Tamaki 環季
The Cycle of Seasons
A premiere of original string music, written by Joe Hay
as a birthday gift to Tamaki
Friday, October 10
6pm; Doors at 5:30
The Hallowed Halls
4420 SE 64th Ave, Portland, OR 97206 (link to address)
Featuring the talent of
four musicians from
Columbia River Strings:
Casey Bozell, violin / viola
Jenny Estrin, violin
Amy Roesler, viola
Dylan Rieck, cello
Cost: This concert is free!
Please invite your friends and pass the info along to anyone you think would be interested.
In 2014, when I was studying composition at the University of New Mexico, my friend Taylor asked if I could write a piece to celebrate the birthday of his 1-year-old daughter, Amane. The result was Amane, a piece for clarinet, cello, and – because “Amane” means “the sound of rain” in Japanese – recorded rain sounds.
Five years later, for the second addition to the family, I wrote Morika, for flute and string trio. “Morika” means “the scent of the forest.”
The family is now stronger by one more young lady with an awesome, poetic name, and so we are premiering a new work: Tamaki 環季 The Cycle of Seasons, for string quartet. The seasons show up frequently in the world of music, and I wanted to approach it a little differently. Rather than sticking with the traditional four, Tamaki is a fantasia in one movement that meditates on not only the many-faceted changes of the revolving year, but places them within the larger movements that make up the seasons of the stars and galaxies.
Please join us at The Hallowed Halls on Friday, October 10th, at 6 pm for the premiere of this new piece, performed by Columbia River Strings. They’ll also be performing two others: The Root Takes Hold, for string quartet; and Jökull, for two violas. And the show will begin with a viola solo meditation, which I’ll be playing myself. Hope to see you there!
Links to music:
Amane, for clarinet and cello (Soundcloud Audio)
Amane, for clarinet and cello (Youtube)
Morika, for flute, violin, viola, and cello (Soundcloud Audio)
Morika, for flute, violin, viola, and cello (Youtube)
Jökull, for two violas (Soundcloud Audio)
Jökull, for two violas (Youtube)
The Root Takes Hold, for string quartet (Soundcloud Audio)
Concert Program
I. Meditation, for viola solo (2025)
Joe Hay, viola
[around 5 minutes]
II. The Root Takes Hold (2018)
for string quartet
[around 9 minutes]
III. Jökull (Glacier), for two violas (2013)
Amy Roesler, viola
Casey Bozell, viola
[around 5 minutes]
IV. Tamaki 環季 The Cycle of Seasons (2025)
for string quartet
[around 16 minutes]
[Total concert time: around 35 minutes]
Notes on Pieces
I. Meditation
This is a reworking of some themes I developed in a mostly improvised piece I performed in 2018, in Denver, at the premier of The Root Takes Hold. I’ve rearranged it just for this concert. Though rearranged isn’t the right word, because the form was always flexible and not written down. Some aspects will be known ahead of time, and some will be improvised.
II. The Root Takes Hold
A piece I wrote and produced in Denver in 2018. The performance and recording were made possible due to the support of my friend Karli Rhind, a violist who had studied at UNM at the same time as me, several years earlier.
The title refers to a sense of longing I’ve had my whole life, a feeling of displacement and restlessness that has led me to wander. Arriving and leaving and arriving always follow one another. I’m always wondering: what are we able to hold on to, in this life, and who or what does the grasping?
You may of course visualize whatever you want, but there is no specific image, story or explanation for this piece – it’s built of pure feeling.
III. Jökull (Glacier), for two violas
In November 2010, I took a solo trip to Iceland. One day, I found myself attempting to hitchhike across the southeastern part of the island, amid fierce winds blowing off the massive Vatnajökull glacier perched high up in the mountains. I was literally unable to stand upright along the highway, at one point needing to crawl. So, taking the advice of a kind farmer who invited me in for coffee, I decided to pack it in, bum a ride to the nearest town, and warm up in a youth hostel (in which I was the only guest). That change of plan was a strong reminder of nature’s power and its total indifference to the plans of a small human being. Is this power malevolent or compassionate? I think it’s neither – those concepts are very small and human, too – and this neutrality is what makes that power so beautiful, daring us to approach and seek it out.
Riding in the cab of a semi the next day, I looked out across a lagoon populated with small, chunky icebergs, which had broken off from the glacier in turbulent and dramatic shapes. I was enamored, warm, perfectly safe, infinitely charmed.
IV. Tamaki 環季 The Cycle of Seasons
The background of Tamaki is described up top.
