Since its founding in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti, the world-renowned Arditti Quartet has inspired hundreds of composers to write groundbreaking works specifically for the ensemble, among them School of Music director and faculty composer Joël-Francois Durand, whose connection to the group goes back decades. 

In this free concert following the Quartet’s Concerning the same work, The Toronto Star observes: 'The music pulsed with fabulous rhythmic and tonal effects that the Ardittis shaped into palpable 3-D soundscapes. Clarke's mastery of dissonance and overtone, aided by the Ardittis' playing, created sound waves that are not usually heard in a quartet program.'

Durand: Quatuor à cordes no. 4, Musica fict(iv)a II (2026) 
Like my second (2020) and third (2024) string quartets , this fourth quartet makes extensive use of “first order beats,” an acoustic phenomenon which naturally occurs when two tones of very close frequency are played at the same time. When these two tones approach the unison, one can perceive pulsations (beats) of ever slower frequency. Musica fict(iv)a II is based on musical materials from Musica fict(iv)a, Six pièces et deux interludes, for wind quintet. Four of the five movements of the string quartet (I., II, IV and V) are dervied from movements of the wind quintet, while the 3rd movement, the Prologue and the two Interludes present new materials that puts the other movements in a new perspective.

The title, Musica fict(iv)a, refers to both the notion of 'outside' notes found in the musical theory of musica ficta from the middle ages, and to the 'fictive' character of the beats produced by these outside notes. In parallel to the medieval notion of Musica ficta, the reference here is to the fact that the tonal inflections that generate beats don’t so much create a microtonal language as they are explorations of the musical potential of beats, in particular as we approach the unison. In that sense, they operate outside the conventional notion of intervals. Additionally, since the beats are not actually produced by the musicians (the performers just play two different, closely related tones), but result from the acoustic phenomenon of interference, one could argue that the sound they create is not 'real': it exists in another, non-material dimension. The beats produce a 'fictive,' but clearly perceived musical line above the more traditional musical gestures.
 
One the main reasons why I find this particularly interesting is because these two types of discourse, the fictive and the traditional ones, require very different types of listening, different types of attention. In order to perceive these beats, one must almost “not hear” the tones that are produced by the instruments, but concentrate on the resulting beats that emanate from their combination. This requires shifting our listening attention from one level to the other, as if listening to some sort of new polyphony. The beats are a very delicate acoustic phenomenon—often much fainter than the main tones. They are also fairly unstable because they rely on the performers maintaining an absolutely steady intonation, something that is almost impossible to achieve for a long period of time: on string instruments, in particular, the pitch can vary minutely with the pressure of the bow on the string, or with the slightest movement of the finger on the string that is being stopped. These tiny changes are usually not heard because with larger intervals, the ear adapts to the context—“understands the pitch,” so to speak. But the production of beats requires extremely small intervallic differences and, in this world, these changes in frequency can alter the effect dramatically. Far from being an inconvenience, I value this evanescence, this uncertainty, both in the production and the perception, as an essential part of the musical language based on this acoustic phenomenon. This fourth string quartet, like the preceding two, invites us to bring our listening attention to a very focused kind of concentration, inside the movement of the sound.

Ferneyhough: String Quartet No. 3 (1987)
The final form of this quartet is quite different from that which I had planned at the outset. Initially (several years before the main period of composition) I had sketched out a five-movement structure; in the event this was finally reduced to a two-movement layout, in which the second movement contains superimposed elements of several other movemental types. The change may be attributed, in large part, to questions of musical balance: at the same time the altered perspective permitted me to regard the piece very much as a record of two very different reactions to a state of extreme inner crisis. Since both movements, very different in regard of contents, are approximately of the same length, I thought of them as polar opposites, reflecting, by their very intransigent extremity, the empty spaces in between.
The first movement moves in an almost frozen, dazed, autistic world of isolated fragments, partial, disconnected repetitions and sudden, unmotivated outbursts. The more than twenty basic textural elements are constantly being mutated, erased and recombined in a fashion which practically eliminate the possibility of establishing a singled underlying continuity. At the same time, the overall form reflects closely the self-preoccupied nature of its materials in a dual mirroring strategy: on the one hand, the individual sections are interlocked in a complex pattern of subsurface symmetries, on the other, the final third of the movement reflects the patterns and texture-types of the first two thirds by replacing each element with its 'complementary' element from the opposite end of the spectrum.
The second and final movement explodes into an iridescent flood of irate images, almost cadence-like in its constantly changing instrumental combinations of wildly fluctuating superpositions of texture and tempo. The complexity of this movement resides largely in the fact that a number of movements have been, in effect, compacted together, each of them having been 'damaged' in greater or lesser degree by the impact. Whilst the attentive listener may well discover residual features of a rondo structure, this should be understood less as a consciously imposed dictate than as a reflection of the fact that at least three distinct processual strata are running concurrently, albeit surfacing into the domain of the audible only at certain precalculated moments.
String Quartet No 3 is dedicated to the members of the Arditti Quartet, and was commissioned with funds provided by the Arts Council of Great Britain -- B. Ferneyhough.

