Universal Language Project Podcast: Revealing the Composer’s Artistic Process

Posted on May 22, 2016 by maestrobeats

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We are thrilled to announce the launch of Universal Language Project’s brand new podcast! This is a co-production between Second Inversion and ULP, featuring interviews recorded in our studios and live concert recordings from our live concert recording archives.

Each episode features a 20-minute interview with a Northwest composer to gain insight into their creative intentions and artistic process followed by a recording of a brand new work – often from the premiere, live and unedited in all its glory.

Episode 1: Jovino Santos Neto

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Three-time Latin Grammy nominee Jovino Santos Neto, a master pianist, composer and arranger, is among the top Brazilian musicians working today. Currently based in Seattle, Washington, he has throughout his career been closely affiliated with the Brazilian master Hermeto Pascoal. He was an integral part of Pascoal’s group from 1977 to 1992, where he fine-tuned his artistry, performing around the world and co-producing several legendary records.

For this composition, SACI, the Universal Language Project commissioned Jovino to write a multi-movement piece designed to pair with Stravinsky’s L’histoire du soldat. This work is intended as commentary on Stravinsky’s work where, about 100 years later, we are also creating great shows in a time of limited financial means. This work is based on a mythical Brazilian folk character, the Saci, who simultaneously helps us out of tricky situations and mischievously keeps us humble. This work beautifully merges Jovino’s background in Brazilian jazz with contemporary classical composition to create a delightfully charming and important new piece.

Stephan Michael Newby, Baritone / Narrator
Eric Rynes, Violin
Eric Likkel, Clarinet
Brian Chin, Trumpet
Nathan Vetter, Trombone
Steve Morgan, Bassoon
Todd Gowers, Bass
Ben Thomas, Percussion

Recorded Live at the Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, WA
May 16th, 2015
Bill Levey: Audio Engineer

Episode 2: Wayne Horvitz

Wayne Horvitz is a composer, pianist and electronic musician who has performed extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. He is the leader of the Gravitas Quartet, Sweeter Than the Day, Zony Mash, The Four plus One Ensemble and co-founder of the New York Composers Orchestra.

Working primary in a jazz inspired large ensemble medium, Wayne’s music seems to naturally defied any one genre and offers a truly unique sound to the 21st century music collection. This piece, A Stammer for Tori, was inspired by the violinist Victoria Parker and is written for a small mixed chamber ensemble.
Victoria Parker, Violin
Susan Telford, Flute
Eric Likkel, Clarinet
Brian Chin, Trumpet
Nathan Vetter, Trombone
Rajan Krishnaswami, Cello
Kevin Johnson, Piano
Rob Tucker, Percussion

Recorded Live at the Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, WA
Jan. 9th 2015
Bill Levey: Audio Engineer

The Universal Language Project is a music-centric multi-arts concert series dedicated to generating new music for the 21st century. It is a program of Common Tone Arts, a non-profit arts organization dedicated to creating positive change for our diverse world through music and arts education.

CONCERT PREVIEW: (re)MOVE: (re)TURN: Q&A with Karin Stevens

Posted on April 19, 2016 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Molloy

Throughout history, we have used the term “Mother Earth” to draw connections between the life-giving power of woman and the world, recognizing both as a source of life, love, and nourishment, both literally and figuratively.

And yet, throughout history we have also abused, neglected, and exploited both woman and the earth. We have inflicted countless physical, political, social, and symbolic injustices upon them, stripping them of their strength, power, and personal value again and again.

That is the premise behind Seattle-based dancer and choreographer Karin Stevens’ newest work, titled (re)MOVE: Back Toward Again the (re)TURN Facing. It is a 70-minute dance featuring music by three Seattle composers: Wayne Horvitz, Michael Owcharuk, and Nate Omdal. The work premieres this weekend with three performances at Velocity Dance Center on Capitol Hill.

All photos: Karen Mason Blair

Full of turbulent exchanges, (re)MOVE: (re)TURN pulls from thousands of years of scientific, philosophical, and spiritual writings on connections between women and the earth. Five female dancers from the Karin Stevens Dance company (KSD) weave patterns of separation and alliance, drawing connections between our bodies and the lands we inhabit.

We sat down with Stevens to talk about music, dance, women, and the rest of the world.

Second Inversion: How did (re)MOVE come about, and what was your inspiration for making contemporary composition such a prominent part of this project?

Karin Stevens: The choice to support live playing of the music with the dancing is more than a very cool experience for the viewer; it is a practice of listening, being open and in the now as a dancer, like no other time. And, there is nothing like the relationships that are built with the musicians and composers in these live music and dance projects.

