Balcony Sessions

Alone included in the Library of Congress Performing Arts Covid-19 Response Collection
 
MSO Composer-in-Residence John Wineglass visited the Library of Congress last Friday in Washington DC to discuss the inclusion of two of his latest compositions Alone for Solo Violin, Live EFX & Electronica and Alone Together, as well as the film Alone in the permeant collection of Covid-19 response art at the Library of Congress.

Performing Arts Creative Response to Pandemic
Anyone who investigates the performing arts during this era will encounter many creative responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This community is creating a wide range of innovative ways to conceive art and share it with audiences, with an equally wide range of motivations: emotional, professional, spiritual, etc. Consequently, the Music Division has undertaken a strategy to capture our nation's cultural heritage in this unprecedented time by establishing the Performing Arts COVID-19 Response Collection. This carefully curated collection amasses artistic works along with any accompanying primary source materials that document the performing arts creative response to the pandemic. Digital works are beginning to arrive, with some manuscript material expected as the division builds this collection over the next few years. MORE INFO

PAST EVENT

February 5, 2021 @ 4:00 PM (PT)
Live from the Sunset Center in Carmel-by-the-Sea
Concert sponsored by: Gary & Carolyn Bjorklund, Bruce & Whiz Lindsey, and Lee & Shirley Rosen

Christina Mok - Concertmaster

Featuring a new work for solo violin by John C. Wineglass
Sponsored by: William and Patricia Smith Family Foundation

WATCH VIDEO HERE

PROGRAM

J.S. Bach
Violin Partita No. 3, BWV 1006: Gavotte en Rondeau

Astor Piazzolla
Tango Etudes Nos. 4 & 5

Sergei Prokofiev
Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 115
I. Moderato
II. Andante dolce. Tema con variazioni
III. Con brio. Allegro precipitato

John Wineglass
Alone for Solo Violin, Live EFX, & Electronica
I. Frenzied Lives
II. Realms of Rest

Live EFX - refers to effects that are triggered Live by the composer John Wineglass during the performance that alter the sound of the instrument. 

Electronica or electronic tape - are sounds created outside the realm and means of the traditional orchestral element now used within the traditional genre.

An active performer, violinist Christina Mok has become a familiar figure in the classical music scene in Northern California. She devotes herself equally to solo performance, chamber recitals, and orchestral leading. She appeared as a soloist with the Russian Federal Symphony Orchestra, the Janacek Philharmonic, Symphony Silicon Valley, the Stockton Symphony, the Suwon Philharmonic and the Seoul Symphony Orchestra, among others.

The San Jose Mercury said of a recent concerto performance, "She was a spellbinder as she dug in and let it fly…There was no need to long for Itzhak Perlman or Gil Shaham." As a chamber recitalist, she was a founding member of the Laurel Ensemble, which played recently at the Musicarama festival in Hong Kong. She frequently gives duo recitals with pianist Miles Graber.

She has played recitals in Korea, Japan, England, Norway, Hong Kong, and the United States. Her recitals have been broadcast on the BBC and RTHK, Radio Television Hong Kong. She is currently the Concertmaster of the Stockton Symphony and the Monterey Symphony and the Associate Concertmaster of Symphony Silicon Valley.

She continues to appear as guest concertmaster in many of the orchestras of Northern California. She is the winner of numerous competitions including the BBC Young Artists' Forum Audition, the Sutton Chamber Music Competition, the Warshaw Violin Competition, the Korean Music Association Scholarship, and was named Young Promising Performer of the Year by the Seoul Arts Center in 1997. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with the full scholarship and was also honored with a British Council Fellowship. Her principal teachers include Soon-Chung Suh, Yfrah Neaman, Rodney Friend and David Abel.

JOHN CHRISTOPHER WINEGLASS has written several scores for shows on MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC as well as documentaries on Headliners & Legends with Matt Lauer for The Brady Bunch, Kathy Lee Gifford and Farah Fawcett.  Having scored mainly independent films, several of his nationally syndicated commercials include music for the United States Army, American Red Cross and Texaco as well. As a recipient of three (two consecutive) ®Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition for a Drama Series, and three ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards, Mr. Wineglass holds seven ®EMMY nominations.

