UNBOUND
Daniel Kellogg: The Golden Spike (West Coast Premiere)
Nathaniel Heyder: unbound: Phase 1 (World Premiere | Festival Commission)
Lembit Beecher: Tell Me Again (Karen Ouzounian, cello) (West Coast Premiere)
Iván Enrique Rodríguez: Casting the Dice (World Premiere | Festival Commission)
Maestro Măcelaru leads the Festival Orchestra in works by composers Daniel Kellogg, Nathaniel Heyder, Lembit Beecher, and Iván Enrique Rodríguez.
Daniel Kellogg‘s music has been celebrated for its “palpable intellectual energy… superbly crafted and controlled” (The New Yorker). Receiving its West Coast premiere, The Golden Spike commemorates the 150th anniversary of the transcontinental railroad and explores the prolific economic, cultural, and genocidal changes brought about by its creation.
The Festival presents unbound: Phase 1, a world premiere by the rising composer Nathaniel Heyder, whose piece embodies a pivotal moment in Heyder’s life, a period marked by a sense of artistic and spiritual freedom. Heyder is the recipient of the inaugural Emerging Black Composers Cabrillo Festival Prize, a prestigious award established to support emerging talent, and given to a finalist of the Emerging Black Composers Project, in partnership with San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Lembit Beecher writes music stemming from a fascination with the way memories, histories, and stories permeate our contemporary lives. His West Coast premiere of Tell Me Again, delves into narratives of immigration and heritage. It was composed for the virtuosic cellist Karen Ouzounian, whose Armenian grandmother immigrated from Beirut to Canada during the Lebanese Civil War. Beecher’s own grandmother, an Estonian, fled to the U.S. during the later stages of World War II, spending five years in displaced persons camps. Beecher composed this concerto with the “cello as the embodiment of” these deeply personal stories and familial histories.
Human movement through migration and immigration will also be powerfully portrayed by a new orchestral work by Puerto Rican composer Iván Enrique Rodríguez in a world premiere commissioned by the Cabrillo Festival. Narrated live by Rodríguez himself, using texts sourced from individuals around the world, his new work will explore the lived experiences of those displaced, delving into the connections of immigrants and refugees with their homelands, and their personal journeys as they navigate new territories.
Featured Artists
Karen Ouzounian, Cello
Described as “radiant” and “expressive” (The New York Times) and “nothing less than gorgeous” (Memphis Commercial Appeal), cellist Karen Ouzounian creates music from a deeply personal place. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, collaborator and composer, she is the recipient of the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award and sought after for her open-hearted, vibrantly detailed and fiercely committed performances. Recent projects include the creation of an experimental theater work with director Joanna Settle; the world premiere of Lembit Beecher’s cello concerto Tell Me Again with the Orlando Philharmonic; the world premiere of Anna Clyne’s Shorthand for solo cello and strings with The Knights, which she toured as soloist with The Knights throughout Europe and the U.S. and released on Avie Records; the release of Kayhan Kalhor’s Blue as the Turquoise Night of Neyshabur for solo cello, kamancheh and tabla; the development, touring and recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s Falling Out of Time; and the digital world premiere of Beecher’s A Year to the Day, filmed for The Violin Channel with Augustin Hadelich and Nicholas Phan. Additional recent and upcoming appearances include concertos with the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Virginia Symphony, Sarasota Festival Orchestra, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, and Philharmonic Orchestra of Santiago, Chile, in repertoire ranging from the Elgar Cello Concerto to John Adams’s Absolute Jest.
Dedicated to the art of chamber music, she was a founding member of the Aizuri Quartet for eleven years, during which time the ensemble was awarded major chamber music prizes on three continents and earned a GRAMMY nomination. She has toured with Musicians from Marlboro, appeared at the Ravinia, Caramoor and Ojai festivals, and performs regularly as a member of the Silkroad Ensemble and The Knights. Her evening-length video work In Motion, an exploration of heritage, family history and migration through interviews, her own compositions, and collaborations with visual artists Kevork Mourad and Nomi Sasaki and composer-percussionist Haruka Fujii, was presented by BroadBand. Recent compositions include works for the Silkroad Ensemble, Noe Music, and an upcoming work for solo cello, Armenian instruments and choir for Cantori New York.
Composers
Daniel Kellogg
Daniel Kellogg commenced his tenure as President of Young Concert Artists in 2019, infusing the organization with his unique insights as an illustrious alumnus. Kellogg’s journey from an emerging young composer, through a distinguished professorship, to an arts leader, endows him with a distinctive capability to advance YCA’s renowned legacy. He brings a vibrant commitment to nurturing emerging concert soloists and spearheading artistic innovation in the classical music community.
