Chaya Czernowin Featured at New England Conservatory

On October 19 the New England Conservatory presents an evening of the music of Chaya Czernowin led by Stephen Drury. Taking place at NEC's Jordan Hall, the program features Czernowin's works The hour glass bleeds still for string sextet, her nonet Afatsim for mixed ensemble, and Drift for ensemble.

In recent years Czernowin has developed a compositional technique centered on the idea of composite instruments and her piece Afatsim is a perfect model of this style. In this work the players are grouped into four sections each forming composite instruments: viola and bass flute; violin and oboe; cello and clarinet; piano, double bass and percussion. Stephen Drury, who leads the performance at NEC comments:

Listening to Czernowin's music is like watching a mystery unfold into a bigger mystery. My attention is grabbed first by the strange sounds, often seeming to come from animals, the weather, other natural forces, rather than musical instruments. Czernowin uses the instruments in strange and wonderful combinations, where two or more players seem to combine into some kind of hyper-instrument capable of producing unimagined noises and sounds.

Born in Isreal in 1957, Chaya Czernowin studied composition with Abel Ehrlich, Dieter Schnebel, Brian Ferneyhough and Roger Reynolds and is recognized as a leading figure in experimental contemporary music and a highly sought-after teacher. Czernowin has held teaching positions at the Yoshiro Irino Institute in Tokyo from 1993-94; the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt from 1990 to 1999; University of California San Diego from 1997 to 2006; and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 2006 to 2009. She currently is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University.

For more on the music of Chaya Czernowin, visit her composer profile.

Find details on the concert by going to www.newenglandconservatory.edu.

Chaya Czernowin
Afatsim (1996)
for mixed ensemble
bfl.ob.bcl.timp.perc-pno-vn.va.vc.db
10'

The hour glass bleeds still (1999)
for string sextet
19'

Drift (Sahaf) (2008)
for ensemble
saxophone (baritone and sopranino) or clarinet (Eb clarinet and bass clarinet), electric guitar, piano and percussion
7'