Music by he ocean Nahor variations from 1900 with pianist Thomas Schultz you're listening to k. L. W. San Francisco I'm Sarah Kay here with you every Sunday evening for classical and new music members of the Amaranth quartet are in the studio and will be speaking in just a minute but in the meantime the. Pianist g. Hey Chong is with me on the phone Hello Howard Oh hi where are you now. I am in Florida how massive Florida are you in Tallahassee Great well thank you for staying up late it's midnight. Yeah I practice usually trade all luck you you don't have pesky neighbors you are coming to San Francisco for 2 concerts in the 1st is at the Center for new music this coming Saturday at 730 and it's a concert called Coco c o dash k o a program of music written by Korean composers tell us about how you put this together and who the composers are. Ok so the title of the concert is actually title of one of the pieces that inspired this whole project . It's a piece by take that Kim and it's a chart for contemporary Korea and he yeah he really he started exploring very heavily I think he's identity and also just just the cultural thing from Korea he has to be in America for the past. I think 56 years but used to be can be a very interesting composer so it's music he just sent to me last year you know why don't you take a look at it that would be great and so I started looking and each one went head connection to some traditional musique and pop music from the eighty's pop music in children's songs from the ninety's as I just made me think about you know what he's really Korean music and that actually also couple years ago somebody in use it entrepreneur is and told me why don't choose to explore that you know you could do a concert and he halfway jokingly said you know it will came she can't they're like just music by Korean composers then I just sort of like but why should i just because I'm Korean should I do Korean music on the concert and so that was about maybe 78 years ago but these peace process that question back to me and so I and I have played some music by Korean composers I go back to Korea every now and then I am invited to new music festivals and such but I never actually just look into it with the question you know what is then contemporary Korean music and so I started looking not. It would be that they must once of course there are some established composers such as a chance and the older generation and then Young talk but I was more interested in people like ticks to people who are in their early thirty's maybe. Late twenty's who studied in different countries and I had this fake idea that their music sounds different depending on where they studied and so I started gathering TCAs. Through friends recommendation then google search as the computer is a program already I am playing a piece by transaction at You Tube and then Joan Choying and she really they are about similar generation they're I think the 2nd generation Korean composers in their late forty's maybe early keep. Then there's a person named Koori She teaches at u.c.l.a. And she even on she's a composer in the Bay Area and so she has it you just played in Texas and then this young composer who studied the end up back in Korea now John Park and the chant we have right now in Poland and. I think that's that's it did I forget I mean wow yeah I think that's it yes so it was it's interesting cause in your in your notes you say you're kind of examining what Korean this in music is and in some cases these composers are influenced by the Western classical tradition and in some cases they use Korean folk music and it must be very interesting to have this get this variety of. Repertoire absolutely Yes Yeah because like I said I had this fake notion that it would be different depending on where they started and so I feel that the I I have experience from the music that I'm playing in this concert and music that I looked at oh I forgot to mention Judy's she's of composer Princeton. The composers who studied after their emotional undergrad education in Korea they go up the road for a graduate studies and the people who study in the United States they I think they tend to explore at least once you know if not all the time. Try to use something that's Korean you know whether it's the tune borrowed from well known folks balls or using weaves make elements or using actually Korean traditional instruments in an ensemble piece something like that they I think are encouraged almost to explore the identity. If you study in the States and then there are the composers that shift in her trunk or. Armstrong and park they don't sound their pieces don't sound. Korean or Asian per se. One sounds very European abstract sound then she also is interested in experimented with different kinds of sounds and that's not new but that's what she's interested in and then the. Composers she knew and young pieces for example I think they are exploring just their identities as composers not as Korean composers that they're just doing what matters to them and they have had stylistic changes themselves and now I think that you know a place where they can do what they want to do without worrying about how it would be perceived so she do for example her faith is very important in how she composes and how she tries to connect to people that has connection to most. Coral. And Bible texts often times and were junk this is. The one that I'm playing has a choosing from 