I can’t say that I was strategic in planning this evening-length dance weaved together with the three composers works, but that each part came at me and grabbed me to come into existence. I create my work through massive amounts of improvisation that I video tape. The movement guides me into form and meaning. The music by each composer came to me in different ways and spoke to me through kinetic images/ideas that emerged as I listened, about what this work was meant to be. It delight me that this work that came forward with such feminist and feminine voice reclamation is danced with the sounds by these three lovely male composers!

SI: Can you tell me a bit more about the musical compositions in (re)MOVE?

KS: Composers Michael Owcharuk (thank you to 4 Culture for the grant for this new composition!) and Nate Omdal have written two gorgeous and unique works for KSD, that I have weaved together with a work by Wayne Horvitz to create re(MOVE). I am especially honored to work with Wayne Horvitz’s music. He is a hero to all of us. The music, These Hills of Glory (NEA American Masterpiece), is EVERYTHING I love about contemporary classical music: unique and imaginative compositional voice; disparate pairing of composed and improvised scoring (in this work); spaciousness and density of sound; daring rhythmic complexity; a diverse and unpredictable aural journey that connects with all of my senses.

SI: What inspires you most about classical music, and contemporary classical music specifically?

KS: I am a daughter of KING FM. For as far back as I can remember my Dad had it playing in the car, out in the garden, on our boat and in various rooms throughout our house. In fact, my parents live in Montana now and my dad still plays KING FM 24/7 from his home office computer! The soundtrack of my life was classical music.

I also had marvelous music experiences in graduate school at Mills College where I was introduced to even more music, especially contemporary classical music. I am extremely grateful to Second Inversion—a service of KING FM—and their effort to bring my work in dance with contemporary classical music to the public! I have long felt dance should be appreciated like great music. The abstraction, complexity, beauty, and texture should be as meaningful through movement as we have allowed it to be through sound.

SI: In your writings, you discuss some of the specific injustices women face throughout the world, including sexual violence, female infanticide, female genital mutilation, removal from any possibilities of social and financial advancement, sexual exploitation and slavery, and much more. Can you tell me a bit about the broader feminist threads present in (re)MOVE?

KS: This work is personal and it is feminist. It is a work for this eleventh hour time for the earth and for humanity. It is an art and practice of movement in contemplation of transcendent injustices, specifically in this work as it concerns women and the earth.

Releasing myself from the tyranny of false beliefs, from the forces that denigrate the voice of the feminine, from the hegemony of my current cultural place, I (re)MOVE again in each (re)TURN to truly (re)BIND bones and tissues like a spiritual ligament to the essence of what really matters. As Pierre Teilhard de Chardin once said, “Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come into being.” These fragments of imagination here seek out what is being (re)FORMed and (re)TURNed. This movement flows toward hope through this turbulent exchange with our time and awakening. It is a movement of love.

Karin Stevens Dance 3

SI: (re)MOVE is also extremely spiritual. What were some of the spiritual and philosophical inspirations in creating this work?

KS: My readings in quantum entanglement, physics, general systems theory, and evolutionary biology have taken me into areas where the spiritual, philosophic, and the scientific interchange strengthen, rather than oppose each other. At the heart of this interchange is our movement that reconnects us with the natural world, with our self, with each other and with our evolution in this cultural time.

My personal religious experience has led me to deep questions about the absence of the feminine in the Abrahamic religions, and the egregious effect this has had on the evolution of our collective body and the earth, particularly in the West. Studies in Taoism, the Tao Te Ching, Five Elements/Movements and yin/yang theory of Chinese philosophy have given me a lovely place to explore ideas that heal the cracks in my Judeo-Christian experience.

In these spiritual philosophies I sought new movements I could repurpose toward my own becoming. I found connection: between human, heaven and earth; to the root of all the universe for which we belong; and to the “primal mother” that enthralls my curiosity and imagination.

SI: What are you most looking forward to with this premiere?

KS: It is a great honor to be able to raise enough money to work with live, local, and NEW music as a choreographic/movement artist. There are so many talented composers in Seattle plugging away, as I am, to make the music they are compelled to make. I feel a propulsion to get their work heard as much as I want to get my dances seen.

For more information about the project, please visit Karin Stevens’ blog series using the following links: Part I, Part II, and Part III.

Performances of “(re)MOVE: (re)TURN” are this Friday, April 22 at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 24 at 6:30 p.m. All performances are at Velocity Dance Center on Capitol Hill in Seattle. For tickets and information, please visit this link.

CONCERT PREVIEW: Universal Language Project + SCRAPE: Q&A with Brian Chin

Posted on March 10, 2016 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Molloy

Seattle is no stranger to new music.

Whether it’s Seattle Symphony commissioning and recording new works, Wayward Music Series programming adventurous and avant-garde music concerts, or your good friends at Second Inversion providing a multimedia platform for all of it—Seattle prides itself on being one of America’s strongest cultural centers for new and unusual music.

