Eric Schultz premieres Armando Bayolo’s newest work, On Becoming Ungathered (Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra) conducted by Chris Hisey

Armando Bayolo, On Becoming Ungathered
Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
Eric Schultz, clarinet
Christopher Hisey, conductor
Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras

From the composer:

I like Carl Sagan’s idea that we are all “stardust.” The matter that makes our bodies—and the atoms that make up our bodies—was forged in the maelstrom of the furnaces within the stars. Matter cannot be destroyed, either; it simply gets redefined. Recycled, if you will, into other things in the same maelstrom that formed it. In this way we are, each of us, eternal.

In On Becoming Ungathered, our stardust nature is given musical life in two movements connected by a wild cadenza from the soloist. The first movement is structured around four “elemental fanfares”: the first for water, or rain (woodwinds); the second for earth (percussion); the third for fire (brass); and the fourth for wind (strings and woodwinds and brass). In between, the clarinet dances and sings playfully, sometimes angrily and dramatically. The universe itself contemplating its existence, perhaps (in another Saganism). As the musical material around it disintegrates—literally, in wind being blown through woodwind and brass instruments—the clarinet’s wildness gives way to meditation and melancholy.

The slow movement is built around two ideas: a “nocturne” and an “aria.” These are each made up of material first heard in the first movement, but transformed like matter within a star. The concerto concludes in quiet, contemplative apotheosis.

On Becoming Ungathered was commissioned by Eric Schultz and Coastal Carolina University. It was composed in the fall of 2024 in Florissant, Missouri and Urbana, Illinois, and is dedicated, with gratitude and friendship, to Eric Schultz.

—Armando Bayolo

Born in 1973 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, composer Armando Bayolo has been hailed for his “suggestive aural imagination” (El Nuevo Día) in works that are “full of lush ideas and a kind of fierce grandeur, (unfolding) with subtle, driving power” (The Washington Post).

Mr. Bayolo’s music is routinely performed throughout the world. He has received important commissions from the Aspen Music Festival, the South Jutlands Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Nacional de Venezuela, the Greater Connecticut Youth Symphony, the Western Piedmont Symphony, the National Gallery of Art, Washington Chorus, Washington Choral Arts Society, and the wind ensembles of San Jose State University, Rowan University, Montclair State University, The College of New Jersey, Hartwick College, Oregon State University, The University of Oregon, The Ohio State University, The University of Maryland, and The Eastman School of Music, among many others.

Mr. Bayolo is an “adventurous, imaginative and fiercely committed” (The Washington Post) advocate for contemporary music in American culture. He is the founder of the Great Noise Ensemble, a group he led to become the premiere contemporary music ensemble in Washington, D.C. and one of the most important new music ensembles in the U.S. His cello concerto, Orfei Mors and the cantata, Kaddish:Passio:Rothko, were each nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in music.

Mr. Bayolo’s music can be heard on the Sono Luminus, Innova, New Focus, and Great Noise labels and is published by his own imprint, Olibel Music and available through Murphy Music Press and his web site, www.armandobayolo.com.

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Eric Schultz is an American clarinetist acclaimed for his concerto performances, inventive chamber collaborations, and trailblazing interpretations of new music. He maintains an active concerto schedule performing with orchestras across the globe and can be seen and heard from Netflix to National Public Radio.

Through bold collaborations with today’s most innovative composers, Schultz is a driving force in shaping the future of the clarinet. He has premiered over 50 groundbreaking solo and chamber works, many written for and dedicated to him, dramatically expanding the instrument’s repertoire and expressive range. Dubbed a “superstar muse” by renowned composer Amanda Harberg and “a sensation” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano, Schultz is known for his liquid, soulful tone quality and singular abilities on the instrument including limitless technical facility, improvisations that span many dialects, and an impossible five-octave range through the stratosphere celebrated as “screaming clarinet.”

As an educator, Schultz encourages an individualized, project-based and passion-fueled creative approach to music learning while advocating for living composers and expanding repertoire lists toward a more intentionally inclusive and relevant future model. He is the creator of The [REP] Project, advocating for a broader diversity of composers in collegiate music study by intensely focusing on and commissioning one living American composer every year. Hailed a “mastermind” in the Myrtle Beach Herald and a “pathfinder” by iconic American composer Valerie Coleman, he is known for his transformational masterclasses with recent residencies at the Yale School of Music, Conservatorio de Música Piazzolla in Buenos Aires, Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, New York University, California State University Fullerton, The Juilliard School, and more.

Schultz serves as Associate Professor of Clarinet at Coastal Carolina University, where he is coordinator of the woodwind area and director of the Center for Collaborative Research. His debut solo album POLYGLOT, released by Navona Records, showcases a collection of virtuosic new works written for him. I Care If You Listen of the American Composers Forum praised the album, highlighting a “keen sense of lyricism” and “uncommon sensitivity and precision of expression.” Schultz completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance at Stony Brook University. As a Buffet Crampon performing artist, he performs exclusively on Buffet Crampon clarinets. @ericschultzclarinet

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Music Director and Alumnus of the Greater Connecticut Youth Orchestras (GCTYO), Christopher James Hisey, has conducted concerts throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico and China with such notable musicians as Sir James Galway, Tim Janis, Jackie Evancho, James Dunham, Chris Finckel and Deborah Wong.

In addition to his duties with GCTYO, Maestro Hisey serves as Music Director of the American Chamber Orchestra, is Co-founder and Music Director of the Connecticut Philharmonic, and was recently named Music Director of the Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut. He has also served as Music Director of the Civic Orchestra of New Haven, Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra, Troupers Light Opera Company, and Perrysburg Symphony Chorale, and as Associate Conductor of the Perrysburg Symphony, Bowling Green Philharmonia and Opera Theater Orchestras.

Maestro Hisey has been a guest and cover conductor of the Greater Bridgeport Symphony and has made appearances with the Ruse Philharmonic and Pleven Philharmonic in Bulgaria, and the St. Petersburg “Klassika” Symphony, formerly the Leningrad State Philharmonic, in St. Petersburg, Russia.

A champion of new music, Maestro Hisey frequently premieres new works. Emmy award-winning composer Rex Cadwallader recently said of Maestro Hisey’s work, “He is an advocate for new music, and a caring and careful medium through whom my music has been brought gracefully and powerfully to life.“

A passionate and sought after music educator, Maestro Hisey frequently appears as guest adjudicator and clinician at schools and festivals throughout the region. His student orchestras have won top prizes in competition and have been invited to appear at Carnegie Hall, NAFME Eastern Music Festival and other festivals and concerts in the United States and abroad. He has served as Professor of Conducting, Orchestration and Music Director of the Orchestra at Manhattanville College and Professor of Conducting and Music Director of the Orchestra at Fairfield University.

Maestro Hisey is currently the Chairman of the Performing Arts Department and has been Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music at Greens Farms Academy in Westport for more than 20 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Viola Performance from the Eastman School of Music and a master’s degree in Conducting from Bowling Green State University. He has been fortunate to study conducting with Emily Freeman Brown, David Effron, Gustav Meier, Donald Portnoy, and Donald Hunsberger.