New Music Concerts: January 2017 Seattle * Eastside * Tacoma

Posted on January 3, 2017 by maestrobeats

Second Inversion and the Live 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 this 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, submit your event to the Live Music Project at least 6 weeks prior to the event and be sure to tag it with “new music.”

Racer Sessions
A weekly showcase of original music with a jam session based on the concepts in the opening presentation.
Every Sunday, 8-10pm, Cafe Racer | FREE
racersessions.com

Wayward Music Series
Concerts of contemporary composition, free improvisation, electronic/electroacoustic music, & more.
Various days, 7:30/8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15
waywardmusic.org (check website for complete listings)

6-8
The Esoterics: KAY: Ulysses Kay Centennial
The Esoterics will celebrate the centennial of African-American Neoclassic composer, conductor, and professor Ulysses Kay.
Fri, 1/6, 8pm, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church | $15-$25
Sat, 1/7, 8pm, Holy Rosary Catholic Church | $15-$25
Sun, 1/8, 7pm, Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma | $15-$25
theesoterics.org

7
The Sound Ensemble: Life after Y2K
TSE shares 5 pieces written post-2000 from several different schools of composition, including a world premiere by Sarah Bassingthwaighte.
Sat, 1/7, 7pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $10 student/senior; $15 general
thesoundensemble.com/tour-dates

10
Meany Center Presents JACK Quartet
JACK Quartet, deemed “superheroes of the new music world,” performs Morton Feldman, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Derek Bermel, Julia Wolfe, & Iannis Xenakis.
Tue, 1/10, 7:30pm, Meany Theatre | $37-$42
meanycenter.org/events-tickets

11
whateverandeveramen: Second Annual Burns Night
w&ea. sings settings of Robert Burns’s texts and traditional drinking songs with an exclusive batch of Naked City’s “Scotch Wha Hae” Ale.
Wed, 1/11, 8pm, Naked City Brewery | $15 (includes a free drink ticket)
whateverchoir.org/burns

14
Chorosynthesis: Empowering Silenced Voices 2.0
A concert of new choral works on issues of social consciousness: technology, the environment, human & women’s rights, universal love, and perspectives on war & terrorism.
Sat, 1/14, 7:30pm, Nickerson Studios | $10 student/senior; $25 general
chorosynthesis.org/events

14
State of Mind
Susan Maughlin Wood and Michaud Savage premiere works for string sextet with the Skyros Quartet, Rose Gear, and Michaud Savage.
Sat, 1/14, 7pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15
waywardmusic.org

20
Russian Music of the 1960s
Pianist Dr. Brendan Kinsella & violinist Luke Fitzpatrick showcase elements of serialism & quotations in sonatas of Denisov, Shostakovich, & Schnittke.
Fri, 1/20, 7:30pm, Meany Studio Theatre | $10 student/senior; $20 general
music.washington.edu/events

21
Sumiko Sato: Sakaya Uta
Composer/pianist Sumiko Sato premieres a series of pieces for sextet based on very old and historic recordings of Sakaya Uta (sake-brewing work songs).
Sat, 1/21, 8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15
waywardmusic.org

20/21
Universal Language Project: concrete-lines-fluid-curves
Inspired by a recent trip to Brazil, Chris Stover presents five new compositions for chamber jazz ensemble, spoken word, found sounds, and dancer.
Fri, 1/20, 8pm, Resonance at SOMA Towers | $20
Sat, 1/21, 8pm, Cornish Playhouse – Alhadeff Studio | $20
commontonearts.com/projects/

27
Seattle Symphony: [untitled] 2
An exploration of three Soviet era composers (Rabinovitch-Barakovsky, Ustvolskaya, Karanov) who chart opposing paths during and after the Cold War.
Fri, 1/27, 10pm, Benaroya Hall Grand Lobby | $16
seattlesymphony.org

28
NUMUS Northwest
A day-long event dedicated to the creation, performance, and experience of new music in Seattle featuring performances, panels, workshops.
Sat, 1/28, 9am-10pm, Kerry Hall (Cornish) | $20 (students free)
numusnw.org

