Matthew Schreibeis

Patrick Yim will continue has performances of my recent solo violin work, Fragile Remembrance, with events on his home turf in South Bend, Indiana at the University of Notre Dame on December 7 and again at the Zhejiang Conservatory in Hangzhou, China on December 28. I will attend the performance in South Bend. Thanks again to Patrick for his brilliant playing!

Bravo to Patrick Yim for his outstanding premiere of my solo violin work, Fragile Remembrance, at Duke University!  My work is a big one, not just in length but in scope.  Patrick brought out the drama and also the nuance of this memory-inspired music.  Also on his varied program were works by friends and colleagues: Chen Yi, Lei Liang, John Liebertore, Austin Yip, and Zhou Long, as well as Kaija Saariaho.  Patrick will repeat the program at UNC Greensboro tomorrow. 

Choosing a title for a work is an interesting process.  In some cases a title comes easily, in other cases with difficulty; in some cases before composing starts, in others after the last note is written.  When I started jotting down ideas for my current solo violin work for Patrick Yim, I first wrote “Memorial” at the top of the page.  I think the backdrop of the pandemic was still on my mind.  Likely because of this, my work has a long middle section marked “Lamentoso.”  Soon into the process, however, I realized this was not just a memorial work, crossed out that title, and replaced it with “Memory.”  This, in turn, shifted to “Remembrance,” something a bit more poetic or affecting.  Finally, I settled on “Fragile Remembrance.”

My finished work, around 16 minutes in length, does have something to do with remembering and with memories and things that fade away.  But these memories are unstable, always shifting, and often interrupted.  They are the memories of every emotion—both tender and bitter—and also perhaps the memories of certain great solo violin works of the near and distant past.  But are these memories reliable?  I am very much looking forward  to sharing this work with the audience at Duke through the diligent work of my dear friend, Patrick.  

The title of this post is not the newest Bond flick, but rather an announcement (with pleasure) of an upcoming performances of my solo violin work, Passions, at CAMPGround23 in St. Petersburg, FL this March.  CAMPGround is the annual festival portion of pianist Eunmi Ko’s Contemporary Art Music Project in Tampa and surrounding cities.  As in the premiere last August in Finland, violinist Sini Virtanen will perform the work.  I’m grateful for the opportunity to hear the piece again, to reconnect with Eunmi (for whom I wrote Inner Truth), and to get to know the music of many excellent colleagues.  Sunshine State, here I come!

It was wonderful to hear Euna Kim and William Lane of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble present the premiere of the revised version of my 2013 violin and viola duo, Incantation, last night at Tai Kwun in Central, Hong Kong.  This performance was part of the “Chilled Steps” series in a unique outdoor space.  Despite some occasional outdoor noise, the audience sat in rapt attention throughout what was a fine and dramatic performance by Euna and William.  What a pleasure!

Due to the setting, this performance was amplified, giving an extra layer of intensity and a haunting timbre within the rather resonant space.  In fact, hearing this amplification has caused some sound ideas to emerge in my mind, and I expect an upcoming project may explore amplification in a larger way.  Look for details on this new work (hint: neon) in an upcoming post.  The HKNME concert also included duos by Hong Kong composers Kai-Young Chan and Stephen Yip.  It was great to experience these colorful works in person.

Following their workshop in February, I’m pleased to share news of an upcoming performance of my violin and viola duo, Incantation, by Euna Kim and William Lane of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble at Tai Kwun in Hong Kong on September 12.

Incantation was premiered in 2013 at the Aspen Music Festival.  The performance at Tai Kwun will be the premiere of its revised version following the HKNME workshop and subsequent edits and conversation.

My work’s title evokes those repeated phrases, spells, and rituals, which have the power to stir emotions and also spirts—for good or for evil.  I’m looking forward to stirring these spirits with fresh ears in an amplified performance at this unique outdoor space in Central next month.

I’ve spent the last eleven days in Helsinki, concluding last evening with the premiere of my solo violin work, Passions, by Sini Virtanen at the Sibelius Music Institute in Hämeenlinna. Finland has offered me a much-needed pause, a calmness and order that isn’t possible in Hong Kong’s dense insistence.

