Ekstrand Competition Finals (2020)

About the competition

Launched by then Dean Robert Fink at Bruce Ekstrand’s suggestion and later renamed to honor the late vice chancellor for academic affairs and psychology professor, the Bruce Ekstrand Memorial Graduate Student Performance Competition awards cash prizes for professional development to outstanding graduate student performers. After preliminaries among individual departments and a semi-final round, up to four finalists are chosen to compete in the grand finale before a panel of judges.

Bruce Ekstrand (1940-1996)

A member of the University of Colorado Boulder faculty and administrator for 30 years, Bruce Ekstrand was a champion of not only science and teaching, but also the arts at the university. He came to Boulder in 1966 to teach in the psychology department, was appointed Vice Chancellor for Research in 1984 and served as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs from 1986 until 1995.

Always a music lover and a fan of friendly competition, it was Ekstrand who suggested the College of Music launch its premier competition for graduate student performers in 1986. The competition was later renamed the Bruce Ekstrand Memorial Graduate Student Performance Competition in his honor.

Ekstrand was an outdoor enthusiast, and an avid cyclist and scuba diver. The Chicago native served on numerous local boards, including the Boulder Philharmonic, Boulder Chamber of Commerce, Boulder Rotary, Boulder County United Way and Boulder Community Hospital Foundation. He was honored by the CU Alumni Association for his achievements as an administrator and faculty member with the Robert L. Stearns Award in March 1995. He posthumously received the University Medal during Commencement 1996, and in 1997 a sculpture of poet Robert Frost near Old Main was dedicated to Ekstrand’s memory.

Supporting the Ekstrand Competition

The Bruce Ekstrand Memorial Graduate Student Performance Competition is generously supported by the Ekstrand family (Norma Ekstrand, Andrea Ekstrand, Brand & Diana Ekstrand) and other College of Music donors.

To support the Ekstrand Competition, the Ekstrand family has generously established a permanent endowment to provide funding for student prizes and associated costs. To participate in this endowment or make contributions to the competition, please visit giving.cu.edu/Ekstrand or call 303-492-3054.

Program notes: Hannah Kennedy

Sonata in A minor for Solo Violin, Op. 27, No. 2

Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931)

Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe was one of the most influential and renowned musicians of his day. In 1923, he wrote a set of six sonatas for solo violin, a direct nod to J.S. Bach, whose own set of six sonatas and partitas is a cornerstone of the solo violin repertoire. Ysaÿe dedicated each sonata to one of his contemporaries and made compositional decisions loosely based on each dedicatee’s personality. In his second sonata (dedicated to French violinist Jacques Thibaud), Ysaÿe is not only inspired by Bach but obsessed with him. The first movement begins with the main theme from Bach’s E major Partita, which Ysaÿe immediately distorts, eventually weaving in the traditional Dies Irae chant. The movement is an exercise in negotiation; somehow the performer and the music are always locked in a state of determining who exactly is the source of the obsession. The movement accumulates at a borderline inhuman rate and culminates with a final, reluctantly bold statement of the Dies Irae theme. — Hannah Kennedy

Rhapsody No. 1

Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)

“Rhapsody No. 1 is the first solo violin piece I wrote for myself. It draws on inspiration from the Eugène Ysaÿe solo violin works and is intended to serve as both an etude and a stand-alone work. This piece is intended to be part of a set of six solo violin works, each of which will be dedicated to a different contemporary violinist, and inspired by a historical composer.” — Jessie Montgomery

Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003

J.S. Bach (1685-1750)

At the time they were written, J.S. Bach’s six solo sonatas and partitas for violin were essentially dismissed by performers and audiences alike. In fact, there is some doubt as to whether the pieces were even performed during Bach’s lifetime. This notion is difficult to imagine now, as we live in a time when Bach is one of the most well-known Western classical composers. Bach is perhaps most recognized for his prowess as a keyboardist, but he was also a very accomplished violinist. Many consider these works to be some of the most personal pieces that violinists ever perform. They offer moments of challenge, triumph, darkness, light, anguish, and serenity. The Andante third movement of his second sonata is a beautiful example of the serene, with an ever-present ostinato bassline supporting a melody that creates feelings of gratitude, joy, hope and peace. — Hannah Kennedy

Program notes: Ivalas Quartet

Strum (2012)

Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981)

Strum is the culminating result of several versions of a string quintet I wrote in 2006. It was originally written for the Providence String Quartet and guests of Community MusicWorks Players, then arranged for string quartet in 2008 with several small revisions. In 2012 the piece underwent its final revisions with a rewrite of both the introduction and the ending for the Catalyst Quartet in a performance celebrating the 15th annual Sphinx Competition.

