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Cal Poly Humboldt Recital Series: David Tanenbaum and Jennifer Trowbridge

Fulkerson Recital Hall

The Department of Dance, Music, and Theatre at Cal Poly Humboldt presents “The Cal Poly Humboldt Recital Series: David Tanenbaum & Jennifer Trowbridge”— Internationally-renowned guitarist David Tanenbaum will be in residency at Cal Poly Humboldt April 6–8, sharing his expertise on 20th and 21st-century American guitar music. His visit will culminate in a spectacular concert on Saturday, April 8 at 8:00pm in Fulkerson Recital Hall, joined by Cal Poly Humboldt guitar instructor Dr. Jennifer Trowbridge and five of her students. Concert tickets are $15 General, $5 Children, and $5 for Cal Poly Humboldt students with ID. Tickets may be purchased at the door or in advance at centerarts.humboldt.edu including tickets to our paid livestream ($7).

The program opens with a performance of Philip Glass’ String Quartet No. 3 ‘Mishima’ arranged for guitars. The music originates from the soundtrack to the 1985 film ‘Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters’. Arranged for the Dublin Guitar Quartet by ensemble member Dave Flynn, the piece was performed in concert a Louth Contemporary Music Society concert in 2008 in St. Patrick’s, Dundalk. They were given an introduction by Glass: “This is a very special arrangement. Arranging for guitars is a very tricky business and you really have to know what you are doing, so I have never done it, but Dave Flynn and Brian Bolger [Dublin Guitar Quartet] have made these arrangements and they’re really quite beautiful.” (Phillip Glass). David Tanenbaum is joined on this piece by Christopher Antolin-Wilczek, Kyle Bailey, Nicholas De Anda, Andrew Erbach, Francisco Gonzalez, and Jennifer Trowbridge.

Next, Tanenbaum will perform Scenes from Nek Chand by Lou Harrison. “Upon accepting a commission for a solo guitar piece from the 2002 Open Minds Music Festival in San Francisco, Lou Harrison decided to write Scenes from Nek Chand for a unique instrument: a resonator guitar refretted in just intonation. Harrison’s last completed work draws inspiration from the sound of Hawaiian music that the composer remembered hearing in his youth, as well as from the artwork populating Nek Chand’s Rock Garden of Chandigarh, India.” (G.Fiore—Journal of the Society for American Music)

Jennifer Trowbridge, percussion, will join David Tanenbaum to perform George Crumb’s Mundus Canis (“A Dog’s World”) (2000) Five Humoresques for Guitar and Percussion — “a duo for guitar and percussion, brings you into the Crumbs’ living room, a place where students, colleagues and visitors from around the world were always eagerly and warmly welcomed by George, his wife Liz (they met in high school), their children Ann, David, and Peter, and of course the dogs — who always greeted visitors with a robust canine chorus as their smiling master opened the door. The five movements of Mundus canis are humoresques based on the personalities of five of the many dogs that were part of the Crumb household over the years. George wrote in the performance note, ‘It occurred to me that the feline species had been disproportionally memorialized in music and I wanted to help redress the balance.’ No one else could have written this piece — or that comment — but George.” (Jay Reise, Emeritus Professor of Music, Penn Arts& Sciences)

Tanenbaum will then perform Terry Riley’s National Broadstreet March “On March 19, 2003, I was anxiously listening to radio station KPFA as news came in of the commencement of operation ‘Shock and Awe.’ As ‘Bush the lesser’ unleashed the American killing machines on the people of Iraq, I felt inspired to join a small group of war protestors in Nevada City, California, including legendary musician/activist Utah Phillips. There was a protest march down Broad Street and at the end we sat down in civil disobedience…the police asked us to leave and we didn’t, so were arrested. As punishment the judge let me do community service. I worked it out so that my community service was to write a piece of music. What resulted was National Broad Street March and Quando Cosas Malas Caen del Cielo…movements of a suite for the National Steel Guitar with a tuning designed by Lou Harrison.” (Terry Riley)

The program continues with Aaron Jay Kernis’ Soliloquy, written for David Tanenbaum to commemorate his 60th birthday.

The program concludes with a performance of Serenade for Guitar and Percussion by Lou Harrison. Jennifer Trowbridge, percussion, once again joins Tanenbaum for the performance. “The guitar works of Lou Harrison span fifty years. The earliest piece…Serenado por Gitaro (a title in Esperanto), was included in a letter to Frank Wigglesworth dated February 12, 1952. For many years the piece remained unpublished, and guitarists circulated photocopies of the piece in Harrison’s beautiful calligraphy. The music reflects Indian and other Asian influences, and represents a rejection of the densely textured modernism prevalent on the east coast at that time. ‘I don’t think increasing complexity is the answer to anything,’ Lou has said. ‘I don’t think significance is opposed to beauty.’ Twenty-five years later the composer set out to write five suites for guitar, each in a different intonation. But the only completed work from that time was another Serenade (1978) in five movements with optional percussion, written in an eight-tone mode with a flatted second and raised fourth.” (David Tanenbaum)

DATES/TIMES

WHERE

• Fulkerson Recital Hall

PRICE

• $15
• $7 Livestream
• $5 Cal Poly Students with ID
• $5 Children