20-29
Seattle Chamber Music Society: Winter Festival
SCMS presents iconic 20th century new works on each 2017 Winter Festival performance.
Fri, 1/20, 7:30pm, Nordstrom Recital Hall | $52 John Corigliano: Violin Sonata
Sat, 1/21, 7:30pm, Nordstrom Recital Hall | $52 Jennifer Higdon: Piano Trio
Sun, 1/22, 3pm, Nordstrom Recital Hall | $52 Aaron Jay Kernis: Perpetual Chaconne
Fri, 1/27, 7:30pm, Nordstrom Recital Hall | $52 Steve Reich: Different Trains
Paul Schoenfield: Café Music: Sat, 1/28, 7:30pm, Nordstrom Recital Hall | $52
John Adams: Hallelujah Junction: Sun, 1/29, 3pm, Nordstrom Recital Hall | $52
seattlechambermusic.org/concerts/

From John Cage to Afro-Cuban Jazz: Concerts You Do NOT Want to Miss This Season

Posted on September 20, 2016 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Molloy

Ahh, fall. The leaves are changing, the rain is sprinkling, the sky is cloudy, and the pumpkin spice marketing is in full swing. Those hot summer days are finally behind us and we’re back to our familiar, cozy, flannel-covered fall in Seattle. After all, October is a time for new beginnings, new adventures, and—most importantly—new music.

Seattle’s 2016-2017 concert season is jam-packed with fresh new music of every shape, style, and structure (or lack thereof). From John Cage to Afro-Cuban jazz, Astor Piazzolla to Andy Warhol, Benjamin Britten to Brazilian poetry—there is something for everyone. Here are some of our top picks for the season:

On Stage with KING FM: Second Inversion is thrilled to host two concerts this year as part of the second season of On Stage with Classical KING FM! In March, we’ll present the Seattle Marimba Quartet with an eclectic program of classical favorites, modern marimba repertoire, and interactive drumming rhythms drawing from Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and African musical traditions.

Then in May, back by popular demand, we present the Seattle Rock Orchestra Quintet with the mesmerizing Tamara Power-Drutis for a program that transforms pop songs into art songs, reimagining both classic and modern tunes as intimate chamber works for the recital hall. Check out our videos from last season for a sneak-peek of what you can expect.

Seattle Symphony: Ditch the conventional concert-going experience of strict seating, fancy attire, and three-hour long performances with Seattle Symphony’s [Untitled] concert series. This season you can catch landmark works by Witold Lutosławski (arguably Poland’s most innovative composer since Chopin), drench yourself in the dramatic soundscapes of Polish composer and singer Agata Zubel, explore the wide-ranging musical styles of Soviet era composers, and even enter into the twisted worlds of two of America’s most confounding cultural icons: pop artist Andy Warhol and jazz pianist Thelonious Monk.

And speaking of jazz: Seattle Symphony will also co-present their annual Sonic Evolution concert with Earshot Jazz this November. Grace Love and the Garfield High School Jazz Band join the symphony for an evening celebrating two extraordinary Seattle musicians: the incomparable composer and record producer Quincy Jones and the legendary blues singer Ernestine Anderson, both of whom attended Garfield High School.

Meany Center for the Performing Arts: Formerly known as the UW World Series, Meany Center is still just as committed as ever to bringing music from around the world to their Seattle stage. In November, they’ll feature the Grammy-nominated Imani Winds quintet, known around the globe for their dynamic playing, culturally conscious programming, and adventurous collaborations. Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla, Cuban-born jazz saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, and Palestinian-American oud and violin virtuoso Simon Shaheen are just a few of the composers listed on this program.

In January, the New York-based Jack Quartet presents an evening of composed and improvised music along with visiting artists from the internationally acclaimed Six Tones Ensemble and UW School of Music faculty members Richard Karpen, Juan Pampin, Cuong Vu, and Ted Poor. And if you can’t make it to these concerts, don’t sweat—Second Inversion will be broadcasting them live on our online stream.

John Cage Musicircus: Come one, come all to the John Cage Musicircus this November 19! This multimedia concert “happening” features over over 60 musicians, dancers, performance artists, and poets simultaneously performing pieces from Cage’s expansive body of work, including the Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano, In a Landscape for (unprepared) piano, Child of Tree for amplified cactus, Third Construction for unorthodox percussion instruments, Cartridge Music for amplified small sounds, 45’ For A Speaker for spoken voice, and much more!

