Program Note

People often tell me I have a calm demeanor. I suppose that's true, but I also know anxiety quite well. For me, it often lives in the background, a constant sense of being on edge that follows me around throughout my life. It rarely manifests itself physically, but the stress is very real and it can pile up over time. Earth Slips Beneath You describes this distinct feeling, stacking up slowly until it can longer be ignored.

When I wrote this piece in early 2019, I was in a particularly stressful mental space. Coming back to the piece almost three years later has allowed me to reflect on the progress I have made since that time. I am proud to say that these anxious feelings are less frequent and less intense, and when they occur, I have the emotional intelligence to recognize what's happening. If you can relate to any of this, know that you are not alone, and that change is possible ❤️

About Maddy Wildman

Over the course of her music making life, Maddy Wildman has been nurtured by an incredible artistic community, each day challenging her to be more joyful, humble, and kind. If she can extend even a fraction of that to others through her artistic practice, then she will consider her life a success.

Maddy Wildman (b. 1997) (she/her) is a bassoonist, composer, virgo, amateur baker, cocktail enthusiast, and proud cat mom. She's extremely excited to be playing with her friends in Vanguard, especially looking forward to the premiere of her new work!

As a bassoonist she plays with a lot of people, most notably Front Porch, slapslap, BRIGE and Moongreen. She also writes music which you can listen to here.

Maddy is also honored to work in Arts Education with the University Musical Society, you can learn more about her work with them here. She was born in Wyoming, raised in Spokane, Washington, graduated from the University of Michigan, and lives happily with her girlfriend in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Last updated October 22, 2021

Program Note

be that empty is inspired by Rumi's "The Song of the Reed", as translated by Coleman Barks:

Listen to the story told by the reed,
of being separated.

"Since I was cut from the reedbed,
I have made this crying sound.

Anyone apart from someone he loves
understands what I say.

Anyone pulled from a source
longs to go back.

At any gathering I am there,
mingling in the laughing and grieving,

a friend to each, but few
will hear the secrets hidden

within the notes. No ears for that.
Body flowing out of spirit,

spirit up from body: no concealing
that mixing. But it's not given us

to see the soul." The reed flute
is fire, not wind. Be that empty.

Hear the love fire tangled
in the reed notes, as bewilderment

melts into wine. The reed is a friend
to all who want the fabric torn

and drawn away. The reed is hurt
and salve combining. Intimacy

and longing for intimacy, one
song. A disastrous surrender

and a fine love, together.  

About Karl Ronneburg

Karl Ronneburg is a composer, percussionist, and multimedia/performance artist from the Seattle area. In addition to frequently performing his own music, his work has also been played by bell towers, rock bands, wind ensembles, arcade machines, and people dressed in squirrel costume, among others. In 2017, he won the Brehm Prize for Instrumental Music with his composition “blue-green”, which was performed by the University of Michigan Symphony Band. He was also the recipient of the 2016 “Hack the Bells” grant, for which he created a half-hour musical experience for carillon with live electronics, car horns, brass quintet, and field recordings of a train. Karl is a composer-in-residence for the upcoming 2018-19 season with the Michigan-based Red Shoe Company, which will be playing brand-new arrangements of previous work and a world premiere commission.

Karl is also an active performer in a variety of interdisciplinary settings, including the role of the Dictator in Meredith Monk’s “Quarry” at the University of Michigan and a complete adaptation of Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson’s “Einstein on the Beach” for his living room, which Nico Muhly called "bonkers insane brilliant". The Threads All Arts Festival in Southeast Michigan twice featured Karl’s work: in 2018 with his multimedia video installation about a washing machine slowly exploding over the course of an hour, and a live improvised set in 2016 with the Weak Staff performance art group, which he co-founded.

As a percussionist, he has played with rock, punk, folk, and indie bands, jazz combos, classical orchestras, opera and musical theater pits, Brazilian samba baterías, dance companies, contemporary chamber groups, and more. In the summer of 2015, Karl had the honor to be chosen as one of four percussionists from the University of Michigan to be part of a featured guest percussion quartet at the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in Stellenbosch, South Africa. In addition, he was selected in 2013 to be one of five percussionists from across the country to participate in the first-ever National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, with which he performed at the Lincoln Center, the Moscow Conservatory, the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, and at BBC Proms in London under the baton of Valery Gergiev and with soloist Joshua Bell. He has participated twice in the National Orchestral Institute: in 2016 as a percussionist and in 2017 as one of the four inaugural Innovation+Music Fellows, for which he worked in a design team with University of Maryland’s Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to “re-imagine the future of classical music”. There he also co-created, curated, designed projections for, and performed in the evening-length NOI[SE] music festival at the MilkBoy ArtHouse, featuring four stages and about 35 musicians.

