Instrumentation: Alto sax and percussion (5 temple blocks, 2 toms (low/high) snare drum Bongo (low/high) and vibraphone
Duration: 10:00
Commission: Consortium of Bent Frequency Duo Projects and saxophonists Kevin Norton, Nicole M. Roman  and Drew Whiting
Premiere: 05/07/2023, Florence Kopleff Recital Hall, Georgia State University
Performers: Jan Baker Berry (sax) and Stuart Gerber (percussion) of Bent Frequency Duo Projecct

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Program Note

Of Wells and Springs was commissioned in consortium with the lead Bent Frequency Duo Project of saxophonist Jan Baker Berry and percussionist Stuart Gerber and saxophonists Nicole M. Roman, Kevin Norton and Drew Whiting. Of Wells and Springs takes its title (and spelling of drouth) from environmental activist, writer and farmer Wendell Berry’s poem, Water . Drawn from the series Farming: A Handbook, it tells of a terrible drouth, of the narrator’s mother waiting for men to bring water from distant springs, of his fear of recurring drought and of his ‘love of wells and springs.’ He closes the poem with the line ‘My sweetness is to wake in the night after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.’ I have responded through my music to the experiences that Berry details so vividly – the fear and anguish that drouth precipitates, thejoy of the coming of rain, the worry of renewed dry spells, the relief of hearing rain. And, I have added to that the increasing severity of drouths and the obliterating floods that have become devastatingly common. Of Wells and Springs was premiered by the Bent Frequency Duo at Georgia State University on 5/7/2023. For more information, visit www.judithshatin.com.

Instrumentation: Violin, cello, piano
Duration: 6:30
Commission:  The Atar Piano Trio
Premiere:  The Atar Trio, Studio Annette in the Fleicia Blumenthal Music Center
Tel Aviv, IL
Performers: Violinist Tanya Beltser, Cellist Anton Andreev and pianist Ofer Shelley

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Program Note:

To the Bird from the Distant Land was composed in response to Hayim Nahman Bialik’s poem To the Bird (El HaTzipor ) on commission from the Atar Trio. When pianist and director Ofer Shelley approached me about  a piece for an upcoming Bialik program, I was particularly drawn to this poem. Written when Bialik was just nineteen and had recently moved to Odessa, there is a strong undercurrent of homesickness for the Biblical land of Israel he imagined. The poem, addressed to a bird that serves as a bridge between the distant land and his current home, it is episodic – variously referring to the Bialik’s imaginings of this distant land in bothits beauty and potential difficulties, while contrasting it again and again with his current perilous situation. His ruminations move back and forth, taking flight like the winging bird he calls to, yet also crashing down on his current reality. To the Bird from a Distant Land was premiered by the Atar Piano Trio at Studio Annette in the Felicia Blumenthal Music Center in Tel Aviv on 6/2/2023.–JS

Instrumentation: 3-part treble choir & piano
Duration: 2:00

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Program Note

The story of Chanukah is about the fight for survival of the Jewish religion, which the Syrian-Greek King Antiochus IV tried to eradicate in favor of the worship of Zeus. A resistance movement, consisting of the priest Mattathias and his five sons, whose leader was Judas Maccabeus, sprang up. Others joined and the larger group, traditionally called the ‘Maccabees,’ prevailed.

The rededication of the Temple, which had been despoiled, led to the story of the miracle of one day’s worth of oil lasting for eight days to keep the ‘ner t’amid (eternal flame) burning. I understand this as a symbol of overcoming against overwhelming odds. Throughout history, terrible efforts have been made to destroy Judaism. Yet, as in the days of the Maccabees, it survives. I composed both the lyrics and music for Chanukah We Celebrate to contribute to the observance of this festive holiday.    –JS

Chorus:

Chanukah, we celebrate,
Chanukah, rededicate, |
Chanukah, eight nights and days,
Light the candles, see them blaze.

Verse 1

King Antiochus tried to make us bow,
But Judah and his brothers taught us to stand proud.
We fought three years so we could all be free,
And a miracle occurred when we lit the ner t’amid 

Verse 2

All the oil was in a tiny jar,
We knew it would not last, it couldn’t go far,
But on and on it burned, Its glow so bright,
And ever since we celebrate the festival of lights.

© 2024, Judith Shatin, All Rights Reserved

Flutist Megan Shanley Alger has commissioned Luna, for amplified alto flute and electronics. Inspired by the amazing women who contributed crucially to the Apollo 11 moon landing, the title of this piece  refers to Luna, goodess of the moon in ancient Roman mythology.Female members of the Apollo Space Program included Bobbie Johnson, Judith Love Cohen, Ann Dickson, and Ann Maybury. Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. From mathematician/engineer Ethel Heinecke Bauer to mathematician and ‘human computer’ Dorothy Jean Johnson Vaughan, these are an amazing group of women who rose far above the constraints that society placed on them as women. We are in their debt!

