The McIntire Department of Music is pleased to welcome internationally acclaimed bassoonist Dana Jessen. Dana is a founding member of the San Francisco-based reed quintet Splinter Reeds. Currently based in Oberlin, Ohio, Ms. Jessen is a well-seasoned champion of new music.

On Thursday, November 5, at 8:00 pm, Jessen will present a free concert of four works for bassoon, live electronics and electroacoustic in Old Cabell Hall, performing pieces by U.Va. alumni Peter Swendsen, Wesleyan composer Paula Matthusen, Manhattan School of Music composer Sam Pluta, and Splinter Reeds oboist and composer Kyle Bruckmann.

Earlier in the day, Ms. Jessen will give a masterclass to wind players in Elizabeth Roberts’s studio. For details, contact the Department of Music at 434.924.3052.

This residency is made possible by the UVA Music Synergies project and the UVA Vice Provost for the Arts.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Praised for her diverse talents, bassoonist Dana Jessen is in high demand as a chamber musician, improviser, and new music specialist. She is the co-founder of Splinter Reeds and has performed with prominent ensembles including the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Ensemble Dal Niente, Calefax Reed Quintet, Callithumpian Consort, Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, and the Amsterdam Contemporary Ensemble, among others. As the founder and artistic director of the New Music Bassoon Fund, Jessen spearheaded the commission of Rushes, an hour-long composition for seven bassoons by composer and Bang on a Can All-Stars co-founder Michael Gordon. Her recordings can be heard on Cantaloupe, New World, Evil Rabbit, Oberlin Music, and the RIOJA record labels. Jessen holds a Master of Music degree in bassoon performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in improvisation from the Artez Hogeschool voor de Kunst. She lived in Amsterdam for three years as the recipient of a J. William Fulbright Fellowship and a HSP Huygens Fellowship where she researched contemporary and improvised music. Jessen is currently the director of professional development at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Sam Pluta is a New York City-based composer, laptop improviser, electronics performer, and sound artist. Though his work has a wide breadth, his central focus is on the laptop as a performance instrument capable of sharing the stage with groups ranging from new music ensembles to world-class instrumental improvisers. By creating unique interactions of electronics, instruments, and sonic spaces, Pluta’s vibrant musical universe fuses the traditionally separate sound worlds of acoustic instruments and electronics, creating sonic spaces, which envelop the audience and result in music focused on visceral interaction of instrumental performers with reactive computerized sound worlds. His compositions range from solo instrumental works to pieces for ensemble with electronics to compositions for large ensemble and orchestra. Pluta is the technical director for the Wet Ink Ensemble, a group for whom he is a composer as well as principal electronics performer. He teaches at Bennington College and at the Walden School, where he also serves as director of electronic music and academic dean.

Peter V. Swendsen  is interested in creating a sense of place for performers and listeners, often by using field recordings and real-world processes in music that combines acoustic instruments with electronics. Several such pieces are featured on his recent CD, Allusions to Seasons and Weather. A professor at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he chairs the Technology in Music and Related Arts department, Swendsen studied at Oberlin, Mills College, and the University of Virginia, and spent a year in residence at the NoTAM studios in Oslo as a Fulbright Fellow. He has created over forty scores for dance, including recent collaborations with David Shimotakahara at Ground Works Dance Theater in Cleveland and Amy Miller at Gibney Dance in New York City. Fireflies in Winter is his second project with long-time friend and collaborator, Dana Jessen.

Oakland, CA-based composer/performer Kyle Bruckmann’s work extends from a classical foundation into gray areas encompassing free jazz, electronic music, and post-punk rock. He is a member of acclaimed new music collective sfSound, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, and Quinteto Latino. He has worked with the San Francisco Symphony and most of the area’s regional orchestras while remaining active in an international community of improvisers and sound artists. From 1996-2003, Bruckmann was a fixture in Chicago’s experimental music underground; long-term affiliations include the electro-acoustic duo EKG, the art-punk monstrosity Lozenge, and the creative music quintet Wrack.

Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. In addition to writing for a variety of different ensembles, she also collaborates with choreographers and theater companies. Matthusen has written for diverse instrumentations, such as run-on sentence of the pavement for piano, ping-pong balls, and electronics, which Alex Ross of The New Yorker noted as being “entrancing.” Her work often considers discrepancies in musical space—real, imagined, and remembered. Matthusen is currently assistant professor of music at Wesleyan University, where she teaches experimental music, composition, and music technology.

– Marcella M. Day
Director of Promotions
McIntire Department of Music