19 seats to say I think it's about the 38 divide or the song is about that and he's quoting it as very you see Revill kind of way but it also has his own. Musical style that I am familiar with because I've played a couple of other pieces as well so yeah it's been fascinating and I had a run through of the program and. My friends came and they all have different reactions I like this one the best to me that was the most interesting that they all really loved it and the variety was fascinating for them as well it's great that's great this is all at the Center for new music this coming Saturday at 730 people can look up the Information Center for New Music dot com And you're also playing a program an old 1st church couple to get later shot right no actually that the day before died today before that it's tricky to play 2 completely different programs a day apart yeah I mean very challenging just happened because the program at the old 1st Church is an ongoing project that I've been doing that is the program of pianos that entity was couple at shoots and. That that's the project that I've been doing but then the cocoa project was inspired by text and when an opportunity came to play in San Francisco I thought why not doing both. Great and old 1st churches website assaulters concerts dot au argy and people can find out more there and thank you so much just wonderful Perhaps you're doing that yeah I look forward to meeting you sometime in the not too distant future. To thank you again for having me on your show thank you so much. Have a good night you too right. That was g. Hey John she's playing at the Center for new music on Saturday at 730 in the night before Friday old 1st concert. Before talking with the Amaranth string quartet I just want to take a moment to remember Katharine Hoover the composer who just passed away and we'll listen briefly to her piece Kokopelli for solo flute with flutist Nina. Coppola us 2 2 2 2 2 C C C C 6. C. That's Kokopelli for solo flute by Catherine Hoover who just passed away. A great composer Mino Ah Seema Coppola's is she flutist on that recording I'm Sarah Kay go here with members of the Amaranth Quartet so glad you could make it into night thank you for having us thanks for coming so every year Mills College has the Darrius Meo concert and Darrius Meo taught there from 1940 to 1971 and sometimes on and off I think over the years an incredible tenure and there are so many amazing composers who studied with and they're right and they have this annual concert and you are performing this one. Which is this Friday right yes that's right pm one of the wonderful program and so we should mention your names Abbey chime in violin Julie Michael Viola and Helen Newby cello and there's one other member since you are a quartet and we're missing and really about Tyler other violinists Ok Ok great Tell us what's on the program on Friday. So it will be plain to quartets by me Oh will you be playing his 1st string quartet and his 7th string quartet or a plain Ruth Crawford Seeger's one and only string quartet Yeah. And then we're playing Igor Stravinsky's 5 pieces for string quartet great great 3 pieces for string quartet Let's. Just talk about Doris Meo since you're playing 2 of his quartet these I think they're not chronologically that far apart but from quartet number one which you're playing to quit at number 7 which you're playing did did his writing evolve very much in a particular direction are they really really different pieces stylistically. I think you can really hear a unifying thread but I do think that the 1st one. Has a youthful. Maybe someone trying things on kind of sound. And then in the 7th one we can really hear the influence of jazz the 1st one I hear more influences a rebel and you see but the 1st the 7th one you can hear him trying out by tonality poly tonality where the each of the 4 members is playing. In totally different keys . Yeah and the root Crawford seeker quartet her only quartet but very very influential I think Pierre Boulez said just on the basis that quartet that she was America's finest composer after a while saying is very French hyperbolic. But yeah tell us a little about that quartet and how you started working on it. That's a hefty piece. You know each movement is really different the 1st movement feels like 4 voices kind of tumbling all over each other. The 2nd one is more like a chase where each of us enters repeating similar material. Really urgent and kind of frantic seeming And the 3rd one which is my favorite movement. Is just this these massive blocks of sound kind of lugubrious slowly changing morphing sound is that the one that's made of crescendos and decreased. Doing it a different race so we're back and the story is just amazing to see yes and kind of collectively we are creating a melody together but it's just with these like single notes that are constantly overlapping and yeah yeah yeah she's a beautiful movement and she was really revolutionary and there are pieces of hers like the piano studying mixed accents. Just nobody had ever done anything like that before right and it's one of those pieces that it takes 2 minutes to play but you know 15 minutes to talk about right that's her piece is really only I think 13 or so minutes long and there's just an incredible amount packed and to that time and you know we've been so shocked every time we kind of play through it like oh that was 2 minutes of our time. But it