Chosen as YCA Composer-in-Residence in 2002, Daniel Kellogg was a member of the Young Concert Artists roster for ten years. His compositions have been premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, at the Aspen Music Festival, and by the Takacs Quartet and eighth blackbird. He has also served as Composer-in-Residence for the South Dakota Symphony, Green Bay Symphony, and Lexington Philharmonic.
Dr. Kellogg’s honors include a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, six ASCAP Young Composer Awards, the BMI William Schuman Prize, and the ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Award. His works have been broadcast on NPR’s “Performance Today,” “St. Paul Sundays,” and BBC’s “Live from Wigmore Hall” among others. He has completed artist residencies at MacDowell, the UCross Foundation, the Copland House, and Rocky Mountain National Park.
Born in Wilton, Connecticut, Daniel Kellogg is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music. He was on faculty at the University of Colorado College of Music for fourteen years, where he served as Professor of Composition, head of the composition program, and was the Christoffersen Composition Fellow.
Residing in Harlem, New York City, Daniel Kellogg shares his home with his wife, pianist Hsing-ay Hsu, and their daughter, Kaela. Embracing the vibrant culture of the city, he has participated in the New York City marathon annually since making the move from Colorado in 2019. Kellogg finds joy in travel, photography, and cooking for his family.
Nathaniel Heyder
Nathaniel Heyder is a composer currently residing in New York City. He has attended festivals such as the Luzerne Music Center, the National Symphony Orchestra Summer Music Institute, the Atlantic Music Festival, and Mostly Modern Music Festival. Recognition for his compositions include the YoungArts Merit Award (2017), the Neil Rabaut Memorial Composition Scholarship from the Interlochen Arts Academy, the 2017 NextNotes High School Composition Competition award presented the American Composer’s Forum, Honorable Mention in the Webster University CMS Young Composers Challenge, the Emerging Composer honor in the 2020 Division 2 Young Composer Competition by Tribeca New Music, the 2021 Nief-Norf Summer Festival International Call for Scores, and the first Emerging Black Composers Prize by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.
His music has been performed by members of both The Cleveland Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. His orchestral piece Iterations, was premiered by the CIM orchestra under JoAnn Falletta. He has also been awarded both the Donald Erb Scholarship in Composition and the Gertrude E. Freeman and Lisa Freeman Roberts Memorial Fund, presented by the Cleveland Institute of Music where he completed his undergraduate studies as a student of Keith Fitch. Nathaniel Heyder completed his Masters degree at the Juilliard School in May 2023 as a student of Andrew Norman. He is also a multi-genre musician.
Lembit Beecher
Estonian-American composer and animator Lembit Beecher writes “hauntingly lovely and deeply personal” music (San Francisco Chronicle) that stems from a fascination with the ways memories, histories, and stories permeate our contemporary lives. Threading together fragments of family lore, distantly experienced legends, imagery, and songs from Estonian folk culture, and explorations of place, migration, natural processes, and ecology, he has created an idiosyncratic and thoughtful musical language full of fragile lyricism, propulsive energy, and visceral emotions, which draws raves for its “astonishing musical invention” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “exquisite touches” (San Francisco Chronicle). Lembit grew up under the redwoods of the California Central Coast, a few miles from the wild Pacific. A childhood filled with family stories of homeland, migration, and displacement led to an interest in documentary, and beginning with his 2009 documentary oratorio “And Then I Remember,” Lembit has created numerous works incorporating interviews and personal testimonies into his music.
Noted for his collaborative spirit and “ingenious” interdisciplinary projects (Wall Street Journal), Lembit has served three-year terms as the Music Alive composer-in-residence of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the inaugural composer-in-residence of Opera Philadelphia, working with devised theater actors, poets, ethnographers, and engineers, and incorporating Baroque instruments, electronically-controlled sound sculptures, homemade speaker systems, and stop-motion animation into his projects. His three operas with noted Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch have drawn particular acclaim. Starring Frederica von Stade and Marietta Simpson and directed by Joanna Settle, his opera “Sky on Swings,” exploring the relationship of two women diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, was praised as “a monumental achievement” (Parterre) and “a shattering musical and theatrical evocation of what it feels like to have Alzheimer’s disease” (Wall Street Journal).
Recent premieres include “Say Home” for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, “100 Years Grows Shorter Over Time” for the Juilliard String Quartet, and “A Year to the Day,” a song cycle with librettist Mark Campbell, written for tenor Nicholas Phan and violinist Augustin Hadelich. Lembit has been in residence at the Copland House, Bogliasco Foundation, and MacDowell, taught at Denison University and the Hartt School, and earned degrees from Harvard, Rice and the University of Michigan. Lembit is also active as a pianist and animator.