In the classical music genre he has garnered commissions from the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music w/Maestra Marin Alsop to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, with The Washington Post describing his concert-hall work as having 'iridescent colors in the world premiere of a beautifully crafted suite' while conductor Marvin Hamlisch introduces and congratulates the occasion by commenting '… with a name like Wineglass, it had to be good.' 
Wineglass's 'iridescent' (WP) compositions are inspired by the beauty of creation and the splendor of nature - as well as bringing to light social issues of the past and present. Recent commissioned works in the 2018-2019 season alone included four symphonic works – two with full SATB chorus.  He has received major commissions from The National Endowment for the Arts, The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Benjamin Harris Memorial Fund, The Heinz Foundation and the Opportunity Fund. 

His latest symphonic 2019 premiere of three movements, Unburied, Unmourned, Unmarked: Requiem for Rice was dedicated to the lives of millions and numerous contributions of African and African-American forced laborers who cultivated the immense, expansive, and particularly wealthy rice economy in the Lowcountry. With a libretto and extensive research by historian Dr. Edda Fields-Black of Carnegie-Mellon University, this work has taken them with a team of researchers and film documentarians from the shores of South Carolina to the inner villages of Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia.  A 2020-2021 world premiere of six movements with full chorus in Washington, DC in conjunction with the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) where Dr. Fields-Black has an installation is planned accompanied by the moving images by LA-based filmmaker and director Julie Dash.

Mr. Wineglass is currently serving as Composer-In-Residence with the Monterey Symphony spending time and time again at the beautiful Glen Deven Ranch in Big Sur, CA.  The property is so graciously provided by the Big Sur Land Trust where Mr. Wineglass has and continues to maintain an incredible arts-in-nature relationship dating back to his 2016 Big Sur: The Night Sun premiere with the Monterey Symphony. 
 
John received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Composition with a minor in Viola Performance at The American University and later received his Master of Arts degree in Music Composition with an emphasis in Film Scoring for Motion Pictures, Television and Multi-Media at New York University, studying primarily with Justin Dello-Joio of the Juilliard School.

https://www.johnwineglass.com

PROGRAM NOTES:

ALONE For Solo Violin, EFX, & Electronica
by John Christopher Wineglass
I. Frenzied Lives
II. Realms of Rest

ALONE has been commissioned by the Monterey Symphony for Concertmaster Christina Mok, is dedicated to the many victims of the 2020-21 COVID-19 Pandemic and is premiering at the MSO Balcony Session on February 5, 2021. The Balcony Session Series is a COVID-guideline friendly offering of concerts by the symphony to the community via live-stream during the pandemic and often they are performed pre-recorded or live from the beautiful city of Carmel-by-the-Sea, as a human vigilant reflection during a crisis through art and music. ALONE is comprised of two starkly contrasting movements. The first entitled "Frenzied Lives" explodes at a very rapid 144 bpm (beats per minute) pace indicative of humanity across the globe pre-COVID and then into the perils of a global pandemic - all voiced by a single violin with live electronics intermittently. There would be glimmers of hope - times of possible brilliance - yet brought back to a current dismal reality of isolation, loss, loneliness, suffering and even racial injustice. A longing for common ground but finding no footing... no continuity. Abrupt silences... alone. And while it is important to rise up again to survive, we must codify through art and music these moments - less we forget the lessons learned. With the advent of COVID-19, the second movement entitled, "Realms of Rest" exposes 'alone' time that most of the global community had not experienced in 100 years or so. It was a time to slow down, reconnect with family, losing time - not just in hours but in weeks and months. At one point, I personally couldn't even keep track of days with oftentimes its repetitive motion of just existing - my calendar remaining blank for months. Time during the pandemic for me was an odd ethereal feeling, hanging in the balance in this new normal. While in the first movement, you feel the rushed anguish of being alone in some pretty uncertain times, the second movement in contrast essentially has no tempo - again voiced by a single violin accompanied by electronica and live electronics throughout. I equate this feeling of 'alone' to being in a mother's womb - connected by and surrounded by the embrace of amniotic fluid - YET far away. Close but until birth - an uncertain reality into a new world changed hopefully for the better. And while it was a beautiful time to reflect on humanity for some in all aspects, there was also a 'realm of rest' discovered and experienced by millions who ultimately died 'alone' intubated and eventually meeting their Maker. We all 'go'... we all die. And we all make that journey... alone.

Program notes by John Wineglass