Sini’s performance was captivating and personal, showing all sides of my work and its many expressions: the questioning, the outbursts, the longing introspection, the steady build-up to strident wails…and the afterthoughts—those memories that remain.

I have so enjoyed visiting Sibelius’s birth house, eating delicious food, seeing the beautiful islands of Suomenlinna, breathing fresh, cool air, and, above all, spending time with interesting and creative people.  This is a place I hope soon to return. 

After a multi-year delay due to Covid, I’m so happy to share that my solo violin work, Passions, will be premiered by violinist Sini Virtanen at the Sibelius Music Institute in Hämeenlinna, Finland on August 28.  Hämeenlinna is the birthplace of Sibelius, about an hour from Helsinki by train, and I’m excited to explore both locales, work with Sini, and reconnect with some old friends!

This summer I’m working with a talented group of young composers at the Toolbox Percussion International Creative Academy. Led by percussionist Louis Siu, Toolbox is one of the leading new music groups in Hong Kong, combining performances, educational, and outreach activities. Next week I’ll be giving a talk to the participant composers titled “Translating Words to Music.” In this talk, I’ll discuss some of the relationships between text and music in my recent compositions. I am interested in exploring how we develop music from our initial inspiration, how that relates to our technique, and how words can influence various factors like form, harmony, timbre, and text painting, using three of my works: They Say, for guitar; Inner Truth, for piano; and Sandburg Songs, for soprano and ensemble.

Listeners in Madison, WI can enjoy a broadcast of my clarinet, violin, and piano trio, In Search of Planet X, next Monday, May 30, at 6am on WORT’s Listen Adventurously with Paul Baker. Planet X is one of five works on my 2021 Albany Records portrait CD, Sandburg Songs. The disc spans a decade of creative work and features outstanding new music colleagues soprano Tony Arnold, Zohn Collective, and conductor Tim Weiss.

Tune in to WUSF’s Modern Notebook on May 1 at 8pm EST for a broadcast of my duo, Noticing, as performed by clarinetist Sammy Lesnick and violinist Hanna Hurwitz.  The recording is from my Albany Records portrait CD.

Yesterday concluded my mini college tour with a virtual visit to the University of Central Florida, where I presented two of my works to undergraduate composers under the guidance of my friend, composer Alex Burztos.  Just like my visits to Eastman and Buffalo, I was impressed with these young musical minds.  It’s interesting to observe that when presenting the same compositions to many different people, they often formulate different reactions and questions in response to the work.  This suggests that regardless of what a composer intends, there are infinite ways of “hearing” a work. And beautifully so.  

The last few days have been a whirlwind but a positive one.  It was an absolute pleasure to present my work at Eastman.  What talented and inquisitive young people these students were.  I was also able to spend time with my former teachers, David Liptak and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, as well as Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, whom I last met in Hong Kong.

Yesterday my Upstate tour continued with a masterclass and lecture for the graduate students in composition at SUNY Buffalo.  I was very impressed with the work I saw from all six students.  They represented a variety of styles and all seemed to understand that composition is an individual act with no clear right or wrong way of operating.  Both their work and the quality of the discussion confirmed what I already knew from my experience of twice attending June in Buffalo, which is that this is one of the excellent programs for graduate study, thanks in large part to composer David Felder.  

Over the next week I’ll be doing a small college tour with two in-person and one virtual visit.  The first stop is Rochester, my current locale, where I am presenting my work to the students in the Composition Symposium this Thursday.  Eastman holds a special place in my heart, and my attendance at the school is one of a tiny handful of experiences that changed my life.  What an honor to meet and speak with these talented young people.  

I’ll be presenting three works included in my Albany Records portrait CD: They Say, for guitar; Inner Truth, for piano; and Sandburg Songs, for soprano and ensemble.  Looking back—and in part because of the location—I realize that all three of these works have a connection with Eastman performers.  Small world!