Performers will be stationed all over Town Hall, with audience members encouraged to explore how the sonic and visual experience shifts as they wander freely throughout the building. Plus, Second Inversion’s own Maggie Molloy will present the pre-concert lecture, perform two piano works, and distribute free copies of her John Cage Diary series as a zine for audience members to take home!

North Corner Chamber Orchestra: Celebrate those cozy winter nights with NOCCO’s annual Solstice Celebration, this year featuring the music of Stravinsky, Respighi, Bach, and Seattle composer Angelique Poteat. Then in February for Black History Month, NOCCO performs a program featuring a newly commissioned work by local composer Hanna Brenn and performance artist C. Davida Ingram alongside classics by two Pulitzer Prize-winning African American composers: Scott Joplin and George Walker. And in April, their season wraps up with a brand new world premiere by NOCCO’s principal clarinetist and composer, Sean Osborn, along with well-loved works by Rossini and Haydn.

Seattle Modern Orchestra: These guys are starting their season off with a bang: three new premieres by living composers. First, a U.S. premiere by Lithuanian composer Vykintas Baltakas, then a West Coast premiere by German composer Wolfgang Rihm, followed by a world premiere by American composer Andrew Waggoner featuring Grammy-winning guest pianist Gloria Cheng.

The rest of the season features cutting-edge collaborations with University of Washington’s Solaris Vocal Ensemble and the Paris-based clarinetist Carol Robinson, a world premiere by SMO co-artistic director Jérémy Jolley, the 80th birthday of legendary Seattle trombonist Stuart Dempster, the 90th birthday of renowned Seattle clarinetist and composer William O. “Bill” Smith, and the centennial celebration of American composer Robert Erickson.

Universal Language Project: ULP is back for another season of interdisciplinary and out-of-the-box collaborations between 21st century musicians and artists of all disciplines. In October: a multi-media work by Marcus Oldham about racial reconciliation (featuring Second Inversion regulars the Skyros Quartet). In January, composer Chris Stover showcases his works for chamber jazz ensemble featuring spoken word, found sounds, and dance inspired by Brazilian poets. Then in March, the season wraps up with a surreal, outer space-inspired performance featuring artist Erin Jorgensen with local musicians, the overtones of her 5-octave marimba merging with intimate whispering and beautifully minimal music in a small stab towards enlightenment.

Emerald City Music: Now in its inaugural season, Emerald City Music is on a mission to make classical chamber music accessible to broader audiences in Seattle and Olympia. And they’re not wasting any time: their inaugural season features 45 renowned guest artists from around the world. Each of the concerts offers a uniquely thematic glimpse into the chamber music repertory, featuring classical masterworks and newly composed music alike. Bookended by concerts featuring familiar works by Bach and Beethoven, this year you can also expand your classical music palette with cutting-edge performances of works by the likes of Henri Dutilleux, Thomas Adès, Benjamin Britten, Bohuslav Martinů, Percy Grainger, David Schiff, Per Nørgård, Ryan Francis, Thomas Koppel, and more.

Town Music Series: Curated by Second Inversion Artistic Advisor Joshua Roman, the Town Music Series programs cutting-edge and virtuosic chamber works which bring together the best of old and new classical traditions. Their 2016-2017 season kicks off with cellist Joshua Roman joined by violinist Caroline Goulding for an evening of dynamic duets by Halvorsen, Kodály, and Ravel. Stay tuned for details on the rest of the season!

Wayward Music Series: If you’ve got wayward or otherwise unconventional music taste, the Wayward Music Series will keep you satiated all year long. Check their online calendar or subscribe to their newsletter for specifics on upcoming events, which span the new music gamut from contemporary classical to the outer limits of jazz, electroacoustic experiments to explorations of the avant-garde, eccentric instruments to unorthodox sound art, multimedia collaborations and much more.

These are just a handful of the new music happenings we’re most looking forward to this season—for more up-to-the-minute details on experimental, avant-garde, and otherwise unconventional music events around the Northwest, check out Second Inversion’s full event calendar!

