Featuring
Sarmad Mahmood, voice
Matthew Adams, percussion
VIATORUM are:
Rami El-Farrah, saxophones
Berk Agar, guitar
Ethan Wickman, oud
Andrew Bergman, bass
Program
Ethan Wickman | Neşe (“Joy”)
Yurdal Tokcan (arr. Wickman) | Mutluluk (“Happiness”)
Berk Ağar | Alchemist
Manuel de Falla (arr. Viatorum) | “Nana” from Siete Canciones Populares Españoles
Traditional Andalusian (arr. Viatorum) | Lamma Bada Yatathana
Jamil Bashir (arr. Viatorum) | Shallalat (“Waterfalls”)
Yurdal Tokcan | Huzur (“Serenity”)
Traditional Azerbaijani | Girdim Yarin Bahçesine (“I Entered the Garden”)
José Luis Merlin | Evocaciones
Ethan Wickman | Prelude
Jonce Hristovski (arr. Wickman) | Makedonska Devjoce (“Macedonian Girl”)
Ethan Wickman | The Lost Horses of Autumn
Ethan Wickman | Longa Houdetsi
Lavtacı Andon | Hıcaz Mandıra
BIOS
Matthew Adams practices Entertainment Law in San Antonio, Texas. Adams represents talent; his clients include musicians, authors, film producers, artists, professors, teachers, students, and business entities. He regularly represents and counsels clients in the areas of copyright law, intellectual property, licensing, contract formation and negotiation, business entity and formation, and estate planning. Adams is an adjunct professor of music at the University of Incarnate Word, where he teaches Entertainment Law. Prior to entering the legal profession, Adams worked in higher education as a professor of music and an administrator. Matthew Adams earned his Bachelor of Science in Music Education at West Chester University, His Master of Music in Music Performance with a related field in Musicology from the University of North Texas, and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Saint Mary's University. Adams is a member of the Entertainment and Sports Law, Intellectual Property Law, Computer and Technology, and Alternative Dispute Resolution sections of the State Bar of Texas.
Born in Izmir, Turkey, Berk Ägar began his classical music education with private lessons in the classical guitar studying throughout middle school and high school. Mr. Agar continued his collegiate music education in theory and composition at Del Mar college in 2005. After completing his studies at Del Mar college in 2008, he attended Texas A&M University where he earned his Bachelor’s of Music in classical guitar performance under the professorship of Philip Hii. As well as a classical guitar, Mr. Agar performed and led the band Mundo who released their first album, “A New Beginning” in 2009. The band also went on to release more music in 2011, their second album was called “Oyun”. In 2011 Mr. Agar was accepted into the graduate program at the University of Texas at San Antonio under the professorship of Matthew Dunne. After earning his Master’s in Guitar Performance in 2014, Mr. Agar went on to teach at Palo Alto College where he thought classical guitar until 2018. Mr. Agar also recorded with a Turkish band Insiyatifand recorded their “Hayat” album. In 2016, he released his single called “Serendipity” with bassist Jim Kalson and percussionist Joe Caploe. Mr. Agar was appointed as the director of Northside Music School in San Antonio and owns and directs the Institute of Musical Arts of San Antonio. During his free time, Mr. Agar performs in many musıcal styles in venues all around Texas collaborating with many artists such as Juan Ortiz, Armin Marmolejo, Jim Kalson, and Joe Caploe.
Andrew Bergmann grew up in Massachusetts and has lived and traveled across Europe and North America working as a bassist, composer, producer, and bandleader. Andrew holds a B.A. in music from Brown University, a Second Phase Degree (Dutch equivalent of master’s) in jazz double bass performance from the Amsterdam Conservatory, and PhD in music composition from the University of Minnesota.
Andrew also remains active as a performer, composer and producer. His original jazz group Sued Nandayapa Bergmann Saunders recently released their first album on the record label Ropeadope Sur. Other ongoing projects that Andrew co-directs include Ghorar Deem Express , Troglodytes , and the San Antonio Ambient Orchestra. Andrew has also played acoustic bass on recent album releases by noted San Antonio artists Azul Barrientos, Aaron Prado, and Chris Guerrero and while producing and mixing the most recent release by Aaron Walker.
He is Assistant Professor of Production, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at the University of the Incarnate Word.
