Chatter to play world premiere of 'Dream-Scherzo'

Oct. 26—Houston-based composer Pierre Jalbert began writing piano pieces when he was 11 years old.

The Albuquerque-based chamber music group Chatter will perform the world premiere of Jalbert's "Dream-Scherzo" in Albuquerque on Sunday, Oct. 29.

The event marks the second time Jalbert has collaborated with Chatter. He wrote a piece called "All Is Now" that was supposed to premiere in 2020.

"It ended up being written during the pandemic — when everything came to a halt," Jalbert said in a telephone interview from Houston.

"Dream-Scherzo" features an ensemble of clarinet, violin, cello and percussion acting as the "orchestra."

"The form of the piece reflects the title," said Jalbert. "The music kind of reminds me of a dream state. It's very slow and lyrical and ethereal."

Music comes to him from varying sources, he added.

"Sometimes a piece is inspired by something visual, like a landscape or an abstract painting," he said. "Sometimes it can be a poem or a passage from a prose book. I like to start with a musical kernel of an idea."

Born in Manchester, New Hampshire, to parents of French Canadian ancestry, Jalbert grew up in northern Vermont. He began piano lessons at the age of 5, immersing himself in the classical repertoire.

"My family didn't own a piano," he said. "All my relatives were musical. They all played piano and guitar by ear. But nobody studied music formally. By the end of high school, I knew that was what I wanted to do."

Following undergraduate studies in piano and composition at Oberlin Conservatory, Jalbert earned a Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Pennsylvania under principal teacher George Crumb. He won the Rome Prize in 2000-2001, and earned the BBC Masterprize in 2001 for his orchestral work "In Aeternam," selected from among more than 1,100 scores by a jury that included Marin Alsop, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Sir Charles Mackerras. "In Aeternam" has been performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the National Symphony and the Orlando Philharmonic among others.

Harpsichordist Kathleen McIntosh will play the piece commissioned by Eleanor Eisenmenger for the Chatter ensemble.

Jalbert is professor of music at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Houston, and he is a co-founder of Musiqa, a Houston-based new music collective.

He's currently writing a clarinet quartet for the Dover Quartet and a new piece for Musiqa.