Welcome to Musiqa’s online presentation of “Ignoble Dances” by Karim Al-Zand, premiering at 6:00 pm on October 1.

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Program Notes and Biographies

Ignoble Dances was written in 2020, and its music reflects upon that disconsolate year. The seven short dances draw musical influence from a variety of sources. The title of the first movement, Antemasque, refers to a “buffoonish dance” that precedes a masque, a courtly entertainment of the 16th century. Of course, the word has gained another meaning in 2020, one that is equally buffoonish. Here the flute plays an urgent tune over an obstinate bass (ostinato). Dance of Duplicity presents a wistful slow drag (a ragtime two-step) gradually undermined by repeated interruptions. Dance of Denial is based on the Italian tarantella, in which those bitten by the tarantula spider dance in a feverish trance until they collapse. Distanced Dance is a melancholy solo for flute alone. In J. B. Dances a Jig in the Gloom, a surprisingly cheerful flute tune emerges from the piano’s somber haze. Dog Whistle Dance features the piccolo and the highest register of the piano in strident rhythmic interplay. The set concludes with a pavan: a slow, stately Renaissance dance. In 1648, composer Thomas Tomkins wrote a lament in memory of King Charles I, entitled “Sad Pavan for These Distracted Tymes.” In my pavan, which draws on the Tomkins, it is the music that is distracted and the times that are sad.

— Karim Al-Zand

Karim Al-Zand, Composer
The music of Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand (b.1970) has been called “strong and startlingly lovely” (Boston Globe). His compositions are wide-ranging in influence and inspiration, encompassing solo, chamber, vocal and orchestral works. From scores for dance, to compositions for young people, to multi-disciplinary and collaborative works, Al-Zand’s music is diverse in both its subject matter and its audience. It explores connections between music and other arts, and draws inspiration from varied sources such as graphic art, myths and fables, folk music of the world, film, spoken word, jazz, and his own Middle Eastern heritage. Al-Zand’s music has enjoyed success in the US, Canada and abroad and he is the recipient of several national awards, including the “Arts and Letters Award in Music” from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a founding and artistic board member of Musiqa, Houston’s premier contemporary music group, which presents concerts featuring new and classic repertoire of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In his scholarly work, he has pursued several diverse areas of music theory, including topics in jazz, counterpoint, and improvisation (both jazz and 18th century extemporization). Al-Zand was born in Tunis, Tunisia, raised in Ottawa, Canada and educated in Montreal (McGill University, BMus 1993) and Cambridge (Harvard University, PhD 2000). Since 2000 he has taught composition and music theory in Houston at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University.
Matthew Roitstein, Flute

Matthew Roitstein is the Associate Principal Flutist of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Previously a member of the Honolulu Symphony, Sarasota Opera Orchestra, and New World Symphony, he has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dallas, Atlanta, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras. Summer festival appearances include Tanglewood, Aspen, Sarasota, Music Academy of the West, and Orchestra of the Americas.  Roitstein can be heard on recordings with the Houston Symphony and New World Symphony, as well as on Gloria Estefan’s album, The Standards. He recently recorded Studies in Nature, a trio for flute, harp and viola by composer Karim Al-Zand. Roitstein has taught extensively in the US and abroad, and he has been on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp since 2018. Originally from Valencia, California, he received his Bachelor’s Degrees in architecture and in music from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied flute with Seta Der Hohannesian. He received his Master’s Degree in flute performance with Leone Buyse at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Other influential teachers include Mark Sparks, Elizabeth Rowe, Stephen Kujala, Gary Woodward, Pedro Eustache, and Roitstein’s mother, Rosy Sackstein. Matthew Roitstein is a Powell Artist and plays on a handmade 14K Powell flute.

David Roitstein, Piano
Pianist and composer David Roitstein is the Jazz Program Director at California Institute of the Arts.  He received his degrees from the University of Miami.  As a young musician in the culturally diverse Florida city, Roitstein performed and recorded with a wide variety of artists, from Cuban wedding bands to emerging jazz talents such as Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, and Carmen Lundy.  He went on to work with many legendary singers including Mel Torme, Carmen McRae, and Frank Sinatra.

David moved to Los Angeles in 1981, and, together with the world-renowned bassist Charlie Haden, created the innovative and award-winning CalArts Jazz Program in 1983.  In 1990, with the support of Capitol Records and EMI Music, he established the annual CalArts Jazz CD project.  Since then, he has produced thirty CDs at Capitol Studios, documenting original compositions by CalArts students.  (http://jazzarchive.calarts.edu) While teaching and building the program, Roitstein continued to perform in clubs, concerts and tours, and as a studio musician for film, television and records.  Recent recordings include Conversations (Jazz Compass 1024), a duo CD with guitarist Larry Koonse (Best Albums of 2015 – Downbeat magazine), and Americana (Jazz Compass 1001) with Larry Koonse, Scott Colley, and Kendall Kay.  As a composer, he has produced two recordings of new works, featuring chamber music and jazz compositions.  (https://davidroitstein.com) In October 2007, Roitstein was designated the Mel Powell Chair at CalArts, one of four honorary endowed faculty chairs in the School of Music.