Program Notes: Dream House Quartet

PROGRAM INFORMATION

Dream House Quartet

Thursday, April 27, 2023
7:30 PM
Bing Concert Hall

Artists

Katia Labèque, piano
Marielle Labèque, piano
Bryce Dessner, guitar
David Chalmin, guitar

Dan Bora, sound
Sami Pyne, Associate Producer & Tour Manager

North American Premiere Tour Produced by ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann
Pianos by Steinway & Sons

Program

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PROGRAM SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please be considerate of others and turn off all phones and watch alarms. Photography and recording of any kind are not permitted. Thank you.

Biographies

Katia & Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide.

They have played with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Filarmonia della Scala, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, Ditto Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Santa Cecilia and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of John Adams, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Gimeno, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Pietari Inkinen, Louis Langrée, Zubin Mehta, Juanjo Mena, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher, Georges Pretre, Sir Simon Rattle, Santtu Matias Rouvali, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas and Jaap van Zweden.

They have appeared with Baroque music ensembles such as The English Baroque Soloists with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini, Musica Antica with Reinhard Goebel, and Venice Baroque with Andrea Marcon, il Pomo d'Oro with Maxim Emelyanichev and also toured with The Age of Enlightenment and Sir Simon Rattle.

Katia and Marielle have had the privilege of working with many composers including Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti, Nico Muhly and Olivier Messiaen. At Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles they presented the world premiere of Philip Glass's new Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel, the world premiere of Bryce Dessner's concerto at Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and John Storgards and the new concerto written by Nico Muhly, “In Certain Circles,” was premiered by Orchestre de Paris with Maxim Emelyanichev in 2021 and New York Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden in 2022.

Another recent highlight was the tour with the Filarmonica Joven de Colombia under Andrés Orozco-Estrada, through Germany, Austria and Holland.

Katia & Marielle Labèque play in festivals and renowned venues worldwide including the Vienna Musikverein, Hamburg Musikhalle, Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Berlin Philharmonie, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, BBC Proms, Ravinia, Tanglewood, and Salzburg. An audience of more than 33,000 attended a gala concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Berlin's Waldbuhne, now available on DVD (EuroArts). A record audience of more than 100,000 attended the Vienna Summer Night Concert in Schonbrunn (now available on CD and DVD by SONY). More than 1.5 million viewers followed the event worldwide on television.

Bryce Dessner is a vital and rare force in new music. He has won Grammy Awards as a classical composer and with the band The National, of which he is founding member, guitarist, arranger, and co-principal song-writer. He is regularly commissioned to write for the world’s leading ensembles, from Orchestre de Paris to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and is a high-profile presence in film score composition, with credits including The Revenant, for which he was Grammy and Golden Globe nominated, Fernando Mereilles’s The Two Popes, Mike Mill’s C’mon C’mon and Bardo, by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Dessner collaborates with some of today’s most creative and respected artists, including Philip Glass, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Paul Simon, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sufjan Stevens, Fernando Mereilles, Thom Yorke, Bon Iver, Nico Muhly, and Steve Reich, who named Dessner “a major voice of his generation.” Dessner’s orchestrations can be heard on the latest albums of Paul Simon, Bon Iver and Taylor Swift. Bryce Dessner has had works commissioned and premiered by today’s leading conductors including Esa Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Semyon Bychkov, and Santtu Matias-Rouvali. This season alone sees performances of his works by, amongst others, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra, HR Sinfonieorchester, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony. New works Violin Concerto – commissioned by partners including Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia Orches-tra and San Francisco Symphony – and Mari, commissioned and performed by Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, Czech Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestra – have been met with widespread public and critical success. Autumn 2022 sees Bryce as composer in residence at a number of European festivals including the Approximation Festival and November Music. “Dessner [..] moves fluidly between rock and classical and everywhere in between,says the Guardian (October 2021). In addition to his role as one of eight San Francisco Symphony Collaborative Partners, Bryce Dessner is currently artist-in-residence at London’s Southbank Centre and with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Major works include Concerto for Two Pianos premiered by Katia & Marielle Labèque, London Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon; Violin Concerto premiered and performed internationally by Pekka Kuusisto, Trombone Concerto for Jorgen van Rijen commissioned by Dallas Symphony and l’Orchestre National d’Île de France; Voy a Dormir for mezzo soprano Kelley O’Connor and Orchestra of Saint Luke’s and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Skrik Trio for Steve Reich and Carnegie Hall; the ballet No Tomorrow co-written with Ragnar Kjartansson; Wires for Ensemble Intercontemporain; The Forest for large cello ensemble, Gautier Capuçon and Fondation Louis Vuitton; and Triptych (Eyes for One on Another), a major theater piece integrating the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe and premiered by Los Angeles Philharmonic. Dessner also scored the music -- involving full orchestra and a 200-member choir -- for the Louis Vuitton show at the Louvre in Paris as part of Paris Fashion Week 2020. Dessner’s recordings include El Chan; St. Carolyn by the Sea (both Deutsche Grammophon); Aheym, commissioned by Kronos Quartet; Tenebre, an album of his works for string orchestra recorded by Germany’s Ensemble Resonanz and which won a 2019 Opus Klassik award and a Diapason d’Or; When we are inhuman with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Eighth Blackbird (2019) and Impermanence (2021) with the Australian String Quartet. Dessner’s other film score credits include The Two Popes, which won Discovery of the Year at the World Soundtrack awards; C’mon C’mon (2021) directed by Mike Mills and Cyrano (2021), the major musical by Joe Wright. Also active as a curator, Dessner is regularly requested to program festivals and residencies around the world at venues such as at the Barbican, Philharmonie de Paris, and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. He co-founded and curates the festivals MusicNOW in Cincinnati, HAVEN in Copenhagen, Sounds from a Safe Harbour and PEOPLE. Bryce Dessner lives in France. 

