Agarita joins forces with Tanesha Payne and sumRset Movement in a collaboration centered around movement. Featuring guest violinist, Brendan Speltz.
Program
Tina Davidson | Blue Curve of the Earth
Paul Wiancko | LIFT, Part III
Shostakovich Piano Quintet | IV. Intermezzo, Lento
François Couperin | Les Barricades Mysterieuse
J.S. Bach | Fugue in D minor from The Well-Tempered Clavier | Book 2
Miguel del Aguila | Clocks for Piano Quintet
III. Old Clock’s Story
IV. Sundial 2000 B.C.
VI. The Joy of Keeping Time
Christopher Stark | Other Pines
II. The Former Pines of Villa Ada
III. Pines Near a Fascist Monument
Gabriella Smith | Carrot Revolution
A special thank you to Heather Stolle for opening up her dance studio to sumRset Movement.
Featuring
Founded and under the direction of Tanesha Sumerset Payne, sumRset is a professional contemporary dance company focused on increasing visibility, accessibility, and appreciation for movement as performance art in San Antonio and abroad.
Tanesha Payne
When a former teacher told Tanesha Payne (she/they), “the world is a stage,” she embodied it and never looked back. As a movement artist based in San Antonio, TX, she performs, choreographs, educates, and advocates for all things dance. She holds a BFA in Dance Studies from Texas State University and an MFA in Choreography from Jacksonville University. While she values academia and the doors it has opened for her, she draws equal inspiration from her life experience that helps develop her creative processes and affective presence on stage and as an educator.
Her affinity for new experiences has provided her with various opportunities. In addition to being a Wolf Trap teaching artist, she has had the privilege of working closely with Jennifer Archibald, Alonzo King, Michael Foley, Rennie Harris’s Puremovement, and Lula Washington, to name a few. Most recently, Tanesha’s work was featured in the documentary The Quilt: A Living History of African American Music, three national Dell commercials, and The Public Theatre’s production of Once on This Island: A musical. She is passionate about the communal nature of dance and the simple fact that it allows our bodies to speak. Tanesha's appreciation for humanity fuels her passion for movement and supports her love of collaboration.
Felicia McBride Guerra
Felicia’s professional dance career began at 18 years old when she was hired to dance with Ballet Austin 2. She then became a member of Dominic Walsh Dance Theater in Houston, TX where she performed works by Jiri Kylian and Matts Ek. While dancing with Dominic Walsh Dance Theater, Felicia performed the lead role of 'Juliet' in Walsh's production of "Romeo and Juliet.” Mrs. Guerra later joined Hubbard Street 2 where she was a part of many original creations and tours throughout the United States and Germany. During her time in Chicago, Felicia learned to dance on stilts with Kristina Isabelle Dance Company and traveled to Deventer, Netherlands to be featured in the Deventer Op Stelten Festival in 2014. Mrs. Guerra has guested with several companies including Les Grands Ballet Canadiens in Montreal and Owen/Cox Dance Group in Kansas City.
In 2016 Felicia returned to her hometown of San Antonio where she continues to freelance, choreograph, and teach pilates. Her current focus is the continued development of “MESH”, an evening of connection through visual art, dance, and music.
Grace Hoyland
Grace's appreciation and love of dancing has grown steadily over the years and with every new opportunity to dance and move. Though she was always prancing around home, she started more officially learning dance methods while in elementary school in the midwest. Dance was a major factor when deciding next steps after high school, and upon attending St. Olaf College, she participated in a variety of their dance movement and theory classes while also being a part of their Company Dance program. She collaborated in numerous works led by students, faculty, and Twin City based artists and pushed herself out of her comfort zone to create a few on her own as well. Through adult life, she has continued seeking out a dance community in any capacity feasible. Being apart of SummeRset Movement has been the biggest joy of living in San Antonio. Every dance community along the way has brought some of the most creative, kind, and unique people into her life. These communities and conversations about projects have thoroughly enhanced her understanding of the world and community she lives in. Grace is honored and thrilled to collaborate with the other dancers and musicians involved in Agarita. When not dancing, Grace enjoys a variety of other activities including hiking, running, cooking, and exploring the San Antonio area with family and friends!
Rhea Patterson
Rhea Patterson, a Midlothian, Virginia native, received her B.F.A in Modern Dance Performance from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, and her M.A. in Arts Administration from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD.
Rhea began her performance career as a concert dancer earning professional accreditation through the Urban Bush Women, INSPIRIT, a dance company, NathanTrice Rituals, Dayton Contemporary Dance Second Company, Bermuda Dance Company, Hope Boykin Dance, and Eleone Dance.
In 2006, Ms. Patterson made an unexpected transition into musical theater when cast in the 1st National Broadway tour of Sweet Charity, followed by the Broadway companies of Wicked, the revival of Guys and Dolls, and the original cast of Disney’s Aladdin.
Rhea currently resides in San Antonio with her 2 children and works as a full-time private & group Pilates instructor. Her work is heavily influenced by her background in dance, somatic movement, mindfulness and reiki healing.