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Biographies

The Arditti Quartet enjoys a world-wide reputation for their spirited and technically refined interpretations of contemporary and earlier 20th century music. Many hundreds of string quartets and other chamber works have been written for the ensemble since its foundation by first violinist Irvine Arditti in 1974. Many of these works have left a permanent mark on 20th century repertoire and have given the Arditti Quartet a firm place in music history. World premieres of quartets by composers such as Abrahamsen, Ades, Andriessen, Aperghis, Birtwistle, Britten, Cage, Carter, Denisov, Dillon, Dufourt, Dusapin, Fedele, Ferneyhough, Francesconi, Gubaidulina, Guerrero, Harvey, Hosokawa, Kagel, Kurtag, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Maderna, Manoury, Nancarrow, Reynolds, Rihm, Scelsi, Sciarrino, Stockhausen and Xenakis and hundreds more show the wide range of music in the Arditti Quartet’s repertoire.

The ensemble believes that close collaboration with composers is vital to the process of interpreting modern music and therefore attempts to work with every composer it plays.
The players’ commitment to educational work is indicated by their masterclasses and workshops for young performers and composers all over the world.

The Arditti Quartet’s extensive discography now features over 200 CDs.

42 CD’s were released as part of the ensemble’s series on Naive Montaigne. This series set the trend, by presenting numerous contemporary composer features, recorded in their presence as well as the first digital recordings of the complete Second Viennese School’s chamber music for strings. The quartet has recorded for more than 20 other CD labels and together this CD collection is the most extensive available of quartet literature in the last 40 years. To name just a few, Berio, Cage, Carter, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Nono, Rihm, the complete chamber music of Xenakis and Stockhausen’s infamous Helicopter Quartet. Some of the most recent releases with the French company Aeon include profiles of Birtwistle, Gerhard, Ferneyhough Paredes and Dusapin, and with Winter and Winter Abrahamsen.

Over the past 30 years, the ensemble has received many prizes for its work. They have won the Deutsche Schallplatten Preis several times and the Gramophone Award for the best recording of contemporary music in 1999 (Elliott Carter) in 2002 (Harrison Birtwistle) and in 2018 (Pascal Dusapin). In 2004 they were awarded the ‘Coup de Coeur’ prize by the Academie Charles Cros in France for their exceptional contribution to the dissemination of contemporary music. The prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize was awarded to them in 1999 for ‘lifetime achievement’ in music. They remain to this day, the only ensemble ever to receive it.

The complete archive of the Arditti quartet is housed in the Sacher Foundation in Basle, Switzerland.

Members of the UW Wind Ensemble (Christopher Vongvithaymathakul, director) perform music by W.A. Mozart, Claude Arrieu, Joan Tower and others. With Yuman Wu and Joshua Michael Smith, assistant conductors. 

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Biographies

 

UW music students perform music from the Baroque era under the direction of Tekla Cunningham.

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Director Biography

 

The UW Percussion Ensemble (Bonnie Whiting, director) performs  contemporary music arranged for percussion ensembles

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Director Biography

 

The Studio Jazz Ensemble (Jacob Zimmerman, director) performs big band arrangements and repertory selections. The Modern Band (Cuong Vu, director) performs innovative arrangements of jazz standards, selections from the outer limits of the genre, and new original compositions.

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Biographies

 

The Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) presents works of our time in several concerts each year. Including repertoire from the early to mid-20th century and beyond, the group focuses on small ensemble and chamber orchestra works, performed by both undergraduate and graduate students.

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Director Biography

The UW's graduate-student-led choral ensembles—the University Singers, UW Glee, and Treble Choirs—present an eclectic end-of-quarter concert. 

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Director Biographies

 

The Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band (Christopher Vongvithaymathakul, director) present 'Rhythms and Rhymes,' featuring music by Gustav Holst, David Maslanka, Chen Yi and others.

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Biographies

 

New York City-based pianist Lisa Moore has performed hundreds of commissioned works and world premieres – having worked with more than two hundred living composers while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. The New York Times has described her as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned…lustrous at the keyboard.”

