Claire Chase's Presser Project Expands to Include More New Music and Performers Story and Photo by Michael Chipman
	RELATED About the Composers and Performers  Claire Chase Wins 1999 Presser Music Award, Launches Project to Expand Flute Repertory in 2000		Flutist Claire Rose Chase, a senior from Leucadia, California, and student of Michel Debost, recently announced plans to expand her flute music composition and performance project, undertaken under the auspices of the Presser Foundation. "Originally, I had planned to split the $5,000 award among the costs of four commissions, travel expenses for each of the composers to be present at the April 21 premiere, and the reproduction and promotion of a recording as a culmination to the entire undertaking," says Chase. "Things have changed." The project will now include five world premieres, the most recent addition being a theatrical piece by Pauline Oliveros, professor of composition, written for Chase's Oberlin-based ensemble, The Elan Trio. That trio includes Chase, cellist Kivie Cahn-Lipman, a junior from Mount Vernon, New York, and Phyllis Chen (OC '99). Oliveros' piece will include a guest performance by soprano Tony Arnold (OC '92). Chase explains how the new commission evolved: "On a whim, our trio sent Pauline Oliveros a demo CD of some of our work, and to our delight, she responded immediately and enthusiastically about the prospect of writing a piece for us. Just around that time, Kivie and I attended Tony Arnold's guest recital at Oberlin, and we were floored by her performance. We got to know each other and each other's work over the next month, and Tony agreed to collaborate with us on the Oliveros commission. Oliveros' piece, which we'll begin working on in February, is scored for soprano, flute, cello and piano. As a trio, we're thrilled that we'll be working together again, and this time collaborating with a fabulous young performer like Tony as well as a celebrated pioneer in American music like Ms. Oliveros." Chase also announces that the recording process, scheduled for April 23-28 in Finney Chapel, will now be supervised by Michael Schulze, director of audio services, and engineered by Cathryn Lai. "I've made arrangements with a CD-duplication company to press 1000 promotional copies of the CD by the fall semester of 2000," says Chase. "These will be used for Oberlin's promotional use, and for the promotional use of all the performers and composers involved in the project. Who knows where this project may lead? It may be a terrifically exhausting and educational end in itself, or it may very well give birth to other expanded projects. We're ready for anything." One more change in Chase's original plans is that the two San Diego-based composers, John Fonville and Harvey Sollberger, cannot attend the April event because of conflicting performance schedules. "I will, however, be able to work personally with them during the last two weeks in March when I am in California for a recital tour," says Chase. "As far as I am concerned, no change needs to be perceived as a setback," says Chase. "The most exciting part of any creative process for me -- be it learning a Paganini caprice or managing an enormous and ridiculously ambitious project such as this one -- is the wonderful way in which an obstacle can, with a little imaginative maneuvering, become an avenue into something far more interesting than the original plan. "Some terrific alumni are returning for this event -- Campbell MacDonald will fly in from Los Angeles, where he currently studies with Mitchell Laurie; Phyllis Chen and Tony Arnold will arrive from Chicago; Nikki Bartniki, who is currently at Hart Conservatory, will fly in the third week in April; and Wendy Richman will drive over from CIM. The rest of the ensemble -- Dave Bowlin, Kivie Cahn-Lipman, Catherine Barrett, David Schotzco, Ericka Dicker and Mark Polesky -- will be working here in Oberlin throughout the semester. I'm very, very grateful to all of them. They are donating an enormous amount time, energy and, needless to say, their gifted musical spirits to this project." The commissioned works are in the process of composition right now. Chase describes a few of them: "Ruo Huang's piece, YEU FEI, is scored for flute, clarinet, string quartet, percussion and piano. We've already begun working on the first two movements. Matt Quayle's piece is scored for flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, harp, piano and percussion. Fonville's piece is for bass flute &emdash; an instrument which I am learning, with some difficulty, how to play (i.e., how to hold it without falling over) -- cello and marimba. Oliveros's piece, as I mentioned, is for flute, cello, piano and soprano. Sollberger is still unsure of his instrumentation, but we'll know soon. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be great." So, what does Chase see in the future for flute music of the 21st century? "I don't pretend to be a visionary in the sense that I have grand predictions for the future of our art," says Chase. "I am simply another kid with a bunch of crazy ideas and an irrepressible exuberance for life, culture and the changing ways in which that life is understood through its culture. As a performer, I believe I am here as an agent, an object, of great music -- music which is far greater than any 'great' performer. Performers die -- I'll die some day, maybe tomorrow! -- but music won't. I'm here to inspire composers to write that music, to give them the faith that, despite the success-hungry, performer/icon-oriented world in which we're making art today, they're not creating history alone."
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