, Florence Schwimley Little Theater
Composer Fellows at Bay Area Bookfest
05.04.19
3:15 PM - 4:45 PM
Hear world premieres of four original musical compositions, by Composer Fellows Ursula Kwong-Brown, Aiyana Braun, Peter Shin, and Tristan Koster of the Future of Orchestral Culture program
Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston Way between Milvia and MLK, Berkeley, CA 94703
Free Admission
On a Symphonic Note: Berkeley Symphony & the Bay Area Book Festival Present Original Music Celebrating Bay Area Poets
Take a respite from the crowds of the Bay Area Book Festival! The Berkeley Symphony and Bay Area Book Festival present the world premiere of four original musical compositions, by Composer Fellows Ursula Kwong-Brown, Aiyana Braun, Peter Shin, and Tristan Koster of the Future of Orchestral Culture program, interpreting musically the work of four poets, most local to the Bay Area. Genny Lim, Innosanto Nagara, and Rachel Richardson (on behalf of Brenda Hillman) will read their poems, with each reading followed by the musical composition.
Emerging composers Aiyana Braun, Ursula Kwong-Braun, and Peter S. Shin were selected from a national candidate pool as the Berkeley Sounds Composer Fellows, mentored by Music Alive Composer-in-Residence Anna Clyne while developing compositions to be performed by Berkeley Symphony musicians. For the current works, each composer has drawn inspiration from a Bay Area poet/poem, to be premiered as part of the Bay Area Book Festival. These works were previously workshopped in January 2019.
Additionally, Berkeley Symphony was one of six organizations invited to join the Future of Orchestral Culture Fellowship (FOCF), an international consortium to promote innovation in orchestral performance for a cohort of recent graduates, including two from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Composer Tristan Koester of the current FOCF cohort will share a fourth premiere as part of these concerts, conducted by Bar Avni, also a member of the FOCF cohort.
About the Composers
Ursula Kwong-Brown
Ursula Kwong-Brown (b. 1987) is a composer and media artist from New York City. Her work has been performed in diverse venues including Carnegie Hall and Le Poisson Rouge in New York and the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Her awards include the Bowdoin Festival Composition Prize, the Chicago Ensemble’s “Discover America” prize, the Longfellow Chorus “Director’s Prize,” Columbia University’s Sudler Arts Prize, and UC Berkeley’s George Ladd Prix de Paris and Nicola de Lorenzo Prizes. Ursula received her Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 2010, graduating with honors in music and biology, and studied abroad at the Royal College of Music in London. In 2012, she started a combined M.A./Ph.D. program at the University of California, Berkeley with support from a Mellon-Berkeley fellowship. After earning a Master of Arts in music composition in 2014, she expanded her focus to include New Media studies and has been experimenting with sound spatialization at the Center for New Music & Audio Technologies, and learning about design and interface aesthetics at the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation. Ursula plans to graduate in 2018 with a Ph.D. in New Media & Music.
Aiyana Braun
Aiyana Tedi Braun (b. 1997) is a pianist and composer of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music. Currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Aiyana studies under full scholarship as the Edith Evans Braun Fellow. She is currently in the composition studio of Dr. Jennifer Higdon, and during her time at Curtis, she will also study with Dr. Richard Danielpour, and Dr. David Ludwig. She has had several orchestral works performed by orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic at the age of 15, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony and the De Capo Players. She has worked with members of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera Orchestra, as well as others.
Aiyana Braun
Aiyana Tedi Braun (b. 1997) is a pianist and composer of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music. Currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Aiyana studies under full scholarship as the Edith Evans Braun Fellow. She is currently in the composition studio of Dr. Jennifer Higdon, and during her time at Curtis, she will also study with Dr. Richard Danielpour, and Dr. David Ludwig. She has had several orchestral works performed by orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic at the age of 15, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony and the De Capo Players. She has worked with members of the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Minnesota Opera Orchestra, as well as others.
