Music and art can share a certain complexity and angularity. The Chinook Winds invited talented visual artist Jodi Lightner, whose work is informed by architecture, to collaborate. Music includes Gyorgi Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet and Back of the Bus by Shuying Li.
FRIDAY
The Newberry
420 Central Avenue
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SUNDAY
First Congregational Church
2900 9th Ave S
Artist Jodi Lightner is making original art based on the specific repertoire for this concert.
Untitled - Village, 2019, Acrylic and ink on mylar, 24" x 42"
Hidden between the pages, 2022, Acrylic and ink on mylar, 70" x 36"
TED KIM
Artist Statement
These recent drawings were designed in response to the repertoire selected by the Chinook Winds Quintet. Using the composition of the score as my starting point, and building on the narratives embedded in the music, the drawings emphasize our relationship to civil systems, human ingenuity, and the patterns that define our social structures. Mirroring the rhythm, tone and layers found in the compositions, these drawings attempt a visual representation of sound and the stories held between the notes.
In the drawings, I visualize a reinvention of human civilization’s systems and structures into something less permanent, concrete, and definite. Instead, they are the place where human invention and social metamorphosis occur. Removing the requirement for object permanence, the structures become fragile, temporary, and effervescent. It is not to deny their presence, but to hold their presence lightly and let them breathe and change. These built and ever-evolving environments are continually adapting to our presence, patterns, and pressure to shift. The drawings show an attempt to capture this evolving connection between ourselves and the world we build.
Jodi Lightner is a Professor of Art at Montana State University Billings where she teaches courses that involve pencils, paint, and presses and is chair of the Art Department. She received her MFA in painting from Wichita State University, Kansas, and continues her studio practice in Montana and New York. Lightner enjoys artist residencies focused on studio practice and has spent time at the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Montecastello diVibio, Italy, Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont, Ucross Fellowship, Wyoming, and as an emerging artist in residency at Penn State Altoona. She enjoys building an exhibition to suit a specific gallery space and has exhibited her work in Germany, China, Italy, New York, California, Oregon, Kansas, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, Georgia and South Carolina. In 2021, she was awarded the Montana Arts Council, Artist Innovation Award.
Chinook Winds
Back of the Bus, 2024, Acrylic and ink on mylar on panel, 36" x 36"
Shuying Li
b. 1989
Back of the Bus
2020
12 MINUTES
Shuying Li is an award-winning composer whose music has been performed by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, United States Marine Band, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Alarm Will Sound, and Argus Quartet, among others. She holds degrees from The Hartt School and the University of Michigan.
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A passionate educator, Shuying has taught and directed the Composition/Music Theory Program at Gonzaga University. She joined the California State University, Sacramento faculty as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2022.

For more information, please visit her website:
shuyingli.com.
Back of the Bus pays tribute to Rosa Parks' courageous fight for civil rights, which changed the course of history. The piece employs various musical episodes to represent the struggles, pain, in fight for justice, and ultimately, the hope that emerged from those challenging times. The music progresses from a darker, more somber tone to a brighter and more hopeful sound, reflecting the journey from oppression to liberation. This abstract representation of the struggle for freedom is
brought to life through the interplay of different musical colors and textures. Back of the Bus was commissioned by the Women's Wind Ensemble after winning their prestigious Women of Note Composition Competition.
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Note by Shuying Li
Darius Milhaud
1892 – 1974
La cheminée du Roi René
1939
13 MINUTES
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Cortège (procession)
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Aubade (dawnsong)
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Jongleurs (jugglers)
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La maousinglade (sarabande)
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Joutes sur l’Arc (jousting on the River Arc)
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Chasse à Valabre (hunting at Valabre)
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Madrigal nocturne (nocturnal madrigal)
Darius Milhaud was a member of Les Six, a prominent group of early 20th century French composers. His compositions were influenced by contemporary Brazilian and European musical traditions and American Jazz. With the Nazi occupation of France, he was forced to immigrate to the United States in 1940, where he continued his career as a prolific composer and highly respected teacher.
La cheminée du Roi René is a suite for woodwind quintet, adapted from a film score Milhaud wrote for Calvalcade d’Amour. The film was based on the 15th century court of King René I, located in Aix-en-Provence, where Milhaud was born and raised. While written in Milhaud’s typical style, the work also features several nods to Renaissance music, including the sound of a hunting horn in the sixth movement, and the use of a madrigal, or Renaissance part-song, in the final movement.
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Note by Julia Klein
Gyorgi Ligeti
1923 – 2006
Six Bagatelles
1953
12 MINUTES
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Allegro con spirito
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Rubato. Lamentoso
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Allegro grazioso
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Presto ruvido
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Adagio. Mesto
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Molto vivace. Capriccioso
Gyorgi Ligeti was a Jewish, Hungarian-Austrian composer widely recognized for his contributions to 20th century avant-garde music. His career began in Hungary, where many of his compositions were censored by the communist regime, including the final movement of the Six Bagatelles, which was deemed “too dangerous.” The Six Bagatelles were arranged from an earlier collection of eleven pieces for piano, called Musica Ricercata.
The first of the eleven movements contains only two pitches, A and D, the second contains three pitches, and the pattern continues, so that all twelve pitches of the chromatic scale are present in the final movement. Ligeti arranged movements III, V, VII, VIII, IX, and X for woodwind quintet, creating the Six Bagatelles, which are now considered a staple of the woodwind quintet repertoire.
Miriam Webster defines bagatelle as “a short literary or musical piece in light style.” Each lasting a minute or two in duration, the Six Bagatelles showcase fun and surprising sounds and characters from the quintet.
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Note by Julia Klein
Nick Omiccioli
b. 1982
ironhorses
2017
8 MINUTES
Nick Omiccioli is composer, electric guitarist, and educator. Nick’s music encompasses a diverse range of styles across multiple genres that originated from his experiences playing electric guitar in rock, metal, and jazz groups and early aspirations of wanting to be a graphic novel illustrator. His artistic background brings a singular craft to his work that is introspective, evocative, and imaginative.
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ironhorses for woodwind quintet was commissioned by the Pan Pacific Ensemble with support by a Washington State University Arts and Humanities Grant. ironhorses takes its name from steam locomotives that were referred to as “iron horses” at the end of the industrial revolution.
The ensemble mimics many train sounds throughout the work such as whistles — high penetrating long tones, the bellowing of steam out of the chimney — breathy beatboxing in the flute, the chugging engine-galloping rhythmic ostinato, and perpetual acceleration through rhythmic repetition. All of the pitch material for ironhorses is derived from the blues scale and the form of the work is modeled on the I-IV-V-I progression.
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Note by Nick Omiccioli​