Aleksandra Vrebalov
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Score and Parts -
Violin 1
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Violin 2
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Viola
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Cello
Program Notes
My Desert, My Rose
(2015)
Aleksandra Vrebalov
(b. 1970)
Composed for
50 For The Future:
The Kronos Learning
Repertoire
Artist Statement
“My Desert, My Rose consists of a series of patterns open in length, meter, tempo, and dynamics, different for each performer. The unfolding of the piece is almost entirely left to each performer’s sensibility and responsiveness to the parts of other members of the group. Instinct and precision are each equally important in the performance of the piece. The patterns are (notated as) suggested rather than fixed musical lines, so the flow and the length of the piece are unique to each performance. The lines merge and align to separate and then meet again, each time in a more concrete and tighter way. The piece ends in a metric unison, like a seemingly coincidental meeting of the lines predestined to reunite. It is like a journey of four characters that start in distinctly different places, who, after long searching and occasional, brief meeting points, end up in the same space, time, language.
“The writing of this piece, in a form as open and as tightly coordinated at the same time, was possible thanks to 20 years of exposure to rehearsal and performance habits of the Kronos Quartet, a group for which I have written 13 out of 14 of my pieces involving string quartet.”
Aleksandra Vrebalov
Composer Interviews
Aleksandra Vrebalov discusses her musical background, her relationship with Kronos, the piece she wrote for 50 for the Future, and more.
I love the opening of Aleksandra's piece—it's notated, but the timing is left to each individual's discretion, so you have to really use your ear to figure out how to make your part fit with the rest of the quartet. It's truly a group effort to make those decisions, and every group will do it differently. Once you come to your own interpretation, you really get to own it."
Hank Dutt
Violist, Kronos QuartetComposition Process
Aleksandra Vrebalov begins her composition process by drawing and painting the images, colors, and textures she envisions for her piece. Through these drawings, she is able to reveal the shape of her composition and the timing of specific events, as well as each player’s movements and reactions to one another, all of which is gradually translated into musical notation. Watch her Composer Interviews above to learn more about her process.
You can tell that music has been inhabiting Aleksandra's life in a beautiful, beautiful way. We've had so many singular experiences with Aleksandra—I remember going with her to visit the Kovilj Monastery in Serbia, which was just off-the-charts amazingly beautiful. I've always felt that the opening to My Desert, My Rose is in some way an homage or reflection of what we experienced in the monastery that day."
David Harrington
Artistic Director, Kronos Quartet
You can tell that music has been inhabiting Aleksandra's life in a beautiful, beautiful way. We've had so many singular experiences with Aleksandra—I remember going with her to visit the Kovilj Monastery in Serbia, which was just off-the-charts amazingly beautiful. I've always felt that the opening to My Desert, My Rose is in some way an homage or reflection of what we experienced in the monastery that day."
David Harrington
Artistic Director, Kronos QuartetArtist’s Bio
Aleksandra Vrebalov
Serbia / USA
Aleksandra Vrebalov, a native of the former Yugoslavia, left Serbia in 1995 and now lives in New York City. She has written more than 80 works, ranging from concert music, to opera and modern dance, to music for film. Her works have been commissioned and/or performed by the Kronos Quartet, Serbian National Theater, Carnegie Hall, Moravian Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic and Providence Festival Ballet. Vrebalov is a fellow of MacDowell Colony, Rockefeller Bellagio Center, New York’s New Dramatists, American Opera Projects, Other Minds Festival, and Tanglewood. Her awards include The Harvard Fromm Commission, The American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Fellowship, Barlow Endowment Commission, MAP Fund, Vienna Modern Masters, Meet the Composer, and Douglas Moore Fellowship. Her works have been recorded for Nonesuch, Cantaloupe, Innova, Centaur Records, Vienna Modern Masters and Ikarus Films.
Vrebalov’s collaborative work with director Bill Morrison, Beyond Zero (1914–1918), was commissioned and premiered by Kronos at U.C. Berkeley’s Cal Performances in April 2014 and had its European premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival that summer. Her string quartet …hold me, neighbor, in this storm… was written for and recorded by Kronos for the album Floodplain. Her string quartet Pannonia Boundless, also for Kronos, was published by Boosey & Hawkes as part of the Kronos Collection, and recorded for the album Kronos Caravan. In 2018, Vrebalov wrote Missa Supratext for Kronos and SF Girls Chorus.
Vrebalov’s cross-disciplinary interests led to participation at residencies and fellowships that include the MacDowell Colony, Djerassi, The Hermitage, New York’s New Dramatists, Rockefeller Bellagio Center, American Opera Projects, Other Minds Festival, and Tanglewood. Between 2007 and 2011, Vrebalov created and led Summer in Sombor (Serbia), a weeklong composition workshop with the South Oxford Six composers’ collective that she co-founded in 2002 in NYC. The workshop facilitated the creation of over fifty new works by young composers from Europe and the USA. Most recently, Vrebalov joined Muzikhane (House of Music) founded by composer Sahba Aminikia in Mardin and Nusaybin, towns on Turkish/Syrian border, and made music with young refugees from Syria and Iraq.
As a Serbian expat Vrebalov is the recipient of the Golden Emblem from the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for lifelong dedication and contribution to her native country’s culture.
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