AXIOM, Led by Jeffrey Milarsky, Performs an all-American Program on Saturday, November 23, 2019, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall

With Works by Carter, Feldman, Glass, and Lewis

NEW YORK –– AXIOM, led by director Jeffrey Milarsky and dedicated to performing the masterworks of the 20th and 21st centuries, performs a program by American composers on Saturday, November 23, 2019, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall. The program includes Elliott Carter’s Mosaic (2004) with harpist Adam Phan, George Lewis’ Ikons (2011), Morton Feldman’s Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety (1970), and alumnus Philip Glass’ The Hours—A Suite in Three Movements (2002), arranged by Michael Riesman, with piano soloist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko.

Free tickets are available in person only at the Alice Tully Hall or Juilliard Box Office. 

About the Program

Elliott Carter’s Mosaic is a tribute to French-born harpist Carlos Salzedo, who was a member of the small group of modernists that surrounded Edgard Varèse and Charles Ives in the 1920s and ’30s. The work was commissioned by the Nash Ensemble. Carter wrote in his note, “The score is formed by many short mosaic-like tessera that I hope make one coordinated impression.”

Trombonist, computer musician, and Columbia University professor George Lewis is one of the most forward-thinking musicians of our time. His Ikons, which was commissioned by the 2010 Vancouver Cultural Olympiad, is a two-part interactive piece that he wrote in association with an Eric Metcalfe sculpture.

Composed in 1970, Morton Feldman’s Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety is a work for a small, unusual ensemble of two flutes, horn, trumpet, trombone, tube, celesta, bells, two cellos and two double basses. Madame Press (Vera Maurina-Press), to whom the work is dedicated, was Feldman’s childhood piano teacher. She was a Russian émigré, and a one-time member of the circle of Scriabin. In a short essay from the early 1960s, Feldman wrote: “It was because of her—only, I think, because she was not a disciplinarian—that I was instilled with a sort of vibrant musicality, rather than musicianship.”

Michael Reisman has been the conductor and producer of nearly every Philip Glass recording, including the score for The Hours, a film adaptation of author Michael Cunningham’s novel of the same name. Reisman, who is also the music director of the Philip Glass Ensemble and has been an associate of the composer since 1974, transcribed the film music into a virtuosic suite for piano and orchestra.

Meet the Artists

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 U.S. 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, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and IRCAM in Paris. 

Milarsky has a long history of premiering, recording, and performing American composers and in keeping with that, in 2013 was 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 timpanist and 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, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Pittsburgh Symphony. He has recorded extensively for Angel, Bridge, Teldec, Telarc, New World, CRI, MusicMasters, EMI, Koch, and London records.

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

Born in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, Jaeden Izik-Dzurko was the grand prizewinner at the Federation of Canadian Music Festivals’ national competition. Most recently, he won third prize and the Peter Takács Classical Sonata award at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. Now completing his bachelor’s degree at Juilliard, where he studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky, he has performed as a soloist with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, Kamloops Symphony, Lions Gate Sinfonia, and Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. He was a winner of the 2019 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition, which included a concert at Weill Recital Hall that was broadcast on WQXR. A passionate advocate for Canadian music, he has been recognized at several competitions for his insightful interpretations of Canadian compositions. He holds the Harold and Helene Schonberg Scholarship, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship, and the Adele Marcus Scholarship.

Harpist Adam Phan is completing his bachelor’s degree at Juilliard, where he is studying with Nancy Allen, principall harpist of the New York Philharmonic. He has participated in master classes with renowned harpists Judy Loman, Gretchen Van Hoesen, Alice Giles, and Gillian Benet Sella. Phan has spent summers as a member of the National Youth Orchestra touring both China and Europe with conductors Valery Gergiev and Charles Dutoit. He has participated in the Aspen Music Festival with Anneleen Lenaerts and Nancy Allen and is a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist. He is the proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship.

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 student-created group has established itself as a leading ensemble in New York City’s contemporary music scene with performances throughout Lincoln Center, in addition to 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.

Last season, AXIOM performed Andriessen’s De Staat as part of the New York Philharmonic’s Art of Andriessen Festival, celebrated faculty member John Corigliano’s 80th birthday, and concluded its season with works by Xenakis, Caroline Shaw, and Steve Reich (’61, composition).

Highlights of the 2017-18 season included programs dedicated to Jacob Druckman (BS ’54, MS ’56, composition; faculty 1956-72), Luciano Berio (faculty 1965-71), and a concert featuring Hans Abrahamsen’s complete Schnee.

In the 2016-17 season, AXIOM performed 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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Program Listing:
Saturday, November 23, 2019, 7:30pm, Alice Tully Hall
AXIOM
Jeffrey Milarsky, Music Director and Conductor
Adam Phan, Harp
Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, Piano

Elliott CARTER Mosaic (2004)
George LEWIS Ikons (2011)
Morton FELDMAN Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety (1970)
Philip GLASS The Hours—A Suite in Three Movements (2002) (arranged by Michael Riesman)

Free tickets are available in person only at the Alice Tully Hall or Juilliard Box Office.