Exploring the Avant-Garde at the Bowdoin International Music Festival

Nestled within the more traditional confines of the Bowdoin International Music Festival lies a captivating series of events and concerts known as the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music. This mini-festival brings recently composed, boundary-pushing works to audiences at Studzinski Hall on the Bowdoin College campus, challenging and expanding the boundaries of classical music.

Pushing the Boundaries of Classical Music

Talea Ensemble Delivers a Thought-Provoking Performance

The final Gamper concert of the season featured a standout performance by the acclaimed New York City-based Talea Ensemble. The ensemble's Sunday afternoon program showcased a diverse selection of works by composers from around the world, each with a distinct compositional approach that favored sharp angularity over narrative lyricism.The performance was characterized by a sense of restive uncertainty, punctuated by moments of comic relief. The well-attended 90-minute concert was a captivating exploration of the avant-garde, as the ensemble's skilled musicians – Yoshi Weinberg (flutes), Rane Moore (clarinets), Leah Asher (violin), Carrie Frey (viola), Chris Gross (cello), and David Friend (keyboards) – navigated a program that pushed the boundaries of traditional classical music.

Olga Neuwirth's Theatrical Masterpiece

The concert opened with "coronAtion II: Naufraghi del mondo che hanno ancora un cuore" by Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth (b. 1968). Part of a larger work, this excerpt featured a theatrical bent, with the players slowly gathering from positions at the four corners of the stage. Shocking moments of dissonance contrasted with descending glissandi, eventually evolving into a playful march as the musicians huddled around the piano.

Andile Khumalo's Haunting Soundscape

Next, Weinberg, Gross, and Friend performed "ISO[R]" by South African composer Andile Khumalo (b. 1978). The piece featured Friend using mallets to strike the inner workings of the piano, creating startling, agitated flourishes that broke the spell of quieter moments rich with overtones, producing a haunting and captivating whole.

Zosha di Castri's Exploration of Space

"La forma dello spazio" by Canadian composer Zosha di Castri (b. 1985) placed Asher, Gross, and Friend on stage with conductor James Baker, while Weinberg and Moore were positioned behind the audience. As the title implies, spaciousness was emphasized in this piece, which suggested a slightly older modernism with strumming and rattling leading to a very pleasant, consonant finish that was one of the highlights of the afternoon.

Derek Bermel's Humorous Theatrical Piece

"Language Instruction" by American composer Derek Bermel (b. 1967) was a laugh-inducing theatrical piece that had Moore, Friend, Asher, and Gross acting out a classroom scene where a rebellious pianist defied an insistent clarinetist/teacher. The fragmented "lessons" went on perhaps a bit too long, but the humorous engagement of the players was a delight to experience.

Anthony Cheung's Orchestral Masterpiece

The program concluded with "Clocks for Seeing" by American composer Anthony Cheung (b. 1982), a major work that added laptop-guided electronic keyboard and percussion, plus doubling Moore and Weinberg on bass instruments, giving the piece an orchestral feel. The work featured impressive, almost jazzy collective passages and more gently sonorous stretches, impressively concluding this well-played and thought-provoking performance by the Talea Ensemble.