About the Show
Through duo commissions performed by violinist Jennifer Koh and the composers themselves, Limitless celebrates the collaborative relationship between composer and performer, while also exploring the historical role of the composer as performer. This spirit of collaboration contrasts with the conventional notion that composition and performance are discrete and detached parts of the musical process.
LIMITLESS advocates for future models for classical music through inclusivity by giving voice to female composers, composers from unconventional musical backgrounds, and composers of color.
Limitless premieres in two programs at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY, on March 15 and 31, 2018, and the participating composers include:
March 15, 2018:
**Zosha Di Castri (piano)
Missy Mazzoli (synthesizer)
*Qasim Naqvi (electronics and keyboard)
*Lu Wang (electronics)
March 31, 2018:
*Lisa Bielawa (voice)
*Vijay Iyer (piano)
*Tyshawn Sorey (percussion)
Nina Young (electronics)
*Du Yun (voice)
*World premieres commissioned by arco collaborative
**Commissioned by arco collaborative and the Music, Art & Architecture Library of the University of British Columbia
Artists
Zosha Di Castri (piano)
Zosha Di Castri is a Canadian composer/pianist living in New York. Her work (which has been performed in Canada, the US, South America, Asia, and Europe) extends beyond purely concert music including projects with electronics, sound arts, and collaborations with video and dance. She has worked with such ensembles as the San Francisco Symphony, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the L.A. Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, ICE, Wet Ink, Ekmeles, JACK Quartet, Yarn/Wire, the NEM, and Talea Ensemble among others. Zosha is currently the Francis Goelet Assistant Professor of Music at Columbia University. (www.zoshadicastri.com)
Missy Mazzoli (synthesizer)
Qasim Naqvi (electronics and keyboard)
Lu Wang (electronics)
Composer and pianist Wang Lu received the 2019 Berlin Prize in music composition. She is a
2014 Guggenheim Fellow and an Assistant Professor of Music at Brown University. Her works
reflect a very natural identification with influences from traditional Chinese music, urban
environmental sounds, linguistic intonation and contour, and freely improvised traditions,
through the prism of contemporary instrumental techniques and new sonic possibilities.
She received her doctoral degree in composition at Columbia University in 2012, after
graduating from the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music in 2005. Wang Lu’s works have been
performed internationally, by ensembles including the Ensemble Modern, Ensemble
Intercontemporain, Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Orchestre National
de Lille, Holland Symfonia, Shanghai National Chinese Orchestra, Taipei Chinese Orchestra,
Musiques Nouvelles, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Holland Symfonia, Beijing New Music
Ensemble, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Curious Chamber Players, the Janus Trio,
So Percussion, Ensemble Pamplemouse, Argento, Momenta Quartet, and counter(induction,
among others.
She won the first prize at Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne’s Young Composers Forum in 2010
and shared the Tactus International Young Composers Orchestra Forum Award in 2008. She
was selected for a Tremplin commission by IRCAM/Ensemble Intercontemporain in 2010, the
International Composition Seminar with the Ensemble Modern in 2012, and has also received
two ASCAP Morton Gould awards.
She has participated in festivals such as the 2014 New York Philharmonic Biennale, MATA
Festival, Cresc. Biennale in Frankfurt, Gaudeamus Music Week, Tanglewood, Cabrillo Music
Festival, Beijing Modern, and Pacific and Takefu festivals. Her recent projects include
commissions from ICE at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Aspekte Festival in
Austria, Alarm Will Sound and Mizzou International Composers Festival, Momenta Quartet,
Yarn/Wire, solo works for organist Mark Steinbach, violinist Miranda Cuckson, installation at
Brown University’s Cohen Gallery in collaboration with New York Based artist Polly Apfelbaum,
and a residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation.