Karl received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and now lives with his twin brother in New York City, studying with Missy Mazzoli and pursuing a Master’s Degree in Composition from the Mannes College of Music at the New School.

Last updated June 26, 2020

Program Note

red describes the unpredictability of a flame. Sometimes, the flame will move slowly, with smoke twisting and turning almost as if performing a sultry tango. Other times, the flame will flicker rapidly before erupting into a blazing inferno, shooting flashes of crimson, scarlet, and vermillion into the surrounding air. red is an attempt to capture the dance-like quality of a flame’s volatile movements.

About Nina Shekhar

Nina Shekhar (b. 1995) is a composer whose music explores the intersection of identity, vulnerability, love, and laughter. Her works have been performed in concert by leading artists such as ETHEL, soprano Tony Arnold, Third Angle New Music, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, and saxophonist Jan Berry Baker and have been featured by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, National Flute Association, North American Saxophone Alliance, I Care if You Listen, WNYC/New Sounds radio, TUTTI Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, New Music on the Point, and Detroit REVIVAL Project in collaboration with dance troupe ArtLab J. She has also previously collaborated with the JACK Quartet, and her piece Quirkhead, about O.C.D. and mental illness, is scheduled to be featured in an upcoming PBS documentary chronicling the inaugural Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Recent projects include a new work for members of Eighth Blackbird as part of the Blackbird Creative Lab in which she participated as the 2018 Lewis Vilensky Family Fellow, a choral commission for The New York Virtuoso Singers and renowned conductor Harold Rosenbaum, an electroacoustic choreographed commission for Third Angle New Music, and a piece for recent Fischoff Silver Medalist Vanguard Reed Quintet. Other upcoming events in the fall include several performances by multi-Grammy winning super-group Eighth Blackbird on their 2018-2019 season. Nina is a recipient of the 2015 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and a finalist in the 2017 and 2018 Morton Gould Awards.

Aside from composing, Nina is a versatile performing artist. As a flutist, she studied with Amy Porter and previously with Holly Clemans. Nina has previously performed in masterclasses given by flutists Claire Chase, Tim Munro, composer/flutist Ian Clarke, and electronic flute duo Flutronix. She has also premiered fellow composers’ works at the Midwest Composers Symposium and the New Music on the Point Summer Festival. As a pianist, she has performed in the Poland International Piano Festival as a soloist with the Lublin Philharmonic and studied under Tomoko Mack and previously Brenda Krachenberg. Nina was selected to perform in the Detroit International Jazz Festival with her jazz band in 2012 and 2013 as lead alto saxophonist.

Nina is currently pursuing composition graduate studies at the University of Southern California, where she is studying with Ted Hearne and serving as a composition and aural skills teaching assistant. She recently completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, earning dual degrees in music composition and chemical engineering and graduating summa cum laude. Nina’s previous mentors include Evan Chambers, Bright Sheng, Kristin Kuster, Michael Daugherty, Erik Santos, Gabriela Lena Frank, Derek Bermel, and James Hartway.

Last updated June 26, 2020

Program Note

My composition explores the idea of surreal organisms inhabiting various bodies, sometimes bursting out. Serpents, branches, and other creatures tear out of chords, chorales, and melodies.

The music is loosely inspired by the movies Alien (1979) and Annihilation (2018), and the wisdom of the great composer György Ligeti. He encouraged his students to throw wrenches in their compositional systems.

About Daniel Zlatkin

Daniel Zlatkin’s music aspires to tell a story and stretch reality. Listeners often describe it as visceral, clear, austere, and humorous.

His works have been played by leading and emerging artists including the Da Capo Chamber Players, Calidore Quartet, soprano Lucy Dhegrae, The Brass Project, Choral Chameleon, Vanguard Reed Quintet, Khorikos, American Modern Ensemble, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and The Orchestra Now. His music has been featured by National Sawdust (Brooklyn), Music From Angel Fire (New Mexico), I Care If You Listen, and the Fisher Center for Performing Arts (Hudson Valley).

