AXIOM, Led by Jeffrey Milarsky, Performs Works by John Corigliano and Nico Muhly, Featuring Viola Alumna Nadia Sirota, on Friday, October 26, 2018, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall

Free Concert Celebrates Corigliano’s 80th Birthday and Muhly on the Premiere of His Opera Marnie at the Met

NEW YORK –– Juilliard’s AXIOM, led by Jeffrey Milarsky, performs works by faculty member John Corigliano and alumnus Nico Muhly on Friday, October 26, 2018, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall. The concert celebrates Corigliano’s 80th birthday and Muhly on the premiere of his opera Marnie at the Metropolitan Opera. Muhly studied with Corigliano at Juilliard.

The program includes Muhly’s Keep in Touch (2005) featuring alumna Nadia Sirota, violist, one of the founders of AXIOM and a close colleague of Muhly and his No Uncertain Terms (2017). The program also includes Corigliano’s Chiaroscuro (1997) and Poem in October (1970) with tenor Matthew Pearce, a second-year master’s degree student.

Muhly’s No Uncertain Terms was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and premiered there in April 2017. The piece is dedicated to alumnus and composer Steve Reich and is “meant to be a sort of archive of the ways [Reich’s] music has influenced mine,” Muhly writes in a program note. Corigliano’s Chiaroscuro was premiered in Miami in May 1997 by Dranoff Competition winners Anne Louise and Edward Turgeon. The work is for two pianos tuned to a quarter tone apart. Nadia Sirota commissioned Muhly’s Keep in Touch for her first-year master’s recital at Juilliard. While Muhly originally wrote the piece for viola and electronics, AXIOM will play an arrangement for sinfonietta by alumnus Chris Thompson, who plays with Sirota in the ensemble Alarm Will Sound. Corigliano’s Poem in October, set to a text of the same title by Dylan Thomas, had its premiere at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for its first season in 1970.  

Tickets are free and available at juilliard.edu/calendar.

About Jeffrey Milarsky

American conductor Jeffrey Milarsky is the founding music director of AXIOM. Known for his innovative programming, he has been hailed for his interpretation of a wide range of repertoire, which spans from Bach to Xenakis. In recent seasons he has worked with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, MET Chamber Ensemble, Bergen Philharmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New World Symphony, and the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. In the United States and abroad, he has premiered and recorded works by many groundbreaking contemporary composers in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and Boston’s Symphony Hall as well at IRCAM in Paris. 

Milarsky has a long history of premiering, recording, and performing American composers and in keeping with that, he was recently presented with the prestigious Ditson Conductor’s Award. His interest and dedication has brought forth collaborations with esteemed composers such as Adams, Babbitt, Cage, Carter, Corigliano, Crumb, Davidovsky, Druckman, Gordon, Lang, Mackey, Rouse, Shapey, Subotnick, Wuorinen, and an entire generation of emerging composers.

A dedicated teacher, Milarsky serves on the conducting faculty at Juilliard and is a senior lecturer in music at Columbia University, where he is the music director and conductor of the Columbia University Orchestra.

An in-demand percussionist, Milarsky has been the principal timpanist for the Santa Fe Opera since 2005. In addition, he has performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Symphony. He has recorded extensively for Angel, Bridge, Teldec, Telarc, New World, CRI, MusicMasters, EMI, Koch, and London records.

At Juilliard, Milarsky received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and was awarded the Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding leadership and achievement in the arts.

