Jeff Stanek - Love & Aggression

Love and Aggression (2007) (Premiere) Jeff Stanek (b. 1984) Jean Hatmaker, cello; Derek Johnson, electric guitar In one sense, the title Love and Aggression characterizes respectively the cello and electric guitar as stereotypes. In a more Freudian sense, Love and Aggression signifies a simultaneous pair of forces working together (or against one another?) within a single body. The piece is a game in which a small number of recurring sections combine and recombine simultaneously in different instruments and usually different tempi, with each new situation forcing a new perspective on the relationship between what would appear on the surface to be conflicting forces. Jeff Stanek, a graduate student at Indiana University, originally hails from Madison, Wisconsin. He has studied composition with Sven-David Sandström, Don Freund, Richard Wernick, David Drexler, Per Mårtensson, Claude Baker, P.Q. Phan, and Chinary Ung, and electronic music with Jeffrey Hass and John Gibson. His awards include two BMI Student Composer Awards, Indiana University's Dean's Prize, and first prize in the CEMJKO International Electroacoustic Music Contest (Brazil). More online at www.jeffstanek.com and www.myspace.com/jeffstanek.