Exponential Ensemble

e-Portrait: Germaine Tailleferre French composer Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) was a member of Les Six, a group of young composers from the Paris Conservatoire led by composer Erik Satie and playwright Jean Cocteau in the 1920s. She studied composition with Charles Koechlin and Maurice Ravel. Her main body of works includes many solo piano works, movie and television scores, mixed chamber music and concertos. Today we are featuring the second movement from her rarely pe...rformed Sonate Champêtre; a late work in the neoclassical style. Exponential Ensemble oboist Kemp Jernigan and clarinetist Pascal Archer perform with guest musicians Joshua Butcher (bassoon) and Spencer Myer (piano). Help us create more e-Portraits by making a fully tax-deductible donation of any amount. www.exponentialensemble.com/donate Thank you for your support!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! e-Portrait: Ailís Ní Ríain Ailís Ní Ríain is an Irish contemporary classical composer who aims to produce work that challenges, provokes and engages. A regular collaborator with artists in other art-forms, her artistic interests are diverse and combined with an unwavering desire to develop her artistic practice with each new project or commission. Ailís composes in a variety of forms including music-theatre, concert music and site-responsive installat...ion projects. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious UK Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers. "DON’T! is a musical conversation which initially derived from a written scene in words for two performers. Increasingly language itself got in the way of expression and I turned the idea into an instrumental duo, for bass-clarinet and cello. It seemed to me that both instruments shared much in terms of sonority at times, but were simultaneously sufficiently different to each other to fit the theme of the piece - the breakdown of communication between two people." -Ailís Ní Ríain For more info visit: www.ailis.info Listen: https://soundcloud.com/ailisniriain Help us create more e-Portraits by making a fully tax-deductible donation. www.exponentialensemble.com/donate Thank you for your support!

e-Portrait: Paul de Wailly Today we perform Aubade by French composer Paul de Wailly (1855-1933). A former student of César Frank (1822-1890) at the Paris Conservatoire, Paul de Wailly’s musical style is very much in line with the late romantic approach of Frank and his contemporaries. Special thanks to Chris Whittaker, Stuart Breczinski and the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra for producing this video. ... Help us create more e-Portraits by making a fully tax-deductible donation: www.exponentialensemble.com/donate Thank you for your support!

e-Portrait: Ulysses Kay African-American composer Ulysses Kay (1917-1995) was the nephew of the famous New Orleans jazz trumpeter King Oliver who initially encouraged him to pursue his musical training on piano. He later studied composition with William Grant Still at the University of Arizona and with Paul Hindemith at Tanglewood. At the outbreak of World World War II, Ulysses Kay joined the Navy Band playing the flute and saxophone. It is during those years that he famil...iarized himself with woodwind instruments. He was particularly fond of the oboe which inspired him to write his Suite for Flute and Oboe. Today Exponential Ensemble’s flutist Anna Urrey and oboist Kemp Jernigan perform the Prelude from his Suite for Flute and Oboe. Special thanks to Chris Whittaker and the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra for producing this video. Audio and video editing: Chris Whittaker & Stuart Breczinski

Join us tonight at 8:30pm for a FREE online concert hosted by the Washington Heights Chamber Orchestra!

e-Portrait: Bohuslav Martin Czech composer Bohuslav Martin (1890-1959) lived in Paris during the Roaring Twenties. There he incorporated many of the trends of the time, including jazz and neoclassicism, combined with the high level of French woodwind playing. He was particularly inspired by Igor Stravinsky, whose novel, angular, propulsive rhythms and sonorities reflected the industrial revolution and motorised transportation. The "Blues" from his Sextet for Piano and W...inds (1929) is a great example of those influences. Like and share this video! Help us post more e-Portraits by making a fully tax-deductible donation of any amount. www.exponentialensemble.com/donate Thank you for your support!