STAFF & COMMUNITY PICKS: September 17, 2015

Posted on September 17, 2015 by maestrobeats

A weekly rundown of the music our staff and listeners are loving lately! Are you interested in contributing some thoughts on your favorite new music albums? Drop us a line!

Joshua Roman on JACK Quartet’s recording of Tetras by Iannis Xenakis:

From the insanity of the opening glissandi, or slides, to the final whimper, it’s hard to imagine a more captivating 17.5 minutes than Tetras. The precision and intensity brought to this performance by the JACK Quartet are almost frightening. If you can pull your jaw off the floor long enough to get past the shock and awe factor, the innovative structure and sounds of the piece kick in. Fantastical glissandi of all shapes and sizes, wild percussive sounds (using many parts of the instruments not traditionally in play), tremolo and hitherto unheard of scales are provocative and forceful in their narrative roles. Underneath all of that, Tetras creates a space where your imagination can go wild, at times wailing, at times full palpable tension, or in chaotic ecstasy.

Maggie Molloy on Florent Ghys’s Télévision:

I listen to the weather forecast pretty much every morning—but I have never heard it like this before. French composer and bassist Florent Ghys’s eclectic new album “Télévision” begins with a piece composed for double bass, voice, guitars, percussion, and, oh yeah, five weather forecasts. Yes, five weather forecasts.

But it’s not all just sunshiny, warm weatherman banter—the piece actually serves as an introduction to Ghys’s idiosyncratic compositional style. As the title of the album suggests, his music is like a mashup of video and sound clips, sampled speech, multi-tracking, found sound, and more—and it’s all tied together with perfectly groovy pizzicato basslines and subtle yet witty social commentary. The colorful and unapologetically contemporary works live somewhere in the realm between chamber music, minimalism, sound art, and seriously catchy pop tunes.

So the next time you’re looking for something new, turn off your TV and tune into Florent Ghys’s musique concrète masterpiece, “Télévision.”

Maggie Stapleton on Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal’s Musique de Nuit:

This duo is one of my go-to musical pick-me-ups. The delicate, sprinkling sounds of the kora along with the low, resonant cello is a soundscape that can turn around a glum day or transport me to a centered place. Musique de Nuit is a spectacular follow-up to their debut album, Chamber Music (which, BTW, was on our pilot playlist for Second Inversion when we created the project three years ago!) and was recorded in a mere TWO sessions – one on Ballake Sissoko’s rooftop in Bamako, and one in a studio. Who does that? These guys. With infuence from West African folk traditions, a hint of Baroque music, and a fresh take on the concept of “Night Music,” rest assured you can listen to this morning, day, or night and retreat to a world of enchantment.

A Worthwhile Journey

Posted on April 2, 2015 by maestrobeats

by Joshua Roman

Follow Joshua on Facebook, Twitter, and see his schedule at joshuaroman.com

Dear Readers:

Thank you for joining me here as we embark on an exploration of musicians’ lives in today’s changing landscape. Over the last few years, I have been taking on projects and roles that I never dreamt would be a part of my professional life as a musician, and I see many of my colleagues redefining their musical career as well.

For many of us, this is uncertain territory. Leaving our practice rooms behind, entering the worlds of interdisciplinary collaborations, social experiments, entrepreneurial endeavors, and in general, a broader sense of creativity, we are making things up as we go. Luckily, there are fantastic examples of success, from the composer-performer, like the JACK Quartet, who write and arrange music as well as performing new works by others, to the modern day impresario, like Derek Bermel, who not only composes and plays clarinet, but has curated chamber music series’ in the past and is now Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra.

In a world where geographical borders are often easy to cross, and technology blurs the lines of genre and categories in other realms, the question of whether we should define ourselves within old and possibly rigid boundaries is an important one. Am I a cellist? Am I a musician? Am I a classical musician that enjoys other kinds of music, or some broader kind of musician that specializes in classical music? Perhaps a sound artist? Personally, I’ve begun to feel a strong and central pull that brings me towards a core, something I could only describe as “my voice”. In this fast pace world of 30 second sound bites, it is challenging to define this new type of musical individuality, and the meeting the need to articulate a concise statement of who one is, or what one does, can be especially difficult as one embarks upon new paths and begins to explore new avenues of artistic expression.