Over the past ten years, David Chalmin has assumed an increasing number of roles: as a producer, arranger and sound engineer alongside some of the most respected indie figures worldwide (The National, Shannon Wright, Richard Reed Parry, Efterklang...); as a contemporary music composer, having founded the Dream House Quartet with Bryce Dessner & Katia and Marielle Labèque (who hosted Thom Yorke on stage in 2019); and as a mastermind of dense, heady electronica with his album la terre invisible in 2019. The sixth movement of the piece Sept particules, composed in 2018 for harpsichordist Justin Taylor and his ensemble le consort, was sung to critical acclaim. And now, his soft, sensitive voice has become an integral part of all five tracks on Innocence, ep released on Yotanka records in June of 2022. He has recently worked on Electric Fields, a new project for Barbara Hannigan, Katia & Marielle Labèque with live videos by Netia Jones in which he performed live electronics. This work, co-written with Bryce Dessner premiered in November 2022 in Disney Hall, Los Angeles. Among his other compositions: a piece for organ constellation premiered at Variations Festival Nantes, a piece for 100 pianos, piano orchestra premiered at Paris Philharmonie, a ballet Star-Cross'd Lovers for two pianos, drums electronics and guitar created at the Cité de la Musique in Paris (recorded for Deutsche Grammophon), an original music for Madonna's short film Her Story filmed by Luigi & Iango. He also created with pianist Katia Labèque a project on moondog’s music premiered at Les Nuits de Fourvières in Lyon. The moondog album was released by Deutsche Grammophon. With the trio Triple Sun, with bass player Massimo Pupillo (zu) and drummer Raphaël Séguinier (ubunoir), he joined the Dessner Brothers (The National) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) for the project Invisible Bridge at the Paris Philharmonie.

Dan Bora is a designer, producer, and engineer for albums, film scores, and live sound. He has worked with Marina Abramovic, Anohni, Danny Elfman, Philip Glass, The Magnetic Fields, Nico Mühly, Michael Nyman, Ryuichi Sakamoto and many others. His credits include Academy Award-winning Fog of War as well as the revival of Robert Wilson’s Einstein on the Beach. Dan’s live work has been praised as “deft,” “provocative and even poignant…” (New York Times).

Sami Pyne is the associate producer at ArKtype, one of the world’s leading supporters of new, experimental work. She is also an NYC-based independent producer passionate about decluttering and demystifying the production process for creators. Sami’s had the pleasure of working with companies such as 600 Highwaymen, The Arts & Climate Initiative, The Exponential Festival, Clubbed Thumb, New York Theatre Workshop, Aeon's Sophia Club, The Martin E. Segal Center, Signature Theatre, Park Avenue Armory, The Play Company (PlayCo), The Tank, The New Ohio, Theatre Development Fund (TDF), and HERE Arts Center. Shenandoah Conservatory BFA, 2017. Graduate of the Columbia University Theatre Management & Producing MFA program, 2020. Operations Committee leader of the Creative & Independent Producers Alliance. Fellow of WP Theater’s 2022-2024 Producers Lab. www.samipyne.com for more info.

ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann specializes in new work development and touring worldwide. His past work includes projects with Kaneza Schaal, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Brook, Daniel Fish, Victoria Thiérrée-Chaplin, Yael Farber, Anna Deavere Smith, Annie-B Parson & Paul Lazar, Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, John Cameron Mitchell and Tony Taccone. Recent premieres include 600 HIGHWAYMEN’s A Thousand Ways, nora chipaumire’s Nehanda, Sam Green’s 32 Sounds w/ JD Samson, Bryce Dessner’s Triptych (Eyes of One on Another) directed by Kaneza Schaal, John Cameron Mitchell’s The Origin of Love, Kaneza Schaal & Christopher Myers’ CARTOGRAPHY, Sam Green & Kronos Quartet’s A Thousand Thoughts, Big Dance Theater / Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Man In a Case, and Nalaga’at Deaf-Blind Theater’s Not By Bread Alone. Ongoing collaborations include Basil Twist, 600 HIGHWAYMEN, Sam Green, Timothy White Eagle, Andrew Schneider, Big Dance Theater, Toshi Reagon, and Compagnia T.P.O. Upcoming premieres include Justin Peck & Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois, 600 Highwaymen’s The Following Evening, Timothy White Eagle’s Indian School, and Scott Shepherd’s This Ignorant Present. He is a founding member of CIPA (Creative & Independent Producer Alliance). More information at arktype.org.

Special Thanks

To the amazing team at Stanford Live, Vivian Chiu and Steinway Pianos, Gill Graham, Samantha Holderness, The Kitchen, Rachel Fine, Jennifer Newman and Yale Schwarzman Center, Shanta Thake, Guillaume Loubère, Paschalis Zervas, Melay Araya, Deutsche Grammophon, and the team at Unison Media. 

Bryce Dessner compositions performed by special arrangement with Chester Music Ltd.
Philip Glass composition performed by special arrangement with Dungaven/Chester Music Ltd.
Meredith Monk composition is performed by special arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes

Dream House Quartet debut EP out now on Universal / Deutsche Grammophon.  Download here:

https://labeque.lnk.to/DreamHouseQuartet

dreamhousequartet.com
@dreamhouseqtet

For further information on Dream House Quartet, please contact: 
Thomas O. Kriegsmann, President
ArKtype
tommy@arktype.org

Press Representation:
Andrew Ousley, Unison Media
andrew@unison.media

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