IMG_2688-resized (Photo credit: Kimberly Chin)

But here are two of the newest Seattle new music groups you may not know about: the Universal Language Project and Scrape. You can catch both of them this weekend when they team up to present an innovative concert of new works by Seattle composers Brian Chin and Jim Knapp.

But first things first—who are these guys?

Brian Chin is the artistic director of the Universal Language Project: an innovative concert series rooted in the commissioning and performance of 21^st century music and interdisciplinary collaboration. Jim Knapp is the artistic director and resident composer of Scrape: an original music string orchestra with harp and guitar.

The Universal Language Project recently commissioned Knapp and Chin to create a new sound for Scrape featuring soprano soloist Chérie Hughes—the results of which will be performed in two concerts this weekend: one at Soma Towers in Bellevue and the other at Velocity Dance Center on Capitol Hill.

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So what’s on the program? Well, let’s just say it’s a new music mashup featuring an imaginary letter, an Eckhart aphorism, an Obama song cycle, and a meditation on Ives. We sat down with Brian Chin to get all the details.

Second Inversion: In many ways contemporary music transcends specific timeframes and concrete qualifiers; the definition tends to be abstract and often subjective. What does “new music” mean to you?

Brian Chin: I actually don’t like the phrase classical because it is confusing. The classical era was over 200 years ago, yet most people think of anything with strings as classical. I think that this is very confusing now, as instruments and genre lines are almost meaningless. I like the phrase “music” better—yet, I see the problems here too. Perhaps we get more general with our use of “orchestral,” “acoustic string,” or “mixed chamber ensemble;” and we all know what “indie band” means. But “contemporary classical” is, by definition, an oxymoron!

SI: Seattle is one of few major U.S. cities that is really blossoming in the contemporary classical music sphere—what do you think makes our music scene here so unique, and in what areas do you think there is potential to improve?

BC: Seattle is a geographic island. This makes for great music to grow, evolve, and emerge in relative isolation. This is great so long as we hit the tipping point of boiling over to the ‘mainland’—as grunge did. The reality is that this is a double-edged sword: I think this is both why we have such great stuff here, but it is hard to find—gone once you do—and difficult to build a following, as you can’t just keep playing the same repertoire over and over. The growing community of practitioners and the “We’re all in this together” spirit is our key to growing Seattle New Music!

SI: What are you most looking forward to with this concert collaboration between Universal Language Project and Scrape?

BC: Scrape is a very diverse ensemble that walks the line between several genres. The music of Jim Knapp is mature, smart, and flippin’ beautiful. As you know, the key aspect of the ULP series is that we strive to bring together diverse musicians and artists in order to create something generative and new. For this show, we added a soprano to Scrape, which brings in a whole new element of text and color. Both Jim and I have contributed pieces for this.

SI: Can you tell me a bit about your piece “The Obamatorio” being performed at this concert?

BC: “The Obamatorio: A Song Cycle for Soprano and Scrape” sets four quotes from Barak Obama to music. Rather than select text that are overtly political, I have chosen Obama words that speak to the universal truths of the human condition. I have brought in a multitude of tools to tell the story.

For example: one movement is set in Central Park and I merge the grinding obstinate of mechanical city music with the nature motives of birds. I used “Messiah’s” bird calls for this. In the moment “Strangers” referencing immigration, I use a smash up of world music styles form Irish jigs to African ostinatos and Middle Eastern vocal techniques to paint Obama’s words.

SI: What composers, artists, or styles of music most influence your work?

BC: Bach, Miles Davis, Stravinsky, John Hollenbeck, Bartók, and Charles Mingus.

SI: What do you hope audiences will take away from this concert?

BC: I hope they have a ton of fun are inspired to do great work!

Performances of this ULP and Scrape collaboration are this Friday, March 11 at 8 p.m. at Soma Towers in Bellevue and Saturday, March 12 at 8 p.m. at Velocity Dance Center on Capitol Hill. For additional information and tickets, click here.

NEW CONCERT AUDIO: Universal Language Project’s “The Way West”

Posted on February 13, 2016 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Stapleton

Photo credit: Kimberly Chin

Last month, the Universal Language Project took us out of the Pacific Northwest…. and in to the Wild West!

Photo credit: Kimberly Chin

This well crafted, western-themed program was presented at Resonance at SOMA Towers on Friday, January 22 and Velocity Dance Center on Saturday, January 23. We’re pleased to share the audio recording of Saturday night’s concert with you. Be sure to mark your calendars for ULP’s next performances on March 11 and 12 featuring SCRAPE!

