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While composing Dark with Excessive Bright for contrabass soloist Maxime Bibeau and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, I continuously listened to music from the Baroque and Renaissance eras. I was inspired in no small part by Maxime's double bass, a massive instrument built in 1580 that was stored in an Italian monastery for hundreds of years and even patched with pages from the Good Friday liturgy. I imagined this instrument as a historian, an object that collected the music of the passing centuries in the twists of its neck and the fibers of its wood, finally emerging into the light at age 400 and singing it all into the world. While loosely based in Baroque idioms, this piece slips between string techniques from several centuries, all while twisting a pattern of repeated chords beyond recognition. "Dark with excessive bright," a phrase from Milton's Paradise Lost, is a surreal and evocative description of God, written by a blind man. I love the impossibility of this phrase, and felt it was a strangely accurate way to describe the dark but heartrending sound of the double bass itself. Dark with Excessive Bright was commissioned by the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Aurora Orchestra in London.

- Program notes by Missy Mazzoli

This Serenade for Strings is a project many years in the making. The present composition is the result of musical ideas composed as far back as 2007 and 2013. In a sense, the piece has had multiple early lives and finally takes shape in its final life as this piece. In composing a 'Serenade for Strings’, one mustn’t forget the masterworks that the genre boasts, such as those by Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Dvořák and others. Therefore, I sought to use the groundwork they laid, but speak in my own voice (and use only one movement) in a mostly post-romantic style. From a slow-burn introduction, I write several contrasting fast sections that are melody focused, and build upon previous themes. However, despite these fast sections, the piece retains a dark, reflective and somewhat nostalgic color. While the piece glances back lovingly, it also looks forward dynamically and lyrically.

- Program notes by Quinn Mason

Droughts and Downpours (2024, arr. 2025) was commissioned by the Tanglewood Music Center and explores the concepts of scarcity and abundance through the sonic depiction of rainfall (or lack thereof). The ensemble evokes doubt, longing, hope, and joy through sound worlds of aridity, mist, drizzle, and deluge; harmonics and pizzicato braid with ostinati and percussive effects in search of "enough." As climate change has made droughts more frequent, longer, and more severe, how can we cherish and care for the world around us? 

Droughts and Downpours was originally commissioned by the Tanglewood Music Center with the generous support of the Merwin Geffen M.D. and Norman Solomon M.D. New Commission Fund. The version for string orchestra was co-commissioned by Elias Miller and the Apollo Ensemble of Boston, ROCO Chamber Orchestra, and Ho-Yin Kwok and Ithaca College.

- Program notes by Gala Flagello

Astor Piazzolla, the last great Tango composer, was at the peak of his creativity when a stroke killed him in 1992. He left us, in the words of the old tango, "without saying good bye", and that day the musical face of Buenos Aires was abruptly frozen. The creation of that face had started a hundred years earlier from the unlikely combination of African rhythms underlying gauchos' couplets, sung in the style of Sicilian canzonettas over an accompanying Andalucian guitar. As the years passed all converged towards the bandoneon: a small accordion-like instrument without keyboard that was invented in Germany in the 19th century to serve as a portable church organ and which, after finding its true home in the bordellos of Buenos Aires' slums in the 1920s, went back to Europe to conquer Paris' high society in the 1930s. Since then it reigned as the essential instrument for any Tango ensemble. 

Piazzolla's bandoneon was able to condense all the symbols of tango. The eroticism of legs and torsos in the dance was reduced to the intricate patterns of his virtuoso fingers (a simple C major scale in the bandoneon zigzags so much as to leave an inexperienced player's fingers tangled). The melancholy of the singer's voice was transposed to the breathing of the bandoneon's continuous opening and closing. The macho attitude of the tangueros was reflected in his pose on stage: standing upright, chest forward, right leg on a stool, the bandoneon on top of it, being by turns raised, battered, caressed. 

I composed Last Round in 1996, prompted by Geoff Nuttall and Barry Shiffman. They heard a sketch of the second movement, which I had written in 1991 upon hearing the news of Piazzolla's stroke, and encouraged me to finish it and write another movement to complement it. The title is borrowed from a short story on boxing by Julio Cortázar, the metaphor for an imaginary chance for Piazzolla's spirit to fight one more time (he used to get into fistfights throughout his life). The piece is conceived as an idealized bandoneon. The first movement represents the act of a violent compression of the instrument and the second a final, seemingly endless opening sigh (it is actually a fantasy over the refrain of the song My Beloved Buenos Aires, composed by the legendary Carlos Gardel in the 1930s). But Last Round is also a sublimated tango dance. Two quartets confront each other, separated by the focal bass, with violins and violas standing up as in the traditional tango orchestras. The bows fly in the air as inverted legs in crisscrossed choreography, always attracting and repelling each other, always in danger of clashing, always avoiding it with the immutability that can only be acquired by transforming hot passion into pure pattern.

