Concerts

Second Inversion is very excited about a couple of projects Seattle composer Nat Evans has up his sleeve this Spring.

Nat and a Cat.

On Saturday, March 29, 8pm at the Good Shepherd Center Chapel Performance Space, The Box is Empty will present a concert on the Wayward Music Series featuring one of his works, More Comfort, which “explores the evolution of our relation to different screens in our lives, mobile devices and televisions as a hearth place, and the nature of our contemporary interactions and language.” The performance includes a video by Rodrigo Valenzuela showing of the use of our hands with the multitude of devices in our everyday lives. Three works for strings by New York-based composer Leaha Villarreal (and Artistic Director of Hotel Elefant are also slated, one of which features video by Seattle artist Erin Elyse Burns. I’m also told that alka seltzer tablets and compressed air will cameo as instruments, which on its own is enough to pique my interest in attending.

Then, in late April Nat is going to take a very long walk. A 2,600 mile journey from Mexico to Canada along the Pacific Crest Trail, to be exact. This is a compositional journey in which Nat will send 8 West Coast composers field recordings to use with newly composed material. In early 2015, all of these new works will be released on Quakebasket Records. I sincerely encourage you to find out more about “The Tortoise and His Raincoat” and we hope to give you some sneak peeks of Nat’s work as he checks in along the way!

PS If that’s not enough to put you in green spirits, here’s some music by Nat performed in Seattle’s Ravenna Park.

by Maggie Stapleton

The Byrd Ensemble (yes, as in William Byrd, 1540-1623) may not be the first ensemble in Seattle that you’d associate with new music, but on February 1, 2014 this 12-voice choir performed a program of (almost) all 20th and 21st century music.

Byrd Ensemble Artistic Director Markdavin Obenza offered me some of his thoughts behind this old-meets-new juxtaposition. “This particular program aimed to highlight similarities between modern vocal music and Renaissance music – a strong foundation in tonality and melody, and religious text. I thought a program centered around music by Arvo Part, Peter Hallock, Herbert Howells, and Renaissance composer Robert White would best do the job.”

Obenza also feels that new music seems to be easy to find, though rarely performed. So, to round out the program, the Byrd Ensemble held a composition contest to draw upon composers of today. Markdavin says, “To be honest, the idea was an experiment to see if it might get more people to the program, and, generally attracting a non early music demographic to our work.” The award for the contest was an audio and video recording of the piece (a real treat, considering Markdavin is also the co-founder of a tremendous record label, Scribe Records). The response was better than expected, with 13 submissions and works by Erica Row, Gary James, Jeffrey Junkinsmith, and Markdavin Obenza himself were selected for performance on this program:

With many professional ensembles, programming new music can be a nerve-wracking territory with fear of poor audience attendance – many loyal followers of the Byrd Ensemble are most attracted to music of the Renaissance. Was the risk of going outside the box worth it for them? “More than I thought. Towards the end of the concert while I was acknowledging the composers, I noticed some louder clapping and mild cheering at the mention of doing a program entirely of new music by local composers. There’s some great music being written and I’d love to encourage them to keep writing, and I hope Byrd Ensemble’s willingness to perform new music does just that. We definitely plan to keep our modern/new music program in our rotation”

Cheers to you, Byrd Ensemble!