Below are the various sections of the piece. The ideal “cycle of seasons” I envisioned is an amalgamation of the seasons you would experience in Santa Fe (Tamaki’s hometown) and what you’d experience in Portland. I think most of the headings are self-explanatory, but a couple of them deserved footnotes.
- Introduction
- Early Spring
- Hanami*
- Summer Begins
- The Desperate Need to Get Outside**
- Midsummer
- Autumn
- Waking to Snow
- Winter
- Solstice
- There are seasons for the planets in their orbits,
- the bright galaxies,
- the death and birth of stars,
- and everything that lives.
- Conclusion
* Hanami (花見 in Japanese, lit. “flower viewing”) is the Japanese tradition of enjoying the transience of flowers, particularly the blooming of cherry blossoms from late March to early May, depending on the year and latitude.
** This is the summer FOMO experienced by all Pacific Northwesterners at the first hint of sunlight in late spring. The feeling usually both arrives earlier in the year and holds on longer than is warranted. I feel it should be resisted somewhat, to avoid collapsing the year into two seasons: misery and frenzy. The phenomenon is a lot gentler in Santa Fe, or perhaps nonexistent, because the sun is almost always out.
Artist Bios
Joe Hay, composer / viola
Joe Hay is a writer and composer based in Portland, Oregon. He studied humanities at St. John’s College in Santa Fe and Annapolis and music composition at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque
Joe also performs. His instruments have included violin, viola, piano, accordion, taiko drums, and tin whistle.
His music has found its way into concert halls, art galleries, bars, farmer’s markets, festivals, weddings, and sushi restaurants, among other places.
Joe’s core values as an artist are intuition, recognizable structure, deep feeling, and play. His wish is to write music and words that are beautiful, fun, and effortless to appreciate.
Casey Bozell, violin / viola
Charismatic violinist and classical music presenter Casey Bozell offers performances and music experiences which engage and inspire audiences across the Pacific Northwest. She is the concertmaster of both the Newport Symphony and Orchestra Nova Northwest, and is also a member of the Oregon Ballet Theater. Recent solo engagements include appearances with the Newport Symphony, Orchestra Nova Northwest, Beaverton Symphony, and the Central Oregon Chamber Orchestra. Her podcast, Keep Classical Weird, has enjoyed over 20,000 downloads in 90 countries. These fascinating episodes cover a wide variety of intriguing topics cherry-picked from the world of classical music, and broken down in inventive, relatable ways. Her connection with her audiences has continued into her Digital Program Notes, already in use by regional orchestras to increase audience engagement for upcoming live concerts.
Jenny Estrin, violin
https://www.instagram.com/daydreamingjenny
Amy Roesler, viola
Amy is honored to play a small part in presenting Tamaki to the world. Favorite past highlights include playing bass for Liberace & Liza: A Tribute and In the Heights and at Portland Center Stage. Since moving back to Portland, Amy has also performed on violin, viola, and bass for shows at Lakewood Center for the Arts, Stumptown Stages, and Broadway Rose Theater Company. She has also played for cabarets and variety shows, as well as local orchestras, with genres ranging from classical, jazz, rock, and bluegrass. Amy is especially grateful for the many people in the music and theater communities who have helped her find her footing in Portland.
Dylan Rieck, cello
Cellist and composer Dylan Rieck is principal cellist for the Portland Opera orchestra. He has performed over 800 concerts in 15 countries globally. Dylan’s original compositions span a wide range of musical styles and convey a sense of exploration and urgency. He has taught cello and music theory lessons to students from elementary school through university levels. An avid collaborator, Dylan finds inspiration from working with artists in many fields to blend ideas into rich tapestries of new work.
Acknowledgements
First, there’s the Family: Taylor, Ayumi, Amane, Morika, and Tamaki (not to forget Dick and Janet) – who are collectively the source of this project and ongoing support for bringing my music as well as a unique kind of joy into the world.
Next, Justin and Deanna Phelps, and the other hard-working staff at Hallowed Halls, for both giving the music a space in Portland and a digital voice so others can hear it elsewhere in the world.
Rhianna Feeny has also been an invaluable help, insisting that Portland would, in fact, be the best place for the concert and offering essential effort and enthusiasm to make it happen here.
Mathew Arrellin founder of Sound Painters studio and coach – and Ilse MacLean – Sound Painters Studio member – provided many valuable hours of listening, criticism, and encouragement over Zoom while I wrote Tamaki.
I want to thank the musicians again, and give a special mention of Rebecca Willis, Entertainment Manager at Columbia River Strings, who did a lot of the work of scheduling and working out the details for the recording session and concert.
Finally, a shout out to Erin Eichenberger, who shared some of my life (and stress) and helped to keep my heart nourished while I wrote the piece.