Ravinia 2024 Issue 2

uneven weight of each instrument’s sound (the lower register is heavily favored) are but two challenges posed by the ensemble. Not surpris- ingly, most other musicians opted for the larger and more uniform string quartet combination. Beethoven soon joined their ranks with his de- but collection of string quartets (op. 18), pub- lished in 1801. The String Trio in D major reflects the dual in- fluences of his former teacher, Joseph Haydn, and the much-admired Mozart. Haydn’s inspi- ration accounts for adventurous instrumental groupings, contrasts achieved by extreme reg- ister shifts, and rhythmic vibrancy. These attri- butes figure prominently in movements set in rapid tempos—the opening Allegro , the minuet, and the rondo finale. Mozart’s style exerts itself in certain unpredictable harmonic progressions, contrapuntal passages, and the prevalent seri- ousness of expression, as in the Andante quasi allegretto . TIMO ANDRES (b.1985) Clamber Music Composer and pianist Timo Andres grew up in the Bay Area before moving to Connecticut at the age of 5. After taking composition lessons through the pre-college program at The Juilliard School, he attended Yale University for both undergraduate and graduate studies in com- position. The wide-ranging musical interests of his family members—from Bartók, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev to Charles Ives, klezmer, and Irish and French folk music—influ- ence Andres’s own eclectic style. “I like to think that my music is sort of like walking into an in- teresting apartment and like seeing a few things next to each other that tell you something about a person,” Andres shared in an interview with WQXR’s Q2 Spaces . Classical influences of pia- nist-composers such as Mozart, Schumann, and Brahms intersect the contemporary artistic ex- pression of Brian Eno, Radiohead, and Sigur Rós. Andres’s compositions have been performed by notable artists including pianists Jonathan Biss and David Kaplan, cellist Inbal Segev, and conductors Andrew Cyr and Andris Nelsons, as well as such ensembles as the Boston Sym- phony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, and Takács Quartet. His piano concerto The Blind Banister was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Mu- sic. Andres’s arrangements of the Sufjan Stevens album Illinois for the Broadway musical Illi- noise —written, directed, and choreographed by Justin Peck in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize– winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury—were nominated for the 2024 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations. Highlights of Andres’s 2023–24 season as a pia- nist included his Carnegie Hall recital debut, a tour with the Calder Quartet featuring his new piano quintet The Great Span , the world pre- miere of a piano concerto by Aaron Diehl writ- ten especially for him, and a performance ( Cele- brating the Etudes of Philip ) and conversation with WNYC New York Public Radio’s John Schaefer, the longtime host of Soundcheck , for Chicago Humanities. Andres created his 2010 composition for two vi- olins and piano— Clamber Music —as a tribute to an admired teacher and her onetime pupil. “Wendy Sharp’s life is devoted to teaching other people, from the tiniest of babies to the surliest of graduate students, about playing and un- derstanding music. Clamber Music , written for Wendy and her former student Tema Watstein, is therefore a piece on the subject of pedagogy. “The violin is the instrument with the sec- ond-best repertoire to choose from, after the piano. Despite this, young violinists (and this seems to be the same all over the world) en- dure years of studying what could kindly be called ‘pedagogical’ literature. This is the music you work on before you’re to be trusted with a Brahms sonata, and it was mostly written by other violinists expressly for that purpose. As a former accompanist to many of Wendy’s stu- dents and an older brother to one, I’ve learned much of this sub-genre by proxy. “ Clamber Music is a free set of variations on a theme, in reverse (each successive section bears more relation to the theme). The theme in ques- tion is an amalgamation of the sublime and the somewhat less sublime: Schubert’s Moment mu- sical No. 2 and Johan Svendsen’s Romance in G. I’ve always mentally associated the two because they share the same first four notes. The end of the piece is a kind of Gradus ad Parnassum , though also in reverse.” Wendy Sharp, Tema Watstein, and Andres pre- miered Clamber Music on June 13, 2010, in New Haven, CT. Timo Andres (2024) CARLOS SIMON (b.1986) where two or three are gathered “Classical music gives me so much freedom to experiment,” composer Carlos Simon stated in a recent interview. “You don’t have to follow the rules in the same way as in other mediums like jazz. I can play with almost an endless number of sound combinations that don’t exist anywhere else, and this allows me to say what I want to say in music.” Growing up in Atlanta, GA, Si- mon experienced music as part of worship at the church his father served as pastor. The small congregation lacked a pianist, so 10-year-old Carlos began lessons so that he could play for church. Though his family only allowed Gospel music in the home, playing by ear and improvis- ing were Simon’s first tastes of musical freedom. His formal training expanded over time through studies at Morehouse College, Georgia State University, and the University of Michigan, where his composition teachers included Mi- chael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. He also participated in the Film Scoring Summer Work- shop at New York University and at the Holly- wood Music Workshop in Baden, Austria, with well-known Hollywood conductor, orchestrator, and producer Conrad Pope. As a composition fellow at the 2018 Sundance Institute—held at the historic Skywalker Ranch—Simon com- posed An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave , a string quartet honoring the lives of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner. He has served on the music faculties of Spelman College, Morehouse College, and, since 2019, George- town University. After joining the Georgetown faculty, Simon became involved in the Slavery, Memory, and Reconciliation Project, which confronted the “university’s role in the injustice of slavery.” This activism resulted in the gripping ten-move- ment Requiem for the Enslaved , commemorat- ing the 272 enslaved African Americans who Carlos Simon RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 61 JASONMARCK(ANDRES)