Courtesy of Boston University Photo Services. website: people.bu.edu/knez |
Composer, pianist, and conductor Ketty Nez joined the composition and theory department at the Boston University School of Music in the fall of 2005, after teaching for two years at the University of Iowa. At BU last year, her orchestral work cirrulian ice was premiered by ensemble Alea III, and take time by the Boston University Wind Ensemble. Upcoming projects in 2008-9 include the CD of beyond release, for two celli and chamber orchestra, by the University of Iowa’s Center for New Music; the premiere of timed curves by the Ex Novo ensemble of Venice; and collaborative performances with violinist Katie Wolfe of the University of Iowa, composer and violinist/violist Mark Berger, and theorist Gregory Marion of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. Ketty completed, in 2002-3, a residence of several months at the École Nationale de Musique in Montbéliard, France, prior to the premiere of her chamber opera An Opera in Devolution: Drama in 540 Seconds, at the 2003 Seventh Festival A*Devantgarde in Munich. In 2001, Ketty spent several months as visiting composer/scholar at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), and in 1998 participated in the year-long computer music course at the Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). Before computer music studies, Ketty worked for two years with Louis Andriessen in Amsterdam, where she co-founded the international contemporary music collective Concerten Tot and Met. Her music has been performed in festivals in Europe, North America, and Asia. Ketty holds a Ph.D. in composition from the University of California at Berkeley (1994), a master’s degree in composition from the Eastman School of Music (1990), a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Curtis Institute of Music (1983), and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bryn Mawr College (1987). |
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Compositions | |||
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"beyond release" for two solo celli and chamber orchestra |
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| "beyond release" for two solo celli and chamber orchestra.mp3 - complete | |||
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Written in 2007, "beyond release" was commissioned by David Gompper, director of the Center for New Music ensemble at the University of Iowa. I started sketching a ‘concertante’ work featuring solo cello, but several months and many notes later, had a thought: what could be better than one cello? The rich combination of two celli presented itself, as well as a considerable challenge: to counterpoint the soloists’ mid and low-range timbres against the rich orchestral palette. Musical textures are derived from my improvisations with results of algorithms controlling randomness in sonority and rhythm, by aid of IRCAM’s OpenMusic software. Having developed these processes over a series of recent compositions, usually interweaving allusions to other types of music, this time I set out to write ‘straight music’ – released from stamp of time and place. Hannah Holman and Anthony Arnone, celli, the University of Iowa Center for New Music, directed by David Gompper, 10.22.07 (duration: 16 minutes). | |||
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"before" for violin and piano |
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| "before" for violin and piano.mp3 - complete | |||
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"before" was written for my friend Katie Wolfe, violin faculty at the University of Iowa, in the summer of 2007. The work is a companion piece to beyond release (duo concertante for two celli and orchestra), also written for colleagues at the University of Iowa. Both compositions use algorithmic manipulations of harmonic spectra in a fairly reductionist manner, reducing the system of multiple overtones to only a few and then ‘equal-tempering’ them, allowing pseudo-tonal sonorities to emerge. Using various exponential tempi curves, I also sampled textures, including melodic lines, in a fragmented fashion; I wanted to explore how much distortion I can have before something is completely unrecognizable. I looked for ways to lead from abstract concepts (pitch, duration, attack) and morph the results of random processes into tangible, if ephemeral, musical allusions. Popping the hood on music, as it were, I wanted to rebuild known musical materials from scratch. Seeking to avoid a formal narrative design, I let the results simply speak for themselves. Katie Wolfe and Ketty Nez, University of Iowa, 2.2.08 (duration: 18 minutes). | |||
©2005 by Ketty Nez
All Rights Reserved
Ketty Nez is a member of Society of Composers, Inc. SCI is dedicated to the promotion of composition, performance, understanding and dissemination of new and contemporary music.