- Program notes by Osvaldo Golijov

Described by Classical Voice of North Carolina (CVNC) as an “impressive conductor…outstanding in his attention to detail and his command of the big picture”, Hong Kong-born conductor Ho-Yin Kwok is a three-time winner of The American Prize, 2021, winner of 2017-2018 Vincent C. LaGuardia, Jr. Conducting Competition and 2021 International Conductors Workshop and Competition. Recently concluded an 8-year tenure as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, Kwok is the Director of Orchestras at Ithaca College, New York. He also serves as Music Director of Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra in Duluth, Minnesota.

Having established a nationwide reputation, Ho-Yin Kwok’s recent guest conducting engagements include the New World Symphony, the Syracuse Orchestra, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Arapahoe Philharmonic, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Eastern Festival Orchestra, and Collegium Musicum Hong Kong. He also has been invited to serve as cover conductor for the Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Kansas City Symphony. In the 2025-2026 season, he will make his debut with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as well as conducting the season opener for Syracuse Orchestra at the Masterworks Series.

An avid music educator, Ho-Yin Kwok directs the Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta, and Contemporary Chamber Ensemble at Ithaca College. He has previously served as the Director of the Duluth Superior Youth Symphony and in the faculty of Eastern Kentucky University and University of Minnesota Duluth. His recent educational guest conducting engagements include All-State Orchestras, Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Music Clinic, and Foster Music Camp. He was invited as adjudicator for concerto competitions such as those of Minnesota Orchestra Young People's Symphony Concert Association, University of Minnesota, University of Kentucky, and Cornell University. In the 2025-2026 season, he will conduct the All-state Orchestras of California and Maine.

Ho-Yin Kwok is a first prize winner of The American Prize in opera conducting. He had served as Music Director of the Opera Theatre at University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. He enjoys conducting operas of a wide range of periods and styles, including those by Mozart, Puccini, Britten and Menotti. He was the instigating artistic force behind the formation of opera orchestra at Eastern Kentucky University and has collaborated professionally with Arbeit Opera Theatre and Lyric Opera of the North. In the 2021-22 season, Kwok gave one of the first performances of Laura Kaminsky’s new opera, Hometown to the World. He is looking forward to conducting Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard's Castle in the spring of 2026.

Known for his passion in diversifying the orchestral concert repertoire, Ho-Yin Kwok has been involved in multiple initiatives and special projects. With the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, he created the annual Foreground Composers Series, a year-round celebration and in-depth research on an underrepresented composer. This ongoing project has led to numerous US premieres of works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Ruth Gipps, Ina Boyle, and Bao Yuankai, along with many other neglected composers. Kwok is also a panel member of …And we were heard, a national initiative to promote contemporary music and composers of underrepresented backgrounds.

Ho-Yin Kwok studied conducting at the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities and the University of Iowa. His principal teachers are Mark Russell Smith and William LaRue Jones. His other important mentors are Gerard Schwarz, Kevin Noe, Cristian Măcelaru, Giancarlo Guerrero, the Ensō String Quartet, Brentano Quartet, Joel Krosnick, David Shifrin, Kathy Saltzman Romey, and Grant Cooper. He is a Marquis Who’s Who biographical listee.

Tristen Jarvis is an upright and electric bassist, producer, arranger, composer, and teaching artist. Having witnessed powerful examples of how music can heal, empower, elevate, and inspire audiences from all walks of life, Tristen aims to transform the human condition across the myriad of spaces he engages. Present in his artistry are the tenets of joy, adaptability, resilience, versatility, imagination, and sensitivity. These qualities allow him to function as an ambassador for the arts and as an advocate for arts education being intrinsic to a healthy society.