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Note: Lisa Moore also leads a master class with UW piano students
Master Class: Thursday, Feb. 4, 4:30 pm, HUB Lyceum 

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Biography

New York-based Australian musician Lisa Moore is a multifaceted pianist, recording artist, and avid collaborator. Named “la leggenda” by La Repubblica (Italy) her playing combines lyricism and virtuosity with expressive and emotional power – whether in the delivery of the simplest song, a solo recital, a concerto, or a fiendish chamber score. Given a special passion for the music of our time, Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. She has performed hundreds of commissioned works and world premieres – having worked with more than two hundred living composers while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. The New Yorker describes her as both “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano”. Her playing has been singled out by The New York Times for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”.

Moore has performed throughout Europe, the UK, USA, and Asia on some of the world’s great stages – Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Hamer Hall and Recital Center, Milan’s La Scala, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. She has released twelve solo albums, and more than thirty collaborative ensemble discs. Gramophone writes about her 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc: “what becomes abundantly clear is Moore’s highly developed, intuitive and nuanced approach to this music”. Moore’s 2016 album The Stone People was selected as one of The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and as a Naxos Critics’ Choice 2017. In June 2022, Moore released no place to go but around – her second album of music by Frederic Rzewski – to compelling notice. The New York Times remarked that the album is “meticulous…clever…hits the gas with controlled force”  and has “a greater range of emotion than other interpreters”.

For sixteen years (1992–2008) Moore was the founding pianist for the award-winning electro-acoustic sextet Bang On A Can All-Stars. She has collaborated with leading artists, composers, ensembles and dance companies – The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Thurston Moore, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, London Sinfonietta, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, American Composers Orchestra, and Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.

As a concerto soloist, Moore has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Farifax Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Tasmania Symphony, Thai National, Monash Academy Orchestra, Canberra Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Wesleyan University Orchestra-Sumarsam Gamelan, Clocked Out, and the Queensland Philharmonic. She has worked under the batons of Leonard Bernstein, David Robertson, Brett Dean, Bradley Lubman, Steven Schick, Christopher Zimmerman, Benjamin Northey, Richard Mills, Roger Benedict, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jorge Mester, Leonard Dommett, Dobbs Franks, and Angel Gil-Ordonez.

Moore’s festival guest appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Banff, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chautauqua, Gilmore, Piano Spheres, Chamber Music Northwest, Huddersfield, Vale of Glamorgan (Wales), Liquid Music, Holland, Graz, Hamburg, Taormina, Paris d’Automne, Rome, Bari Piano Festival, Milan, Turin, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw.

Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist. Please visit  

New York City-based pianist Lisa Moore leads a master class with UW piano students. Moore has worked with more than two hundred living composers while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. The New York Times has described her as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned…lustrous at the keyboard.”

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Note: Lisa Moore performs a solo recital on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 7:30 pm, at the HUB Lyceum 

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Biography

New York-based Australian musician Lisa Moore is a multifaceted pianist, recording artist, and avid collaborator. Named “la leggenda” by La Repubblica (Italy) her playing combines lyricism and virtuosity with expressive and emotional power – whether in the delivery of the simplest song, a solo recital, a concerto, or a fiendish chamber score. Given a special passion for the music of our time, Moore won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition. She has performed hundreds of commissioned works and world premieres – having worked with more than two hundred living composers while residing and collaborating in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. The New Yorker describes her as both “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano”. Her playing has been singled out by The New York Times for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”.

Moore has performed throughout Europe, the UK, USA, and Asia on some of the world’s great stages – Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Hamer Hall and Recital Center, Milan’s La Scala, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. She has released twelve solo albums, and more than thirty collaborative ensemble discs. Gramophone writes about her 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc: “what becomes abundantly clear is Moore’s highly developed, intuitive and nuanced approach to this music”. Moore’s 2016 album The Stone People was selected as one of The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and as a Naxos Critics’ Choice 2017. In June 2022, Moore released no place to go but around – her second album of music by Frederic Rzewski – to compelling notice. The New York Times remarked that the album is “meticulous…clever…hits the gas with controlled force”  and has “a greater range of emotion than other interpreters”.

For sixteen years (1992–2008) Moore was the founding pianist for the award-winning electro-acoustic sextet Bang On A Can All-Stars. She has collaborated with leading artists, composers, ensembles and dance companies – The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Thurston Moore, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, London Sinfonietta, Steve Reich Ensemble, New York City Ballet, American Composers Orchestra, and Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.

As a concerto soloist, Moore has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Farifax Symphony, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony, La Jolla Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Tasmania Symphony, Thai National, Monash Academy Orchestra, Canberra Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Wesleyan University Orchestra-Sumarsam Gamelan, Clocked Out, and the Queensland Philharmonic. She has worked under the batons of Leonard Bernstein, David Robertson, Brett Dean, Bradley Lubman, Steven Schick, Christopher Zimmerman, Benjamin Northey, Richard Mills, Roger Benedict, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jorge Mester, Leonard Dommett, Dobbs Franks, and Angel Gil-Ordonez.

