Brahms Through the Looking Glass

Jennifer Jolley 
The Lives and Opinions of Literary Cats

Kenneth Lim
Trio in Cb

Sam Nichols
in zwei farben for violin and electronics

Johannes Brahms
Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8

BERKELEY
Berkeley Piano Club
2724 Haste St, Berkeley
Saturday, March 18, 2017 7:30PM  

SAN FRANCISCO
SF Conservatory of Music
50 Oak Street, San Francisco
[directions]
Tuesday, March 21, 2017 7:30PM

Brahmsʼ B Major Trio, written when he was a young man and revised in his later years, is the inspiration for new piano trios by Jennifer Jolley and Kenneth Lim. A new heir to the classical music tradition give us fresh perspective on an old masterpiece.

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About the Contemporary Composers

Jennifer Jolley is a composer and sound artist influenced by urban environments and nostalgia. She is the co-founder of North American New Opera Workshop (NANOWorks Opera), a chamber opera company devoted to developing and staging short contemporary operas by emerging North American composers, and also authors Why Compose When You Can Blog?, a web log about contemporary composing.

Originally from Los Angeles, Jolley is an Assistant Professor of Music at Ohio Wesleyan University. She earned both her D.M.A. and M.M. at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and her B.M. at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. She teaches various music composition courses including computer music programming and sound art.

Kenneth Lim is an emerging composer currently studying composition at UCLA. Born in Indiana, Lim started lessons in violin at an early age, soon after followed by the piano. He studied math as an undergraduate, and linguistics at the graduate level. Lim’s music has been performed by Ensemble Aventure and Viccenium Void, among others. Lim is also an accomplished jazz pianist.

Sam Nichols is a composer who lives and works in Northern California. He has received commissions from a number of ensembles and organizations, including the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Earplay, the Empyrean Ensemble, and the Composers Conference at Wellesley College. He recently won the 2011 Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award for his string quartet, Refuge. He’s also received awards from the League of Composers, the University of Illinois (3rd prize, 2010 Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Prize), the International Center for the Arts at San Francisco State University, and the Third Millennium Ensemble, among others. Upcoming projects include a piece for voice and ensemble for the Empyrean Ensemble.

Born in Maine, he attended Vassar College (BA, 1994) and Brandeis University (MA 1999, PhD 2006). He works as a lecturer in the UC Davis Department of Music; he also teaches in collaboration with the Cinema and Digital Media program. In the spring of 2011 he received the UC Davis Academic Federation Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Doors open an hour before concerts. Open seating. 

photo credit: butterfly by Hibert Freeman