As we near the end of this year’s Printempo series, Aron Frank is presenting his Harriet Hale Woolley scholarship project with a program combining original creations as well as works by famous European composers such as Rachmaninoff.
This Printempo concert is a combination of two of my own original compositions, alongside four compositions for violin and piano by 20th century European composers. As a composer, I have always viewed making music (composing and performing) as something physical, gestural, and emotional in nature: something of the present moment, which is expressive of inner qualities. These two disciplines, composing and performing, are inseparable for me, and as such, it is very important that I “bring to life” my own scores, with all their subtilties, through live performance.
The compositional process itself also requires reflection and planning; a structure which draws together a wide range of artistic influences within a broader cultural context. Each of the composers represented in this program (Bartók, Bloch, and Rachmaninoff), were interested in using the folk traditions of their home countries and forging a unique language using them in their own compositions. For Bartók it was the use of folk melodies discovered in the Hungarian countryside, whereas for Bloch, it was incorporating traditional Jewish melodies and Yiddish folklore. Rachmaninoff, while seemingly a more traditionally romantic composer, also drew from Russian folk melodies in many of his works.
This aesthetic, ones which draws from the past to create a uniquely progressive voice, has recently been a source of inspiration for me. As I also search for inspiration and meaning in past cultures and ethnomusicological traditions, it is my hope to create a genuinely authentic voice, one which is recognizable through my compositions. Ultimately, it is this connection to oneself which is transmitted to an audience, through each composition and its live performance. — Aron Frank
Practical Information
Date: June 28 | Time: 7:30PM | Facebook event
COVID: Wearing a mask is not mandatory, however it is strongly recommended. Please use the hydroalcoholic gel at your disposal.
Program
Aron Frank (1989)
Kentuckiana
Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945)
Romanian Folk Dances, Sz. 56, BB 68
Aron Frank (1989)
Au Bois Dormant
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 – 1943)
Vocalise, Opus 34 N°14
Ernest Bloch (1880 – 1959)
Baal Shem
Movement II. « Nigun »
(Played by
Solange Adamson, soprano
Dhyani Heath, violin
Edgar Jaber, piano)
Resident Musicians
Aron Frank is an award-winning composer, performer, and music educator. After beginning the study of violin at age seven, shortly thereafter he began composing music and studying analysis, counterpoint, and music theory with Judd Danby. Aron is a graduate of the Indiana University – Jacobs School of Music, where he received the Bachelor and Master of Music (MM) degrees, studying composition with Claude Baker, Sven-David Sandström, Aaron Travers, Don Freund,
and P.Q. Phan, film scoring with Larry Groupé, and violin performance with Federico Agostini.
His music for films has been screened recently at the Montclair Film Festival in New Jersey (Jury Prize), and at Film Independent’s “Project Involve” in Los Angeles. Aron’s music for the concert stage draws from wide-ranging artistic influences, including modernist art and literature. His works have been performed in the United States, Latin America, and Europe, by soloists and ensembles at the Tanglewood Music Institute, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Indiana University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Music Educators National Conference, and by the Wabash Valley Youth Symphony, Americas Chamber Orchestra, and Mariah Wind Quintet.
As a recipient of the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, Aron served as artist-in-residence at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris for the 2021-22 academic year. During this period of time, he studied composition at the École Normale de Musique de Paris with Régis Campo, and he is currently a student of film composer Marie-Jeanne Séréro (CNSMDP). Following a month of intensive study at the Écoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau this summer, Aron will begin a second artistic residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, for the duration of the 2022-23 year.
Canadian soprano Solange Adamson is a Harriet Hale Woolley Scholar and a student at the École Normale de Paris. She performs regularly in concerts at the Fondation des États-Unis and Salle Cortot and has recently sung at the Vienna Volksliedwerk and the Centennial Festival of the American Schools of the Arts in Fontainebleau. Her performances include the Abbess in Puccini’s Suor Angelica with the Center for Opera Studies in Italy, Dardano in Handel’s Amadigi with Opera UCLA, Michaela in Carmen at the École Normale de Musique, and the world premieres of Juana by Carla Lucero and The Emperor’s New Clothes by Nicki Sohn. Solange is a graduate of ENMP and UCLA where she studied with Olga Toporkova and Vladimir Chernov.
Born in 1994 in New-York, Javanese American violinist Dhyani Heath started her piano studies at 3 years old. She also started her violin studies at the age of 7 with Pavel Feldman in Montreal, Canada. At the age of 16, she was invited to study with the famous pedagogue Igor Ozim at the Mozarteum University. During her years as a student Ms. Heath furthered her musical experiences by taking part in several international music festivals, including the International Mozarteum Summer Academy (Austria), the Music Academy of the West (USA), the Vermont Mozart Festival (USA), and the Encuentro de Música Festival in Santander (Spain), to name a few.
She holds a master’s degree in Violin Performance from Yale University, where she was a recipient of the Denis Adams Scholarship, the Phipps White Scholarship, and the Broadus Earle prize for “outstanding violinists” while studying with Hyo Kang. She also holds a second master’s degree in Violin Performance from the Paris Conservatoire, under the tutelage of Professor Michael Hentz.
Ms. Heath currently lives in Paris as a Harriet Hale Woolley scholar.
Born in Boston and raised in Bucharest, Edgar Jaber is currently finalizing a master’s degree in Mathematics and Engineering at CentraleSupélec/Université Paris-Saclay.
He is a pupil of the Romanian pianists Toma Popovici and Viorica Rădoi at the National University of Music in Bucharest. His repertoire focuses mainly on classical and romantic German composers as well as early XXth century modernism.