As a cellist he has extensive orchestral and chamber music experience, and frequently performs his own music. He is a recipient of a 2015 Davis Projects for Peace grant. He was a finalist in the 2015 and 2018 ASCAP Young Composer Awards and a runner-up in the 2019 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute. He holds an M.M. in composition from the University of Michigan.

Last updated June 26, 2020

Program Note

Self-Talk (2018) is a piece about the stories we tell ourselves—our inner voice, our commentary on our own actions and emotions. Each movement is a different manifestation of self-talk. The first movement, “Fable,” describes an instance where the protagonist learns about themselves over time through trial and error. The rhythmic material of this movement was derived from a line of Jim Harrison’s poetry: “I was a fable to myself.” The second movement, “Transformation,” describes a person’s shifting perspective over time, which parallels the transformations of the melody after each musical interruption. The final movement, “Pursuit,” propels the protagonist toward a pre-determined goal with a few unexpected turns along the way.

About Gala Flagello

Composer Gala Flagello’s music “is both flesh and spirit, intensely psychological without sacrificing concrete musical enjoyment” (I Care If You Listen). Gala was the 2017 Composer in Residence for the Nonnewaug High School Music Festival in Woodbury, CT and the 2016 Composer in Residence at the Unitarian Society of Hartford. She is also the co-founder and Festival Director of the nonprofit contemporary music festival Connecticut Summerfest. Gala is a recipient of the Edward Diemente Prize for Excellence in Creative Activity (The Hartt School), the Artist Scholarship (Artists for World Peace), and the Dorothy Greenwald Graduate Fellowship (University of Michigan). In 2017, she received an EXCEL Enterprise Grant for her project Educational New Music for Developing Voices, a collaboration with educator Jacqueline Bouffard to create a comprehensive online resource for the composition of contemporary works for vocalists in kindergarten through high school.

Gala recently scored the short film Break a Leg, sponsored by the University of Michigan, and premiered two new works at National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY in August 2018. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Composition degree from The Hartt School and is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Composition degree at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Michael Daugherty. More information may be found at www.galaflagello.com.

Last updated June 26, 2020

Program Note

I decided to start collecting fallen red leaves at about the same time I was coming up with ideas for this piece. I loved the feeling of finding beautiful treasures in plain sight and having to hold onto them and admire them until I have the opportunity to take them home. I was initially attracted to these natural gems because of their bold, rich color, but over time, as their color has faded and they have become more brittle, I've become quite fond of their delicateness, too. In this piece I wanted to capture an autumn breeze, a rich, red sound, and the sense of changing over time.

About Karalyn Schubring

Karalyn Schubring (b. 1999 in Gilbert, Arizona) is a dedicated composer, pianist, teacher, and improviser whose work centers around inspiring others to engage imaginatively with music.

As a composer, Karalyn has already received numerous awards from national organizations for her works, which combine the energy of jazz, the imagery of programmatic music, and the lyricism of song. In 2013, she won 1st place nationally in the Junior Division of the Music Teacher’s National Association Composition Competition for her solo piano piece, Story of the Stars. Two years later, she was named a national finalist by the same organization for her piano and euphonium piece, Song of the Ancients, which went on to receive a Morton Gould Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) in the same year. She also received the Morton Gould Award for her soprano saxophone and piano piece titled The Journey. In 2016, Karalyn was selected as a composition fellow for the Phoenix-based MusicaNova Orchestra, which premiered her Symphonic Dance No. 1, a piece which received an Honorable Mention from the National YoungArts Foundation. Karalyn was commissioned by East Valley Children’s Theater to compose music for the original play, Arya’s Rock: A Video Game Adventure, which received an ariZoni theater award and a National Youth Arts award for sound design. The following year, she wrote the music and lyrics for the original script of Snow White and Rose Red, which premiered in June 2016. Since moving to Ann Arbor, her music has been performed by the virtuosic vocal ensemble //meridian, the Conviviality Trio, the Koinonia Trio, and the University of Michigan and Michigan State University Saxophone Ensembles. In 2018 Karalyn was the youngest composer selected to participate in the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, based in Boonville, CA, where she will write a new work for the critically-acclaimed ZOFO Piano Duo. 

