The Geode opens at Tippet Rise
August 21, 2024
On Saturday, August 17, Tippet Rise inaugurated the art center’s newest outdoor performance space – the Geode – with a concert by cellist Arlen Hlusko. Having joined us during the concert seasons of 2019 and 2022, we were thrilled to welcome her back for this special recital, set against a vast panorama of seven mountain ranges.
Designed by Arup, the Geode is comprised of four triangular structures – one for performers and three for audience members, which protect audience members from the sun and elements, and project and contain sound to create an enveloping sonic environment. Measuring 18 feet tall at its highest point, the Geode is crafted from weathering steel and clad in vertical grain Douglas Fir wood, which have been burned and brushed with a traditional Japanese Yakisugi technique to help scatter sound waves at a higher frequency.
Hlusko performed the world premiere of Àkweks Katye (The Eagle Flies), a Tippet Rise Commission by Grammy-and NAMA-nominated performer, composer, and professor Dawn Avery. Inspired by the landscape and skies at Tippet Rise, the work tells a musical story of an eagle from the perspective of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), and the belief passed down from Avery’s Haudenosaunee elders that this majestic creature – the àkweks – carries our spirit “from the stars into the waters” at birth, and eventually back to the Sky world.
The program also featured the world premiere of Hyacinth Gardens written by Paul V. Cortez, who is currently incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, as part of his participation in Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program. Cortez shared with Hlusko that he was inspired to write the suite “to remind the world of our humanity, of love, of peace — and that our lives are not permanent; to make the most of what we have.”
In addition to these world premieres, Saturday’s program included Hlusko performing a Tippet Rise Commission which she premiered in 2022 – Reena Esmail’s Sandhiprakash. These new works were juxtaposed alongside several works by Bach, Domenico Gabrielli, Gabriel Kahane, Sulkhan Tsintsadze, Frankie Carr, and Leyla McCalla.
Hlusko and Avery kindly detailed program notes which further explain the inspiration for their program and composition, available to read in full below.
As hawks flew overhead during the premiere of Àkweks Katye (The Eagle Flies) against the blue and bright Montana summer sky, we could not think of a more fitting inaugural concert at the Geode.
Àkweks Katye (2024)
Composed by Dawn Avery for Solo Violoncello
COMMISSIONED by Tippet Rise Art Center
PREMIERED on August 17, 2024 by cellist Arlen Hlusko at the Geode, Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail, Montana.
PROGRAM NOTES
Àkweks Katye (The Eagle Flies) for solo cello was commissioned by Tippet Rise Art Center for a premiere by Arlen Hlusko at the Tippet Rise Art Center – a stunning arts venue consisting of large- scale contemporary outdoor sculptures that features several series of classical music performances, often heard in the sculptures. Started by artists and philanthropists Cathy and Peter Halstead on a 12,500-acre working ranch in southcentral Montana, its open spaces and expansive skies lent itself to tell a musical story of the eagle from the perspective of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). As taught by my Haudenosaunee elders, Tawen’tese and Teahen:te, the eagle or àkweks (in Kaniènkéha Mohawk language of which the Haudenosaunee are part) is believed to be our helper. It is the creature that flies the highest and upon our birth, the eagle carries our spirit from the stars into the waters. Àkweks may also carry our spirit back to the tail of a shooting star so that it may return to the Sky world. The Creator promised to hear our prayers every time he sees the smoke from the sacred fire in which we burn our sacred plant tobacco. Sometimes, the eagle who can see the smoke may deliver these messages.
Compositionally, the piece tells the journey of an eagle as he interacts through many realms. Through the use of what I like to call Indigenous soundscapes, the eagle’s flight and beauty are reflected by several soaring melodies of ascending and descending patterns as well as repeating harmonics. Additionally, they refer to the nature of the movement of flight as the eagle carries out his purpose. The harmonics also honor the spirit world. On the earth, the wood sticks for the fire are heard by the col legno battuto ricochet of the cello, i.e. bouncing the wood side of the bow across the strings. These sounds are also sonic indicators of Indigenous rattles. The burning of tobacco in the fire is represented by sounds of sul ponticello tremolos as the flames build and rise. In addition, our mother earth and its human inhabitants are represented through notes in the violoncello’s lower register as we seek connection to all of creation as well as support from both the Creator with the Eagle. The work ends as ákweks katyes freely and peacefully to the sky world.
Dawn Ieri’ho:kwats Avery, Composer
The Grammy- and NAMA-nominated performer, composer, and professor Dawn Avery has worked with Pavarotti, Sting, Darling, Nakai, and Shenandoah, as well as composers John Cage, Charles Wuorinen, and Phillip Glass. Her exploration of sacred traditions and music around the world led her to study the relationship between spirituality and music as her work seeks to enter different realms of vibration and connection with the human spirit, the land, and the sky world. She looks forward to hearing her music connect with the land and people of Tippet Rise.
Avery has been honored to work with spiritual masters Ron Young, Hilda Charleton, Tawente’se, the Dalai Lama, Chidvilasananda, and Sherif Baba Chatilkaya. Of Mohawk Kaniènkeha descent, Avery is dedicated to the Indigenization of composition and performance. With a PhD in ethnomusicology, she focuses on works related to Native Classical Music and Indigenous theory and research. Avery’s recording North American Indian Composition Project features the works of contemporary Indigenous composers. Her compositions have been performed at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Lincoln and Kennedy centers, and throughout Europe. Several of her chamber works appear on the recordings Tulpe and Ajijaak on Turtle Island: A Journey. She composed music for the award-winning film Imagining the Indian: The Fight Against Native Mascots and won best composer in the Paris Women’s Film Festival (Duo Concertante) for Iotsistókwaron:ion (The Stars).
