For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned oft.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the West Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery of Art

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

The Sixty-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lamrnot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery of Art

2,676th Concert

Great Noise Ensemble

Armando Bayolo, artistic director and conductor

With Marcantonio Barone, pianist

May 18, 2008

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court

Admissionfree
Program

Barbara White

Learning to See

From the Meta-Matic Junk Heap

Bird

Irregular Metronomy

Bird

.. things the mind already knows”

Bird

Evan Chambers

Rothko-Tobey Continuum

Heather Figi, violin

Andrew Rudin

Concertofor Piano and Small Orchestra

Allegro presentimento

Adagio

Allegro gioviale 

Marcantonio Barone, piano

World Premiere Performance

INTERMISSION

Blair Goins

Quintet

Sensuously

Intensely—playfully

Warmly—j oyously

Armando Bayolo

Chamber Symphony (“Illusory Airs”)

Hastening Spells 

Chanson oubliee

Lieto Fine

This concert is made possible in part by funds provided by

the Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation.

The Musicians

GREAT NOISE ENSEMB1E

With seven world premieres to its credit and ten more scheduled in the

upcoming months, Great Noise Ensemble has as its mission the performance

ofnew American works and the promotion oflocal talent in contemporary

music. The ensemble was formed in the summer of 2005, when a call went

out on Craigslist.com from composer and conductor Armando Bayolo. Seven

Washington-area musicians who were equally passionate about new music

answered the call, and from this core group the ensemble has grown to

include twenty instrumentalists and two singers.

In its first season, Great Noise Ensemble presented concerts throughout

the Washington, dc, area and at Shenandoah University. During its second

season, it served as the ensemble-in-residence for the local chapter ofthe

American Composers Forum and was nominated for a Best New Artist award 

by the Washington Area Music Association. This season, the group has

been invited to perform at the Second Annual Capital Fringe Festival and at

Catholic University, in addition to this performance at the National Gallery.

The members of Great Noise Ensemble are:

Andrea Vercoe, violin

Heather Figi, violin

Annelisa Guries, violin

Rebecca Kletzker, viola

Sarah Biber, cello

Matan Mintz, cello

Joel Ciaccio, bass

Sacha Place,flute

Yeong-Su Kim, oboe

Katherine Kellert, clarinet

Alan Michels, bassoon

Kevin McKee, trumpet

Heidi Littman, horn

Amy Stephens, horn

David Miller, trombone

Blair Goins, tuba

Mark Sylvester, guitar/banjo/mandolin

Jennifer Jackson, piano

Molly Orlando, piano

Peggy Houng, harp

Glenn Sewell, percussion*

Tom Wagner, percussion*

*Guest performer

3
ARMANDO BAYOLO

Born in 1973 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, to Cuban parents, composer and

conductor Armando Bayolo began musical studies at age twelve. At age

sixteen he began his studies at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in

Interlochen, Michigan, where he first began the serious study of composition.

He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (Bachelor of Music,

1995); Yale University (Master of Music, 1997); and the University of Michigan 

(Doctor of Musical Arts, 2001).

Bayolo’s music encompasses a wide variety of genres and includes

chamber and orchestral music as well as works for solo instruments

and voices. He looks forward to the world premiere of his Concerto a due

for guitar and violin in Washington, dc; performances of his Chamber

Symphony (“Illusory Airs”) by the Great Noise Ensemble at the Capital 

Fringe Festival and in Syracuse, New York; presentation of A Kind of

Standoffby the Percussion Plus Project at Depauw University in Greencastle, Indiana; and the premiere of Colorfields by the Hamilton College

Orchestra, Heather Buchman, conductor.

Bayolo is the founding executive and artistic director of Great Noise 

Ensemble, which in just three seasons has become one ofthe most important forces in contemporary music in the Washington area. He has been

featured on Public Radio International’s Studio 360 and National Public

Radio’s Fresh Ink. In 2006 he joined the music faculty at Hamilton College

in Clinton, New York, where he teaches composition, music history, and

music theory as a Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence Fellow.

4

MARCANTONIO BARONE

Marcantonio Barone has performed as soloist with major orchestras on four

continents and has given solo recitals at the National Gallery and at renowned

concert halls in London, Moscow, New York, and Saint Petersburg, among

other North American and European cities. He performs regularly with 1807

and Friends, the Craftsbury Chamber Players, the Lenape Chamber Ensemble,

and the Wister Quartet. He also appears frequently as a guest artist at the

Delaware Chamber Music Festival and the Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber

Music Concerts. He serves as head ofthe piano department and assistant

director ofthe Bryn Mawr Conservatory of Music and teaches piano and

chamber music at Swarthmore College. Prior to his graduate studies with

Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he was awarded

the artist diploma in 1985, Barone studied with Eleanor Sokoloff at the Curtis

Institute of Music. Among his other distinguished teachers were Taylor

Redden, Harriet Elsom Rothstein, Leonard Shure, and Susan Starr.