As a pianist since the age of three, Karalyn has received recognition from the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and the Arizona Music Educators Association (AMEA). An active performer of new music, she has played her own compositions with world-class performers, including Dian D’Avanzo, Viviana Cumplido Wilson, and Damien Shindelman of the Phoenix Symphony, Michael Hernandez of the Mana Quartet, and LA percussionist MB Gordy. As one of six winners of the American Composers Forum’s NextNotes High School Composition Competition in 2016, Karalyn was invited to perform her winning work, Lua Azul, in St. Paul, MN. She also performed her Song of the Ancients on NPR’s "From the Top" radio program in El Paso, TX. Karalyn enjoys performing new music of many varieties, and has premiered a number of new works by her colleagues in Ann Arbor. She is a founding member of the mixed quartet Front Porch (violin, bassoon, piano, percussion), which recently received 3rd Place in the University of Michigan Dale and Nancy Briggs Chamber Music Competition.

In addition to her love for performing, Karalyn is passionate about teaching music to children of all ages and has done so at the East Valley Yamaha Music School for the past five years.

As an improviser, Karalyn was a winner in the inaugural year of the Social Music Works International Video Upload Competition in the Variations category. She performed comedic improv around the city of Mesa with EVCT’s On the Spot Improv Troupe for 8 seasons. In 2016, she gave a TEDx Talk to Chandler residents ages 9-19 about how improvising on a regular basis allows people to practice being themselves. A spontaneous video she posted of herself improvising on the piano with a fire alarm racked up nearly 400,000 views on Facebook. Karalyn enjoys improvising at the piano in several styles, plays with the University of Michigan Creative Arts Orchestra, and makes a point of collaborating regularly with other musicians both informally and onstage. 

Karalyn is currently earning her Bachelors in Music Composition from the University of Michigan, where she has studied piano with Matthew Bengtson and composition with Kristin Kuster, Evan Chambers, and Bright Sheng. She is also grateful to have studied with and been mentored by Daron Hagen, Gilda Lyons, Heidi Grimes, Tomoko Yonemaru, and Gabriela Lena Frank.

Last updated June 26, 2020

Program Note

From Lidless Eyes (time knows no bounds) was initially inspired by Julio Cortázar's short story, Axolotl. The story gives a first-person account of a man discovering and obsessing over the amphibious Axolotls' secret lives as they waste away in a Parisian aquarium. Cortázar's work famously treats time in unique and surprising ways. As he contemplates the uninterrupted infinitude of the Axolotl's life, he mentions that "The eyes of axolotls have no lids."

I found this analogy of lacking the ability to blink as a means of lacking a reference by which to measure time haunting. In creating this piece, I wanted to treat time similarly, avoiding clear moments of punctuation or progression. The piece's forward momentum has to then be generated by other means, namely by the gradual, imperceptible evolution of ideas. Additionally, I sought to create music that captured the discomfort that I personally feel in contemplating what behaviors we turn to in our attempts to cope with the mundane.

About Douglas Hertz

Douglas Hertz (b. 1993) is a composer and percussionist based in Brooklyn, NY.

Hertz uses sound as a medium to investigate experiences ranging from the personal to universal and from the physical to the spiritual. Through his work, he seeks to connect with audiences in a way that helps them better understand themselves, one another, and the world they inhabit. 

His work has appeared on programs presented by the Aries Composers Festival, Midwest Composers Symposium, PASIC, Nief Norf Summer Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, the Dynamic Music Festival, Bard College’s Music Alive series and the Deer Valley Music Festival. His music has been either performed or recorded by the University of Michigan Philharmonia Orchestra, Wet Ink Ensemble, Denovo String Quartet, Da Capo Chamber Players, American Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Calidore String Quartet, Vanguard Reed Quintet, Up/Down Percussion Quartet, Room 1078, meridian vocal ensemble, and BrassTaps Duo.

As an interdisciplinary collaborator, Hertz has worked with choreographers, visual and installations artists, and filmmakers. Recent collaborations include Saeculum, a cantata/dance piece created in collaboration with choreographer Al Evangelista, and Household, an art/sound installation commissioned by performance group, Call Your Mom.

Hertz holds a B.A. in music from Bard College and an M.M. from the University of Michigan. His past teachers have include Evan Chambers, Bright Sheng, Kristin Kuster, George Tsontakis, Joan Tower, Kyle Gann, and Janet Weir.

Last updated June 26, 2020