Stuart Saunders Smith: The Night Suite

Join us January 21–25 for five concerts — collectively called The Night Suite — that celebrate the life and creativity of composer Stuart Saunders Smith, who was professor of music at UMBC for many years. His more than 300 compositions, both solo and ensemble, explore a diverse world of sound and experimentation. A frequent author of percussion music, Smith returned time and again to the vibraphone, an instrument featured throughout The Night Suite. Performances over the five days will feature virtuosi Brian Graiser, Lee Hinkle, Aiyun Huang, Ayano Kataoka, Richard Putz, Stephen Solook, Jude Traxler, and others.

Wednesday, January 21, 7:30 p.m.
Plenty (2004), in 34 movements (“conversational version”)
Aiyun Huang, Richard Putz, and Brian Graiser, vibraphones

Thursday, January 22, 7:30 p.m.
New England (2011), in 11 movements
Ayano Kataoka, vibraphone

Friday, January 23, 7:30 p.m.
The Deep (2014), in 4 movements
Stephen Solook, vibraphone

Saturday, January 24, 7:30 p.m.
Two Ballads:
My Romance (2016) — Jude Traxler, vibraphone
Alone (2016) — Richard Putz, vibraphone

POSTPONED Sunday, January 25, 3 p.m. Because of the impending storm and UMBC’s closure on Sunday, this event will be rescheduled.
Commune, a concerto for vibraphone in four communes
Lee Hinkle, vibraphone, with Christopher Blossom, soprano saxophone; Lisa Cella, flute; Yoshi Horiguchi, double bass; Jeremy Keaton, cello; Thomas Moore, piano; Michelle Purdy, percussion; Max VanDerBeek, percussion; and Airi Yoshioka, violin.

Stuart Saunders Smith (1948–2024) was a confessional composer in the New England tradition. “My music is about my life,” he said. “I am after the particular, for the revelations of the particular speak to the universal. Composition, for me, is autobiographical. Composing means making sense of my person and personal history. I keep company with myself, and come to understand myself.”

Stuart Saunders Smith’s music is published by Sonic Art Editions (Smith Publications) and has been recorded on New World Records, 11 West Records, Centaur Records, Opus One Records, O.O. Discs, Cadenza, and GAC Sweden.

During his long career, Smith served on the faculty of the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Darmstadt Musikinstitut (Germany), Percussion Workshop Poland, and UMBC. He was in residence at the University of California San Diego, Yale University, Documenta 1992 (Kassel, Germany), the University of Gothenberg (Sweden), and New College Florida.

Smith did not compose using any pre-compositional systems or designs. Concerning his compositional process. Rather, with each piece, he proclaimed and reconsidered his core beliefs, sound by sound, in the context of decades of music-making. He held that each sound is intelligent, and, when listened to, could direct the course of events in the composition. In this way, he listened to each sound to tell him what sound should come next, until each piece was finished.