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Chatter to play world premiere of 'Dream-Scherzo'
Composer Pierre Jalbert鈥檚 鈥淒ream-Scherzo鈥� will have its world premiere with Chatter.
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Houston-based composer Pierre Jalbert began writing piano pieces when he was 11 years old.
The sa国际传媒官网网页入口-based chamber music group Chatter will perform the world premiere of Jalbert鈥檚 鈥淒ream-Scherzo鈥� in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 on Sunday, Oct. 29.
The event marks the second time Jalbert has collaborated with Chatter. He wrote a piece called 鈥淎ll Is Now鈥� that was supposed to premiere in 2020.
鈥淚t ended up being written during the pandemic 鈥� when everything came to a halt,鈥� Jalbert said in a telephone interview from Houston.
鈥淒ream-Scherzo鈥� features an ensemble of clarinet, violin, cello and percussion acting as the 鈥渙rchestra.鈥�
鈥淭he form of the piece reflects the title,鈥� said Jalbert. 鈥淭he music kind of reminds me of a dream state. It鈥檚 very slow and lyrical and ethereal.鈥�
Music comes to him from varying sources, he added.
鈥淪ometimes a piece is inspired by something visual, like a landscape or an abstract painting,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ometimes it can be a poem or a passage from a prose book. I like to start with a musical kernel of an idea.鈥�
Born in Manchester, New Hampshire, to parents of French Canadian ancestry, Jalbert grew up in northern Vermont. He began piano lessons at the age of 5, immersing himself in the classical repertoire.
鈥淢y family didn鈥檛 own a piano,鈥� he said. 鈥淎ll my relatives were musical. They all played piano and guitar by ear. But nobody studied music formally. By the end of high school, I knew that was what I wanted to do.鈥�
Following undergraduate studies in piano and composition at Oberlin Conservatory, Jalbert earned a Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Pennsylvania under principal teacher George Crumb. He won the Rome Prize in 2000-2001, and earned the BBC Masterprize in 2001 for his orchestral work 鈥淚n Aeternam,鈥� selected from among more than 1,100 scores by a jury that included Marin Alsop, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Charles Mackerras. 鈥淚n Aeternam鈥� has been performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the National Symphony and the Orlando Philharmonic among others.
Harpsichordist Kathleen McIntosh will play the piece commissioned by Eleanor Eisenmenger for the Chatter ensemble.
Jalbert is professor of music at Rice University鈥檚 Shepherd School of Music in Houston, and he is a co-founder of Musiqa, a Houston-based new music collective.
He鈥檚 currently writing a clarinet quartet for the Dover Quartet and a new piece for Musiqa.