Originally conceived for the formation of a cello quintet, the voicing is often spread wide over the ensemble, giving the music an expansive quality of sound. Within Strum I utilized texture motives, layers of rhythmic or harmonic ostinati that string together to form a bed of sound for melodies to weave in and out. The strumming pizzicato serves as a texture motive and the primary driving rhythmic underpinning of the piece. Drawing on American folk idioms and the spirit of dance and movement, the piece has a kind of narrative that begins with fleeting nostalgia and transforms into ecstatic celebration. — Jessie Montgomery

Elegy: A Cry from the Grave (2015)

Carlos Simon (b. 1986)

This piece is an artistic reflection dedicated to those who have been murdered wrongly by an oppressive power; namely Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Michael Brown. The stimulus for composing this piece came as a result of prosecuting attorney Robert McCulloch announcing that a selected jury had decided not to indict police officer, Daren Wilson after fatally shooting an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

The evocative nature of the piece draws on strong lyricism and a lush harmonic charter. A melodic idea is played in all the voices of the ensemble at some point in the piece either whole or fragmented. The recurring ominous motif represents the cry of those struck down unjustly in this country. While the predominant essence of the piece is sorrowful and contemplative, there are moments of extreme hope represented by bright consonant harmonies. — Carlos Oliver Simon Jr.

Program notes: Aaron Zalkind

Fünf Stücke im Volkston (Five Pieces in Folk Style), Op. 102 (1849)

Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

Nearing the end of his life and suffering from years of debilitating mental illness, Robert Schuman had an unusually prolific year of composition in 1849. It was during this fruitful period that he wrote Fantasiestücke Op. 73, Drei Romanzen Op. 94, Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70 and Fünf Stücke im Volkston Op. 102. What I find interesting about these chamber works is that Schumann lists on each score additional instruments on which the pieces could be played. For instance, the Drei Romanzen Op.94 is written for oboe, but the score notes that it could also be performed on violin or clarinet. In a conversation with his publisher regarding whether or not it was acceptable to have such wording on the score, Schumann said, “If I had originally written the work for violin or clarinet, it would have become a completely different piece.”

Surely, he never expected a trombonist would be audacious enough to tackle the fearsome double-stops in Fünf Stücke im Volkston.

Written on the opening pages of Schumann’s Fünf Stücke im Volkston (Five pieces in folk style) are the words “vanitas vanitatum” (vanity of vanities, all is vanity). This is most likely inspired by Goethe’s eponymous poem, in which a soldier tries to find his life’s purpose, but instead comes to the conclusion that he must place his trust in nothing and “command the world...[to]...bow.”

The first movement, marked Mit Humor, is boisterous and lively, though not without a tinge of darkness. In stark contrast, the second movement, marked Langsam (slowly), moves like a rhapsodic fantasy – a welcome relief after the first movement. The third, marked Nicht schnell (not fast), opens with what feels like a dark waltz, followed by a passionate series of double-stops and eventually concluding with a final iteration of the waltz. The fourth movement, marked Nicht zu rasch (not too quickly), opens with a rhythmic, almost militaristic march, but like the third movement, its middle section is dark and lyrical. The drawn out melodies in this section remind me of the opening of Dichterliebe. The work concludes with the fifth movement, Stark und markirt (strong and well-marked). Harsh and aggressive, the ending comes abruptly and somewhat unsettlingly, perhaps an allusion to the sinister vanity of Goethe’s soldier. – Aaron Zalkind

Program notes: Christine Marie Li

Asie from Shéhérazade

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)

Maurice Ravel is often thought to be one of the first major French composers to incorporate the sounds and melodies of exotic and lesser known locales into his music. Among his earliest ventures in exoticism is Shéhérazade, a song cycle of three poems written by Tristan Klingsor, taken from a collection of his poetry which was inspired by the foreign yet irresistible attractions of the Eastern world. These pieces were originally composed for voice and orchestra in 1903, with the world premiere at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique in Paris. The first of the songs, “Asie,” is a narrative poem and the longest of the three, with its appeal laid within the widespread journey and abundance of oriental images throughout the text. Expansive and enumerative, the mélodie is musically divided into eleven sections, each one summoning a different mood and picture, such as the rhythm of the sea, a boat rocking in the harbor, pentatonic evocations of China and, later on, a climactic painting of the rhythms and harmonies heard from the endless sea’s ebb and flow. —Christine Marie Li

All’afflitto from Roberto Devereaux

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)

Gaetano Donizetti was one of the bel canto triumvirate (Donizetti, Rossini, Bellini) who were the primary composers responsible for the continued development of Italian opera in the early- to mid-nineteenth century. Although he composed over 60 operas, only a handful have remained in the mainstream performance repertoire. Roberto Devereaux follows the classic love triangle storyline we often find in opera, with Queen Elizabeth I and Sara, Duchess of Nottingham, both vying for the love of the same man, Roberto Devereaux. In this first aria of Sara’s, she is interrupted while reading a story of the tragic heroine Rosamonda, and her thoughts linger on the angst and sadness of a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, unable to die and yet forced to feel the anguish of death, renewed by the breath of each new day. —Christine Marie Li

Calypso (2’21”)

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Benjamin Britten is often thought to be a central figure for 20th-century British music, a composer of opera, vocal music, chamber as well as orchestral works. “Calypso” was written as a collaboration between himself and author WH Auden, one of many set in a cabaret style. In Britten’s cabaret songs, the composer truly seems to let himself go, allowing the music and text to go exactly hand in hand, or rather like hand in glove. The music of this piece reflects and carries through the character’s manic oscillations between the sophisticated version of herself she presents to “the one [she loves] to look on,” and the frenetic, nervous woman she may truly be.  —Christine Marie Li