue covers only a small percentage of the cost of producing this concert. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to PRISM Quartet’s nonprofit organization to support our concert series, educational programs, and commissioning and recording projects. Visit the Support page.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This program is made possible with generous support from the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, and the Amphion Foundation.

ACCESSIBILITY
PRISM Quartet welcomes all individuals to our concerts, and provides a variety of accommodations for those with disabilities in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. For specific accommodations, please contact info@prismquartet.com or 215.438.5282.