Executive & Artistic Director

Thor Steingraber

________

Rhapsody in Jazz

with

Conrad Tao | Piano

Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra

Wild Up

Christopher Rountree | Wild Up Conductor

________

Sat Nov 16 | 8pm

Run Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes including a 20-minute intermission

________

Program | Program Note

Musicians

Conrad Tao | Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra | Wild Up | Christopher Rountree

An Interview With Conrad Tao

________

About Us

Our Supporters | The Soraya Team

Conrad Tao

Conrad Tao has been dubbed “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music” by New York Magazine, and an artist of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” by The New York Times.

Tao’s 2024-25 Season includes a return to Carnegie Hall in recital performing Debussy’s 12 Études, alongside "Keyed In," a work arranged and improvised by Tao on the Lumatone. He also returns to the San Francisco Symphony to perform Tchaikovsky with Nicholas Collon, the Dallas Symphony to perform Mozart with Jaap van Zweden, the St. Louis Symphony to perform Saint-Saëns with David Danzmayr, and the Baltimore Symphony to perform Mozart with Jonathon Heyward. Other appearances include the Indianapolis Symphony’s opening gala, as well as performances with the Seoul Philharmonic, and NDR Hannover with Ingo Metzmacher. He also continues his collaboration with award-winning dancer Caleb Teicher in a U.S. tour.

In the 2023-24 Season, Tao made his subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and he reunited with the New York Philharmonic following summer appearances and his specially curated program for their Artist Spotlight series. Meanwhile, he celebrated Rachmaninoff’s 150th anniversary with recitals presented by the Cleveland Orchestra and Klavier-Festival Ruhr. The season also saw performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Marin Alsop, and the Boston Symphony and Dima Slobodeniouk, as well as performances celebrating the 100th anniversary of “Rhapsody in Blue” at the Philharmonie Berlin, Elbphillharmonie Hamburg, and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with Matthias Pintscher and the Kansas City Symphony. His companion piece to Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” “Flung Out,” was commissioned by the Santa Rosa Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, and Omaha Symphony. In recent years, Tao has been the subject of a special focus with the Finnish Radio Symphony and the Swedish Radio Symphony, both of whom have presented him over multiple concerts. He has also performed with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under both Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Antonio Pappano. As a composer, his work has been performed by orchestras throughout the world; his first large-scale orchestral work, “Everything Must Go,” received its world premiere with the New York Philharmonic and its European premiere with the Antwerp Symphony. Tao was the recipient of a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award for outstanding sound design/music composition for his work on “More Forever,” in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and was named a Gilmore Young Artist.

Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra

The Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra was founded by John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton and Jeff Clayton. While in their 20s, John and Hamilton toured and recorded with Monty Alexander, then moved on to separate big band environs. Hamilton joined Woody Herman and John signed up for Count Basie. All along, Jeff Clayton had been performing and recording in Los Angeles.

In 1986, the three men came together in Los Angeles and formed the Jazz Orchestra. In 2020, Jeff Clayton passed away after a lengthy illness. The CHJO reminds audiences that his spirit remains in every note that is played.

The excitement of this powerful 19-piece band is the result of the band’s stellar performances and John’s writing. Their music is composed and arranged by John, and it is not unusual to hear his take on a composition by Hamilton or something from the Hamilton trio book.

The orchestra is featured on recordings with Milt Jackson, Diana Krall, John Pizzarelli, Charles Aznavour, Ernie Andrews, Barbara Morrison, Natalie Cole and many more.

From 1999 to 2001, they were the in-resident jazz orchestra for the Hollywood Bowl. Their busy schedule still finds them touring the U.S., Europe, and Japan, often premiering extended works at jazz festivals and in concert halls. People often describe their sound as being influenced by Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Thad Jones. This would never be denied by the orchestra, but one listen lets you know that their voice is unique, distinct, and impactful.

CHJO is nominated for a 2025 Grammy Award in the best large jazz ensemble album category for And So It Goes, their first full-length album in over a decade.

Wild Up

Wild Up has been called “a raucous, grungy, irresistibly exuberant … fun-loving, exceptionally virtuosic family” by Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times. Wild Up has been lauded as one of classical music’s most exciting groups.

The Grammy-nominated ensemble was started by Artistic Director Christopher Rountree, and his vision of a group of young musicians that rejected outdated traditions and threw classical repertoire into the context of pop culture, new music, and performance art. The group celebrates 14 years of bringing people together around the belief that no music is off limits, that classical music concerts can defy convention and address the need for heart-wrenching, mind-bending experiences.

Wild Up has accompanied Björk at Goldenvoice’s FYF Fest; premiered David Lang and Mark Dion’s Anatomy Theater at LA Opera; and played the scores to Under the Skin by Mica Levi and Punch-Drunk Love by Jon Brion live with the films at L.A.’s Regent Theater and Ace Hotel. The group has premiered hundreds of new works including: a new opera by Julia Holter at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust; new pieces from avant-garde pop icon Scott Walker and celestial loop-maker Julianna Barwick at Walt Disney Concert Hall; and the West Coast premiere of Ragnar Kjartansson’s Bliss, a 12-hour epic at REDCAT during the LA Phil Fluxus Festival. They played a noise concert as fanfare for the groundbreaking of Frank Gehry’s new building on Grand Avenue and First Street in downtown L.A.; toured the country with their original projects “Future Folk” and” We the People”; championed the music of Julius Eastman; and founded the solstice series “Darkness Sounding.” They have held residencies at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Colburn School, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, National Sawdust, and the Hammer Museum, and have taught at dozens of educational institutions across the U.S.

________

We hear Stravinsky pouring out of an abandoned warehouse; see dozens of watermelons fly off of Disney Hall; parse a chorus singing Haydn’s “The Creation” backward; see Lady Macbeth in a dozen crooning silhouettes washing blood out of rags over bright porcelain sinks in a museum bathroom; hear a violinist recite a poem about melting ice cream and lost love; watch three minutes of Le Nozze for 12 hours on repeat; follow the archeology of a lost ballet coming to life; and hear the sound of rose-petal jam making as music.

________

Christopher Rountree

Conductor, composer, curator, and performer Christopher Rountree is standing at the intersection of classical music, new music, performance art, and pop. Regarded as one of the most iconoclastic conductors in the field, Rountree’s inimitable style has led to collaborations with Björk, John Adams, Yoko Ono, David Lang, Scott Walker, La Monte Young, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Mica Levi, Alison Knowles, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, John Luther Adams, Sigourney Weaver, Ted Hearne, Tyshawn Sorey, Ragnar Kjartansson, Missy Mazzoli, L'Rain, Caroline Shaw, Saul Williams, Ellen Reid, R.B. Schlather, James Darrah, Ryoji Ikeda, Du Yun, and Yuval Sharon. He has also collaborated with many of the greatest orchestras and ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Opera national de Paris, the Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Rountree is the founder and artistic director of Wild Up, curator of “Darkness Sounding,” and the music director of Long Beach Opera. He has been the artistic director of Silence, an interdisciplinary ambient series in an oak grove in L.A., and curator of the LA Phil’s Fluxus Festival.