Photo credit: Kimberly Chin

Notes on “Campfire Songs” by Brian Cobb:

I have always been intrigued by the American frontier era. It started with the idea of traveling into unknown lands with a dream of a better life. Although I can never truly understand the hardships of such a journey and the discipline required, I admire the courage and the ambition of these settlers. While much can be debated about the pros and cons of this era in American history, as a composer I am not equipped to argue for or against this period. I just know that other people have come before me and their actions have brought us to our present state. Furthermore, since I reside in Seattle I am unquestionably indebted to their journey.

Campfire Songs can be thought of as a symbolic representation of one night on the pioneer trail. I have assembled a collection of poems by different American authors from different periods. A seventh song, Winter in the Sierras, was commissioned by the Universal Language Project for this performance. The collection, as a whole, is intended to convey a story of hopes, hardships, and ambitions of the pioneers.

The campfire is one remnant from the past that I hold dear in my own life. Before wax cylinders, radio, telephones, television, or the internet, the communication of news and personal experiences often took place around the campfi re. What I fi nd fascinating is how the allure of the fire’s flames feeds the imagination, creates camaraderie between people, and offers a primeval connection to our distant past. Beyond the essential needs of warmth and cooking, the campfi re setting offered a diversion from the day’s travel and a chance for much needed rest before the next day’s journey.

Photo credit: Kimberly Chin

Notes on “Railroad” by Tim Carey:

Photo credit: Kimberly Chin

My goal in writing “Railroad” was to use the American folk song “I’ve been working on the railroad” as an exploratory vehicle for experimenting with harmonic concepts which I have been wanting to explore for quite a while. I attempted to create a musical space with an open backdrop on which small motives could be presented and heard as singular ideas. The motives are not intended to develop, but instead appear and come to life quickly and vanish before their full realization, as if the listener is staring out the window of a train catching glimpses of the countryside. The piece is structured in four parts as is the original source material. While the themes have been obscured, the form and harmonic content are derived directly from the original song and molded to fi t the desired aesthetic of the piece.

Notes on “There Must Be a Lone Ranger!” by Karen P. Thomas:

A few years ago, in the course of considering my ignominious past – a childhood fi lled with Country & Western music and too much TV – I realized that I rather liked some of that directness and simple imagery. So, as composers are wont to do, I put on my cowboy boots and wrote about it. The result was a song cycle, “Cowboy Songs” – on texts by E. E. Cummings.

Photo credit: Kimberly Chin

“There Must Be A Lone Ranger!” is a continuation of those earlier cowboy pieces. The sources for the text include 19th century cowboy songs, cowboy poetry and newspaper articles, a poem by e e cummings (“sam was a man”), and a few things I wrote myself. Within it are some of the mythical heroes of childhood: the Lone Ranger, Calamity Jane, Billy the Kid…

Visit our archives for more on-demand, live concert recordings, including more Universal Language Project shows!

Musician credits:

Soprano: Cherie Hughes
Baritone: Michael Monnikendam
Flute: Liz Talbert
Clarinets: Rachel Yoder
Violin: Eric Rynes
Cello: Brad Hawkins
Guitar: Jeff Bowen
Banjo: Michaud Savage
Percussion: Greg Campbell, Melanie Voytovich
Trumpet: Brian Chin
Piano: Kevin Johnson
Conductor: Karen Thomas
Audio Recording: Bill Levey

CONCERT SPOTLIGHT: “The Way West” presented by the Universal Language Project

Posted on January 21, 2016 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Stapleton

“An event with music, words, and smoke inspired by the optimism and grandeur of the West.”

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Photo Credit: Kimberly Chin

Brian Chin has added something unique and fresh to the already forward-thinking music community in Seattle. The Universal Language Project is an innovative concert series rooted in the commissioning and performance of 21st century music and interdisciplinary collaboration. It turns the traditional classical music concert on its head by presenting the music in informal settings, premiering commissioned music by local composers, and collaborating with other art forms. AND! The experience doesn’t stop when the music ends; the audience is encouraged to mingle with the musicians and composers over a glass of wine afterwards to get a personal, inside scoop into the music.

Last season, ULP gave musical birth to works by Sean Osborn, Wayne Horvitz, and Jovino Santos Neto. (You can listen to them on our live concerts page!) Their new season kicks off this Friday, January 22 at Resonance Hall at SOMA Towers in Bellevue & Saturday, January 23 at Velocity Dance Center in Seattle and features musicians from Inverted Space, the contemporary music ensemble of the University of Washington. The program includes“Campfire Songs” by Brian Cobb (including a commissioned concert overture and a new piece to complete the cycle), “The Lone Ranger,” a theatrical work by Karen Thomas, and the commissioned premiere by young composer Tim Carey.