Present Music Goes Crazy For The Cello

Cello Cello, Present Music‘s winter concert at the Jan Serr Studio on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 highlights the life work of two artists who bring very personal approaches to contemporary music.

Cellist Paul Wiancko has used his exploration of his instrument as an opportunity to create unique string chamber music.

Crossing between classical and rock, he developed a composer’s insight into the emerging complex milieu of the West Coast:

I keep a connection to, you know, to my past through the music that I write. In the late 90s, every underground punk band in LA wanted that one track on the album that was acoustic to show their softer side. That kind of became my specialty. You’ll hear some Joni Mitchell, Public Enemy, and Bartok in my compositions. I think that that gives my music a different profile, a different flavor.

Wiancko won a silver medal in the 2007 Lutoslawski International Cello Competition. He served three years with the Harlem Quartet. Performance and composition recognition led to collaborations with artists like Max Richter, Chick Corea, Norah Jones, Arcade Fire, and The National. He formed the Owls, a string quartet with two cellos. This experience also offered the challenge of adapting music to creative formats.

Last January, Wiancko joined the premiere contemporary string quartet, Kronos. In October 2023, he was named Spoleto Festival USA’s next Director of Chamber Music.

A New York Times reviewer describes his signature style as “tonally lush yet harmonically mysterious.” Wiancko will perform a selection of works. Wiancko describes When the Night, written for cello quartet as “a lullaby that incorporates soul, R&B, and jazzy elements.” Another choice, American Haiku, for viola and cello explores the expressive mood of haiku. Violist Ayane Kozasa, who appears in the original recordings with Wiancko, will also perform in Milwaukee. Closed Universe, for solo cello plus string quartet, is not available for preview.

Present Music commissioned Wiancko to write a sextet, Distant Maneuvers, for the Present Music Ensemble. Yaniv Dinur, recent Associate Conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony will conduct the complex sextet.

The second featured artist, Pamela Z, demonstrates unique skills as a composer, performer, and intermedia artist who works primarily with her own extraordinary voice, real-time digital processing, found sounds, and video. A pioneer of live digital looping techniques, she processes her voice in real time and manipulates the sound with custom-made gesture controllers to create dense, complex sonic layers. Constantly experimenting as the technology has evolved, she is now in full control of the medium, adapting these tools to more intentional purposes.

A recipient of the Rome Prize, the Guggenheim, the Doris Duke Artist Impact Award, and many other accolades, she performs worldwide as a soloist. She has created compositions for theater, film, dance, and the leading new music ensembles of our time, including the Kronos Quartet, Eighth Blackbird, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ethel, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.

Pamela Z will perform a selection of her works that demonstrate her control and insights into this new media. Each can be explored on YouTube – Quatre Couches, Badagada, Syrinx, and Other Rooms.

Pamela Z was commissioned by cellist Nick Photinos to write a work that combined electronics, voice, and cello quartet. The work will also be premiered at this concert. Incorporating four cellos and six sampled voices, the composition is an “homage to the people – parents, mentors, friends – who brought us up and made us who we are.”

The two cello quartets involve Wiancko, Nick Photinos, Milwaukee Symphony first chair cellist Susan Babini, and Milwaukee Symphony and core member of the Present Music Ensemble, Adrien Zitoun.

Photinos, a multi-Grammy award-winning cellist, is one of the most innovative and multifaceted cellists of our time. Serving for 24 years with the Avante-guarde ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, he has performed with an astounding array of artists including rock/pop artists Björk, Wilco, Bryce Dessner, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, film composer Gustavo Santaolalla, classical artists Dawn Upshaw and Philip Glass, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and jazz artists including Sheila Jordan, Laurence Hobgood, Zach Brock and Matt Ulery. He has appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras.

Babini was a member of the Phoenix String Quartet before joining the Milwaukee Symphony. She now serves as principal cello for the New Century Chamber orchestra and maintains an active role in the contemporary chamber world. Zitoun also contributes to the Philomusica Quartet and Milwaukee Musaik.

The evening will close with Drinking and Hooting Machine, a light-hearted composition for the entire ensemble and guests by John White. This minimalist work is performed on bottles. As White observes, as the liquid diminishes, the composition “resembles an aviary of full of owls all practicing very slow descending scales.”

The program will also include Present Music Ensemble regulars including Jennifer Clippert, flute, Bill Helmers, clarinet, Alex Wier, marimba, John Orfe, piano, and Illana Setapen, violin.

All together, this is another one-of-a-kind concert by Present Music featuring two world premieres, three guest artists, and the unusual combination of four fantastic cellists. Wianko and Pamela Z have each created unique careers. Exploring their body of works offers insight into the healthy state of contemporary classical music today.

Present Music will play the program twice, at 7:30 p.m. January 31 and February 1 at the UW-Milwaukee Jan Serr Studio, 2163 N. Prospect Ave. A live-stream option will also be available on each day. In-Person and Livestream tickets are available online.

On April 11, Present Music offers The Blue Hour, a unique concert-length song cycle from a consortium of five leading women composers: Rachel Grimes, Angelica Negron, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. The Milwaukee Art Museum will host the performance.