Splinter Reeds
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
Nicki Roman, saxophone
Jeff Anderle, bass clarinet
Dana Jessen, bassoon
Program
Niloufar Nourbakhsh: Firing Squad (2018)
Zoë A. Wallace: Shards WORLD PREMIERE
Phillip Sink: Shove WORLD PREMIERE
—Intermission—
Trey Makler: can’t live with(out) you WORLD
PREMIERE
Shahrzad Talebi: What will remain? WORLD
PREMIERE
Zachary James Watkins: Treatment V
Free
About Splinter Reeds
Splinter Reeds is the West Coast’s first reed quintet, comprising
five innovative musicians with a shared passion for new music.
The ensemble is committed to presenting top tier performances of
today’s best contemporary composition, showcasing the vast
possibilities of the reed quintet, commissioning new works, and
collaborating with fellow musicians and artists.
As a relatively new chamber music genre, the reed quintet is an
evolutionary detour from the traditional woodwind quintet with
the advantages of a more closely related instrument family.
Distinguishing themselves amongst even the relatively small
number of professional reed quintets currently active worldwide,
the ensemble is explicitly dedicated to cutting-edge composition
and expanding the existing reed quintet repertoire through the
collaborative development of new works by emerging and
established composers.
Splinter Reeds formed in 2013 with the coming together of five
colleagues highly active in multiple facets new music. The
ensemble includes: Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Bill Kalinkos
(clarinet), Nicki Roman (saxophone), Jeff Anderle (bass
clarinet), and Dana Jessen (bassoon). The sum of their wide
ranges of experience—in settings including free jazz,
improvisation, electronic music, pop, punk and metal as well as
classical—has enabled them to rapidly zero in on a distinct
aesthetic identity.
Recent concert engagements have included performances at New York
City’s TIME:SPANS Festival, Dublin’s Music Current Festival,
Chicago’s Constellation, San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center,
Vancouver New Music, the Mondavi Performing Arts Center, Berkeley
Art Museum, Festival of New American Music, Other Minds: The
Nature of Music Series, and the Presidio Sessions series.
Additionally, they have held residencies at universities across
the country including Stanford, Northwestern, Wesleyan, Miami
University, UC-Berkeley, Boston Conservatory, UC Davis and the
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, among several others. The
ensemble has received grant awards from Chamber Music America,
New Music USA, the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University,
the Zellerbach Family Foundation, and the San Francisco Friends
of Chamber Music. Splinter Reeds is fiscally sponsored through
InterMusic SF.
The Department of Music at UC Davis presents the Taproot
New Music Festival February 8–11, 2024, at the Ann E. Pitzer
Center at UC Davis.
Overview
The Taproot New Music Festival will take place on the campus
of the University of California, Davis, during the week of
February 5, 2024, and will culminate in performances at the end
of that week (February 8–11, 2024). Eight composers have been
chosen to participate in the festival: they’ll have new pieces
performed, and will participate in seminars and workshops
facilitated by the visiting artists and UC Davis composition
faculty. The festival will feature Splinter Reeds as a visiting
ensemble. UC Davis’s own Empyrean Ensemble will also join the
festival line-up.
Participating Composers
Dean Boursiquot
Stephen Ryan Jackson
Trey Makler
Kory Reeder
Phillip Sink
Shahrzad Talebi
Amber Vistein
Zoë Wallace
Featured Ensembles
Splinter
Reeds
Splinter Reeds is the West Coast’s first reed quintet, comprising
five innovative musicians with a shared passion for new music.
The ensemble is committed to presenting top tier performances of
today’s best contemporary composition, showcasing the vast
possibilities of the reed quintet, commissioning new works, and
collaborating with fellow musicians and artists.
Empyrean Ensemble
Sam Nichols, director
Prof. of Teaching, UC Davis Music Department
Matilda Hofman, conductor-in-residence
Continuing Lecturer, UC Davis Music Department
Ensemble-in-residence at UC Davis, the Empyrean Ensemble presents
engaging and eclectic programs, inviting audiences to experience
new musical sensations delivered with high artistry by its
extraordinary players—among the finest new music performers in
California.
Mission
The Taproot New Music Festival brings together a diverse group of
composers and performers, both local and visiting, and gives them
the chance to hear new work, and to make lasting connections. A
biennial festival at UC Davis, it features concerts and other
events, and also creates the opportunity for our students to work
alongside exceptional artists. Actively inclusive and
participatory, Taproot broadcasts a unique vision of how to
sustain a musical community.
Trey Makler (b. 1994) is a musical
storyteller. His music creates dramatic, poignant narratives
that take the listener on unexpected journeys through memories of
hope, play, struggle, and triumph. Aside from composing,
he enjoys writing poetry, doodling, and organizing concerts.
He is a doctoral candidate in composition and theory at the
University of California, Davis, and holds degrees from the
Juilliard School and the University of Missouri. His
primary teachers have included Mika Pelo, Melinda Wagner, Stefan
Freund, and W. Thomas McKenney.
Zoë A. Wallace (b. 1994) is a composer and guitarist currently
based in Northern California. She has performed in concerts
throughout the country and has had pieces performed by such
groups as KAIA String Quartet, Fulcrum Point New Music Project,
and the Fifth Wave Collective, as well as having been featured in
festivals such as the Hot Air Music Festival and the 21st
Century Guitar Conference.
