PRISM Quartet: Music by Bresnick, Etezady, Haas, Reich, Young (Ypsilanti, MI)

PRISM QUARTET
Timothy McAllister, soprano
Zachary Shemon, alto
Matthew Levy, tenor
Taiur Sullivan, baritone

GUEST ARTISTS
From Timothy McAllister’s saxophone studio at the University of Michigan
Soprano: Matthew Koester, Jordan Savage, Jeremy Howell, Brian Kachur
Alto: Alex King, Andrew Hasher
Tenor: Hannah Hickman, Philip Kleutgens
Baritone: Jason Frazier, Mitchell Luttermoser

On October 6th, the PRISM Quartet presents a far reaching concert of new music at the First Presbyterian Church of Ypsilanti. The program features the Midwest premiere of Tarnish by Nina C. Young, PRISM’s most recent commission. In the composer’s words, “Tarnish is inspired by the alteration of material on the surface of metal, the thin layer of corrosion that forms as certain metals undergo a chemical reaction. Only the top few layers react; the outer destruction seals and protects the underlying structure. Tarnish begins and ends with gentle noise. From this initially unpitched sound world the Quartet uncovers (wipes away the tarnish from) timbral layers to expose nostalgic, tonal, almost-saccharinely beautiful music.  These sections are intended to be very precious, but short-lived. When exposed for too long, they oxidize.”

The program includes Martin Bresnick‘s Every Thing Must Go (commissioned by PRISM in 2007), an homage to Bresnick’s own teacher, György Ligeti, who passed away shortly before the work was composed. In Steve Reich‘s 1985 masterpiece, New York Counterpoint, PRISM is joined by students from the saxophone studio of Quartet member Timothy McAllister (University of Michigan). Mcallister joins altoist Zachary Shemon in Glint, a virtuosic duo by Roshanne Etezady. Rounding out the program is Saxophone Quartet by Georg Friedrich Haas who creates a kaleidoscopic sound world that melds microtonality and minimalism.

Program

Every Thing Must Go (2007) by Martin Bresnick (b. 1946)
Saxophone Quartet (2014) by Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953)
Glint (2007) by Roshanne Etezady (b. 1973)*
Tarnish (2019, Midwest premiere) by Nina C. Young (b. 1984)
New York Counterpoint (1985) by Steve Reich (b. 1936), arr. 1995 by Sue Fancher**

*Duo performed by Timothy McAllister and Zachary Shemon
**PRISM is joined by students from the saxophone studio of Timothy McAllister, University of Michigan

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This program is presented with generous support from the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, Conn-Selmer, and Meridian Winds.