Crux

Crux

Lloyd Van’t Hoff clarinet and Lisa Moore piano.

“delivered a brilliantly lyrical performance” Sydney Festival, Sydney Morning Herald

“Lisa Moore and Lloyd Van’t Hoff rock the boat with their new duo Crux” BargeMusic NYC, Steve Smith Night after Night

Following their triumphant collaboration at the 2023 Sydney Festival, the multifaceted keyboardist and vocalist Lisa Moore and woodwind virtuoso clarinetist Lloyd Van’t Hoff formed CRUX – a duo project exploring, arranging, and presenting recent and new commissioned musical works, alongside traditional and modern classics. Blending the warm, rich energy of piano and clarinet, this cross-continental Australian-born duo have, in the 2023-2024 season, performed diverse and powerful programs in New York City, New Haven, Detroit, Melbourne, and Brisbane – bringing audiences works ranging from acoustic chamber music, to solos with text, backing tracks and visual projections, in addition to trio collaborations with guest artists.

2024 CONCERTS

>January 5th 2024 7pm “Friday Night Live” at Detroit Institute of Art

Program: “Finding Home” – music by Anne Cawrse, Harriet Steinke, Leonard Bernstein, Steve Reich, Martin Bresnick, Frederic Rzewski, Randy Newman, and Nick Russoniello.

>January 7th 2024 4pm “Here and Now Festival” at Barge Music NYC

Program: “Rituals” All-New York Premieres – music by Anne Cawrse, Soomin Kim, Harriet Steinke, Martin Bresnick, Erik Grizwold, and Nick Russoniello.

>August 5th-11th 2024 residency at the Del Mar International Composers Symposium

https://www.delmarcomposers.org/ 

Crux performing at Bargemusic NYC – playing Russian Rag by Elena Kats-Chernin

DUO REPERTOIRE INCLUDES:

> Alban Berg – Four Pieces Op. 5 9’
> Leonard Bernstein – Sonata for clarinet and piano 10’
> Johannes Brahms – Sonata for clarinet and piano in F minor Op.120 no.1 20’
> Johannes Brahms – Sonata for clarinet and piano in Eb Major Op.120 no.2 23’
> Martin Bresnick – Bitter Suite 20’**
> Anne Cawrse – My Prime of Youth and Since I Lost You 9’ **
> Dave Cox – Frozen Pillies 6’ *
> Elena Kats-Chernin – Russian Rag 5’
> Francis Poulenc – Sonata for clarinet and piano 13’
> Peter Sculthorpe – Songs of Sea and Sky 15’
> Nick Russionello – Reginella 5’ *
> Harriet Steinke – Rituals (Practice, Chorales, Canons, More Canons, Requiem) 23’ *

SOLO REPERTOIRE INCLUDES:

> Erik Griswold – Danny Boy adrift in the rising tide by (solo piano/voice) 9’
> Soomin Kim – I’m Doing Well (solo piano/voice) 5’
> Randy Newman – I think it’s going to rain today (piano/voice) 3’
> Steve Reich – New York Counterpoint (clarinet, backing tracks by Lloyd VT with visuals by Nikki Pet) 15’
> Nick Russionello – Dawn Searching (clarinet arr. Van’t Hoff) 4’
> Frederic Rzewski – To His Coy Mistress (piano/voice) 5’
> Lachlan Skipworth – Partita for solo clarinet 7’

TRIO REPERTOIRE (WITH GUEST ARTISTS) INCLUDES:

> Ludwig van Beethoven – Trio in Bb major Op.11 (with cello)
> Johannes Brahms – Trio in A minor Op.114 (with cello)
> Martin Bresnick – And I Always Thought (with violin)
> Martin Bresnick – *** Trio (with viola)
> Max Bruch – 8 Pieces Op.83 (with viola)
> György Kurtag – Hommage à R. Schumann (with viola)
> Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Kegelstatt Trio K.498 (with viola)
> Robert Schumann – Bird as Prophet (with violin or viola – arr. Schlosberg)
> Igor Stravinsky – L’Histoire du Soldat Suite (with volin)

* Composed for CRUX
** Arranged for CRUX

Lloyd Van’t Hoff is an award-winning clarinetist, director, educator, and recording artist. He has been lauded for his “life-affirming music making” (Limelight Magazine) and “spectacular brilliance, charisma and sensitivity” (Tasmanian Mercury). Born in Darwin, Australia, Van’t Hoff came to prominence as the winner of the Grand Prize and Sir Charles Moses Trophy, along with the Triffitt Prize in the 2015 Symphony Australia ABC Young Performers Awards. He performs regularly at festivals and venues around the world – the Here and Now Festival New York City, Detroit Institute of Art, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Musica Viva Festival, Huntington Estate Music Festival, Yale-Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the International Festival of Modern Music in Beijing, the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, the Young Euro Classic in Germany, the Grafenegg Summer Music Festival in Austria, and the Banff Centre in Canada.

Van’t Hoff is a founding member of the quintet Arcadia Winds – Musica Viva’s inaugural FutureMakers – touring mainland China and performing at the BBC Proms. Arcadia are especially committed to fostering new music by Australian composers, establishing the Arcadia Winds Composition Prize, while commissioning and premiering dozens of new works by living composers. Their debut eponymous EP, Arcadia Winds, was released in 2017 on the ABC Classic label.

