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New music for all!
New music for all!
Viridian Strings is dedicated to expanding the chamber music repertoire through close collaboration with living composers. We regularly commission new works that reflect diverse voices and contemporary perspectives, bringing fresh energy and relevance to the concert stage. Browse this page to see all the new works Viridian Strings has commissioned over the years.
Benjamin webster:
Benjamin webster:
Air on haydn's name
Air on haydn's name
for String Quartet (2025)
While Air on Haydn's Name is the first piece I've written for the Viridian Strings, it is by no means the first time I’ve worked with Viridian’s founders, Kyle Stachnik and Joe Skerik. Kyle and I first met in 2017 as undergraduates at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, where we performed (and sometimes suffered!) together in the school's contemporary music ensemble. We quickly found we had similar musical interests, eventually forming a chamber group together and beginning a long-standing collaborative relationship where Kyle has performed and commissioned numerous works of mine, including solo cello pieces, mixed chamber works, an early string quartet, and a viola and cello duo that he and Joe premiered in Traverse City in the summer of 2019. Our last collaboration took place in the summer of 2021, after which our projects took a bit of a hiatus as we both moved to opposite coasts for graduate school. Earlier this year, I found myself in the Bay area for a premiere with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players that Kyle coincidentally almost performed on; we caught up over coffee and resolved to embark on another project together that became tonight's new quartet for Viridian.
Early on in our discussions for this collaboration, Kyle expressed a desire to have the piece relate in some way to any of the other works on tonight’s program, which included two figures who loom large in the string quartet repertoire: Joseph Haydn and Maurice Ravel. Haydn and Ravel are hugely important composers for me; I love and admire both of their music deeply and the prospect of sharing the program with them was frankly a bit daunting. Haydn and Ravel are additionally composers whose musical language is very different from mine, and as I began the piece I quickly found that my attempts to relate my quartet directly to their music either through allusion or quotation weren't quite working. After much consideration of other ways of referencing these pieces and researching connections between these two composers, I eventually stumbled upon a charming, lesser-known piano piece of Ravel's, his Menuet sur le nom d'Haydn. The menuet comes from a collection of piano works (including contributions by Debussy and Dukas) written for the centenary of Haydn's death in 1909, and each piece uses as its basis a translation of Haydn's name into the musical notes B - A - D - D - N. The encryption of a composer’s name into notes is a common practice in the Western Canon, and Haydn’s musical cipher has not seen the fame and notoriety that other examples have enjoyed, such as J.S. Bach’s BACH motif (Bb, A, C, B natural) or Shostakovich’s DSCH motif (D, Eb, C, B natural).
I decided that basing my quartet on Haydn’s name presented the best way to draw both composers together into my music, and would continue a somewhat neglected tradition that Ravel had a hand in starting over a hundred years ago. My Air on Haydn’s Name takes the Haydn motif and transforms into multiple contrasting musical ideas that rapidly change and shift. Some versions of Haydn’s name are introspective and delicate, some are quite virtuosic and joyful, and the drama of the piece results from the quartet members trying to figure out if they can agree on what version of Haydn’s name is the most interesting to musically explore.
Kyle has really been the closest thing I've had to a "champion" of my music, devoting an incredible interest and substantial amount of time and patience to it as I struggled to find my voice and learn how to actually write well for string instruments. I would not be the composer I am today without the numerous pieces we've worked on together and the hours we've spent figuring out how to translate my ideas into something playable and practical for the cello. Air on Haydn's Name is therefore both the culmination of many years of collaboration and learning, but also what I hope is the continuation of an immensely meaningful artistic partnership and friendship into the future. I can't express enough my thanks both to Kyle and Joe for asking me to write this quirky piece in the first place, but also to Kyle, Joe, Oliver, and Claire for the talent and artistry they devoted to bringing it to life.
Tom Childs And Cynthia van maanan:
Tom Childs And Cynthia van maanan:
transformational landscape
transformational landscape
for String Quartet (2025)
Co-composed by Thomas Childs and Cynthia Van Maanen for the PBS online series entitled “Songs About Buildings and Moods”, Seth Boustead producer.
transformational landscapes focuses on the architecture and philosophy of Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride (1809-1883) who designed the asylums that bear his name. Built in the mid-19th century, there are many of these buildings throughout the United States and one in both Canada and Australia. These ‘Kirkbride’ buildings utilized a specific batwing floor plan which helped Dr. Kirkbride implement his philosophy of treating those who were institutionalized. The design was meant to promote privacy and comfort while also giving sunlight and beauty access to every single patient. More about the details of these buildings and Kirkbride’s philosophy can be found online and in several books we referenced specifically written about the Traverse City State Hospital located in Michigan. That hospital and the surrounding buildings are now known as “The Village at Grand Traverse Commons” and is a local community gathering place after being refurbished by The Minervini Group. Local shops, dining establishments, an assisted living space for seniors and special events happen in the main ‘Building 50’ and the additional buildings along its perimeter.
We focused our musical composition around both the architectural design of the building itself and the philosophy of Kirkbride–that these patients needed beauty and purpose in their lives and in their community within the hospital. Our music mirrors this architectural batwing form and the progress of the patients through our choices for harmony and rhythm. We took one half of the mirrored blueprint and composed the music to represent the various wings in that half. Harmonic and rhythmic choices embody the internal struggles and successes of the patients who would have been housed in these differing wings. The outermost wing (our initial opening measures) housed the most disturbed and noisy patients. Each wing that was successively closer to the center of the building housed the patients that were increasingly more calm and further along their journey toward mental health. At the very center stood an Administration building (now gone from the Traverse City facility). In that administration building was a five story mahogany staircase. Ultimately this building was condemned in part due to this staircase and the fire hazard it posed. In the climax of our work, we constructed music to represent this staircase…this center…and ideally, the patients’ exit from the facility and back into society and our community.
Both composers are on the music faculty of the Interlochen Arts Academy and felt it important to mirror the community this Kirkbride facility has brought to our local area since it was rebuilt. Joined by dance faculty Katherine Dorn (who designed and danced the choreography) we wanted to work within our own community of faculty, staff, alumni, and students from Interlochen. This work was premiered with alumni Joseph Skerik, viola; Kyle Stachnik, cello; and with students Ava Gilbert, flute; and Joseph Rodriguez, percussion. Peter Payette from Interlochen Public Radio was pivotal in bringing this project to Interlochen. Staff members Michael Culler and Alexandra Herryman were invaluable in helping us bring this project to life. After the PBS premiere Joe and Kyle commissioned us to create a string quartet version of the work for their group Viridian Strings.
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