It’s not unusual for longtime friends to get together each year to catch up and have some fun. But the NOISE ensemble’s version of an annual reunion is a little different than most.
Each year, NOISE come from around the country to La Jolla to perform at the San Diego New Music’s three-day soundOn festival. This year is particularly special, given that SDNM is celebrating its 30th anniversary, while NOISE, soundOn’s resident ensemble, is marking its 25th.
But don’t expect Champagne and party hats. The six NOISE musicians — all old friends from their days in San Diego — will rehearse from today through Wednesday to prepare for this year’s soundOn festival, which begins on Thursday. Special guests will them on select pieces.
“We’ll spend 10 to 12 hours a day rehearsing over the four days,” said Colin McAllister, guitarist, conductor and co-curator of this year’s soundOn. “There’s no socializing until after the festival is over. It’s an enjoyable — and intense — week of just pure focus on the music, which is kind of nice.”
McAllister’s co-curator for soundOn’s “The Hammer Unmastered” program is flutist Lisa Cella. She is a founding member of NOISE, artistic director of soundOn and a professor at the University of Maryland. They and the five other NOISE founders (two of whom still call San Diego home) will be ed by guest artists for this retrospective program.
The festival’s likely highlight will be Friday’s concert, featuring Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau Sans Maitre (“The Hammer without a Master”), which premiered in the mid-1950s. Based on three poems by René Char, portions of the famously difficult work were performed during the first program NOISE presented at La Jolla’s Athenaeum Music & Arts Library a quarter-century ago.
“We wanted to find some pieces that we’ve played over the past 25 years, because we’ve very rarely repeated anything,” said McAllister, speaking from his home near the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, where he teaches. “The one by Boulez is the centerpiece and there are others that we all love. We also will have works featuring composers and performers who have been friends of NOISE for a long time.”
San Diego New Music
SDNM began 30 years ago as a collaboration with the Athenaeum, which saw SDNM’s devotion to modernist music a perfect match to the modern art exhibitions in its galleries.
The Athenaeum co-presents soundOn and SDNM’s annual concert series, which features musicians and composers who work in the San Diego-Tijuana region.
As is the case with SDNM’s concerts, the soundOn musicians are paid for their concerts. Charissa Noble, SDNM’s executive director noted that she and the board are all volunteers. One of them is San Diego Union-Tribune freelance classical music reviewer Christian Hertzog.
“That ensures that every dollar donated to San Diego New Music goes directly to our concerts and to our featured artists,” said Noble, a University of San Diego assistant professor of musicology. “I’m an academic, so I’m always a bit uncomfortable asking for money. But as a volunteer, I can confidently say I gain no material benefit other than that I love this organization.”
The next concert, in March at a to-be-announced location, will feature local cellist Peter Ko, a doctoral student at UC San Diego. Its centerpiece, by Los Angeles composer Tashi Wada, will be a duet with another cellist, UCSD professor Charles Curtis.
“Peter’s been a huge part of the local new-music scene,” Noble said. “We’re excited to feature him — the music he plays is unique. And this duet is an ambitious piece.”
In addition to the regular SDNM concerts, each summer the organization holds a juried competition for any composer who is or will be a music composition major at any of the universities in the San Diego-Tijuana region.
The strongest five contestants are selected and their works performed at SDNM’s Emerging Composers concert.
“Some of the best musicians I know perform these works,” Noble said. “This allows the student composer to have their work be professionally played and recorded, which is good for anybody building a professional portfolio.
“There’s a small prize attached to being selected. It’s a modest amount, but we want there to be monetary recognition of their work and their potential.
“I love that we get to give these composers a good budget, a good rate and artistic free range, because that’s so rare in the life of an artist.”
‘Very loyal audience’
Each of the three soundOn concerts will feature different programs. Boulez’ “Hammer without a Master” will be performed in its entirety on Friday at the Athenaeum Art Center, located in Logan Heights’ Bread & Salt building. The Thursday and Saturday performances will be held at the Athenaeum Library in La Jolla.
The programs will include ensemble music by NOISE composers Christopher Adler and Franklin Cox and a world premiere written for NOISE by New York-based Sidney Marquez Boquiren.
Alongside McAllister, Cella, pianist Adler and cellist Cox, NOISE’s include clarinetist Robert Zelickman and violist/violinist Mark Menzies. Adler, who also plays Thai mouth organ or khaen, and Zelickman are both San Diego County residents.
“NOISE started off with a quarterly series when we all lived in San Diego,” explained McAllister, who will play acoustic and electric guitar at the festival. “Over the years, one by one, many of us left San Diego. Now we perform together, once a year, at soundOn.”
McAllister notes that a key element in soundOn is the audience. He considers attendees part of the collaboration.
“A very loyal group of audience have been coming to our concerts for 25 years,” McAllister said. “We’ve seen some new audience as well, especially at the Logan Heights space. They all tend to be very interested and dedicated.”
The Hammer Unmastered: 25 Years of NOISE at the Library
When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday
Where: Thursday and Saturday at The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St., La Jolla; Friday at The Athenaeum Art Center in the Bread & Salt building, 1955 Julian Ave., Logan Heights.
Tickets: $12-$30 (Festival es available)
Phone: 858-454-5872
Online: sandiegonewmusic.com; ljathenaeum.org/sound-on
