Land of Winter

Composed by Donnacha Dennehy
Performed by Alarm Will Sound

PERFORMERS
Erin Lesser Flutes
Christa Robinson Oboes
Bill Kalinkos Clarinet
Elisabeth Stimpert Clarinets
Michael Harley Bassoons
Laura Weiner Horn
Tim Leopold Trumpet
Michael Clayville Trombone
Chris P. Thompson Percussion
Matt Smallcomb Percussion
John Orfe Piano and Celesta
Courtney Orlando Violin
Lauren Cauley Violin
Andrew Griffin Viola
Stefan Freund Cello
Miles Brown Bass

PRODUCTION
 Mac Smith Director of Production, Projection Design
Manuel Da Silva Lighting Supervisor and Production Manager
Jane Cox Lighting Design
Tess James Assistant Lighting Design
Daniel Neumann Audio Engineer
Thomas Short Stage Supervisor
Jesse Wilen A2

Crew: Juan Coronado, Jael Hoyos, Jack Dimaulo, Bryant Blackburn, Nicholas Santasier, Kiel Fuller, Peter Lopez, Ryan Tumulty

ALARM WILL SOUND
Alan Pierson Conductor and Artistic Director
Gavin Chuck Executive Director
Peter Ferry Assistant Director of Artistic Planning
Jason Varvaro Production Manager
Annie Toth General Manager
Tracy Mendez Development Manager
Michael Clayville Director of Marketing
Bill Kalinkos Librarian
Uday Singh Program Coordinator

Acknowledgments

Alarm Will Sound gratefully acknowledges our individual donors and the following foundations for their support: Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Amphion Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University, BMI Foundation, Cheswatyr Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and the Sinquefield Charitable Trust. 

Additional support is provided by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

A Note from the Composer

I feel an increasing existential worry about the climate that is no longer theoretical: the sense of seasons and recurrent time is being eroded by an expanding heat with each passing year. Some of that feeling inspired me to write Land of Winter, though I’d long been planning a large piece around the Roman conception of my homeland. 

The Romans referred to Ireland as Hibernia—the “land of winter”—believing that the inhabited world ended in the northwest with this country that never knew summer. Centuries later, it still seems cold to many, especially in July! It is the varying quality of light that truly demarcates the seasons, from the shorter days of grey or piercing light in the winter to the warmer but mercurial light of summer days that at solstice stretch almost to midnight. I like this play between light and time, and it is the major inspiration behind the piece. 

Structurally, the piece is divided into twelve “months” continuously connected, beginning in December and culminating at the end of November, ready to start all over again in winter. Solstices and equinoxes are translated musically using overtone distributions throughout the ensemble, creating sweeps of color and shade across the aural space. An advent chorale by Bach that I have long loved, Wie soll ich dich empfangen, lurks behind the surface occasionally, influencing the larger harmonic motions, and sometimes working as a generator of upper partials that remain on the musical surface after the chorale itself is erased, like glowing embers that might remain after a fire has burned out. In the final movement, November, the chorale itself is gradually revealed in looping frames that create a new, slowly evolving modal harmony out of its re-constituted chronology. It moves slowly enough and with enough changes of order, that you might be hard-pressed to hear the traces of the original here. The chorale underpins a kind of transforming resonance, embracing winter as a necessary slowing down within the year.

It has often happened that the pieces that are most meaningful to me did not start as commissions, I had to will the circumstances of them into being. I was very lucky that the wonderful American group, Alarm Will Sound, were so keen to help me realize my vision of this piece, and in the end, I was fortunate to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship to support its composition. The piece is dedicated to Alarm Will Sound’s conductor, Alan Pierson. 

Ultimately, I think of Land of Winter as both a celebration of recurring time—yielding more and more with each new hearing—and also something written in fear of the inexorable power of linear time, the progress towards death. The two forces are forever interacting throughout the piece. It reminds me of a phrase from Samuel Beckett’s A Piece of Monologue that has provoked so much of my music: “Thirty-thousand nights. Hard to believe so few.”

—Donnacha Dennehy

About Alarm Will Sound

Alarm Will Sound is “one of the most vital and original ensembles on the American music scene” (New York Times). A 20-member band committed to innovative performances and recordings of today’s music, they have established a reputation for performing demanding music with energetic virtuosity. 