Tippet Rise Solo Recital Program Notes
by Arlen Hlusko
August 17, 2024
Over the past several years, and especially through the pandemic lockdown and my livestream series Live from Lowville with Love, I’ve come to find a deep love for and creative exhilaration in programming. As an avid reader and admirer of great story-tellers, it is a joy to imagine interweaving and juxtaposing music to tell new stories.
While dreaming up this musical program, it was inevitable to find roots and inspiration in the land of Tippet Rise. Although I had no idea what Geode would look like, knowing some of the other sculptures on the land, and imagining the vast expansiveness and awe-inspiring stillness here definitely influenced what felt most meaningful to share musically.
I want everyone to sit back and experience for themselves what the intersection of art, music, and this particular nature can bring to them, so I’m going to try to give just enough context/background that might be of interest, while letting your imaginations and souls be your primary guide.
When Peter, Cathy, and Pedja invited me to give a recital here in celebration of a new piece of art on the land, my only real parameters were that they wanted me to reprogram Reena Esmail’s Sandhiprakash, which they commissioned for the reopening of Tippet Rise after the pandemic in August 2022, and that they wanted to commission a new piece for this specific occasion. We came to ask Dawn Avery, who has written a gorgeous piece which could not possibly be any more perfect for this setting and this day.
Not having any idea what Dawn’s piece would sound like (since it didn’t exist yet), programming came solely from the seed of Reena’s piece — and ruminations on this magical place. Sandhiprakash, meaning joining of light, is based on a Hindustani Raag sung at twilight (sunrise and sunset). Reena spoke of how striking the difference between Hindustani and Western Classical music representations of dawn are — how in Hindustani music the colours tend to be darker and more mysterious. With this sound palette in mind, my program began to emerge.
Bach’s immense and powerful Fifth Cello Suite seemed perfect for this setting. I loved the idea of juxtaposing the Prelude with Reena’s piece, as while in some ways they are a surprising pairing, they share these incredible sweeping gestures emerging from the lowest range of the cello and reaching, reaching towards the top. While the material of the music may be different in many ways, the shapes mirror each other and bring out new elements in one another.
Continuing our slightly dark, but hope-filled wandering journey, we meander through Domenico Gabrielli’s Ricercar No 1 — one of the earliest pieces composed in cello history (1689). To me this piece has always felt like it grows directly out of the earth, and I also love leading from it directly into Gabriel Kahane’s Hollywood & Vine — a piece (finally) filled with light in it’s cheerful, charming. singing melodies. Like Reena’s music, this piece is also searching for commonalities across genres — specifically here, Hollywood & Vine is a reference to the music of Laurel Canyon, and Gabe’s roots in both songwriting and classical concert music.
This leads us into Paul V Cortez’s Hyacinth Gardens, one movement from a 12 movement suite Paul has been working on as a wrongfully incarcerated artist at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, through Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program. Paul also has a background in pop music as well as in Broadway, which comes through strongly in many movements of his “Cello Suite Bouquet”. Because Paul cannot be here to introduce his music for himself, I wanted to share with you what he wrote about it. With each movement named for a different flower, Paul spoke with me of how “a flower is one of the most fleeting expressions of beauty that nature gives, with many varieties feeling like they can be here today, gone tomorrow. Especially once taken from the soil, in an effort to hold onto the beauty our human interference only shortens its lifespan. In its short life, it is cherished by all who receive it and are able to enjoy it’s delightful and intoxicating beauty.” He wanted to write the suite for me as his gift to a world he feels has become “so mad with violence, revenge, and exerting power, to remind the world of our humanity, of love, of peace — and that our lives are not permanent; to make the most of what we have.”
This movement is the deepest and darkest of the suite, and tonally fits in the most clearly with this program. To juxtapose it’s melancholy, we, for a brief moment, harken back to Bach via his 4th Suite 2nd Bourrée — a piece, and composer, that Paul loves deeply and has found great inspiration in for his own music. We then fly off into Sulkhan Tsintsadze’s Chonguri, from his Five Pieces based on Georgian Folk Tunes — folk tunes often being the closest we can get to our histories and our connections with the natural world in song. This one emulates a traditional Georgian instrument called the Chonguri or Choghur.
Now we find ourselves in cello land(!) — with 3 stunning improvisations from Frankie Carr, a brilliant cellist himself as well as a beautiful composer. Then — our highly anticipated world premiere from cellist-composer Dawn Avery. Àkweks Katye means “The Eagle Flies,” and is inspired by the open spaces, natural habitats, and expansive skies of Montana. As taught by Dawn’s Haudenosaunee elders, Tawen’tese and Teahen:te, the eagle (or àkweks in Kaniènkéha Mohawk language) is believed to be our helper. It is the creature that flies the highest and, upon our birth, carries our spirit from the stars into the waters. When the time comes, the eagle may also carry our spirit back into the tail of a shooting star so that it may return to the Sky World. Dawn wrote a breathtaking piece full of soaring melodies and quiet interplay that has come to life for me in a new way since getting to play it here, on this land of Tippet Rise.
To finish, I wanted to take a moment to meditate on where we are and whatever we may be feeling at this point in the program with Leyla McCalla’s Meditation No 1. As with so many of the artists featured on this program, Leyla is a multi-faceted artist who is known best for her American folk music, but is also a classically trained cellist and composer. Her meditation seamlessly leads us into Bach’s 2nd Suite Prelude, which surprisingly seemed like the perfect book-end to his 5th Suite Prelude — with the fugal material sharing many rhythmic and shapely similarities to this 2nd Suite Gigue. A brief moment of celebration and thanks to the journey we’ve gotten to take together in this most magical of places, Tippet Rise.