Before Rochester, I had the chance to visit Corning, NY and the Corning Museum of Glass, including various glassmaking demonstrations.  This is one of the most enjoyable museum experiences I’ve had in a while.  Highly recommended!  

“Schreibeis’ notes leap in divergent directions into a mysteriously poignant realm…landscapes that dissolve one into the other…” Thanks to Raul da Gama and The WholeNote in Toronto for this review of Sandburg Songs. Those of you in Ontario can pick up a physical copy of the magazine this month.

It’s always a pleasure to hear one’s work played well but even more so in the continuing era of Covid-19.  Yesterday I enjoyed listening to a rehearsal of my duo, Incantation, by violinist Euna Kim and violist William Lane at the beautiful and historic Haw Par Music.William is the founder and Euna a member of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, a group doing more than any other to promote contemporary music in Hong Kong.  Yesterday’s gathering was a bit of a test run for what we all hope will be a future performance of this work once the world opens up a bit more.

Incantation was premiered in 2013 at the Aspen Music Festival, where I was one of ten Fellows working with Steve Stucky, George Tsontakis, and a venerable group of visiting faculty composers.  It seems both like yesterday and a lifetime ago.  The title evokes the repeated phrases, spells, rituals—these simple syllables—which have the power to stir emotions and also spirts.  In my music, at first these spirits take the form of repeated gestures and later raging scales and clusters.  Are these perhaps the same thing?

In advance of our rehearsal—and also during and following it—I made some revisions to the piece.  I rarely revise my work beyond a few small details and notations, but in this case I felt the need.  Somehow the several days of work I did a decade after “finishing” the piece—while only about 15% different—seem to make the piece around 30% better.  This is what we call musical math.

George Crumb (1929-2022). Often imitated. Never duplicated. We feel your music in our bodies as much as we hear it through our ears. From some primal state, it communicates with us directly, the way we experience Nature or the Spirit Realm: being alone in the woods and encountering an animal or a sudden rustling of trees.

The quote that I read or heard you say that I come to again and again was when you spoke of a very difficult period when you were unable to compose for a couple years and before you had found the sound(s) we now know as yours: “I couldn’t allow myself to write what had already been written” …or something very close to that. Is it too bold for me to believe I understand you?

Of course you had retired from Penn by the time I arrived, but with four of your students as my own teachers—Rouse, Ricardo, Jim, and Jay—your voice and wisdom were never far: “Crumb used to say…” and then your gentle cadence. Has there been an American composer whose actual speaking voice has been more widely imitated?

One of the blessings of being in Philly for 14 years was hearing the premieres of a few of your American Songbooks. These were huge pieces, dozens of percussion instruments on stage. Your sounds penetrate us. They haunt us. Beautiful dreamer…

When I say you’re a genius, I mean that when we study your music, we can see how it fits together, but that tells only part of the story. When the sound stops and the applause finish, we’re still left grasping as we ask: how did a man imagine this world?

Rest in peace, George Crumb. A Genius From West Virginia.

Finnish friends: look out for a performance of my solo violin work, immaus, scheduled for December 12 at the Sibelius Music Institute in Hämeenlinna. The work will be presented by violinist Sini Virtanen, who did a splendid job with it in Tampa in March.

Last night I enjoyed the premiere of my new work, Parallel Lives, by ensemble mise-en at their venue in Brooklyn.  The performance was wonderful, and it was especially meaningful to hear my work live for the first time since the pandemic began.  

As long as I have been doing this (around 31 years since I set pencil to paper), I always encounter some doubt as to whether what I heard in my mind will succeed in the corporeal realm.  Lucky for me, I seem to have pulled it off again with the support of the excellent musicians of mise-en and their conductor, Moon Young Ha. 

Having heard the work and the reaction from some of the musicians, I am considering extending it or writing a companion piece.  It seems the Parallel Lives of the title may have just been a Parallel Life after all.  Sometimes the sounds we create leave us wanting more.  So it will be back to pencil and paper at some point soon.  And likely an eraser, too.