With classical skill and unlimited curiosity, Alarm Will Sound takes on music from a wide variety of styles. “Stylistically omnivorous and physically versatile” (The Log Journal), their repertoire comes from around the world and ranges from the arch-modernist to the pop-influenced. Since its inception, Alarm Will Sound has been associated with composers at the forefront of contemporary music. The group itself includes many composer-performers, which allows for an unusual degree of insight into the creation and performance of new work.

Alarm Will Sound is the resident ensemble at the Mizzou International Composers Festival. Held each July at the University of Missouri in Columbia, the festival features eight world premieres by early-career composers. In 2013–14, Alarm Will Sound served as artists-in-residence at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Alarm Will Sound may be heard on eighteen recordings, including For George Lewis | Autoshchediasms, their most recent release featuring music of Tyshawn Sorey, and the premiere recording of Steve Reich’s Radio Rewrite. Acoustica, their genre-bending, critically acclaimed album, features live-performance arrangements of music by electronica guru Aphex Twin. 

For more information and to join the mailing list, visit Alarm Will Sound’s website at www.alarmwillsound.com.

About Alan Pierson

Alan Pierson is the artistic director and conductor of the acclaimed ensemble Alarm Will Sound and served as the artistic director and conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic. As a guest conductor, Pierson has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the L.A. Opera, Nationaltheater Mannheim, the London Sinfonietta, the Steve Reich Ensemble, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the New World Symphony, and the Silk Road Project. He is co-director of the Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble and has been a visiting faculty conductor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity. 

Mr. Pierson received bachelor's degrees in physics and music from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in conducting from the Eastman School of Music. He has recorded for Nonesuch Records, Cantaloupe Music, Sony Classical, Oehms Classics, and Sweetspot DVD.

About Irish Arts Center

Founded in 1972 and based in Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, Irish Arts Center is a home for artists and audiences of all backgrounds who share a passion or appreciation for the evolving arts and culture of contemporary Ireland and Irish America. We present, develop, and celebrate work from established and emerging artists and cultural practitioners, providing audiences with emotionally and intellectually engaging experiences in an environment of Irish hospitality. Steeped in grassroots traditions, we also provide community education programs and access to the arts for people of all ages and ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In a historic partnership of the people of Ireland and New York, Irish Arts Center recently completed construction on a fully-funded $60MM state-of-the-art new facility to support this mission for the 21st century.

Irish Arts Center Staff

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Gerrard Boyle 
Andrew Breslin
Aidan Connolly
Kristine Covillo
John S. Daly
Robert M. Devlin
Celestine Donaghy
John Duffy
Kathleen Fee
Russell Gioiella
Loretta Brennan Glucksman
Shaun Kelly 
John Martin
Robert J. McCann
Shane Naughton
Sharon Patrick
James E. Quinn
Pauline Turley

STAFF 

Elise Bargman (Ticketing and Marketing Data Manager)
Zohra Coday (Programming and Education Associate)
Aidan Connolly (Executive Director)
Manuel Da Silva (Production Manager and Lighting Supervisor)
Shannon Ducey (Administrative Manager)
Fiona Farrell (Communications and Marketing Associate)
Vivian Fong (Director of Communications and Marketing)
Rachael W. Gilkey (Director of Programming and Education)
Laney Granito (Special Events Coordinator)
Jon Harper (Chief Operating Officer)
Anah Klate (Audience Services Manager)
Gabe Lozada (Associate Director of Development for Major Gifts)
Andy O'Reilly (Artist Services Manager)
Barry Ó Séanáin (Director of Development)
Ciara O'Shea (Communications and Marketing Associate)
Emma Reifschneider (Executive Assistant)
Jessie Reilly (Director of Education, Family and Community Programming)
Thomas Short (Stage Supervisor)
Mac Smith (Director of Production)
Pauline Turley (Vice Chair)
Dennis Walls (Director of Facility Operations)
Kestrel Wolgemuth (Associate Director of Programming)

Tehmina Anjum (Senior Accountant, NCheng)
Desaann Legzim (Senior Accountant, NCheng)
Wenbin Nie (Supervising Senior, NCheng)
Vera Wong (Senior Accountant, NCheng)

Pat Morin (Graphic Designer)
Taylor Panetti (Graphic Designer)

Blake Zidell (Public Relations Consultant, Blake Zidell & Associates) 

Sarah Iles (Special Events Intern)
Cynthia Leung (Development Intern)
Maya Ryan (Communications and Marketing Intern)
Sarah Shanahan (Development Intern)
Matt Storti (Programming Intern)