Modern Notebook for April 20-26, 2025

Photo: composer Melia Watras (photo credit: Michelle Smith-Lewis).

On the next Modern Notebook with Tyler Kline: Good and evil, reality and illusion — composer Melia Watras explores these intertwined opposites in “Doppelgänger Dances.” The piece plays with musical doubles and variations, drawn from her earlier composition William Wilson, inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting tale of duality.


Then: “Still Leaning Towards This Machine” — that’s the subtitle of Rune Glerup’s Clarinet Quintet, a piece shaped by influences from Beethoven and Boulez to Beckett and Bukowski. Across three movements, it shimmers with tension, breathes with stillness, and pulses with restless energy, blending acoustic and electronic textures.



Also featuring performances by saxophonist Kyle Jones and pianist Timothy Jones with music by Chris DeBlasio, Fivebyfive performing music by Jung Sun Kang, mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen, violist Michael Hall, and pianist Marianne Parker with music by Regina Harris Baiocchi, GHOSTLIGHT Chorus and Chelsea Music Festival Strings with music by Binna Kim, New York City Guitar Orchestra performing music by Dave Hart, pianist Siwan Rhys with music by Jo-anne Cox, Nordic Viola performing music by Adrian Vernon Fish, and flutist Roberta Michel with music by Mert Morali.


Hour 1

  • Chris DeBlasio’s Walt Whitman in 1989.
  • Manhattan by Jung Sun Kang.
  • Melia Watras’ Doppelgänger Dances.
  • Landscapes by Regina Harris Baiocchi.
  • Binna Kim’s stacked emotions.
  • Granada by Dave Hart.

Hour 2

  • Jo-anne Cox’s Galwad y Mynydd.
  • Clarinet Quintet, Op. 16, "Still Leaning Towards This Machine" by Rune Glerup.
  • Adrian Vernon Fish’s Uyeasound Nocturne (arr. by Katherine Wren).
  • Quintet by Mert Morali.
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