QFNB

concert

Quartet for a New Beginning

for Violin, Clarinet, Cello, and Piano
or Piano Quartet

July 4--December 16, 2006
Duration: 23 minutes Photo above: concert hall premiere

for Violin, Clarinet, Cello and Piano (2006)

Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano (2008)

Concert Hall Premier performance by Aurora Musicalis:
Izabela Spiwak, violin; Jimmy Gilmore, clarinet;
Elizabeth Beilman, cello; John Noel, piano
Feb. 10, 2010 (Memorial Concert for Akanda) at Duke University, Nelson Music Room

video (YouTube)

Score (Clarinet quartet), PDF Cover Parts (to be printed f&b)
Score (Piano quartet), PDF Cover Parts
Program notes (title page)

I. Rajas

Marcia kaliyuga [6:17] MP3 recording Wav file (CD quality)

II. Tamas

Alla marcia funebre [7:22] MP3 recording Wav file

III. Satvas

Preambling: Logarythmus [5:08 ] MP3 recording Wav file

IV. Celebration (after the Dust Settles)

Marcia prestidigitalis [4:53] MP3 recording Wav file

My work is very different than Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time —and with far briefer program notes! The first three movements are titled after the three gunas of Hinduism. Rajas is restless activity, Tamas is darkness, and Satvas is spiritually elevated and full of light. The last movement is a celebration after the Earth is green again following the changes to come in the near future.

I hope that musicians will consider QFNB short enough to join Messiaen’s quartet on the same program.

While the total length of this work is 23 minutes, I am submitting it to the competition as performable in individual movements, or with selected movements in any combination, if needed to comply with the time limitations.

Musician Biographies

Elizabeth Beilman, native of Wichita Kansas, is Assistant Principal Cello at the North Carolina Symphony. She has performed many chamber music concerts in NC and has been a soloist with the NC Symphony. She was artist-in-residence for two years at the Banff Center for the Fine Arts in Canada before coming to NC.

Jimmy Gilmore, native of Dallas Texas, was Principal Clarinetist of the North Carolina Symphony, and teaches at Duke University and Meredith College. He has been a soloist with the NC Symphony many times and has an extensive career in chamber music, especially as a founding member of Aurora Musicalis.

John Noel, pianist, native of Henderson NC, studied at the NC School of the Arts, Oberlin Conservatory, Juilliard, the Schola Cantorum, and Rice University. He spent three years in Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship, a Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship and a Société Générale Scholarship. He has performed in many European countries. In 2015 he moved from Raleigh to Houston, Texas.

Izabela Spiewak, violinist, was a native of eastern Poland. She studied at the Warsaw Conservatory and the LA Philharmonic Institute. She was a member of the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra, and was an active recitalist on the roster of the NC Touring Artist Directory, as a soloist and as part of the violin/viola DUO APPASSIONATO with Xi Yang. She received a Regional Artist Project Grant of the State of North Carolina, and had a very prominent violin teaching studio. Sadly, she passed away in February 2013.