Known for his chameleonic aesthetic, Tristen has experienced a diverse array of fulfilling performances and collaborations that demonstrate his ability to “cross-over” in today’s 21st century musical landscape. In orchestral settings he has appeared with The Orchestra Now, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble X, Frisson Ensemble, and is a member of the Snow Pond Chamber Players. He can also be heard on the soundtrack of Netflix's GRAMMY-winning feature film Maestro written and directed by Bradley Cooper. In solo settings, Tristen has won First Prize at the 2014 Anthony R. Stefan Concerto Competition and received an Honorable Mention as a finalist in the 2021 International Society of Bassists (ISB) Solo Division Competition for his conceptual solo recital program, “Hyperlink.” He was also a semi-finalist in the 2025 ISB Solo Division Competition held at Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL. Outside of competition, Tristen has performed Missy Mazzoli's Dark with Excessive Bright Concerto for Double Bass with the Cornell University Chamber Orchestra and received praise for his 2025 Ithaca College solo recital, Vicennium, which celebrated his 20th anniversary of playing the bass. In jazz settings, Tristen has appeared as a feature act at the 2025 Hudson Jazz Festival and as an opening act for the Eddie Gomez Trio on Scott LaFaro Day in Geneva, NY. In rock and pop settings, Tristen has appeared on tour as a supporting act with hard rock/heavy metal royalty Joan Jett and Halestorm alongside phenom Mariah Formica (NBC's The Voice), as producer in recording settings with guitarist/songwriter Aaron Rizzo (Shameless, NBC's The Voice) featuring Grammy-nominated jazz and groove-music drummer Nate Smith, as sideman with "Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton, and as featured performer at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA.  

Tristen earned music performance degrees from Ithaca College (B.M. ’18) studying with Nicholas Walker, and from the Cleveland Institute of Music (M.M. ’20) studying with Scott Dixon, as well as an Advanced Certificate in Orchestral Studies in 2022 as a member of The Orchestra Now while in residence at Bard College. He also studied privately from the age of 13 with Luke Baker, Principal Bass of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Tristen has spent summers at Le Domaine Forget, Orford Musique, Wabass Institute, Peabody Bass Works, and the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America program through Carnegie Hall, all of which allowed him to work closely with renowned bass pedagogues including Francois Rabbath, Paul Ellison, John Clayton, David Allen Moore, Etienne Lafrance, Tracy Rowell, Derek Zadinsky, Ira Gold, Harold Robinson, Ranaan Meyer, Eric Larson, Ali Yazdanfar, and Jeffrey Turner. He has also studied chamber music with members of the Orion, Emerson, Meliora, Dover, and Manhattan String Quartets, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Knights Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.  

From 2022-2023, Tristen was fortunate to serve as the Interim Double Bass instructor at his alma mater, Ithaca College, where he has since continued to serve as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Bass. He also teaches at Cornell University as Visiting Lecturer of Bass and at the Opus Ithaca School of Music where he works with children aged K-12 and adult students. During the summer, Tristen teaches at the New England Music Camp in Sidney, ME, and has given masterclasses and been on faculty at the Ithaca College Summer Music Academy and International Society of Bassists Young Bassists Program. He has also been a featured presenter at the 2024 Winter NYSSMA Conference. 



Tristen performs on a double bass made by Keiran O'Hara in 2019, as well as a Schroetter Hybrid double bass restored by Arnold Schnitzer for jazz and solo playing. Tristen owns bows made by Jeffrey Krieger, John Norwood Lee, Bernard Walke, and David Herman. He also is a proud owner of custom bow sleeves made by Birdie Chesanek at The Bird's Nest. For electric basses, Tristen performs on a custom Dingwall Super P, as well as a Fender P-bass and Schecter Diamond P-bass. Tristen uses Ampeg, Boom Bass Cabinets, Lahney, and Carvin amplification. He is also a proud member of the International Society of Bassists.

In 2025 Tristen was honored by his high school alma-mater, the South Colonie Central School District, by being inducted as a member of the South Colonie Hall of Fame.  

VIOLIN I
Cristian Rodriguez, concertmaster
Maya Connolly
Marisol McDowell
Max Lines

VIOLIN II
Mackenzie VanVoorhis, principal
Jonas Chen
Julia Chu
Imogene Zybala

VIOLA
Zoe Galgoczy, principal
Breanna Antonio
Elijah Shenk
Sasha Narea

CELLO
Eli Jort, principal
Tom Bowstead
Ian Croker
Jonah Harley

DOUBLE BASS
Sophia Gates, principal
Alexa Markowitz