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Fifty years ago, an upright piano flew from the sky and crashed loudly upon the ground near Duvall, Washington, smashing into pieces in front of an audience of avant-garde enthusiasts. It was dropped from a helicopter by the Jack Straw Foundation (then in the form of KRAB radio) as a fundraising event for the experimental radio station and their friends at Helix, the hippie newspaper.
Seattle Times clipping, 1968.
This month, that historic piano is being resurrected.
Piano Drop is a historical music installation now on display at the Jack Straw New Media Gallery. The exhibit showcases the remains of the fallen piano for the first time since the helicopter drop, along with archival film footage, historical documents, and new recordings of music composed and performed on the instrument.
And, you can even see the piano performed live. On Febraury 23, Jack Straw presents a special one-night-only live performance of new works composed for the instrument and performed by local musicians, including new works from Amy Denio, James Borchers, Jeffrey Bowen, and Luke Fitzpatrick, among many others.
Though all of the music was written in response to a clamorous piano drop, the concert pays equal tribute to the aleatoric sounds of near-silence; in the spirit of John Cage, each of the featured works is 4’33” or shorter.
Piano Drop is on display at the Jack Straw New Media Gallery through Friday, March 15. The live performance is Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7pm. Click here to learn more.
byMaggie MolloySecond Inversion and theLive Music Project create a monthly calendar featuring contemporary classical, cross-genre, and experimental performances in Seattle, the Eastside, Tacoma, and places in between!
Keep an eye out for our flyer in concert programs and coffee shops around town. Feel free to download, print, and distribute it yourself! If you’d like to be included on this list, please submit your event to the Live Music Project at least six weeks prior to the event and tag it with “new music.”
Wayward Music Series Concerts of contemporary composition, free improvisation, electroacoustic music, and sonic experiments. This month: white noise, dark ambient, abstracted songs, and Kurdish rhythms. Various days, 7:30/8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15
Caroline Shaw.
Seattle Symphony: Caroline Shaw’s ‘Watermark’ Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto was the inspiration behind Caroline Shaw’s Watermark, which receives its world premiere at Benaroya Hall. Pianist Jonathan Biss performs both pieces with the Seattle Symphony, conducted by Ludovic Morlot. Take a peek behind the scenes in our interview with the composer. Fri, 2/1, 12pm, Benaroya Hall | $22-$122 Sat, 2/2, 8pm, Benaroya Hall | $22-$122
SMCO: From Spain to India The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra explores connections between Indian classical music and flamenco in this program featuring music of Manuel de Falla, Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar, and Jason Everett performed with guest soloists. Sat, 2/2, 8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $15-$25 Sun, 2/3, 4pm, Vashon Center for the Arts | $10-$22
Erin Jorgensen (left) and Rose Bellini (right).
Cheating, Lying, Stealing New music luminaries Erin Jorgensen and Rose Bellini assemble a cast of Seattle’s top new music movers and shakers for this wide-ranging program of chamber works by David Lang, Anna Clyne, Carla Kihlstedt, Marc Mellits, and Caroline Shaw. Did we mention it takes place amid a dreamy neon light show? The concert’s creators take us behind the scenes. Sun, 2/3, 8pm, Washington Hall | $20
Amy Denio Ensemble: ‘Varieté’ Seattle avant-gardist Amy Denio and her band perform her original film score alongside this special viewing of the 1925 silent film Varieté: a tale of jealousy, obsession, and murder set against the backdrop of the circus. Mon, 2/4, 7pm, The Paramount Theatre | $10
Seattle Symphony: Silkroad Ensemble Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh performs the world premiere of his clarinet concerto with the Seattle Symphony in this concert celebrating cross-cultural collaboration. He’s joined by the musicians of the Silkroad Ensemble for music by Vijay Iyer,Edward Perez, and Chen Yi. Wed, 2/6, 7:30pm, Benaroya Hall | $22-$122
Clarinetist Kinan Azmeh.
Melia Watras: ‘Schumann Resonances’ Album Release Fairy tales, folk songs, and the music of Schumann are a few of the major influences behind violist Melia Watras’s new album. She performs new works from Schumann Resonances alongside special guests. Hear our sneak preview of the album. Wed, 2/6, 7:30pm, UW Brechemin Auditorium | FREE
Seattle Improvised Music Festival No scores, no plans, no safety net: just a whole bunch of artists from all different musical backgrounds collaborating in an atmosphere of spontaneity, intuition, and discovery. 2/6-2/10, Various times and locations | $5-$20
Harry Partch Ensemble This concert has been cancelled due to inclement weather. Experience the handmade microtonal instruments of Harry Partch in this concert featuring new works composed for his instruments paired with rarely-performed works from the composer’s archives. Take a tour of the Harry Partch Instrumentarium. Sat, 2/9, 7:30pm, Meany Studio Theater | $10
Harry Partch’s Chromelodeon. Photo by Maggie Molloy.