Moore’s festival guest appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Banff, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chautauqua, Gilmore, Piano Spheres, Chamber Music Northwest, Huddersfield, Vale of Glamorgan (Wales), Liquid Music, Holland, Graz, Hamburg, Taormina, Paris d’Automne, Rome, Bari Piano Festival, Milan, Turin, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw.

Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist. Please visit  

 

UW music students perform music from the Baroque era under the direction of Tekla Cunningham.

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Director Biography

 

The Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) presents works of our time in several concerts each year. Including repertoire from the early to mid-20th century and beyond, the group focuses on small ensemble and chamber orchestra works, performed by both undergraduate and graduate students.

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Director Biography

A master of the Afro-Puerto Rican dance and drumming tradition called bomba, Autumn Quarter Ethnomusicology Visiting Artist Otoqui Reyes is joined by special guests and his UW students in Dance and Music in this end-of-quarter performance. 

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Biography

Otoqui Reyes is a master of the Afro-Puerto Rican dance and drumming tradition called bomba. Reyes was raised in Loiza Aldea, a community with an influential bomba tradition, and also learned other regional styles of bomba. He performed for several years with the Cepeda family, one of bomba’s foremost culture bearers, in the community of Santurce. He also performed in his father’s pioneering group, Agüeybaná, who helped popularize participatory “bombazos” in the 1990s.

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Bomba

Bomba is a centuries old tradition in Puerto Rico, practiced both in slave plantations and free Black communities. It is related to several other Caribbean dance drumming traditions, including gwoka in Guadeloupe, tumba francesa in Cuba, and Bele in Martinique, all of which have roots in Haiti. These traditions all involve a dynamic relationship between sound and movement. In the case of bomba, as it is practiced today, a single dancer improvises while a lead drummer, or subidor, sounds the dancer’s movements. This improvised duet between dancer and drummer is accompanied by percussion and singing in the batey, a native Taino word for a circle in which people conduct play or ritual.
The bomba ensemble includes two drumming roles: a single subidor (also called primo), which sounds the dancer’s movements, and one or more buleador drums that accompany the subidor with a steady rhythm. The drums are accompanied by call and response singing, by the cuá (a barrell struck with sticks) and by a single maraca, usually played by the lead singer.

 

The Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band (Christopher Vongvithaymathakul, director) present 'Voyages,' featuring music by John Mackey, Samuel Hazo and others.

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Biographies

 

 

The Studio Jazz Ensemble (Jacob Zimmerman, director) performs big band arrangements and repertory selections. The Modern Band (Greg Sinibaldi, director) performs innovative arrangements of jazz standards, selections from the outer limits of the genre, and new original compositions.

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Biographies

 

The Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band (Christopher Vongvithaymathakul, director) present 'Concerto Competition Winners.' Program TBA.

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Biographies

 

The School of Music welcomes Seattle’s Lake Union Civic Orchestra (LUCO) to the UW’s Meany Hall for a performance of concerto excerpts with UW piano students. The group’s music director, Daren Weissfisch, is a doctoral student in orchestral conducting at the School of Music who formerly led the UW’s Campus Philarmonia Orchestras and developed conducting acumen in his work with the University of Washington Symphony, Opera Orchestra and Modern Music Ensemble, among other ensembles.

This performance is made possible with support from the Willard Schultz Piano Fund in the School of Music,

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UW music students perform music from the Baroque era under the direction of Tekla Cunningham.

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Director Biography

 

The Modern Music Ensemble (Cristina Valdés, director) presents works of our time in several concerts each year. Including repertoire from the early to mid-20th century and beyond, the group focuses on small ensemble and chamber orchestra works, performed by both undergraduate and graduate students.

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Director Biography

 

The UW Percussion Ensemble (Bonnie Whiting, director) and UW Steelband (Shannon Dudley, director) present a shared year-end program. 

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Director Biographies

The UW's graduate-student-led choral ensembles—the University Singers, UW Glee, and Treble Choirs—present an eclectic end-of-quarter concert. 

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Director Biographies

 

The Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band (Christopher Vongvithaymathakul, director) present 'Music for Peace,' featuring music by Karel Husa and others.

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Biographies

 

 

The Studio Jazz Ensemble (Jacob Zimmerman, director) performs big band arrangements and repertory selections. The Modern Band (Greg Sinibaldi, director) performs innovative arrangements of jazz standards, selections from the outer limits of the genre, and new original compositions.

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Biographies