feels like this whole world's very intent to marry theory intense. This is this coming Friday at Mills College and people can find out more about it at the at your website you have a great website Amaranth thank you Cortez What is the what is the you are l Amaranth quartet dot com Yes not come we'll talk more about the quartet in a moment let's listen to some music and for no particular good reason piano music rather than string quartet This is William Bulger who studied with Darrius mijo I think at Mills College and his 3 rag Caprice from 1922 listen to it and come back in just a minute music by Darrius me. I am. Getting. Bored when. The. Well in bulk I'm on the piano and Darrius me 030 rad Caprice from 1922 and of course Wimbledon has a great feel for Rag since he wrote so many. Fantastic ones himself. And that was so I'm here with members of the Amaranth string quartet 122 that was around the time he wrote the 1st string quartet that you're playing on Friday all right. Yes it was in 1012 yes I believe so yeah Ok yes a little bit a little later yeah. And we're talking about your concert this coming Friday I think it's free is that true is this mess at Mills College you're playing Doris Meo Igor Stravinsky and Ruth Crawford I call her with Crawford but some people call her with Crawford seeker so whatever. It was she had not yet acquired the Seeger Yeah. And the shaman violin tell us about how the name Amaranth quartet came about why did you call yourself the Emerald quartet So we 1st performed as a string quartet in 2014 and all wore pink pants which is. Amaranth is a shade of pink but the longer more serious answer is the word Actually I just found really beautiful and means long lasting. And so we hope that the music we made would be that way and you met at the San Francisco Conservatory when you were all students there yeah Helen and I are the only 2 founding members I guess still we've had to personnel changes since we initially formed in 2014 but we met at the conservatory and studied chamber music there and then have been based in the base and then and why did you decide to start a string quartet was it more to pursue the classical repertoire or work on new pieces 2020th and 21st century music what was your mission. The 1st piece we played as a quartet was Beethoven Opus $132.00 which. A lot of our fantastic faculty members thought was perhaps a little too overwhelming for a quartet and that's their 1st piece so we kind of dove right into it with the media pieces maybe around and have played some of the classics and then have also now really focusing a lot in contemporary music and have some really great commissioning projects happening and are working with a lot of composers tell us some of the composers because I think the look on your website. Is one of them and who else Alissa Weinberg is another and Riley Nicholson Yes we have a fantastic project with him we want a grant from interim you sick ass off to commission him which is great and then they gave us additional funding through the cypress award to do some educational outreach as well so actually open a call for scores in the next couple weeks it's already up on our website for young composers 182242 write a piece for us on the work with Riley and they'll have the piece recorded and one finalist will have it premiered on a concert in I think April next year April 2908 grade so people can find out more am around quartet dot com Is that right yes Amaranth like the h. Integrate and. You've brought in some samples of your recordings this is a movement of the rebel string quartet is this the plucking Yes it is said. And favorite is it is it really fun to play. Yes it's really fun. It has a lot of kind of interlocking patterns between the 4 of you is that very difficult to negotiate to take a lot of. Work. Yet it's really fun to find to find the groove that it all locks into with with especially this movement of Ravel Yeah and this movement has like a huge expressive range like there's this very beautiful moment in the middle where it all sort of becomes much more and her and slow moving and. Intimate and then these like wild outbursts of like rhythmic activity Sam that's it's beautiful is this a studio recording or a concert recording whereas this from this is a studio recording so actually the audio is coming from a video that we filmed about a year ago and Philadelphia. So sort of a music video if you will. Ok let's listen to it this is from the rebel string quartet. With. Get it with. Us. Above the beam. Moon. But. The I. 2 the. The. The with. It was the USA was. The. The the it was. The. The the the the. The was. The. The 2nd movement of rebels string quartet with the Amaranth quartet they're my guests this evening 3 out of 4 of you are my guests Abbey Scheinman Julie Michael and Helen Newby And who are we missing Emily Bowtell Emily Bowtell So you're playing this coming Friday it's a free concert at 8 o'clock at Mills College the little field concert hall Stravinsky Darrius Meo Ruth Crawford and again Darrius meo and people can find out more about you would Amaranth quartet dot com Yes or Also the Mills College site for concerts. Tell us about the Stravinsky 3 pieces for String Quartet. It's of fun little series of pieces so it was the 1st piece you ever wrote for a string quartet and he never really wrote a fully fleshed out. String Quartet. This one clocks in about 7 minutes and each of the movements. Sort of has a