Chaya Czernowin at UCSD

On February 15, the University of California San Diego celebrates the music of Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin in a program of ensemble works including Ina, Drift and Afatsim. Graduate students of the University perform under the direction of Jonathan Hepfer. Currently the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University, Czernowin was previously professor of composition at UCSD from 1997-2006.

Drift, or Sahaf, composed in 2008 and premiered by Ensemble Nikel, has already found its way into the repertoire of many new music ensembles. As part of her Shifting Gravity cycle, the piece explores the laws of physics and their physical realization. The quartet is scored for saxophone, electric guitar, piano, and percussion employing a unique battalia including timpano, marimba, triangle liners, bamboo wind chime, ocean drum, snare drum, and ratchet. Throughout the work, flurries of events from each instrument progressively coalesce until they finally join to contribute their collected imaginings of the percussion's grinding ratchet sound.

Scored for bass flute, oboe, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, and strings, Afatsim was composed in 1996 for ensemble recherche, and Czernowin describes the work as a metaphoric depiction of the "growth of disfigured mutations on the surface continuity of a branch." This work provides evidence of Czernowin's ability to produce music that, while abandoning traditional linear drama, can at once be organic and intuitively cohesive.

For more information on this concert, visit:
musicweb.ucsd.edu/concerts

Chaya Czernowin-Composer Profile

Chaya Czernowin
Ina (1988)
for bass flute and six recorded flutes
12’

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

Afatsim (1996)
for mixed ensemble
bfl.ob.bcl-timp.perc-pno-vn.va.vc.db (5-string)
10’