This preview has been provided by Mallarmé Chamber Players.
Duke University graduate student David Kirkland Garner is the 2012 winner of the Mallarmé Chamber Players Edging the Cut composition contest. In addition to a $500 prize, the10-minute composition will be performed by Mallarmé on their upcoming concert on May 6, 2012. The contest was opened to any Duke University student to compose a work, no more than 10 minutes in length, with specific parameters of instrumentation. Mallarmé is passionate about commissioning new music, developing community partnerships and providing educational opportunities,and this project, in cooperation with Duke University and their outstanding music composition department, ties in well with organizational priorities.
Garner’s work “the machine without horses” will be on a concert program called Edging the Cut along with works by Duke professors Scott Lindroth and John Supko as well as works by David Stock, Judd Greenstein and Louis Andriessen. The program will be presented at Motorco Music Hall in Durham on Sunday,May 6, 2012,at 7:00 PM. Performers include keyboard player Eric Hirsh (Orquesta GarDal and The Beast) and violinist Karen Strittmatter Galvin (NC Symphony, New Music Raleigh) and percussionist Shawn Galvin (New Music Raleigh), bassist Kevin Miller, guitarist Marc Faris and saxophonist William Robin. Garner remarks, “I am thrilled to be able to hear a new work come to life at the hands of the outstanding MallarméChamber Players. It is a special treat to work with a local ensemble committed to new music.”
From the forward of Garner’s piece: “‘the machine without horses’ is taken from a traditional Scottish fiddle tune and set dance of the same name.… The musical language throughout seeks to combine contemporary compositional approaches with pop music, folk music and jazz, all with a sense of humor and a touch of whimsy.” The instrumentation with non-typical chamber music instruments such as electric guitar, saxophone and percussion helps give this work a very contemporary feel.
ABOUT DAVID KIRKLAND GARNER: David Kirkland Garner is a PhD candidate at Duke University Department of Music. Before coming to Duke, he studied composition at Rice University and the University of Michigan and was a lecturer at Kennesaw State University. Garner is a composer whose music often draws on or is inspired by folk traditions from North America and the British Isles. These interests also extend into his research on banjo and fiddle styles of the American South and the traditional fiddling of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. His music has been performed throughout the United States and Europe by groups such as North Carolina’s Ciompi Quartet, the Locrian Chamber Players in New York and the Vega Quartet from Atlanta. His work Lament for the imagined, written for the Kronos Quartet, premièred in May 2011 in Glasgow, Scotland.
In addition to wining the Mallarmé competition, Garner is the recipient of numerous awards, including first prize in the 2011 NACUSA Young Composers’ Competition, an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award in 2009, an honorable mention for the same award in 2010 and the William Klenz Prize in Music Composition in 2010. Garner lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his wife Bronwen and his dog Niko.
ABOUT MALLARMÉ CHAMBER PLAYERS: The Mallarmé Chamber Players are a flexible ensemble of professional musicians based in Durham, North Carolina, whose mission is to enrich the lives of their community through outstanding chamber music. The ensemble distinguishes itself by its innovative educational programs, its commitment to creative collaboration with other organizations, its creation of significant new work and its dedication to serve a diverse population.
Mallarmé annually presents a series of five concerts that features great, diverse, and multidisciplinary chamber music. Mallarmé performs everything from Bach with period instruments to brand new works. In this past year alone, Mallarmé has presented two world premières by composers Gwyneth Walker and Gabriela Lena Frank. In 2010, Mallarmé released a CD on Albany/Videmus records of chamber music by African American composers to great acclaim.
Mallarmé is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) organization. The 2011-12 concert season is made possible in part by grants from the Durham Arts Council’s Annual Fund and funding from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.
