All Thumbs, 2008-2009
An etude for large ensemble
Premiered performance by the Scharoun Ensamble of the Berlin Philarmonic, Villa Aurelia, March 20, 2009
All Thumbs, 2008-2009
An etude for large ensemble
Premiered performance by the Scharoun Ensamble of the Berlin Philarmonic, Villa Aurelia, March 20, 2009
I arrived in Rome with a notebook full of empty pages. There were projects, carefully outlined in theory prior to my arrival, that I was intent on diving into with full force once I had settled in. The one factor I had not anticipated was being in Rome. My empty pages remained so for far longer than I had planned, and when I did begin to fill them, there was a pervasive, unsettling dissatisfaction about everything I produced. I then began working on a piece I did not plan on working on while in Rome: a work for speaking pianist using selected texts of poet Paul Mann. In no time, my work came forth in a way that I had not experienced in years.
During my time in Rome, I have completed most of a new work for pianist Genevieve Lee for speaking pianist ("One"), a new work for the Scharoun Ensemble ("All Thumbs") premiered at the Villa Aurelia in March 2009, and a work for puppet theater and musicians ("Fratturato Teatro") based on the accounts recorded by the ancient historian Livy surrounding the origin of the city of Rome. This final work was premiered at the Villa Aurelia by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble in May 2009. At the end of my stay, I began substantial work on a my "Violin Concertino" for violinist Axel Strauss, which will be premiered in San Francisco in the Spring 2010.
My first months in Rome were an intense struggle; I was uncomfortable to the simplicity and unfamiliar chaotic order that is Rome. It was a struggle that Rome eventually won. In this place that is strangely liberating and frustrating, I have been allowed the luxury and possibility to reflect more carefully than ever before not just what I do and how I do it, but why I even do it at all.
Composer and violist Kurt Rohde lives in San Francisco with his partner Tim Allen and labradoodle Ripley. Originally from New York, Kurt attended the Peabody Conservatory, the Curtis Institute and SUNY Stony Brook. He is the recipient of the Elliot Carter Fellowship in Musical Composition at the American Academy in Rome, the Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and commissions from the Fromm, Koussevitzky, Hanson and Barlow Foundations. A member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, he is an Associate Professor of composition at the University of California, Davis. His recent projects include a work for puppet theater, a violin concerto for Axel Strauss, a work for speaking pianist for Genevieve Lee, and a piano concerto for Sara Laimon and ensemble Sequitur.
More videos can be found at: http://kurtrohde.com/?page_id=53