Dr. Rami El-Farrah is a concert saxophonist known for his solo performances and as a member of both the Bel Cuore Quartet and the Austin Saxophone Ensemble. He is the author of the Dynamic Duos for Saxophone series (published by MusePub) and the etude book 64 Musical Studies (published by Southern Music). As an award-winning soloist and chamber musician, Dr. El-Farrah has performed extensively across the United States and Europe. He has been featured on several musical albums, with recent releases from the Bel Cuore Quartet and the Austin Saxophone Ensemble. In addition to his concert performances, Dr. El-Farrah teaches saxophone at The University of Texas at San Antonio, where he also directs the university’s saxophone ensemble and teaches Jazz History.
Born in Tripoli, Libya Dr. El-Farrah’s emigration to Southern France and then to the U.S. shaped his worldview and work ethic with music. From the moment he started saxophone in his home town in San Diego, California, Rami knew it was his passion. From there he earned degrees from California State University, Fullerton and The University of Texas at Austin.
Currently, Dr. El-Farrah performs with groups such as the Austin Saxophone Ensemble, the Bel Cuore Quartet, the San Antonio Philharmonic, the Mid Texas Symphony, and the Symphony of the Hills. He also serves as the Associate Professor of Practice in saxophone at The University of Texas at San Antonio. As an arranger, Dr. El-Farrah continuously creates new works for his ensembles and others across the U.S., many of which have recorded his music, with some pieces appearing on the PML list.
Sarmad Mahmood is a vocalist, musician, and composer, born and raised in Tuz Khurmatu, Iraq. His passion for music began in childhood, though he only started formally learning and practicing music at the age of 22. Two years later, he took his musical journey more seriously after moving to Turkey, where he spent the next 10 years.
Sarmad is skilled in playing instruments such as the bouzouki and oud. In 2011, he won a competition for traditional Turkish music and later participated in the 2020 Turkvision Song Contest.
In addition to his music career, Sarmad holds a master’s degree in computer science from Gazi University in Ankara. He sings in multiple languages and has released several singles and music videos.
Described as a "composer of facility and imagination, the kind to whom both performers and audiences respond" (The New York Times), the music of oudist and composer Ethan Wickman (b. 1973) has been performed by soloists and ensembles in venues in the U.S. and around the world. He has received grants and commissions from the Barlow Endowment, Meet the Composer, the American Composers Forum, the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association, the Utah Arts Festival, the San Antonio Opera Guild, and Chicago's Music In The Loft where he was the 2014-15 Composer-In-Residence. He was awarded the Jacob Druckman prize for his orchestral work Night Prayers Ascending at the Aspen Music Festival, the Harvey Phillips Award for his work Summit from the International Tuba Euphonium Association, first place in the Utah Arts Festival Chamber Commission Competition, and was a finalist in the 25th annual ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Orchestral Composition Competition. He has received fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival, the Norfolk Contemporary Music Workshop/Yale Summer School of Music, the Wellesley Composers Conference, the American Composers Orchestra/Earshot New Music Readings, and from the U.S. State Department as a Fulbright Fellow in Madrid, Spain. His recordings have garnered critical acclaim such as "the most attractive new string quartet I have heard in a long while" (Fanfare), "epic and dreamy" (The New York Times), "absorbing" (American Record Guide), and possessing "stunning breadth and poise" (Time Out Chicago).
Wickman holds a DMA in composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, with additional degrees from Boston University (MM) and Brigham Young University (BM). In addition, he studied modal music composition at the Labyrinth Workshop on Crete with Ross Daly, oud with an emphasis on the musics of Egypt and Iraq with Egyptian virtuoso Ramy Adly, and Turkish oud with Yurdal Tokcan in Istanbul.
NOTES
Neşe, or “Joy” was composed as a companion work to Yurdal Tokcan’s effervescent and ebullient Mutluluk (“Happiness). As a student of Yurdal in Istanbul during the 2023-24 academic year, oud technique and the Turkish makam (or modes) were always applied to repertoire that he would choose. Upon returning to the US, and looking forward to reuniting with my colleagues in Viatorum, I wanted to create a short work, possessing similar energy, that could be performed with my teacher’s piece. Modal references and scales are heard throughout the work, yet it is not without its casting in Western-style three part (fast-slow-fast) form with flourishes of counterpoint.
Mutluluk (“Happiness”) by Turkish oudist and composer Yurdal Tokcan, is a brief but blistering showpiece that is as musically satisfying as it is virtuosic. One of the most important Turkish ud players and composers of the modern era, Tokcan’s music makes ample use of the elaborate Turkish makam (modal) system in a way that is faithful to tradition, but no less dynamic in its contemporary relevance. A longtime member of the Turkish State Folk Ensemble, Tokcan taught a generation of students at the Istanbul Technical Conservatory, has toured the world as a soloist and with Spanish cellist and gamba player Jordi Savall.
