‘Biting wit and playfulness’: violinist Dylan Ebrahimian performs Daria Semegen’s Music for Violin Solo

Dylan Ebrahimian performs Music for Violin Solo (1973) by US contemporary composer Daria Semegen. The work, which employs a range of contrasting techniques, gestures and emotions, was selected in 1978 to represent the United States at the World Music Days Festival in Helsinki and Stockholm by the International Jury of the International Society for Contemporary Music.

Born in 1991, Ebrahimian is a violinist and composer based in New York and on Long Island. ’The video for Daria Semegen’s seminal work, the Music for Violin Solo, is the first in a series of works that are about the realisation of music,’ says Ebrahimian.

’What drew me to Semegen’s work was the powerful range of contrasts, dynamics, emotions, and gestures, while always maintaining a tonal centre, and stylistic consistency. To me, there is something eternally modern and ancient about this piece, and as in all her of her works, and as evident in conversations with her, there is a biting wit, and playfulness.’

Daria Semegen says of the work: ’The music was conceived as a ramification of activity around a central pitch area which is shifted to various registers of the violin. Long, articulated tones and groups of quick, short notes are featured as motivic gestures throughout the work. The violin is used as a polyphonic instrument in a structure consisting of clusters and multi-voiced contrapuntal lines based on a series of eleven notes.’ 

Semegen was born in 1946 and is a composer of instrumental, vocal and electronic music. She is currently associate professor of composition, theory, and electronic music composition at Stony Brook University, and is director of its Electronic Music Studio. A recipient of numerous awards, she has been a Fulbright fellow, received six grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a National Chamber Music Competition prize, an ISCM International Electronic Music Competition prize, as well as the 2009 Susan B. Anthony Lifetime Achievement from the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership.

The video was produced by Ebrahimian along with Naihan Li, Rodin Hamidi as director of photography/cinematographer, Simeon Moore as gaffer, LJ D’Arpa as editor and Reed Black and audio engineer. It was recorded at Vinegar Hill Sound Studios, Brooklyn, NY.

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