Our Bureau
Norfolk, CT
The renowned composer, jazz pianist, MacArthur recipient, and three-time Grammy nominee is preparing a chamber music composition that will be performed for the first time this summer at Yale School of Music’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, hosted on the 70-acre Ellen Battell Stoeckel estate in the Litchfield Hills, in northwestern Connecticut.
As a Yale College undergraduate, Vijay Iyer ’92 majored in math and physics, but surprisingly he was also an ardent music student. A classically trained violinist, Iyer had by that time moved on to mastering the piano and was learning how to play jazz.
“There was a talent show at the end of our freshman year and I played ‘Round Midnight’ by Thelonious Monk,” he recalled recently. “It just blew them away. They had no idea that I had this whole other side of myself.”
His new music composition was commissioned through the Norfolk festival’s Musical Bridges Project, which showcases new works that place classical chamber music within a broader music and cultural context.
Iyer has chosen to write a work for a Pierrot ensemble, which is a quintet comprised of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. The piece is entitled “Variations on a Theme by Ornette Coleman,” a tribute to the late saxophonist and composer celebrated as an innovator and pioneer in the genre of free jazz. The performance takes place at 8 p.m. on Saturday, July 27.
This year’s festival begins Friday, July 5, and runs for seven consecutive weekends, ending Saturday, Aug. 17. All concerts are held in the historic Music Shed, which was recently renovated.
Iyer is a prolific composer for classical ensembles and soloists, including works premiered by Brentano Quartet and Imani Winds, both of which are performing at this year’s Norfolk festival. Iyer is a tenured professor at Harvard University, where he holds joint appointments in the Department of Music and the Department of African and African American Studies.
