Gordon Beeferman, composer/pianist
Stephanie Griffin, violist
Griffin-Beeferman Duo
Tunnel Visions
Saturday, May 21, 2016, 8:00pm
Big Secret Theatre, Long Island City, Queens
New York-based violist Stephanie Griffin and composer/pianist Gordon Beeferman present an eclectic duo recital of new music from Colombia, Mexico, and the United States, much of which blurs the boundaries between composed and improvised traditions and practices. A highlight of the program will be Tunnel Visions (2015), a large-scale work which Griffin commissioned from Beeferman for the 2015 Momenta Quartet Festival. Deeply influenced by numerous contemporary traditions including spectralism, serialism, and avant-garde jazz, its flashy theatricality, off-kilter gestures and microtonal flurries are counterbalanced by moments of pure sound color and introspection.
Purchase tickets here.
Music to be heard on this evening:
Desdoblamiento by Juan Camilo Hernandez Sanchez
Duo improvisation
The Viola in My Life (3) by Morton Feldman
The Life in My Viola by Wilfrido Terrazas
Tunnel Visions by Gordon Beeferman
Stephanie Griffin, viola
“enthralling” – Mark Swed, The Los Angeles Times
“fiery, full-throttle performance” – Allan Kozinn, The New York Times
“one of the city’s most inquisitive, accomplished violists” – Steve Smith, Time Out New York
Stephanie Griffin is an innovative violist with a unique and eclectic musical vision. Born in Canada and based in New York City, her musical adventures have taken her to Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, England, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, and Mongolia. From large concert halls to the sand dunes of the Gobi desert, she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in classical, contemporary, and improvisational contexts. As a soloist, she has worked closely with numerous composers, among them Salvatore Sciarrino; Tristan Murail; Tony Prabowo; Kee Yong Chong; Ursula Mamlok; Matthew Greenbaum; and Arthur Kampela.
A founding member of the Momenta Quartet, she has given over 200 chamber concerts at such esteemed venues as the Library of Congress and the National Gallery in Washington, DC and led residencies at major American institutes of higher education, among them Cornell and New York Universities and the Eastman School of Music. Ms. Griffin performs regularly with the New York contemporary music institution, Continuum, now in its 48th year, and has given American premieres of major works by leading European composers, among them Georg Friedrich Haas and Michael Jarrell, as a member of the Argento Chamber Ensemble. From 1998 through 2002, she was Executive Director of the contemporary music series at Galapagos Art and Performance Space, and she currently curates new music for the Immersive Gallery in Brooklyn.
As an improviser, Stephanie was a 2014 fellow at Music Omi, and is a member of Carl Maguire’s Floriculture, Gordon Beeferman’s Other Life Forms, Hans Tammen’s Third Eye Orchestra, Adam Rudolph’s Go: Organic Orchestra and the composer/improviser collective the Brooklyn Infinity Orchestra. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Juilliard Quartet violist Samuel Rhodes and is on faculty at Brooklyn College. She has recorded for Tzadik, Innova, Naxos, Aeon, Centaur, Aksara, Firehouse 12, and New World, Albany, and Aeon records.
Gordon Beeferman, piano
Gordon Beeferman is a composer, pianist, and improviser from New York City. An eclectic and omnivorous musician who straddles numerous genres, he has created and performed innovative opera, chamber and orchestra music, avant-jazz, and numerous collaborations with choreographers, writers, and video artists. An active member of the New York contemporary music scene since 1998, he has performed at prominent venues and series including Roulette, MATA, and the Vision Festival, and his recordings have been acclaimed by magazines including The Wire, Jazz Review, and Cadence. His varied projects include bands that perform his compositions: Other Life Forms, a quartet, and Music for an Imaginary Band, a septet—“a commanding avant-jazz ensemble” (Time Out New York). Four Parts Five, an extended work for his new quintet, was just released on Innova Recordings in 2015 – “Packed with humour, mischief, and an urge to dance” (The Wire). Since 2003, Beeferman has composed two operas with librettist Charlotte Jackson: The Rat Land, praised as “complex and daringly modern” by The New York Times, and The Enchanted Organ: A Porn Opera, scenes of which have been performed to sold-out theater and nightclub audiences in downtown Manhattan. His music has been performed by the New York City Opera orchestra, Momenta Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony, California EAR Unit, Talea Ensemble, Quartet New Generation recorder collective, and others. He has received commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the BMI Foundation, and Concert Artists Guild, three BMI Student Composer Awards, a Tanglewood fellowship, and residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Copland House, and Ucross. Beeferman’s recordings are available on Innova, OutNow, Generate, Genuin, and Summit Records. www.gordonbeeferman.com
*QNMF 2016 call for proposals winner