This project is part of Meghan Shanley Alger’s Making Waves commissioning project, itself an effort to continue breaking the bounds that have kept so many women composers and performers from reaching their potential. Having come of age as a composer during the 1970’s-80’s, and having served as President of American Women Composers, I have experienced these bounds myself, and am especially pleased by Ms. Alger’s project. She has commissioned a diverse groupAshi Day, Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, Shara Lunon, Niloufar Nourbakhsh  and Annika K. Socolofsky in addition to myself.

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Fasting Heart wins in the 2024 National Flute Newly Published Music Competition solo flute category, having just been published by American Composers Editions. Recorded by Patricia Spencer on her Narcissus and Kairos album, Fasting Heart was inspired by the Taoist discipline “hsin chai.” As Professor Kaltenmark explains in his Lao Tzu and Taoism, this is a technique of purification in which one transcends the act of listening with the heart (or mind) to listen with the breath (or soul). For more information visit its composition page. And you can hear it on multiple streaming services, including here.

Judith will participate with performances of her music during  New Music on the Point, June 7 & 8, with Juraj Kojs as Interim-Artistic Director, and a terrific group of performers and composers.  Her new version of Ice Becomes Water (amp. string quartet and electronics) will premiere on June 7, while Forest Music, inspired by trees of the region, for guided improv and any number of performers will be premiered on 7/8. There will be rich interactions with the environment – both as inspiration and performance venues, as well as musical experiments incorporating the natural environment.

Instrumentation: Viola & Marimba
Duration: 9:00
Commission:  Piedmont Duo/University of Virginia
Premiere: 3/26/2024, Old Cabell Auditorium, University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
Performers: Ayn Balija (viola), I-Jen Fang (marimba)

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Program Note:
The Piedmont Duo’s innovative combination of viola and marimba inspired the title Mariola, which delightfully combines their names and also refers to a hardy shrub that grows in the Southwest of the US and can handle extremely dry conditions. It overcomes them to blossom in the summer with delicate white flowers. This provided a rich metaphor for the compositional process, from pushing ideas into shape to their gradual flourishing. The piece begins with the intensity of seeds taking root and growing. The harmonic anchor gradually changes, ultimately rising a major second as the plants reach the light, culminating in a stratsopheric registral and timbral close. I am delighted that my colleagues and dear friends Ayn Balija and I-Jen Fang, the founders of the innovative Piedmont Duo, not only spearheaded this project, but also enthusiastically collaborated in exploring the marvelous range of their instruments.―JS

Juventas New Music Ensemble:
Anne Howarth, horn; Thomas Barth, cello; Julia Scott Carey, piano

Instrumentation: Cello, Horn & Piano
Duration: 10:35
Commission: Anne Howarth, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, with additional support from the Meir Rimon Commissinoing Assistance Program of the IHS.
Premiere: 01/27/2024, Multicultural Arts Center; Cambridge, MA
Performers: Members of the Juventas New Music Ensemble

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Program Note:

The title Canta la Sal is drawn from Pablo Neruda’s profound poem Oda A La Sal. What drew me to that source was a conversation with hornist Anne Howarth in the initial stages of the commissioning of this trio for horn, cello and piano. For Anne, salt touches on a fundamental aspect of life – we cannot exist without it. And it touches on deep emotion – tears, laughter. It likewise resonated for me, and as I continued thinking about  and delving into the topic, I came across Neruda’s powerful ode. It  encompasses the basic nature of salt – on the flats, in deep mines; the sounds of salt on the flats in the Chilean desert; its use to flavor our food and enable life, as well as the fantastic leap from its place in our mouths to the enormity of the ocean. There are wonderful images, of the singing salt, of the mountain of buried light, the transparent cathedral, the crystal of the sea. These images and metaphors infuse the harmonic, rhythmic  and timbral trajectories of the trio. I am grateful to the multiple partners who commissioned this piece: Anne Howarth, who spearheaded it;  the Juventas New Music Ensemble, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and the Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Program of the International Horn Society.  ―JS

Judith was guest composer at the UNCSA. Her visit started with a colloquium for the composition seminar focused on her compositional design process and transformative timbral approach.  Next, outstanding violinist Kevin Lawrence performed Rising on the Wings of Dawn as the capstone of his touring of this program both in NC and Utah. His recital, with the excellent pianist Dmitri Shteinberg,  featured a wonderfully diverse group of pieces by Copland, Price and Walton as well as Shatin in the beautiful recital hall of the School of the Arts