As a recording artist, Van’t Hoff has been featured on the ARIA Award winning album Conversations with Ghosts alongside Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly, recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey, composer James Ledger, and Australian National Academy of Music musicians. In 2021, Van’t Hoff released his solo album, Johannes Brahms: Music for Clarinet and Piano, in which his recordings were described as “interpretations that live in the memory for their verve and deep musicianship.” As recitalist, Van’t Hoff has performed at the Sydney Opera House, Melbourne Recital Centre, City Recital Hall, Elder Hall, Sprague Hall, Neilson Space. He collaborates regularly with some the world’s leading chamber music ensembles and musicians, including the Australian String Quartet, Goldner String Quartet, Flinders Quartet, Omega Ensemble, accordion virtuoso James Crabb, pianists Lisa Moore, Tamara Anna Cislowska, Dejan Lazic, and Lambert Orkis, principal flutist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Emily Beynon and the clarinet virtuoso Michael Collins.

A Yale University graduate, Van’t Hoff has served as teaching faculty at Melbourne University, the Yale Department of Music, and is currently a Lecturer at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. He has conducted masterclasses and teaching residencies in the USA, Canada and throughout Australia and is the Director of the Australian Festival of Chamber Music’s Winterschool and Winterschool Outreach programs. Van’t Hoff has been artist-in-residence at the Karlstad Universitet Muikhogskolan Ingesund in Sweden. As a featured concerto soloist with Orchestra Victoria, the Melbourne and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, he has also performed principal clarinet roles with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria, Yale Philharmonia, and principal bass clarinet in Opera Australia, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Van’t Hoff is a Buffet Crampon and D’Addario endorsed performing artist.

lloydvanthoff.com

Lisa Moore is a multifaceted pianist, recording artist, and avid collaborator. She has been living and working in the vibrant new music scene of New York City since 1985. Collaborating with contemporary composers, given her special passion and advocacy for the music of our time, Moore has performed hundreds of world premieres and recorded over 40 albums. She won the silver medal in the 1981 Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition and for sixteen years (1992-2008) was the founding pianist for the electro-acoustic sextet Bang On A Can All-Stars. Together they toured the world, winning Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble of the Year award.

The New Yorker describes Moore as “visionary” and “New York’s queen of the avant-garde piano” while The New York Times singled out her playing for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness”. Pitchfork claims “she’s the best kind of contemporary classical musician, one so fearsomely game that she inspires composers to offer her their most wildly unplayable ideas”.

Moore has performed throughout Europe, the UK, USA, and Asia – on the world’s great stages – Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Sydney Opera House, La Scala, London’s Royal Albert Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein. She has released twelve piano albums and more than thirty chamber music discs. In June 2022, Moore released her latest solo album of music by the American composer-pianist Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021) – no place to go but around – to compelling notice. The New York Times remarked the album has “a greater range of emotion than other interpreters. It is meticulous, clever, and hits the gas with controlled force”. Gramophone writes of her 2015 Mad Rush Philip Glass disc “what becomes abundantly clear is Moore’s highly developed, intuitive and nuanced approach to this music”. ABC 24 Hours wrote about Moore’s Leoš Janáček album: “it is among my favourite recordings, indeed it combines the best of approaches – there is a greater rhythmic tension and the piano sound is rich and natural”. Moore’s 2016 album The Stone People was selected by The New York Times Top Classical Albums 2016 and Naxos Critics’ Choice 2017.

Moore’s concerts alongside leading musicians includes Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Iva Bittova, Bryce Dessner, Don Byron, Brett Dean, London Sinfonietta, New York City Ballet, Albany Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Moore has performed under the batons of David Robertson, Leonard Bernstein, Bradley Lubman, Richard Mills, Reinbert de Leeuw, Pierre Boulez, Jorge Mester, Benjamin Northey, Angel Gil-Ordonez, Steven Schick, and Edo de Waart.

Moore has collaborated with hundreds of composers on their music – including Elliot Carter, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Louis Andriessen, Frederic Rzewski, Ornette Coleman, Jonny Greenwood, Paul Dresher, David Lang, Don Byron, Martin Bresnick, Elena Kats-Chernin, Michael Gordon, Annie Gosfield, Paul Grabowski, Gerard Brophy, Michael Smetanin, Kate Neal, Thurston Moore, Kate Moore, Pamela Z, Missy Mazzoli, Harriet Steinke, and Julia Wolfe.

Moore’s festival guest appearances include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Big Ears, Banff, Crash Dublin, Vienna, Graz, Trondheim, Oslo, Hamburg, Rome, Venice, Palermo, Turin, Aspen, Tanglewood, Gilmore, Chautauqua, LOUD Weekend MassMoca, PianoSpheres, Huddersfield, Paris d’Automne, Grenoble, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Taormina, Leningrad, Moscow, Lithuania, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw. She is a member of the chamber groups Grand Band, Ensemble Signal, Mammoth Trio, Crux, and TwoSense.

Lisa Moore is a Steinway artist.