Peter Shin
Peter S. Shin (b. 1991) is a composer whose music navigates issues of national belonging, the co-opting and intermingling of disparate musical vernaculars, and the liminality between the two halves of his second-generation Korean-American identity. The New York Times described him as “a composer to watch” and his music “entirely fresh and personal.”
Peter’s music has been performed at Carnegie Hall through the “First Music” Commission, Walt Disney Concert Hall through the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s “Noon to Midnight” series, and Chicago’s Symphony Center through the Civic Orchestra New Music Workshop.
Current projects include a commission by John Adams and Deborah O’Grady for the 2018 Cabrillo Festival (Hypercolor premiering August 11, 2018), a commission for Roomful of Teeth through the American Composers Forum premiering in 2019, a film score for the 2019 Mizzou International Composers Festival with Alarm Will Sound, and a chamber orchestra work for the Berkeley Symphony’s 2018/19 season.
Tristan Koster
Tristan Xavier Köster (b. 1993) is a Los Angeles born composer currently living in Hamburg, Germany. Working with ensembles and musicians in predominantly acoustic settings, Tristan is inspired by the abstract emotive capabilities of music and its ability to be radically interpreted by performers and listeners alike.
Tristan’s compositions have been programmed and commissioned by various festivals and institutions around the world including the 2015 HearNow Festival, the 2015 Shanghai New Music Week, Aeon Ensemble’s UN Sustainable Arts Initiative at NYU, the Rarities of Piano Music Festival (Festival neue Musik Husum), Tuesdays at Monk Space @ Villa Aurora, the Tonali 2017 Festival, the Hamburg HfMT, and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Recent collaborations have included performances in North America, Europe, and China by the Shanghai Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic, Sinfoniker Hamburg, members of the LA Chamber Orchestra, Trio Catch, the Varied Trio, the MIRROR STRINGS Quartet, the Lux Nova Duo, and by his close collaborators violinist James McFadden-Talbot, pianists Brendan White and Hector Docx, cellist Jonathan Dormand, among others. His music has been performed in notable concert halls including the Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Shanghai Philharmonic Hall, and to more non-traditional and historical venues like the Deutsche Generalkonsulat in Shanghai, Villa Aurora (Lion Feuchtwanger’s former home), in Hamburg’s Gängeviertel (Brahms’ Birthplace), and broadcasted on KPFK’s “Native Sounds” (LA) radio station.
Tristan Koster
Tristan Xavier Köster (b. 1993) is a Los Angeles born composer currently living in Hamburg, Germany. Working with ensembles and musicians in predominantly acoustic settings, Tristan is inspired by the abstract emotive capabilities of music and its ability to be radically interpreted by performers and listeners alike.
Tristan’s compositions have been programmed and commissioned by various festivals and institutions around the world including the 2015 HearNow Festival, the 2015 Shanghai New Music Week, Aeon Ensemble’s UN Sustainable Arts Initiative at NYU, the Rarities of Piano Music Festival (Festival neue Musik Husum), Tuesdays at Monk Space @ Villa Aurora, the Tonali 2017 Festival, the Hamburg HfMT, and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Recent collaborations have included performances in North America, Europe, and China by the Shanghai Symphony, Shanghai Philharmonic, Sinfoniker Hamburg, members of the LA Chamber Orchestra, Trio Catch, the Varied Trio, the MIRROR STRINGS Quartet, the Lux Nova Duo, and by his close collaborators violinist James McFadden-Talbot, pianists Brendan White and Hector Docx, cellist Jonathan Dormand, among others. His music has been performed in notable concert halls including the Hamburg Laeiszhalle, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Shanghai Philharmonic Hall, and to more non-traditional and historical venues like the Deutsche Generalkonsulat in Shanghai, Villa Aurora (Lion Feuchtwanger’s former home), in Hamburg’s Gängeviertel (Brahms’ Birthplace), and broadcasted on KPFK’s “Native Sounds” (LA) radio station.