UW School of Music: ‘The Innocents’ Visiting percussionists John Lane and Allen Otte perform music from their performance art piece The Innocents, which uses found sounds, street percussion, thumb pianos, and electronics to explore issues of wrongful imprisonment and exoneration. The concert also features the UW Percussion ensemble performing works for speaking percussionist. Tues, 2/12, 8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15
Kin of the Moon: A New Phase The composer-performer troupe Kin of the Moon presents the world premiere of Ewa Trębacz’s Winter After Times of Fire, a surround-sound collage of improvisations from a wide range of sonic spaces, including the Fort Worden Cistern. Also on the program are new works exploring graphic scores, forgotten sounds, and film. Fri, 2/22, 7:30pm, Kerry Hall | $5-$15
The Esoterics: Vulnerability Openness of heart and mind is the overarching theme of this choral concert featuring wide-ranging works from Reena Esmail, Ted Hearne, David Lang, Jennifer Higdon, Evan Flory-Barnes, and more. 2/22-2/24, Various times and locations | $15-$22
Piano Drop @ Jack Straw The fractured remains of a piano dropped from a helicopter 50 years ago become the canvas for a concert of brand new works by local composers. Discover the story behind the instrument. Sat, 2/23, 7pm, Jack Straw Cultural Center | FREE
Emerald Ensemble: ‘the little match girl passion’ David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning the little match girl passion tells the haunting tale of a poor young girl who freezes from the bitter cold of the cruel world around her. The harrowing oratorio sets Hans Christian Andersen’s original story in the format of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Sat, 2/23, 8pm, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church | $30
Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond.
My Brightest Diamond Few artists inhabit both pop and classical worlds so freely and convincingly as Shara Nova, the operatically-trained singer and composer behind the art rock band My Brightest Diamond. She performs music from her new album A Million and One. Sat, 2/23, 9pm, Tractor Tavern | $18
Seattle Opera: The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs Mason Bates takes you inside the life and legacy of one of the greatest minds of the digital age in this opera exploring the intersections of technology, spirituality, and ambition. Learn more about the music in our album review. 2/23-3/9, Various times, McCaw Hall | $25-$335
On this week’s Seattle Symphony Spotlight, Dave Beck speaks with the youngest composer ever to win a Pulitzer Prize in music: Caroline Shaw.
Caroline is in Seattle this weekend for the world premiere of Watermark, her new orchestral work written in response to Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. The idea for the piece was suggested to her by pianist Jonathan Biss, who performs both pieces with the Seattle Symphony this weekend, conducted by Ludovic Morlot. The program opens with Shostakovich’s Symphony No.1, a piece that brought the young composer international acclaim at the age of 19.
All of the works on the program represent strikingly original creations by composers in the early years of their careers. In this interview, Caroline talks with us about the inspiration, the writing process, and the meaning behind the title Watermark.
Caroline Shaw’s Watermark premieres at the Seattle Symphony Jan. 31-Feb. 2. Click here for tickets and more information.
In a world so full of noise, the quiet music of Ólafur Arnalds speaks volumes.
His ephemeral melodies have a nostalgic quality—a way of immersing the listener in muted whispers of sound. Drifting amid his chorus of amplified keyboards and synthesizers, the passage of time becomes quietly punctuated by gentle drum beats and sighing strings. His music plays with perception—if you listen long enough, it blurs the lines of time.
The fluidity of time is one of the major themes behind Arnalds’ world tour All Strings Attached, which comes through Seattle this Saturday at the Moore Theatre. Featuring music from his past, present, and future records, the concert examines the unity and interconnectedness of humanity through an immersive musical performance.
The concert features Arnalds at the keyboard backed by a new generative piano device that he created in collaboration with audio developer Halldór Eldjárn. When Arnalds performs live, each note he plays triggers (in real time) unique musical sequences on two different Disklavier player pianos, creating a sort of duet between human and computer. Adding texture to Arnalds’ collection of keyboards is a uniquely wired ensemble of string quintet and drums—each sound delicately intertwined, all strings attached.
Ólafur Arnalds performs at the Moore Theatre on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 8pm. Click here for tickets and more information.
Fifty years ago, an upright piano flew from the sky and crashed loudly upon the ground near Duvall, Washington, smashing into pieces in front of an audience of avant-garde enthusiasts. It was dropped from a helicopter by the Jack Straw Foundation (then in the form of KRAB radio) as a fundraising event for the experimental radio station and their friends at Helix, the hippie newspaper.
1968 press clipping from the Seattle Times.
This month, that historic piano is being resurrected in the hands of local composers—and it’s not too late to get in on the action.
The Jack Straw Cultural Center is currently accepting submissions for new works scored for the illustrious instrument’s remains (the soundboard and harp—minus the bass strings, if we’re getting specific). The tuning of the strings is as-is, allowing for a wide array of delightful and unexpected surprises—and fingers, mallets, and bows are all fair game. The maximum length for submissions is 4’33” (a tribute to John Cage’s iconoclastic “silent piece”), and submissions are accepted as written scores or demo recordings.
Submissions are due Jan. 7, and the selected compositions will be performed and recorded at Jack Straw in February and incorporated into a Piano Drop installation in the New Media Gallery.
Interested composers can emailarts@jackstraw.orgor call them at (206) 634-0919 with any questions, or to schedule a time to visit the instrument in the gallery.
The Opening Reception for Jack Straw’s Piano Drop Installation will take place Friday, Feb. 8 at 7pm. A live performance of the new works will take place Saturday, Feb. 23 at 7pm. Both events are free and open to the public. Click here to learn more.
