Conductor Jeffrey Milarsky leads the Ensemble AXIOM in Works by Reich, Wuorinen, Rautavaara, and Lindberg on Monday, March 30 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall

Conductor Jeffrey Milarsky leads Juilliard's contemporary music ensemble, AXIOM, in Steve Reich's Eight Lines (1983); Charles Wuorinen's New York Notes (1982); Einojuhani Rautavaara's April Lines (April, 1970 and April, 2006) and Magnus Lindberg's Corrente (1992) on Monday, March 30 at 8 PM in Alice Tully Hall (65th Street and Broadway). On planning the program, Jeffrey Milarsky, music director of AXIOM and a member of Juilliard's conducting faculty, remarked, "Pairing two Scandinavian composers with two American composers is about contrasts. And the two American composers themselves are full of contrasts." He continued, "AXIOM is committed to the classics of the 20th century, and these works are certainly classics." In addition, one of the Americans, Mr. Reich, and Mr. Rautavaara from Finland, both trained at The Juilliard School, as did Mr. Milarsky himself - a testament to the individuality of creative expression.

FREE tickets are available beginning March 16 at the Janet and Leonard Kramer Box Office at Juilliard, located at 155 West 65th Street. Box Office hours are Monday through Friday from 11 AM to 6 PM. For further information, call (212) 769-7406 or go to www.juilliard.edu.

Composer Steve Reich's work originates from his Octet, originally composed in 1979, which was rescored and retitled, Eight Lines. Reich began studying the cantillation of various Sephardic groups in Israel in the mid-70s, and the structural intricacies of their chant patterns provided the basis for his work, which is structured in five sections. Mr. Reich studied at Juilliard from 1958 until 1961 with William Bergsma and Vincent Persichetti.

Born in New York City in 1938, Charles Wuorinen showed an interest early on for both music and science. While a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music in the mid-70s, he became interested in the fractal geometry of French mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, who was known for his work with chaos theory. For New York Notes, Wuorinen synthesized fractal formation theory with serialist music structures to create a unique compositional approach. The work was composed for the New York New Music Ensemble.

Einojuhani Rautavaara's work, April Lines, was composed in the spring, starting in April 1970. Aptly named, April Lines was completed in April 2006. The unfinished version was lost and forgotten, but when the composer found it some 36 years later, he decided to complete the piece. In the work, the sharp contrasts between different textures depict the changing moods of the month of April. Mr. Rautavaara studied composition at Juilliard from 1955-56 with Vincent Persichetti, and was commissioned to create a work for Juilliard's centennial in 2005. Entitled Manhattan Trilogy, the work harkens back to his days in post-World War II New York, when he was a student. It premiered on October 11, 2005 at Carnegie Hall with Dennis Russell Davies conducting the Juilliard Orchestra.

Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg was born in 1958 in Helsinki and studied composition at the Sibelius Academy with Mr. Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen in the late 1970s. His work, Corrente, alludes to a Baroque dance. The work is full of ostinato figures that are in a constant state of flux, keeping the texture interesting until the very of end of the work. 

One of Juilliard's performing ensembles, AXIOM, was formed by student initiative in 2005. This new chamber ensemble is dedicated to performing the masterworks of the 20th-century repertoire. AXIOM is comprised of a flexible roster of current Juilliard students and recent graduates who, in addition to performing, assist in organizational and administrative duties. In February 2006, James Conlon conducted the ensemble's debut performance in Avery Fisher Hall featuring the music of Schoenberg and Debussy. AXIOM has been the featured instrumental ensemble for the Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital, performing Luciano Berio's Folk Songs with soprano Sarah Wolfson and the world premiere of Josef Bardanashvili's Three Scenes with soprano Raquela Sheeran. In addition, for two seasons the AXIOM Ensemble has been selected to collaborate with the Juilliard Dance Division as part of their "Spring Dances at Juilliard" performances, featuring Bohuslav Martinu's Field Mass and David Lang's Increase and This Was Written By Hand in March 2007, and Copland's Appalachian Spring, Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, and Dello Joio's Pulitzer Prize-winning Meditations on Ecclesiastes in March 2008.