different entirely different character from all the surrounding movements the 1st one is subtitled dance the 2nd one is eccentric and the 3rd one is kanti. And all of them were actually inspired by a clown What was the name of a clown Do you remember think a little tick Yes that's right. A Russian circus performer so the mood very quickly is shifting throughout all of these. All of these pieces and they've been very fun to put together and I think this circus imagery is so vivid. There's some really burlesque sounding music and then there's some actually really grotesque ridiculous sounding music so it's really fun to play. So the concert is Stravinsky Darrius me you know and we've Crawford read. This is the annual Neo concert he taught at Mills from 1940 to 1971 and I guess on and off in later years and was very influential there and his archives there. I think put together in part by the legendary librarian and supporter of so many composers Margaret Lyon. How did you come about playing the. Darrius mule concert at Mills well so we have performed of bet at Mel's So we 1st performed there as a court tut about half a year ago we gave the Us premiere of a Cortez by Ashley fury. And we performed on the signal flow Music Festival which happens every year and and. We got invited to be part of the annual Darrius Meo concert. And we're asked to play the specific program. Great yeah. What will we listen to next he brought in another recording of yours so we'll be plain parallels by Alyssa Weinberg for you so is she's at Princeton currently based on the East Coast and we met her a little over a year ago again it was actually a piece that we were asked to perform as part of the Bay Area modern music composers Inc festival and we love the piece and have performed it several times and this recording is from last summer when we were at Banff together that's a live recording yeah right let's listen to it used by a list so Weinberg. You . Lose you. Lose you. To Lose. Lose lose. You lose the loonies you. Sure. You. Know you. Should. You. Today I. Cut you. To see a new. You a Louis Vuitton. It. Was you. It was. You. It was. You. You. Please. Do it. It. Was. If you please the enemy. A week. Thank. Are learning Loury. Shoot. Please. Please. Say you. It's a recording by my guest the Amaranth quartet 3 members of the Amaranth quartet are here and and we look forward to meeting a 4th sometimes. Music by a list so Weinberg and you say that she teaches at Princeton know. Her ph d. At Princeton right now and I mean we're actually commissioning her right now trade a piece for us that will be performing and May and Washington d.c. Great yeah right well wonderful and you have a concert coming up before the knolls when I think of Throckmorton theater in Mill Valley Yes so people can find out more at your website and keep track of everything you're doing in your recording projects and commissioning and everything and that's Amaranth quartet dot com. I'm sorry with you every Sunday evening will end with a few movements or at least one from Stravinsky's Dunbarton Oaks concerto there are 2. I think at least 2 recordings that he conducted and this is the 2nd one it's actually 2 minutes shorter than the 1st one 1st 1989 and this one is 947 Stravinsky conducting the Dunbarton Oaks Festival Orchestra don't forget that the San Francisco Symphony has a whole Stravinsky festival coming up starting this week and we look forward to that and thank you so much thank you for having this evening and yeah a wonderful program this coming Friday free concert at Mills College It's 8 o'clock this Friday so thanks a lot here's Stravinsky in his Dunbarton Oaks concerto. Oh . Oh. Oh. Stravinsky conducting the 1st movement of his Dunbarton Oaks concerto for Chamber Orchestra. Orchestra 947 recording I'm. Listening and stay tuned for music from the heart of space coming up here at 10 o'clock on. San Francisco this is Tina Pam station manager. On Friday we wrapped up our September on air membership drive we raised $235000.00 on the way. Of $375000.00 thank you for participating you called you gave on line. That kept us feeling strong now we're entering a new chapter. I've just completed 3 weeks. To think about your relationship with. The kind of value. Please help us move towards our goal critical to the station's future. That coming. Towards our total. On our website. Thank you for being a part of this community I am honored to be part of. Whoa. It. One of the core experiences of ambient electronic Space Music is the feeling of weightless floating these subtle sounds seem to Dean materialises expand our personal space and slower sense of time. It's kind of magical and for many of us highly pleasurable even addictive. Since the introduction of mass produced electronic instruments in the 1970 s. Anyone can create floating textures but even if you're just a listener the experience is widely enjoyed and often described in therapeutic terms as relaxing healing and transformative. I'm Stephen Hill and on this transmission of hearts of space another anti gravity journey on electronic waves on a program called Floating worlds to. Will feature floating soundscapes by that are in Connecticut multi instrumentalists Paul I've jury knows from mindfulness in music by no regional attorney musician Eric Volo from threshold point we have contemplative electronics by Oregon keyboardist Howard Givens and California synthesis create the dia from life flows water.