Iván Enrique Rodríguez
Puerto Rican composer Iván Enrique Rodríguez (b.1990) is acclaimed for his fiery, gripping, and lyrical compositions, praised by critics from San Francisco Classical Voice, Boston Classical Review, and New York Concert Review. His music resonates globally, having been performed at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Harpa in Reykjavík, Iceland.
Rodríguez’s Madre Luna won the 2014 Rimini International Choral Competition prize, and his Crípticos Nos. 1, 2 & 3 earned accolades at the 2015 International Composition Competition Maurice Ravel. He has twice won the American Composers Orchestra EarShot Program, with the Columbus Symphony in 2015 and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 2023.
Recognized with the ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Award in 2019 and the 2023 ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize, Rodríguez has been composer-in-residence at Sweden’s Lövstabruks Kammarmusikfestival and the historic Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music 2022 season.
Named one of Musical America Worldwide’s 2021 Top Professionals of the Year and recipient of the 2014 Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World award in Puerto Rico by Junior Chamber International, Rodríguez’s compositions reflect his dedication to human rights and social justice, drawing from his Puerto Rican heritage.
His recent orchestral piece, A Metaphor for Power, explores the Latinx experience and ongoing equality issues in the USA. Selected for the 2019 Edward T. Cone Composition Institute, the piece premiered with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra under maestro Cristian Măcelaru.
Rodríguez’s commitment to human rights led him to collaborate with the Vision Collective on a German tour through refugee camps. His Concerto for Puerto Rican Cuatro and Strings Orchestra premiered at El Museo del Barrio in N.Y.C. in 2016.
Rodríguez earned his Bachelor of Music degree at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico and his Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where he is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the C.V. Starr doctoral program, receiving various scholarships and fellowships along the way.
Program Notes
The Golden Spike (2019)
Daniel Kellogg (b. 1976)
[West Coast Premiere]
On May 10, 1869, in a desolate wind-swept vale high up in the Promontory Mountains north of the Great Salt Lake, a ceremonial golden spike marked the completion of the massive transcontinental railroad endeavor set in motion seven years prior. At 12:47PM the telegraph transmitted the following, “Dot, dot, dot, Done.” The first transcontinental railroad linked the growing population of the Pacific coast with the rest of the nation. It led to the development of both the “great American desert” and the fertile agricultural industries of the west coast, it created a vast and profitable trade between the East and the West, and it provided the unfortunate means of subduing the beleaguered native Americans of the western plains and mountains.
I. Black Powder and Hell on Wheels
Black powder was a mixture of saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur used to explode rock in the extensive tunnels and cuts dug in the Sierra Nevada granite of California by the Central Pacific. Hell on Wheels was the temporary rowdy lawless tent town that followed the Union Pacific as they made their way west. These two groups of poor young men embodied the massive human labor required. This gritty music grinds and hammers forward with increasing tension as all obstacles are overcome by sheer force of muscle.
II. Promontory
The railroad spanned six existing and future states moving through the heart of American western wilderness, a pristine and undeveloped land that was ultimately tamed by the railroad and the civilization that came with it. This slow movement captures the raw power, isolation, and natural beauty of this incredible expanse. The music is majestic, lyrical, and grand. Portions of this movement are also filled with lament. Something sacred was lost; Native American cultures were displaced and decimated.
III. Manifest Destiny
The American settlers were destined to move across the great expanse of the American West. Two coasts connected, new economies flourished, towns and cities sprang forth, and the vast territory of America became a unified country. The music is grand and celebratory and includes the victorious bells and cannons that rang out simultaneously in New York City and San Francisco on May 10, 1869.
The Golden Spike was commissioned by The Kansas City Symphony and Maestro Michael Stern.
– Daniel Kellogg
unbound: Phase 1 (2023)
Nathaniel Heyder (b. 1998)
[World Premiere / Festival Commission]
Unbound marks a transitional period in my life during which I felt personally, artistically, and spiritually free from the constraints that had once held me down.
With total disregard to words and terms such as classical, contemporary, genre, art music, and even composer, this work represents a feeling of freedom that one only reaches through truly being oneself.
