Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025  •  7:30 p.m.

Timashev Recital Hall
Columbus, OH

Double Reed Faculty Artists

Abby Yeakle Held, oboe 
Jesse Schartz, bassoon

Guest Artist

Shine Wu Robison, piano 
 

Up and Away

Dr. Abby Yeakle Held, oboe, and Prof. Jesse Schartz, bassoon, present a program of double reed repertoire by living composers. The program is built around and inspired by Alyssa Morris’ Trio, Up and Away, The Story of a Balloon. Through this piece comes themes of breathing, air, life, mental health, heights, and more. These themes serve as a connective thread and are echoed in the other program selections. Won't you come "Up and Away" with us?

Divertimento II for Oboe and Bassoon

Bill Douglas (b. 1944)

I.    Soaring
II.   Spectrum of Violet
III.  Leap

Bill Douglas is Canadian bassoonist/pianist/composer born in London, Ontario. As a bassoonist he has played with the Toronto and New Haven Symphonies, and has recorded three RCA albums with Peter Serkin and Tashi. As a pianist he has toured and recorded with vibraphonist Gary Burton and bassist Eddie Gomez. Douglas has received many accolades, including the 1994 Classical Composer of the Year award from The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). Douglas’s compositions have been performed by major orchestras and chamber groups around the world. His “Divertimento II for Oboe and Bassoon” follows standard jazz forms and chord progressions while also being influenced by Irish and African music.

What's in a Life?

from 12 (Soon-to-be-Famous) Studies for Oboe

Elizabeth Raum (b. 1945)

In her 55+ year career, Elizabeth Raum has established herself as one of Canada’s most eminent composers. Her works include 6 operas, over 90 chamber pieces, 18 vocal works, choral works including an oratorio, several ballets, concerti and major orchestral works. Her music has been commercially recorded on over 40 CDs. She enjoys a reputation of being one of Canada’s most ”accessible“ composers, writing for varied mediums and in remarkably diverse styles. Raum contributed “What’s in a Life?” to this collection of performance etudes for oboe. “What's in a Life? is something my husband says all the time. I thought the questioning cadence of the opening measures fit this adage like a musical shrug that contains a number of moods but eventually returns to the original question that covers most everything: What's in a Life?"

Vertigo for Solo Bassoon

Olav Berg (b. 1949)

Olav Berg was born in Kvelde, Norway, and professionally spent several years as a trumpet player in the band of the Royal Marines in Horten and also taught music theory at the Conservatoire in Stavanger. From 1981 onwards, Berg devoted himself exclusively to composition and has received several national and international prizes. Berg says of his piece Vertigo… “The piece was commissioned by Dag Jensen and had its world premiere in 1992 under the title A Brief Study for Bassoon Solo. In Dag’s opinion (and mine too) the title was not very exciting, so we went for a more spectacular one: Vertigo. The title establishes the fact that fright of heights is no joke.”

Pranayam

Reena Esmail (b. 1983)

Dirgha
Kapalbhati
Nadi Shodhan
Simha
Ujjayi

Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. Pranayam is a suite of short encounters with different types of active breath. The word pranayam literally describes 'a harnessing of the life force'. Each movement is based on a specific breath pattern commonly used in yoga practice. Dirgha is a three-part inhale, expanding the belly, diaphragm and chest in succession. Kapalbhati is the skull-shining' breath, made up of short, sharp exhales interspersed with moments of suspension. Nadi Shodhan is the 'alternate channel' breath, exhaling and then inhaling through alternate nostrils. Simha is the lion's breath' - a powerful, audible exhale to release tension. Ujayi breath is the victory' breath, sometimes also called the 'ocean' breath because of it's audible wavelike sound, intended to keep energy circulating inside the body during the practice of yoga. If you know these breath patterns, breathe along*. The music is designed to support your breath. If you don't know the patterns, just imagine what they might feel like in your body. In a typical pranayam practice, you would stay with each breath much longer — so think of this work as a tiny pinhole view into an ancient transformative practice — or just a gentle reconnection to your breath in the midst of this constantly swirling world.

Mother Time, Father Nature

Gala Flagello (b. 1994)

Gala Flagello is a composer, educator, and nonprofit director whose work is inspired by a passion for lyricism, rhythmic vitality, and meaningful collaboration. Flagello shares… “Mother Time, Father Nature (2021) was composed as part of the Room to Breathe commissioning project which reflects on the confluence of crises in 2020 and 2021 and humankind's perseverance through them. This work was inspired by a sentence I found in my journal from June 2020: "I feel like I'm mourning the loss of a season that hasn't happened yet." I found that I no longer experienced the passage of time in the same way that I had pre-pandemic; everything moved so slowly and yet also so quickly around me. Societally, we think of Father Time as steady, rigid, ticking on reliably, while Mother Nature is supposedly caring, nurturing, and abundant. Although the gender binary is a myth, intentionally re-gendering time and nature helped me discover two figures whose cosmic work actually resonated with my new relationship to my surroundings. Mother Time is shifting, flexible, and gentle—an ever-changing season of learning and growth. Father Nature is relentless flowering, a continual force that progresses with or without humans out and about. Mother Time, Father Nature translates these personas to music, exploring proportions and development as the two might, but in the form of meter, rhythm, register, and paraphrasing.”

Up and Away, The Story of a Balloon

Alyssa Morris (b. 1984)

Inhale/Exhale
Life on a String
Letting Go

Alyssa Morris is an award-winning oboist/composer and serves as professor of oboe and music theory at Kansas State University. Morris describes Up and Away as  “a musical depiction of the life of a Balloon. Movement 1, Inhale/ Exhale, is a depiction of blowing up the balloon, watching it float, letting air out of Balloon and hearing the little squeal and sputter as it flies around the room. This movement also introduces Balloon’s “light”-motif (ha ha.) Little Balloon is brought to life, with effervescence, lightheartedness, and wonder. Movement 2, Life on a String, is about teenage angst and rebellion. Little Balloon is not so little anymore and wants to prove that it has a mind and ideas of its own. So many times Balloon has felt that people want it to fit a certain mold. But Balloon just wants to be itself. This angst can be heard as each instrument quotes a passage that has become synonymous with what most people think that instrument is. Movement 3, Letting Go, portrays the wisdom that comes with old age. This movement is Balloon’s reflection at a life full of happiness, sorrow, love, learning, and meaning. Letting Go is a quiet resignation, knowing that we are not always in control of what happens in life. However, we are in control of what we choose to do with what we have been given. The “light”-motif can be heard once more. It is my hope that the listener will find some of themselves in the Balloon; in the joy, frustration, lightheartedness, loneliness, wisdom, and hope.”

Guest Pianist

Shine Wu Robison was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. She is a freelance pianist, collaborative accompanist and piano teacher. She graduated from The Ohio State University with a dual degree in Piano Performance and Nursing. Shine currently works with the Clintonville Community Choir, accompanies the Olentangy Liberty High School choirs, teaches piano privately, is part of a quartet called Knisely, is the youth worship leader at Worthington Presbyterian Church, and works with various artists in the area. She and her husband Nick have two cats, Ember and Charcoal. Visit Shine Wu Robison
 

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