Memories of New York

for alto saxophone, percussion, viola, violoncello, and contrabass

total duration app. 15 minutes

1. Fanfare at Grand Central – 1:15
2. Looking South Across the JKO Reservoir – 2:30
3. The Taxi Ballet – 1:30
4. Sleazy Dudes with Designer Dudes – 3:30
5. The Times Square Charmin Bathroom – 1:30
6. The Scene in the Village – 1:30
7. The Saw Mill Road Race – 3:15

Program Notes:

Memories of New York was written for the Sophisticates, a new music ensemble based in Hartford, CT.

As the title suggests, Memories of New York is a collection of some of more indelible memories from my early visits to New York City. My first visit was in the fall of 2004, shortly after moving to Hartford, CT for graduate school. Rob Cimitile, another Hartt grad student let me accompany him when he went in for a visit.

Over time and other visits I established a few places where I enjoyed spending time: the reservoir in Central Park from which a great panorama of New York emerged, Battery Park and the exciting commerce emerging out of fanny packs, briefcases and garbage sacks, the one remaining dirty brick in Grand Central station, a reminder of the days when all the trains ran on coal…, a ridiculous evening where I spent thirty minutes in line to use the Charmin bathroom in Times square, all the fun restaurants and interesting people that populated Greenwich Village, and the Saw Mill Parkway, a twisting, bulbous road that I am convinced is the basis for most driving video games… Of course there are many more memories of New York, for each time I go I encounter a new adventure, but for the present these are the ones that stuck in my mind. Enjoy!

-Ryan Jesperson
March 2011

Memories of New York has not yet been premiered.

Spring, 2013: The UMKC Opera Dept. will perform portions of Songs from Behind the Curtain.

Fall, 2012: Joseph Abad will perform Icarus in Hartford, CT.

Fall, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories with the HICO Orchestra in CT.

fall, 2012: Bobby Watson and the UMKC Big Band will premiere Rhapsody for Dean Moriarty in Kansas City, MO.

fall, 2012: Ashly Evans will premiere Birdsongs in Houston, TX.

Spring-Summer, 2012: Jeux pour Jumeaux will be performed in San Francisco, CA.

June 7th, 2012: BA(da)SS will be performed by Ryan Ford in West Hartford, CT.

June 7th, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

June 7th, 2012: Chris Belluscio will perform Boombox Serenade in West Hartford, CT.

June 7th, 2012: Not Death, but Love will be premiered by Ineo Saxophone Quartet.

June, 2012: The Invisible, Magic, Soccer Phone will be premiered in Middlefield, CT.

June 7th, 2012: Joseph Abad will premiere Icarus in Hartford, CT.

May 27th, 2012: Jordan Jacobson will perform fragments and memories in CT.

May 6th, 2012: "Indeed this very Love" from Sonnets from the Portuguese will be broadcast on kineticsradio.com.

Dec. 3rd, 2011: Ryan defends his dessertation, Songs from Behind the Curtain at UMKC.

July 17th, 21st, 24th, 2011: Music Faculty from the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival will perform ...and those seven dwarfs in a series of concerts in Western Maine.

June 16th, 17th, 23rd, 24th, 2011:Orphée Redux will be performed by Rhymes With Opera on their East Coast Tour (NYC, Baltimore, Hartford, Boston).

June 12th, 2011:Selection from Songs from Behind the Curtain will be performed at the John Duffy Composers Institute in Norfolk, VA.

May 13th, 2011: The Ineo Quartet will perform the 1st movement of Not Death, but Love on their Fischoff Competition program in South Bend, Indiana.

March 19th, 2011: The Ineo Saxophone Quartet will perform ...and love is fire... from Not Death, but Love at the NASA conference in West Point, NY.

Feb. 25th, 2011: I. Jest will be premiered by Robert Olson and the UMKC Orchestra in Kansas City, MO.

Feb. 14th, 2011: Hebdomas Squatinae will be performed at the Nebraska at Kearney New Music Festival.

EVENT HISTORY