Brendan Speltz
Noted for his “expressive warmth” [Chicago Classical Review] NYC based and Los Angelesborn violinist Brendan Speltz is violinist in the world renowned Escher String Quartet anda seasonal artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Highlights this yearinclude appearances at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Aspen MusicFestival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Savannah Music Festival, and Wigmor Hall, among others. He’s also toured with groundbreaking ensembles such as A Far Cry,Ethel, the Harlem Quartet, Shuffle Concert, and the Manhattan Chamber Players, and withmembers of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, and Dover Quartets. An avid believer in the power of classical music to reach young adults, Speltz has produced innovative concert events across the U.S. and Canada which have been described by The New Yorker as “Thrilling, poignant, unexpected, and utterly DIY.” Recent productions include curating the closing concert experience of the prestigious Chamber Fest Ottawa in 2018 and before that co-creating a cross-disciplinary presentation of Steve Reich’s Different Trains with aerial dance troupe ABCirque which was sponsored by Meyer Sound Labs in Brooklyn. In NYC he has performed as guest with the New York New Music Ensemble, Mark Morris Dance Group, American Ballet Theatre, The American Symphony, and Orchestra of St. Luke. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California with Los Angeles Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and his Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music with Laurie Smukler. He plays a 1925 Carl Becker violin.
Program Notes
Born in Stockholm, Sweden but raised in Oneonta, New York and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, American composer Tina Davidson has had over a 40-year career commissioning acclaimed ensembles, orchestras, and soloists. Her violin and piano work Blue Curve of the Earth was part of a commissioning project by violinist Hilary Hahn, and has received warm reviews for its gripping and inventive opening, potent storytelling and sense of dialogue between the instruments, and relatable harmonic language. For this particular Agarita performance, an improvisatory introduction has been added for the sake of choreography. During Davidson’s stay as artist-in-residence at the Ucross Foundation, she experienced aspects of the vivid natural world that inspired Blue Curve of the Earth:
“Wyoming, that November, was turbulent, the weather twisting and turning on itself, before settling into snow. As I wrote, I was aware of all the different blues of the landscape; blue-blue, grey-blue, mountain-blue, water-blue, and the constant motion of the world. I had a sense of creating a blue line of string sound, that curled in and out, and up along the curve of the earth, the beautiful curve we call home.”
Recently joining the legendary, pioneering Kronos Quartet, as well as becoming the Director of Chamber Music at the Spoleto Festival, cellist Paul Wiancko is an active chamber musician, director, and composer with multifaceted aesthetic interests. His music often combines elements of folk with more traditional classical forms, and the result is a fresh musical perspective that feels like a beacon of hope for the next generation. In its entirety, LIFT is a tour-de-force for the string quartet genre, incorporating elements of jazz, improvisation, hip-hop, and folk to generate something authentic and heartfelt. Wiancko himself writes:
“LIFT is an investigation of elation in its musical form… I joyously explored the capacity for harmony, colour, and rhythm itself to evoke and inspire. [The] piece ultimately represents the journey of a soul—laid out in fervent, celebratory detail.”
The third movement, performed on this program, has three contrasting sections. Still, patient and icy, the first section is subtitled “Glacial.” Jarringly out-of-place but intentional, the second section “Maniacal” is a zany potpourri of jazz-inspired tunes and syncopated grooves. The final section “Lift” is a minimalist-inspired ascension that is beaming with hope, love, flavor, and uncontrolled joy.
When considering the chamber music of Dmitri Shostakovich, one typically thinks of his 15 powerful string quartets, which capture well his aesthetic and psychological journey as a composer. It makes sense then that he would have written so naturally for Piano Quintet, which is a string quartet, plus piano, the instrument he mastered and composed for most. His Quintet for Piano and Strings [Piano Quintet] in B minorwas written in 1940 at the cusp of the Soviet Union’s war with Germany, and unlike some of his earlier works, it received a warm reception. As a whole, the piece varies in mood between melancholic outpourings and vibrant glee, which is usually sarcastic for Shostakovich but feels like genuine positivity in this work. The fourth movement programmed here, Intermezzo. Lento, falls under the more melancholic: a rather vulnerable, weeping melody from the first violin opens the movement, accompanied by the cello’s pizzicato (plucking) bass line. After a couple of other sensitive duets and interludes, the music builds in intensity toward a dramatic climax. As an “intermezzo,” one might expect the movement to be a somewhat trivial interlude— hardly!