5
Program Notes

Composer Barbara White received a bachelor of arts degree from Harvard 

University and Radcliffe College and master of arts and doctor of philosophy

degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. She is an associate professor in

the music department at Princeton University, which recently awarded her a

Harold Willis Dodds University Preceptorship. Compositions by White have

been commissioned by the American Composers Fomm, the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the New York New Music Ensemble, the

National Endowment for the Arts, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Recent

honors and awards have come from the American Academy ofAirts and Letters,

the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

About Learning to See, which was commissioned and premiered by Boston 

Musica Viva in 2000, White writes: “[It] translates my experiences ofvisual

art into the sonic realm. As I composed the piece, I focused on the journeys

offour twentieth-century artists, paying particular attention to their formal 

preoccupations as well as to the evolution and unfolding oftheir individual 

aesthetic attitudes. The six movements share a predilection for simplicity,

economy and brevity, but like the paintings and sculptures they emulate, they

are quite diverse. There is a musical machine featuring ‘junk percussion,’

a formalist fabrication oftangled lines and sharp points, and a set ofprogressively leaner variations. One movement is built almost entirely out ofbrief

references to other music.”

Evan Chambers is currently an associate professor ofcomposition at the

University of Michigan and serves as resident composer with the new-music

ensemble Quorum. His 2007 orchestral song cycle, The Old Burying Ground,

was performed in Carnegie Hall in February 2008, and has been recorded for 

release later in the year. Chambers’ compositions have been performed by the

Albany, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Memphis, and New Hampshire Symphonies.

He won first prize in the Cincinnati Symphony Competition, and in 1998

was awarded the Walter Beeler Prize by Ithaca College. His work has been

6

recognized by the American Academy ofArts and Letters, the American

Composers Fomm, the Luigi Russolo Competition, the National Association 

ofComposers usa, the Tampa Bay Composers Fomm, and Vienna Modem

Masters. He has been a resident ofthe MacDowell Colony and has received 

individual artist grants from the Arts Foundation of Michigan, ArtServe

Michigan, and Meet the Composer. Recordings ofhis music have been

released by Albany Records, Cambria, Centaur, Clarinet Classics, Equilibrium,

and tire Foundation Russolo-Pratella.

Describing his Rothko-Tobey Continuum, the composer says: “The title 

refers to the artists Mark Rothko and Mark Tobey. I have often felt that the

work ofthese two painters was related in spirit, approaching a similar

sensibility through different means—luminous floating planes in Rothko’s

work, and highly charged calligraphic line in Tobey’s paintings. With this in

mind, I have constmcted the piece around two contrasting treatments of the

same musical material, treatments that were inspired by, but are not imitative ofthe distinctive character of the paintings. There is a lyrical quality to

the work of both men, in spite ofthe abstractness ofthe images that they 

produced—this manifests itselfin the melodic line ofthe solo part. The

taped material was generated using the algorithmic composition program

M; all of the note data was generated by processing the four chords that

end the piece. The work was completed in July 1992 (originally for violin 

and live performance system) using a Macintosh computer and a Yamaha 

SY99 synthesizer.”

Andrew Rudin is a Texas-born composer of Swedish ancestry whose

many contributions to the literature of electronic music brought him early

recognition. His orchestral and chamber music has been performed

throughout the United States, and he is the recipient ofmany grants and

awards. His II Giuoco, the first large-scale work for Moog Synthesizer, was

chosen to represent the United States in the Fifth Paris Biennale in 1966.

7
His synthesized music is heard in the soundtrack ofthe film Fellini:

Satyricon, and his Tragoedia was the second piece of electronic music to be

commissioned by Nonesuch Records. Rudin has composed ballet scores for 

Alwin Nikolais, the Dance Theater Workshop, Jeff Duncan, Louis Falco, the

London Contemporary Dance Theatre, Murray Louis, and the Pennsylvania

Ballet. He has written incidental music for Tennessee Williams’ Outcry and

numerous scores for public television. He has taught on the faculties of

the Juilliard School of Music and the Philadelphia College ofthe Performing

Arts, where he is the founding director ofthe Electronic Music Center. He is

currently on the faculty ofThe University ofthe Arts in Philadelphia. His

music is published by Associated Music Publishers and Skane Hill Music.