Very happy that Sandburg Songs, my 2016 song cycle on texts from Carl Sandburg’s Chicago Poems, is on the first ballot for Best Contemporary Composition in this year’s Grammy Awards. Making this recording on Albany Records was a real labor of love, and I was blessed to collaborate with soprano Tony Arnold and members of Zohn Collective, conducted by Tim Weiss. Thanks to my friends and colleagues in the Recording Academy for your listening and support!

I’ve spent the last two months at the Library of Congress going through the Steven Stucky Papers as part of a 2-year funded research project from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council.  What began as a planned one-month visit turned into two, and now it’s clear that there’s enough material to warrant at least one return trip later this spring.  My goal going into this was to write about Stucky’s orchestrational technique and the scope and limits of compositional influence.  I still plan to do that, as well as bring some of these materials to a wider public.  

But what I want to reflect on here is my personal response to my time with these materials.  It has been a privilege to spend time with the artifacts of my former teacher’s professional life—scores, sketches, correspondence, programs, teaching materials, and so much more.  Having known Steve for twenty years, I knew he was smart, organized, committed, and, of course, an incredibly talented artist.  But what these materials crystalize for me is the extent of these traits and how hard a worker he was.  The breadth of his skills—artistic, academic, and interpersonal—is not something we all possess.  Not every excellent composer is also a great writer and public speaker and skilled in the art of interpersonal diplomacy.  An important part of Steve’s legacy must be the scope of his influence, from whole series like the Green Umbrella with L.A. Phil to discussions of harmony with lesser-knowns like myself.  Through my work, I hope I can illuminate some of the myriad means of expression that remain Steve’s lasting work.  

I’m looking forward to speaking with students at Kent State University this coming Monday, October 3! When speaking with students, I find it useful to think a bit about how we learn to compose and how our backgrounds and early experiences influence us. I also plan to share some of my recent works from my Albany Records portrait CD. Thanks to composer Adam Roberts for the invitation.

My 2016 song cycle, Sandburg Songs, part of my recent portrait CD release, will be featured on this week’s Modern Notebook on WUSF in Tampa. Tune in to hear Tony Arnold, Zohn Collective, and conductor Tim Weiss this Sunday, September 26, starting at 8pm EST.

I’m happy to confirm that my new work for ensemble mise-en, Parallel Lives, will be premiered on October 28 in New York.  This work was one of six that were selected from a worldwide call-for-proposals as part of the mise-en Festival scheduled for June 2020, and subsequently rescheduled a number of times due to Covid.  Better late than never!

Parallel Lives is scored for a conducted ensemble of flute, clarinet (doubling bass clarinet), trombone, violin, cello, percussion, and piano, which constitutes the core instrumentation of ensemble mise-en. While this is a unique combination, it mirrors my 7-piece instrumentation for Sandburg Songs, my 2016 song cycle, except for the addition of the soprano and the inclusion of a guitar instead of trombone. In both works, I looked for ways to create vibrant, mysterious, and alluring colors.  The title, Parallel Lives, stems from my own life experience: going back and forth from Hong Kong to the U.S. over the last five years, the way we find ourselves in unexpected situations, and the way our current lives and memories can coexist and blur.  

This premiere will be the first time I’ve heard my music live since the start of the pandemic. It’s true that a composer’s work is often solitary; no one would argue otherwise. But that time alone must be balanced and nourished by the shared in-person experience of collaboration and music-making. I am so much looking forward to hearing my composition and being in New York again after so long.

After significant delays due to Covid, I’m on my way to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., to begin archival research on the music of my former teacher, the late Steven Stucky (1949-2016).  My work is part of a two-year funded project supported with a General Research Fund (GRF) Grant from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council.  While I intend to investigate and publish on Steve’s orchestral work, in particular his orchestrational technique and what elements contribute to his style or ‘voice’, the outcome of my research depends in large part on what exactly I find at the Library.  The Steven Stucky Papers have yet to be processed (a process I know something about), meaning my work will first consist of sifting through dozens of boxes to see what I have to work with and then making a determination about what there is to say about these materials and, significantly, which of these materials might need to be shared with the world.  I have no doubt my time at the Library of Congress will be meaningful, giving me new insights into a man I first met twenty-one years ago.