AXIOM joined forces with the Juilliard Music Technology Center in April 2007 as part of the annual "Beyond the Machine" concert series, performing Ed Bilous' Lucid Dreams and the world premiere of John King's Trilogic Unity. Miller Theatre's celebration of Elliott Carter's 99th birthday in December 2007 featured AXIOM performing selections from Carter's chamber music repertoire and the New York stage premiere of his opera What Next? Recently, AXIOM celebrated the centennial of the composer Messiaen performing Sept haïkaï, Couleurs de la Cité Céleste, and Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum at the Miller Theatre. Other highlights from last performance season included a performance of Messiaen's Des canyons aux étoiles in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater. AXIOM also performed two concerts with James Conlon at John Jay College that surveyed the parallel developments in music, inside and outside the circle of influence of the Third Reich. These two programs featured the music of Poulenc, Stravinsky, Martinu, Schreker, and Antheil. AXIOM's 2007-08 performance season concluded with Beyond the Machine 8.0: The Groove Collective at Miller Theatre, with Jeffrey Milarsky conducting the music of Jacob ter Veldhuis and Scott Johnson.

American conductor Jeffrey Milarsky, known for his innovative programming and wide-ranging repertoire from Bach to Xenakis, has premiered and recorded works worldwide by contemporary composers, and led such accomplished groups as the American Composers Orchestra, MET Chamber Ensemble, the Milwaukee Symphony, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center,  New York New Music Ensemble, Manhattan Sinfonietta, Speculum Musicae, Cygnus Ensemble, Fromm Players at Harvard University, and the New York Philharmonic chamber music series.

In the United States and abroad, Mr. Milarsky has premiered and recorded works by groundbreaking contemporary composers, including Charles Wuorinen, Fred Lerdahl, Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, Gerard Grisey, Jonathan Dawe, Tristan Murail, Ralph Shapey, Luigi Nono, Mario Davidovsky and Wolfgang Rihm. 

Mr. Milarsky is professor in music at Columbia University, where he is the music director and conductor of the Columbia University Orchestra. Also at Columbia University, Mr. Milarsky is the music director and conductor of the Manhattan Sinfonietta, which focuses on 20th and 21st century scores. In addition, he is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Percussion Ensemble. He is the music director of AXIOM, one of The Juilliard School's critically acclaimed contemporary music ensembles. In September of 2008 he was named to the conducting faculty of Juilliard.

This past summer, Mr. Milarsky was called to Tanglewood to substitute for Maestro James Levine in an all Elliott Carter program in honor of his 100th birthday. In May of 2006 Mr. Milarsky substituted for James Levine at Carnegie Hall, conducting an all-Milton Babbitt concert of his chamber music. In August of 2004, he made his debut with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway, conducting Ravel and Liebermann. In the fall of 2007, he led the New York premiere of Elliott Carter's only opera What Next? to sold-out performances and critical acclaim. In Autumn and Spring 2009 and 2010, he is scheduled to conduct in Norway, Italy, and Paris. Mr. Milarsky appears regularly at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra. He also recently has performed at IRCAM in Paris, conducting and recording compositions by Joshua Fineberg and Tristan Murail.

Mr. Milarsky made his Parisian debut, conducting the BIT20 Ensemble at the Olivier Messiaen Hall at Radio France, in a performance of the prize-winning score of Lasse Thoresen's Lop, Lokk Og Linjar.  Mr. Milarsky is the regular guest conductor of The BIT20 Ensemble, having performed with them around the globe, including in Paris, Estonia, Latvia, Norway, and Italy.  Other recent highlights include conducting the Cygnus Ensemble in the world premiere of Milton Babbitt's Swansong, conducting the world premiere and recording Mario Davidovsky's Flashbacks, and several area premieres of the music of Gerard Grisey: Les Espaces Acoustiques (New York premiere) for Columbia University's "Music for a New Century" series and Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil (US Premiere) with Speculum Musicae. With the Ensemble Sospeso, he has conducted three United States premieres by Wolfgang Rihm, and two by Tristan Murail.

A much-in-demand timpanist and percussionist, Mr. Milarsky has performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, among other ensembles. In addition, Mr. Milarsky was named the principal timpanist for the Santa Fe Opera beginning in the summer of 2005. As an active chamber and orchestral musician, Mr. Milarsky performs and records regularly with the New York Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the American Composers Orchestra, the Stamford Symphony, and Concordia. He has recorded extensively for Angel, Bridge, Teldec, Telarc, New World, CRI, MusicMasters, EMI, Koch, and London records.

Jeffrey Milarsky received his bachelor and master of music degrees from Juilliard. Upon graduation, he was awarded the Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding leadership and achievement in the arts.  He regularly conducts The Juilliard Orchestra, with whom he has premiered more than 150 works by Juilliard student composers during the past fifteen years.

 

 

 

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