Tessellations for two violins, viola, and double bass (2023)

A tessellation is the covering of a surface using one or more repeated geometric shapes, with no gaps. Inspired by the mesmerizing patterns of colorful tessellations, the piece takes various musical motifs and textures and intertwines them, repeating them and sharing them between instruments, and always moving forwards.

Sketch on Bass (2023)

Sketch on Bass explores the natural setup of notes on the bass as they differ from the violin, viola or cello. Fourths tuning and additional shifting make execution on the bass a unique experience. This piece seeks to incorporate these aspects and introduce the thematic material while weaving textures and timbres available only to the bass. 

Meditation for Solo Viola (2023)

This brief mediation is in song form (ABA’). It begins with an opening statement, followed by a contrasting chorale-like section, and concludes with a recall of the opening material. Open strings are used often as drone notes. These are long sustained notes that do not change while other melodies happen around them. Drone notes are also often used in sitting mediations where people may hum the same note or have someone strike a singing bowl. 

Invention for Solo Violin (2023)

This short piece for solo violin is a rumination on a motive by Ye Jin Min. It features long melodic lines juxtaposed with contrapuntal pizzicato and ricochet bow techniques.

Structured Improvisation in Four Parts, on the theme of Geometric Abstraction (2023)

Written for the Juan Carlos Maldonado Collection inspired by its theme of Geometric Abstraction and the structure of the space, this four part improvisation generates captivating patterns from repetitive but gradually evolving motifs.

Embracing a more traditional four-movement structure of two significant outer movements and a scherzo and slow movement in between, each part exudes distinct characteristics, enriching the narrative of the piece. The final movement It All Comes Together is cyclical, and features the theme from not only the first three movements (which served as the motif for the three solo pieces by Molly, Bryan and Owen preceding this piece), but also quoting India’s Tessellation and Ye’kwana folk tune (as an homage to her first collaboration with JCMC, where Ye Jin arranged Ye’kwana folk tune as a cello duet, the first of its kind)

Ye Jin Min, a violinist-composer at the New World Symphony and pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at Yale School of Music, shares her musical passion with audiences worldwide. Her performances as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player have taken her across the USA, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico and South Korea. Ye Jin’s compositions premiered at Catalyst 2023 by Knight Foundation (performed with “Koriobots” by Dr. Madeline Gannon), the New World Center, Davos Music Festival, and the Miami Children’s Museum.

Guided by a profound appreciation for contemporary and underrepresented composers, Ye Jin seeks new ways of engaging audiences, collaborating across disciplines to create novel musical experiences.

IG: @yejinminviolin
https://linktr.ee/yejinmin

Owen Ruff is a first-year violin Fellow at the New World Symphony. An avid supporter of contemporary music, Owen has given the world premiere performances of Cody McVey’s Violin Concerto as soloist and Lightning Jar for solo violin, Noa Beazley’s String Quartet, and Nick Bergstrom’s Thalassophobia for violin and electronics. As composer, Owen has also premiered two works for solo violin, four electronic pieces, and most recently, a string quartet entitled Poem in Four Parts. He holds music degrees from Northwestern University and The University of Texas at Austin.

A repeat extra musician in the Kansas City Symphony, as well as the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Omaha Symphony, Bryan Bailey is honored to be a second year fellow at the New World Symphony. Mr. Bailey studied at Indiana University, and was the principal bass of the New York String Orchestra Seminar under Jaime Laredo. 

Australian musician and audio engineer India Hooi is a second-year Audio/Video fellow at the New World Symphony. She specializes in recording and mixing classical and acoustic music and has worked on a broad range of sound design and composition projects. India graduated as a pianist from the University of Adelaide in Australia and studied sound production at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Denmark. India’s diverse musical activities include performing with prog-rock band Psychic Equalizer and jazz/musical comedy duo Indigo. An experienced choral singer, she recently performed with the Camerata Coral and Spanish renaissance choir Adamar. India enjoys learning musical instruments and dances from around the world.

Molly Turner is a conductor and a composer. She is currently the Conducting Fellow at the New World Symphony where she leads the orchestra in subscription, family, education, and holiday concerts.  Recently, she has also conducted the Orchestre de Paris, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, and Dallas Opera Orchestra. In her own compositions, Molly is interested in the balance between strictly dictated elements and aleatoric notation.  Her relationship to the standard repertoire is often integrated in subtle ways beneath the foreground. As a violinist and violist, she finds string instruments endlessly fascinating and improvisation is a core part of her writing process.

Mario Rivera is a Honduran-born third-year Viola Fellow at the New World Symphony. Prior to joining NWS, Mr. Rivera was a founding member of the Ajax Quartet, graduate querer-in-residence at the University of Colorado Boulder from 2017 to 2019 where they studied extensively with the Grammy Award-winning Takacs Quartet. Mario has collaborated with renowned musicians such as Alexander Kobrin, George Li, Sergiu Schwartz, Wendy Warner, Klaus Stoll, and has worked with the Jupiter, Escher, JACK, American and Pacifica string quartets. Mr. Rivera has performed at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall (Weil Recital Hall and Perelman Stage) and Sapporo Concert Hall Kitara and the New World Center.

A huge thank you to Victoria, Matthew, India and Dominique for administrative and technical help