Inspired by one of the potential band names that preceded Viatorum, Alchemist is an inviting, lush, and lyrical work by Viatorum’s guitarist, Berk Ağar. Its asymmetrical 7/8 meter, dulcet guitar arpeggiations, and a patiently unfolding modal melody, the work amply demonstrates the composers Turkish roots, as well as his vast experience with Western classical music and jazz.
Spanish composer Manuel de Falla’s Siete Canciones Populares Españoles (“Seven Popular Spanish Songs”) are a beloved collection originally written for voice and piano and ultimately transcribed for other instrumental combinations. The short Andalusian lullaby featured here, “Nana,” lulls an imagined child to sleep. Modal pitch inflections and a filigree of melodic ornaments are characteristic not only of Flamenco music, but of a more ancient music rooted in the Islamic Al-Andalus lasting from the 8th to the 15th centuries
Lamma Bada Yatathana, programmed here just after de Falla’s Andalusian lullaby, dates from the 14th century. Based on a muwashshah, or strophic poem originating in Al-Andalus, the melodic turns and ornaments mark this work as an ancestral kindred of the latter. This performance features a characteristic taqsim, or structured modal improvisation typical of Arabic and Turkish music.
While music of the region is often referred to in the West as “Arabic,” there are, in fact, significant regional distinctions to be made between musics of the Maghreb (north Africa), the Levant (Syria, Saudi Arabia), and civilizations further east, including Iraq. One of Iraq’s great oud teachers and composers of the 20th century was Jamil Bashir. Part of a musical family that included his brother, Munir (internationally renowned oudist and composer), Jamil taught at the Baghdad Conservatory for much of his professional life. Many Iraqi oud players, including Jamil and Munir, pioneered an exciting and virtuosic technique that blended the flourish of Flamenco styles with Iraqi iterations of the Arabic modal system, and a tone color that was much closer to Turkish styles than that of their Arab counterparts. Viatorum’s arrangement of Shallalat or “Waterfalls,” is a brief, engaging work that displays the virtuosity of our saxophonist, Rami El-Farrah.
Yurdal Tokcan’s peaceful ballad for solo oud, Huzur (“Serenity”) is ideally suited for the expressive and resonant Turkish ud. The interplay between the articulations of pitches, and the heavy silences in between, demonstrate a poignant conversation within a liminal space. A form known as a “saz semai,” Huzur is composed in a 10/8 meter in a verse and refrain structure.
The Azerbaijani folk song “Girdim Yarin Bahçesine” (“I entered the garden”) is an enchanting folk song of unrequited love. Viatorum shares it here in an reduced instrumentation featuring oud, guitar, and voice.
Argentinian guitarist and composer José Luis Merlin’s Evocaciones signals the composer’s skill as a “poet of the guitar” (https://www.joseluismerlin.com/about). Brief and sonorous, it is an ideal complement to Mission San Jose’s resonant acoustics.
Jonce Hristovski’s Makedonska (“Macedonian Girl”) is preceded by a thematically adjacent prelude composed by Ethan Wickman. The popular Macedonian tune (arranged by Wickman) sets the tuneful saxophone melody before a layering of interlocking guitar and oud over a pulsing foundation in bass and percussion.
The Lost Horses of Autumn by Ethan Wickman, title is drawn from a line in a poem by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, represents the first original work composed for Viatorum. This early work from the group explores the capabilities of its eastern instrument (grooving oud) in a rich harmonic and contrapuntal texture. In many ways this piece came to define Viatorum’s aspiration to faithfully adhere to its diverse instrumental consort’s strengths and abilities in the spirit of a kind of radical aesthetic inclusion.
Longa Houdetsi, also by Wickman, was composed on the island of Crete (in the village of Houdetsi) during a weeklong workshop on modal music composition. Each morning, workshop participants would study a mode or combination of modes. In the afternoons, participants composed a new work based on that modal combination. In the evening, participants would play their new works for the class. It took this composer a few days to exorcise the Western musical modernism from his palette before he finally got it ‘right.’ This is that work, subsequently arranged for Viatorum.
Lavtacı Andon, of Greek origin, was a Turkish oud player and composer who died in the first years of the Turkish Republic. An important creative voice that preserves much of the sound and color of the Ottoman period, his Hıcaz Mandıra is a lively and rambunctious concert closer. Its modular melody and insistent 7/8 pulsating rhythm dares its interpreters to not play it faster and faster and faster…
—Ethan Wickman