Kevin Joest "Recipe for Chamber Music"

In this, the first of the "Non-Food Recipe" specials for FEDBytes, Director of FEDStage and composer Kevin Joest will discuss his current & past inspirations and methods of creating music. Joining us to perform a selection of Kevin's works will be pianist Felix Jarrar, violist Katya Barmotina, and cellist Dr. Bryan Hayslett, who will discuss their own preparation practices, both in normal times as well as the differences and challenges during the pandemic. We look forward to having you join this discussion on how a "recipe for music" is written by the composer and prepared by the performer, and invite you to share your experiences of how consuming music and art has changed in our current circumstance.

This episode of FEDBytes is dedicated to The Okra Project: “a collective that seeks to address the global crisis faced by Black Trans people by bringing home cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals and resources to Black Trans People wherever we can reach them.” One of FED’s core principles, arguably the core principle, is that food brings people together like nothing else can. To acknowledge the recent riots and actions surrounding race relations in this country during this time, we are proud to support this organization, whose mission to provide food, mental health resources, and financial support to the Black Trans community aligns closely with FED’s missions to do the same in this and intersecting communities around New York City. We encourage you to make a donation through the Okra Project’s website here. Many thanks for joining us in this fight, and, as always, let us know how we can help you!

Program:

Katya Barmotina, viola : Three Saccharine Miniatures (excerpts)

Felix Jarrar, piano : 3x3

Dr. Bryan Hayslett, cello : <as yet untitled> (excerpts)

Kate Barmotina enjoys an active freelancing career in NYC. She is a passionate champion of new music and expanding the viola repertoire. As a chamber musician, Kate is a founding member of the PARK Quartet; an ensemble dedicated to playing works by composers living and dead.She is a member of Femmelody, an all female feminist chamber music collective dedicated to the performance of works written exclusively by women. A lover of new music, she has been part of the enormous outdoor world premiere of John Luther Adams’ Sila: The Breath of the World and was part of the new music collaboration project Mix Nouveau for three years. She recently participated in esteemed fresh inc where she collaborated with the Fifth House Ensemble and premiered 5 new works during the festival. She currently teaches at Brooklyn Music School and maintains a thriving private studio in the greater New York area. She’s pursuing her masters in viola performance at the Mannes School of Music. She currently resides in Brooklyn touring coffee shops and taking pictures of hipster dogs. https://youtu.be/eQKsgoYWn_Q

25-year-old Brooklyn-based Felix Jarrar is a composer and pianist with “(strong) dramatic instincts” (Lewis Spratlan, 2000 Pulitzer Prizewinner in Music). His works have been praised as “experimental and beautifully composed” (Broadway World) with “lush and memorable melodies” (Operawire). His list of accomplishments includes performances at diverse venues such as Symphony Space, (le) poisson rouge, Feinstein's/54 below, the BAM! Fisher Hillman Studio, Roulette Intermedium, and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. His works have been performed internationally by members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, the Atlantic Music Festival Orchestra, and the duo Unassisted Fold. Jarrar's output of approximately 75 works includes 8 operas, over 60 art songs, 2 string quartets, and a cantata. Jarrar completed his Bachelor of Arts from Marlboro College with Highest Honors in Music Composition with Stanley Charkey and Matan Rubinstein and Piano Performance with Robert Merfeld and Luis Battle. He received his Master of Music degree from Brooklyn College with the Graduate Dean’s Award in Music Composition on the Eleanor Kilcoyne, Cerf Music, and Chancey Memorial Scholarships. He primarily studied with Wang Jie, Tania León, and Jason Eckardt while holding the prestigious graduate fellowship for assisting ConTempo, Ursula Oppens’ contemporary ensemble in the conservatory. He was mentored as a teenager by piano pedagogue Burton Hatheway. Follow his work at www.felixjarrarmusic.com.

Cellist Bryan Hayslett teaches as Assistant Professor of Cello at the New World School of the Arts and serves as the cellist of contemporary performance group Juxtatonal. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2009 as first prize winner of the Alexander & Buono International String Competition and returned the following year as a repeat top prize laureate. His solo concert tours feature new music as a central focus, and he frequently works with and commissions living composers, most recently Joan La Barbara and Annika Socolofsky. He has performed with groups such as Eighth Blackbird, the New York Arabic Orchestra, Ne(x)tworks, Experiments in Opera, Sound Icon, New Music Brandeis, and the Boston Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Hayslett holds degrees from NYU, The Hartt School of Music, and The Boston Conservatory, and his principle teachers include Marion Feldman, Rhonda Rider, Terry King, and Yuri Anshelevich. He can be heard on an Innova recording, "A Special Light," featuring music of David Macbride. His attendance at the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab and Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop has inspired nonclassical projects ranging to live improvised music for yoga classes. As a scholar, Dr. Hayslett's research focuses on temporality in and perception of contemporary music, and his dissertation develops an analytical framework based on linguistics to analyze structure in Lee Hyla's music. He has presented his research at conferences across the United States and in Austria, Norway, and Portugal. Beyond music, Dr. Hayslett competes in triathlons and enjoys practicing yoga. He currently resides in Miami. https://www.bryanhayslett.com