Francois Couperin was one of the great French Baroque composers, an esteemed harpsichordist and organist whose book L’art de toucher le clavecin (“The Art of Harpsichord Playing”) is famous for its details about suggested fingerings, touch, ornamentation and other important technical aspects of playing the keyboard. Couperin’s volumes of keyboard music are overwhelming and incredibly varied, full of personality and expressivity. This program offers a humble yet very well-known piece from the Sixiéme Ordre of his Pièces pour Clavecin: Les Barricades Mystérieuses. There is much conjecture on the meaning of this title. Some consider “the mysterious barricade” to be a veil or eyelashes or a mask; others believe it to be a hidden reference to freemasonry. For me, mystérieuses is the more useful word, as the music itself seems in constant flux, circling round and round in harmonic sequences as the different voices chase each other within the texture. The circling nature of the music leaves the listener captive to a constant flow of notes and harmonies that are as beautiful as they are ephemeral. As bustling as the music sounds, there is a simplicity and inevitability to its expression that is mesmerizing. This is the true “intermezzo” of the program, as the dancers rearrange things for the fugue to come.
Each of the two volumes of J.S. Bach’s monumental Well-Tempered Clavier features 24 Preludes and Fugues, one for every possible key. This is an eclectic set of pieces in different moods, rich with stylistic variety and musical references. The Preludes are a beautiful demonstration of emotional range, from placid and reflective to dramatic and stormy. The Fugues exemplify Bach’s mastery of composition: not only are these 3-voice and 4-voice textures organically crafted and flow naturally, but they also offer incredible musical expression and have their own narrative. The Fugue in D minor from Book 2 of the Well-Tempered Clavier is striking in its painfully heartfelt expression: the opening subject struggles in its triplets to rise, and once it reaches its peak, the descent is by chromatic half-steps, a symbol of despair from that era of music and especially for Bach. The work was not of course intended to be played by three string players, but by a harpsichordist. However, with special string trio arrangement by Agarita, one can more easily hear the distinct lines, how they create a dialogue with one another, and feel all the expressive lyricism that string playing can reveal.
Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, composer Miguel del Aguila fled his country at the age of 21 to pursue a musical career in the United States, where has maintained an illustrious career for over four decades. His music often incorporates his Latin American roots, and on this program that stylistic blend is most apparent in the movement The Joy of Keeping Time. Clocks is a Piano Quintet that is programmatic, meaning the musical narrative of the piece is about something external to the music itself. In this case, the music is about different aspects of clocks. The Old Clock’s Story is a gentle, reflective musical illustration of what it might feel to be an older clock, full of patience and wisdom. Sun Dial 2000 B.C. is a much more intense, primal scene of an ancient Sun Dial that is gritty and primitive. A visceral chant accompanies the fierce instrumental playing. The Joy of Keeping Time features the composer’s Latin American roots with a dance full of ecstatic grooves and passionate solos. Regarding his own intention in writing for the Piano Quintet genre, Miguel del Aguila explains:
I tried to avoid the Piano Quintet sound, which is so much associated with the quintets of Brahms and Mozart. The theme of Clocks allowed me to explore different kinds of sound and different ways to produce it by using plucked strings notes for the piano, extreme high registers, and pizzicatos as well as rhythmic ostinatos in the strings. The piano is used as one more instrument of the ensemble and not as the dominating instrument as in the usual quintets. Only in the last movement does the piano take a more dominant role.
Christopher Stark is an American composer whose music is typically rooted in the American West, and whose fascination with different geographies and landscapes has more recently led him to produce works that are particularly influenced by nature. During his year in Italy after winning the prestigious Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, Stark wrote several big chamber works, including the Piano Trio on this program entitled Other Pines. About the work in general, the composer relates that his first forays into the city of Rome when he arrived were to the pine tree groves that inspired Respighi’s famous orchestral work The Pines of Rome. He was surprised at how dissimilar the pines were at four different areas of the city: the Vatican, Villa Ada, various monuments associated with Mussolini, and the Parco del Pineto. Each movement of his four-movement trio depicts a different sort of pine given its context within the city. Two of these scenes, The Former Pines of Villa Ada and Pines Near a Fascist Monument are performed on this program. While both movements are minimal in aesthetic, with long stretches of similar texture that build in anticipation, there is a progression to the harmonies that ultimately deliver a powerful, perhaps admonishing, story.
Only 32 years old, American composer Gabriella Smith has already achieved an impressive resume, with performances of her music by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Roomful of Teeth, Eighth Blackbird, Bang on a Can All Stars, Aizuri Quartet, and many more. Carrot Revolution, written in 2015, is a very percussive piece considering that it’s written for four string instruments; unusual extended techniques allow for the instruments to vary on a spectrum between pitchless, noisy scrapes to more normal, tonal pitches. The array of influences throughout the piece, from bluegrass, Joni Mitchell and Simon & Garfunkel to J.S. Bach and Gyorgy Ligeti, stems from the conceptual inspiration for the piece. She was struck by a quote attributed to Cezanne in a novel by Emile Zola, which states:
The day will come when a freshly observed carrot will start a revolution.
For Smith, celebrating the power of fresh observation – whatever the object – is what her String Quartet aims to achieve sonically. The result for the listener is a raw, dynamic display of varying styles that commit wholeheartedly to their own expressive voice. Just when one sonic object escalates enough in intensity to warrant a “revolution,” the music turns to yet another. The quartet is vivid kaleidoscope of American and Classical sound that seems to turn at will.