San Diego New Music’s “Made in California” will feature works by composers living in the state. But don’t assume the music will stay within those boundaries. Case in point: the program includes a duet integrating Thai mouth organ and Korean zither, a vocal/electronics piece inspired by the Syrian civil war and a world premiere exploring goblins from Korean folklore.
“We are showcasing the variety of what California’s composers are doing,” said Christopher Adler, a composer who is on the board of San Diego New Music. “We’ve got a big roster to draw from.”
“Made in California” will be held Thursday at La Jolla’s Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, the partner and usual venue for San Diego New Music (SDNM).
Adler, who will play the Thai mouth organ — known as a khaen — at the concert, is a music professor and director of Asian Studies at the University of San Diego. He composed the piece, “The Memories that Drift from Mountain Peaks,” for khaen and gayageum, a 25-string Korean zither.
San Diego New Music’s secretary/treasurer Christopher Adler, left, and executive director Charissa Noble.
(Courtesy of Zane S.B.)
For almost 30 years, Adler has been playing and writing music for khaen. His slightly more recent interest in Korean traditional instruments led him to Junghwa Lee, a Korean native based in Orange County. She’s been playing the gayageum since she was 9.
“This is a three-way, cross-cultural piece involving Thailand, my Western compositional perspective and this Korean instrument,” Adler explained, speaking from his USD office. “The title for me has a melancholy air, almost like thinking about a faraway place.”
The Thursday concert will also visit Korea in the world premiere of Texu Kim’s “Ominous Omnibus.” The Korean-born American composer is an associate professor at San Diego State University.
Kim’s inspirations for the piece, co-commissioned by SDNM and the Korean Cultural Society of Boston, were the goblins — or Dokkaebi — of Korean folklore. “Omnibus” will feature seven instrumentalists, including Adler on piano.
Another of Kim’s works, “Zzan!!”, is on the San Diego Symphony’s California Festival program this weekend at The Shell.
San Diego composer Texu Kim.
(Courtesy of Estro Studio Haksoon Kim, 2020)
“Texu’s getting a lot of buzz lately,” Adler said. “He already had pretty good recognition before his recent move to San Diego. We presented a work of his last year.”
All but one of the composers represented at Thursday’s concert have had their works performed by SDNM, which has a large network of artists who write contemporary music and musicians who play it.
“This concert represents what we do at San Diego New Music,” said Charissa Noble, SDNM’s executive director. “We’re committed to platforming musicians and composers who are invested here or live here. We exist to support artists that might not get programs done in mainstream venues.”
Money earned from tickets and fundraising goes to the performers and composers. Noble, the SDNM board and its staff are all volunteers, most with full-time paid positions elsewhere. Noble and Adler are University of San Diego music faculty members.
Thursday’s concert is part of the California Festival, an initiative celebrating music written within the past five years. It was co-founded this year by San Diego Symphony Music Director Rafael Payare, Los Angeles Philharmonic Music Director Gustavo Dudamel and San Francisco Symphony Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen.
The statewide festival, which concludes Nov. 19, will present the works of 140-plus composers from around the world. Because one of SDNM’s missions is to present music by San Diego composers, Adler had no trouble curating Thursday’s “Made in California” program.
“In 2019, we had a concert called ‘Made in San Diego’ where we presented pieces by only composers living in San Diego,” he said. “When they announced the California Festival, it seemed like a perfect thing to expand that to include the whole state. We wanted to put the focus back on those who create the music and say, yes, composers are coming from California. And, in fact, there are tons of them.”
Another San Diego resident highlighted in the program is Francisco Eme, director at the local Front Arte & Cultura gallery. Originally from Mexico City, the multimedia artist has released albums in several genres. He is also a performer in “Made in California.”
Eme’s composition, “Goutha,” is a vocal/electronics selection from his opera, “Treatise on Violence,” inspired by a chemical attack ordered a decade ago by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad during that country’s civil war.
The three other composers on the program are similarly accomplished.
Los Angeles-based Nicholas Deyoe is also a guitarist and conductor. His “Ashley, Christopher, Andy” was written for three performers, including Adler on piano.
Vera Ivanova, who teaches music in Orange County and L.A., has had her works performed in Russia, Europe, and the United States. Her “Aura” spins off a melodic quotation from a Messiaen clarinet solo.
Berkeley-based vocalist–sound artist Ken Ueno has had his music performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and other prestigious venues. The title of his violin-cello-piano work, “Visible Reminder of Invisible Light,” was borrowed from T.S. Eliot. Ueno is the latest addition to SDNM’s roster.
The “Made in California” concert will feature more than 15 musicians bringing these composers’ works to life.
“People hear the phrase ‘new music’ and they think of bigger cities and miss the vibrancy that’s in their backyard,” Noble said. “We’re hoping this particular program shines a light on the great new music here.”
San Diego New Music: ‘Made in California’
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday
Where: Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla
Tickets: $12-$25
Phone: (858) 454-5872
Online: ljathenaeum.org
This event is part of the California Festival: A Celebration of New Music, a statewide initiative from Nov. 3 to Nov. 19. cafestival.org
Wood is a freelance writer.