New Music Ensemble

About the Program

Noah Hudson-Camack
Ten Seconds to Midnight 
b. 2001
Composed 2025
world premiere

The Doomsday Clock is a visual metaphor created by a cohort of Manhattan Project researchers who would form the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Every second closer to midnight on the clock is a step closer to humanity’s self-annihilation. At the heart of the various forces driving the clock’s hands towards midnight — nuclear catastrophe, climate disaster, egomaniacal autocrats, unregulated technology — is a wanton pursuit of wealth: an indulgence of greed. Desire is not inherently evil, for all people have essential needs that must be met and comforts that ought to be provided. It is when desire reaches far past necessity, when satisfaction supersedes service to our fellow man, that desire turns the gears of Doomsday.

Ten Seconds to Midnight’s narrative is modeled after a parable or fairy tale, particularly the Grimm tale “The Fisherman and His Wife”. The protagonist begins with altruistic desire, praying to the ether that his starving followers will find safety. His prayers reach a magical being who, pitying him, grants his wish with a simple condition. The themes within are explored through rhythmic narration from the protagonist and conventional song from the “spirit”, unfolding a cautionary tale on the dangers of unfettered desire. All the while, the orchestra maintains a steady “ticking” in imitation of the Doomsday Clock that inspired the piece. As the man receives greater fortune, the ticks grow wider in interval and larger in grouping, an auditory reflection of his rising status.

But the bigger they are…

– Noah Hudson-Camack
 

Nina C. Young
Traced Upon Cinders
Nina C. Young
Traced Upon Cinders
Born 1984
2014
Premiered November 14, 2014, Noyuvel Ensemble Moderne, Lorraine Vaillancourt, conductor, Montreal, Canada
11 minutes

Traced Upon Cinders is a partner piece to Nina C. Young’s Etched in Sand (2013). The notes to Etched in Sand reads: “To etch is to cut, carve, or engrave a text or design onto a surface (traditionally metal, glass, or stone). This process leaves a permanent design on the original surface.

"I recall going to the shore as a child and spending hours etching designs into the wet, hardened sand at the threshold of beach and sea. With the sun on my back I would revel in the glory of these beautiful and ephemeral pieces of art that I created using the sand as my canvas and a stray seashell as my stylus. As evening encroached, the tide would slowly come in, its regular cycles of crashing waves a whispering reminder of the passing of time. The gently lapping water would inevitably creep towards my etchings, and as it neared I waited, in tense anticipation, for the arcs of water blindly reaching up the beach. As the first finger of water washed over my design, the image began its transformation into a subdued echo of itself. For a short time — an eternity — I would solemnly watch my day’s work gently fade away into the original blank canvas.

As an adult, I often look back to memories of moments from my childhood. I trace these images over and over again in my mind, seeking new meanings and connections. But as time passes their fidelity erodes; they are now cinders of the burning moments they once were, and quickly they do fade."

Claude Vivier
Bouchara
Claude Vivier
Bouchara
Born April 14, 1948, in or near Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died March 7, 1983, Paris, France
Premiered February 14, 1983, at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France
13 minutes

As the writer Michael Cirigliano II shares, “At the margins of Claude Vivier's life lie two mysteries.” He spent the first three years of his life in a Montreal orphanage, and his life was cut tragically short by a Parisian serial killer who was targeting gay men.  Between those two mysteries, Vivier crafted music which unabashedly told his own story. He left a catalogue of just 48 works, each one offering another autobiographical facet to this singular creative.  "I have to find the voice of the lonely child who wants to embrace the world with his naïve love,” wrote Vivier, “the voice we all hear and want to inhabit eternally." This voice appears — sometimes less metaphorically — as a sung text, as is the case in his signature work Lonely Child, and also with Bouchara heard on this program. “Bouchara,” wrote Vivier as the inscription to the score, “is meant to be a long love song…The entire text is sung in an invented language, a language of love, a story which repeats itself continually.” The score calls for both a woodwind quintet and string quartet, utilizes Balinese and Chinese gongs, which Vivier encountered during his travels in 1976, as well as a pre-recorded tape. György Ligeti called Vivier "the most important and original composer of his generation," and a 2019 New York Times review called Bouchara “an elegiac 20-minute outpouring that’s like a Liebestod from the surface of Saturn.”
 

– Mark Bilyeu

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About the Artists

Noah Hudson-Camack

Noah Hudson-Camack is a composer and arranger native to Cary, North Carolina. Believing firmly in diversity as strength within art, he seeks to blend elements from disparate eras of Western art music, jazz, and popular music in his work. The sewing together of different genre aesthetics is as much an objective in his music as developing strong motivic content, rich harmony, and complex rhythm. He explores these connections in his solo, chamber, jazz, and wind symphony works. Sharing his own excitement and joy for what music making and appreciation can bring he considers not just a goal, but a responsibility. Deeply valuing education, Noah is a two time teaching fellow for the North Carolina Governor’s School’s instrumental music program and aims to be a collegiate educator in the future.  Noah graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2024 with a Bachelor of Musical Arts in Composition with a minor in Computer Science, and thanks his teachers Michael Slayton, Stan Link, Michael Alec Rose, and Molly Herron for their guidance. He is pursuing his Master of Music at The University of Texas Austin studying composition.
 

Page Stephens

Page Stephens is a mezzo soprano, voice teacher and arts administrator based in Austin, TX with a soft spot for new music. She is a founding member of VAMP, an all-female vocal quintet which champions music by women and living composers. VAMP's debut album will be released in Spring 2025. Stephens has premiered works by Reena Esmail, Matthew Lyons, Donald Grantham, Katherine Pukinskis, Dana Lyn, Russell Podgorsek, Thomas B. Yee, and others. Stephens maintains a robust performing career in a wide variety of genres. In the last decade, she has performed with Copland House, Voices of Change, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, line upon line percussion, Sō Percussion, Texas Early Music Project, invoke string quartet, and many others. In addition to performing, Stephens is on the voice faculty at Austin Community College. She is the assistant director for operations at the Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin, where she also received her master’s and D.M.A. degrees.

Marc Sosnowchik

Dr. Marc Sosnowchik is a conductor, educator, arranger, and clinician based in Austin, Texas. His current duties as assistant director of bands at the University of Texas include conducting the New Music Ensemble and Longhorn concert bands, instructing courses in conducting and wind literature, and teaching the Longhorn Bands. Before his appointment at UT Austin, Sosnowchik served as associate director of bands at the University of South Florida, assistant director of bands at Oklahoma State University, and associate conductor of the Florida Wind Band. Sosnowchik maintains an active schedule as a clinician, conductor, and arranger. He conducts ensembles throughout the U.S., and in the summer teaches at the World Youth and Adult Wind Orchestra Projects as part of the Mid-Europe Festival in Schladming, Austria.  Sosnowchik earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Alabama, and both his master’s and doctor's degrees in conducting from The University of Texas at Austin.

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New Music Ensemble

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Upcoming Events

Mahler Symphony No. 2 
Resurrection
Symphony Orchestra & Combined Choirs
Leah Crocetto, soprano 
Sophio Dzidziguri, mezzo soprano

One of the most beloved symphonies in the canon, Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony boasts a large orchestra, mezzo and soprano soloists, and similarly to Beethoven's 9th Symphony, a large choir in the final movement. For this performance, the Butler School's Concert Chorale and University Chorus ensembles will join forces; they will be joined by Butler School alumni singers and community choral singers from around Austin.

Tuesday, March 31, 8:00 p.m.
Long Center for the Performing Arts

Tickets

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