About his Concertofor Piano and Small Orchestra, Rudin notes: “[It] was

completed this past February at the MacDowell Colony at the express

request ofArmando Bayolo, and specifically for this concert ofthe Great

Noise Ensemble. The three traditional movements present three varied

emotional worlds, and a trajectory from the rather ominous [and] later

aggressive tone ofthe first movement through the more meditative and

melancholy second movement to a concluding jovial finale full of‘tonguein-cheek’ and small jests. Each succeeding movement is about two minutes

shorter than its predecessor. My admiration for the concerti of Bartok and

Prokofiev is likely apparent in the first movement, as is the tip ofmy hat to

Beethoven and Ravel in the second. The exceptionally thoughtful yet virtuostic skills of pianist Marcantonio Barone gave me a wonderful opportunity

to attempt not only a virtuoso showpiece but simple expressivity. I hope also 

that it proves to be, quite simply, ‘fun.’”

Blair Goins earned a bachelor ofmusic degree in composition in 1985 at

the Eastman School of Music, with the tuba as his primary area ofstudy. Two

years later, he was commissioned by the University ofVermont to compose a

work for full orchestra in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Since moving

to Washington, DC, in 1988, Blair has performed with the Modem Brass Trio,

the Monumental Brass Quintet, the Takoma Park Symphony Orchestra, the

Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra at the Lincoln Theater, and the

Whitworth Brass Ensemble on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. For

four years, beginning in 1990, he was the tuba instructor and one ofthe

music theory teachers at the Duke Ellington School ofthe Arts. Goins enjoys 

performing, arranging, and composing chamber music for a variety ofcreative

instrumentations.

On the subject of Quintet, Goins observes: “Most ofmy music is not

inspired by anything other than the music itself. I attempt to compose what

sounds good. I continue to revise my original ideas until I myself am moved

by what I write. I do not offer technical descriptions or explanations for what

or how I write— I achieve success ifthe music stands on its own in resonating with others. All ofthis applies to Quintet, except [that] this work is tmly

inspired by Love and its various expressions. I believe Love is the source of

everything good. I hope this quintet is no exception.”

Armando Bayolo comments on his Chamber Symphony: “The subtitle,

‘Illusory Airs,’ refers to a melody that, while providing the basis for all ofthe

melodic and harmonic material in the entire symphony, is never fully heard

in the piece. In this way, the Chamber Symphony evokes the ways in which we

are increasingly connected to people throughout the world through wireless

communication and the internet, yet at the same time remaining surprisingly

and increasingly isolated from one another in physical space. The first movement, Hastening Spells, is primarily concerned with a process ofpulse acceleration while maintaining an even tempo throughout. The result is a piece of

increasing tension as events occur at progressively hastening rates. This gives

way, without pause, to a more lyrical movement, Chanson oubliee (Forgotten 

Song), which presents a transformation ofthe ‘illusory air’ at the symphony’s

core. The effect is ofhearing a melody at once new and familiar. Throughout

this ‘forgotten song,’ the percussion, guitar, and piano (which throughout the

symphony work together as a rhythm section) provide bell chords, which serve

as a ground bass for the evolving aria.

9
The tide ofthe finale, Lieto Fine, refers to a type offinale usually found

in eighteenth-century symphonies. This is the traditional ‘happy ending,’

lithe and vibrant in character, that so frequendy finishes the major-key 

symphonies of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. The term here is meant

somewhat ironically, as the apparent joy prevalent in the movement’s

rhythmic vitality is obliterated by the return ofthe first movement (itself a

move reminiscent ofnineteenth-century symphonic models, particularly

Brahms’ Third Symphony and Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony). Once the

sombemess ofthe first movement has been reintroduced, the finale cannot

return to the mood of careless abandon in which it started, despite the

valiant efforts ofthe woodwinds and rhythm section. The symphony ends

on a lonely, unresolved note.”

10

Next Week at the National Gallery of Art

Traditional Afghan Music

Ensemble led by Vaheed Kaacemy, vocalist,

and Quraishi, rubad player

May 25, 2008

Sunday afternoon, 1:00-2:00 pm

West Building, East Garden Court

Children’s Songs from Afghanistan

Children’s chorus led by Vaheed Kaacemy, vocalist,

and Louise Pascale, songbook author

May 25, 2008

Sunday afternoon, 4:00-4:30 pm

East Building Auditorium