-Nate Heyder
Tell Me Again (2021)
Lembit Beecher (b. 1980)
[West Coast Premiere]
“Tell Me Again” was written for cellist Karen Ouzounian and premiered by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra with Eric Jacobsen conducting. Both Karen and I grew up with stories of family origin and migration. My grandmother was Estonian: she escaped during the latter part of World War II, eventually immigrating, along with my seven-year-old mother, to the United States after 5 years in displaced person camps. Karen’s grandmother was Armenian: she grew up in Beirut, her own parents having been driven out of Turkey during the Armenian Genocide, and Karen’s parents and grandmother immigrated to Canada during the Lebanese Civil War. As I wrote, I thought about the importance of these stories to our respective families. I think that for all of us, but particularly those who have lived through upheaval and trauma, telling a story is not just a way to convey a sequence of events but a way to process experience, to try to come to terms with and have some degree of power over the forces that have shaped our lives. With “Tell Me Again,” I wanted to write music that reflected the way in which stories like these become a central part of the culture of families and communities as they are told over and over again, even as they change over time, with each new generation consciously or unconsciously making choices about what to omit and what to emphasize.
In the first movement I thought of the solo line as the embodiment of a story, forming and unfolding in response to the jittery, chaotic energy of the orchestra, which surrounds the cello with the swirl of life. As the orchestra leads, the cello responds with short, echoing gestures. The orchestral music keeps starting over, returning to the same phrases, like a mind replaying the same events over and over, and in response, the cello gradually acquires a life of its own, pulling melodic strands and fast passagework out of the orchestra’s textures, gaining momentum and gradually coming into its own. About two-thirds of the way through, the cello arrives at a soaring melodic line that it holds on to for the rest of the movement. The orchestra now follows the cello, gradually fading like a memory slowly being replaced by a story.
In the second movement, the cellist becomes a singer, teaching the orchestra a song. The cello’s melodic line combines elements reflective of Karen and myself, starting with the snapped lilt of an Armenian melody and ending with a quote of an Estonian folk-tune, Meil Aiaäärne Tänavas, that I first heard as a child. The melody spreads across the orchestra, repeated in a call-and-response style typical of Estonian folk singing, and gradually evaporates, settling into a tender and shimmering texture: a return of the cello’s soaring music from the first movement, this time quietly introspective. The movement ends with the Armenian-Estonian melody played in fragments across the orchestra.
The third movement begins with a cadenza, the solo cello playing repeated 16th notes, almost as if it were scrubbing with an eraser, trying to overwrite the memory of earlier movements. As the orchestra begins responding to the cello, joining in its perpetual-motion energy, hints of music from the previous movements reappear, including a majestic, slowed-down version of the cello’s first movement melody, played by the horns. After a suddenly soft, wistfully fluttering middle section, the music resumes with energetic abandon and exuberance—sometimes joyful, sometimes fearful, sometimes grand—spiraling out of control until it gives way to a brief, unexpected coda: a glimpse of something that is new and hopeful, yet bittersweet.
– Lembit Beecher
Casting the Dice (2024)
Iván Enrique Rodríguez (b. 1990)
[World Premiere / Festival Commission]
The opportunity to embark on this journey landed on my desk just a day before my birthday in 2023. I recall the warm, engaging conversation I had with Ellen Primack, where the possibility of crafting this piece first arose. The suggestion she made struck a chord deep within me–she proposed delving into the narratives of immigration, refugees, and asylum seekers. Instantly, it resonated with my own journey. Despite being a United States citizen, I see myself as an immigrant, coming from Puerto Rico, a small island in the Caribbean under United States control since 1898.
Following the Fates, I found myself drawn to the shores of the USA, experiencing the familiar pangs of diaspora–the sensation of having a house but not a home, of planting roots in unfamiliar soil yet lacking a true sense of belonging, always haunted by the fear of not being fully welcomed. With my own experiences in mind, I knew this piece had to authentically echo the voices of those who have lived the immigrant, asylum seeker, and refugee experience.
Where does a millennial like me uncover such profound stories? I turned to social media, placing ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, inviting refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants to share their truths. The response was overwhelming. As I delved into their narratives, I was instantly gripped by a common thread–the darkness of their journeys, the horrors of wars, the perilous dangers, the heart-wrenching loss of loved ones. I was paralyzed, unsure how to proceed when so many stories shared such harrowing details.
Yet, amid the darkness, there was a glimmer of hope—a cautious, reserved hope. Hope in the promise of community, in the possibility of cultivating new roots in a soil of shared compassion and care. We all know how fragile hope can be, especially in turbulent times. And so, I wove together these stories, drawing from their shared experiences to craft the narrator’s script for the piece.
It was an arduous task, navigating through the vivid and often traumatic tales that had been entrusted to me. But the same dream that propelled them to cast the dice of Fate urged me to see this endeavor through. In the words of those who shared their stories with me: “We are here, and it is better than yesterday. But instead of better, it could be empathetic, humane, kind, compassionate, just… So, tell me… you… your choice could change Fate itself, should I dare to hope… again?”
– Iván Enrique Rodríguez