About Nadia Sirota

Violist Nadia Sirota’s singular sound and expressive execution have served as muse to dozens of composers, including Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli, Daniel Bjarnason, Judd Greenstein, Marcos Balter, and David Lang. She won a 2015 Peabody Award for her podcast Meet the Composer, which profiled contemporary music’s most interesting musical thinkers. This season, she is the New York Philharmonic’s first-ever Creative Partner, a position created for her in which she will host nine contemporary music concerts over two new series, Nightcap and Sound ON, the latter of which she will also curate. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Detroit Symphony, Colorado Symphony, National Arts Center Orchestra, Spanish National Orchestra, and Orchestre National d’Île-de-France. She has released four recordings of commissioned music, most recently Tessellatum, Donnacha Dennehy’s groundbreaking work for viola and microtonal viola da gamba consort, featuring Liam Byrne. Sirota has lent her sound to recording and concert projects by the National, David Bowie, and Björk, and she is a member of the chamber sextet yMusic, whose virtuosic execution and unique configuration have attracted high profile collaborators Paul Simon, Ben Folds, Anohni, and The Staves, and have inspired an expanding repertoire of original works by composers Andrew Norman, Caroline Shaw, and Chris Thile. She has received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for her work in radio and South Methodist University’s Meadows Prize, awarded to pioneering artists and scholars with an emerging international profile. She sits on the board of directors of Chamber Music America, the national service organization for ensemble music professionals. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Juilliard, where she studied with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang.

About Matthew Pearce

Tenor Matthew Pearce is a second-year master’s student from Union, Kentucky, studying with Marlena Malas. At Juilliard, Pearce has performed in L’enfant et les sortilèges (La théière) and in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (Spärlich). He also appeared in the Juilliard Vocal Arts Cabaret and premiered Toys in a Field: Songs from Dien Cai Dau with the Juilliard Orchestra. He has performed with the New York Festival of Song and made his David Geffen Hall debut in the New York premiere of Thy Will be Done with the National Chorale. This past summer, Pearce appeared as Don José in Carmen at the Chautauqua Institution. He received his bachelor’s in vocal performance from the University of Kentucky, where he studied with Everett McCorvey. He holds the Risë Stevens Scholarship, the Patricia Haspert Scholarship in Vocal Arts, and the George H. Gangwere Scholarship.

About AXIOM

AXIOM, led by music director Jeffrey Milarsky, is dedicated to performing the masterworks of the 20th- and 21st-century repertoire. Since its debut in Avery Fisher Hall (now David Geffen Hall) in 2006, the group has established itself as a leading ensemble in New York City’s contemporary music scene with performances throughout Lincoln Center, in addition to frequent appearances at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre and (Le) Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village.

AXIOM is grounded in Juilliard’s curriculum. Students receive a credit in chamber music for performing in the ensemble, and during any four-year period, AXIOM members will have the opportunity to perform works by Adams, Birtwistle, Druckman, Lindberg, and Schoenberg, among other composers. Guest conductors of AXIOM have included Alan Gilbert, Susanna Mälkki, and David Robertson.

This season, AXIOM performs Andriessen’s De Staat on October 14 as part of the New York Philharmonic’s The Art of Andriessen celebration; this concert featuring music by John Corigliano and Nico Muhly on October 26; and a program featuring works by Xenakis; Caroline Shaw; and Steve Reich on April 18.

Highlights of the 2017-18 season included a program dedicated to former Juilliard faculty member, composer Jacob Druckman; an all-Berio program; and a concert featuring Hans Abrahamsen’s Schnee (complete). Highlights of the 2016-17 season included programs honoring composer John Adams on his 70th birthday; Steve Reich on his 80th birthday; and a program devoted to the music of Kaija Saariaho.

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Friday, October 26, 2018, 7:30pm, Alice Tully Hall

AXIOM

Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor

Celebrating John Corigliano’s 80th birthday and Nico Muhly on the premiere of his new opera, Marnie, at the Metropolitan Opera

Nadia Sirota, viola

Matthew Pearce, tenor

 

Nico MUHLY No Uncertain Terms (2017)

John CORIGLIANO Chiaroscuro (1997)

MUHLY Keep in Touch (2005) with Nadia Sirota

CORIGLIANO Poem in October (1970) with Matthew Pearce

 

Tickets for AXIOM concerts are free and available at juilliard.edu/calendar.