All of this sounds very new, but one of the most encouraging realizations that keeps coming back to me is the fact that this is all a very old idea. Name a composer from before 1900 and chances are strong that they were also a performer. Many of them were skilled (or at least effective) organizers as well. Assembling musical forces was not always easy to do, if you weren’t in the employ of royalty. Even then, many contracts included more than just writing and showing up to play. I draw much inspiration from famous musicians of old such as Mozart, Bach, Brahms, and others from their time who developed a unique voice, while sharing through their performances and repertoire decisions as well. Today, many of my friends are doing this at incredibly high levels, and their creativity and passion manifest in ways that surprise and invigorate me.

Hopefully, along with keeping you up to date on the things I’m doing, sharing about the music and people I get to know along the way, and musing about ideas and provocations that pop up, this space will afford the opportunity to help discover new and better ways to communicate the essence of what the hell it is we are doing here with this amazing art form. I can’t wait to see how it unfolds!

For now, I will leave you with two lists, and gratitude for sharing the journey with me.

Some Current Projects
Finish writing my first Cello Concerto
Bring back the Haydn C Major
Flesh out a few programs for 1516 and 1617 seasons

Music On Rotation

Punch Brothers: Who’s Feeling Young Now? (buy)
Gabriel Fauré: Requiem (John Rutter conducting) (buy)
John Adams: Shaker Loops (buy)

P.S. Thank you to Second Inversion for inviting me to share via their platform. I encourage you to check out their 24/7 webstream, where you’ll be hearing from me occasionally as well.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Life is Endless Like Our Field of Vision (Huck Hodge)

Posted on November 10, 2014 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Stapleton

Here at Second Inversion we aim to “Rethink Classical,” but the array of sounds on Huck Hodge’s new album, “Life is Endless Like Our Field of Vision,” steps beyond that mantra. “Rethink Sound,” perhaps? The four pieces offer a varied textural output and alternation of pieces without and with electronics – chamber ensemble (Talea Ensemble under Jim Baker), piano with computer-realized sound, chamber ensemble (ditto Talea/Baker), string quartet (JACK Quartet) with live processed melodica, performed by Hodge.

Alêtheia (roughly translated as “truth”), composed in 2011, opens the disc. Alêtheia is based on Hodge’s reconciliation of two opposing philosophies of truth, particularly as noted by Parmenides, who sees truth as a fixed and unchanging reality, and Heraclitus, offering the notion that reality is in constant flux. The music reflects this juxtaposition of truth in the musical form of time – many sections of the piece have simultaneously still, static, fixed ideas (e.g. a single harmony lasting 30 seconds) but with rapidly changing timbres. Melody also portrays this opposing force of truth; the piece is strongly rooted in melody, represented as a fixed element. Fragmented and textural moments with a style marking of “Disjunctly lyrical” counteract the fixed nature of the melody. The US Premiere of this piece is this Saturday, November 15 at 8pm, performed by the Seattle Modern Orchestra!

Moving along, Pools of shadow from an older sky is in five movements for live-processed bent piano, computer-realized sound and video projection. While we don’t get the visual stimulation in this recording, there is no lack of richness for the sense of sound, performed here entirely by Huck Hodge. The piece was commissioned by the American Academy in Rome in 2011 (while Hodge was in Rome celebrating his receipt of the Rome Prize) in commemoration of Galileo’s first telescope demonstration. The premiere was on April 11, 2014, exactly four hundred years afterward. While Alêtheia dealt with juxtaposition of truth interpretations, Pools of shadow from an older sky displays a past vs. present negotiation. Hodge weaves church bells and hymns of Roman cathedrals with present sounds from Rome (sirens and street noise), all the while with a clear homage to Galileo. Piano twinkling stars and intergalactic radio wave sounds create a soundscape that is truly otherworldly. Close your eyes as you listen – I hope you’ll feel as transported as I do!

Continuing with the theme of “this or that,” re[(f)use] can be interpreted in many ways. First, there’s the world “refuse”:

ref·use /rəˈfyo͞oz/ v. indicate or show that one is not willing to do something

ref·use /refˌyo͞os/ n. matter thrown away or rejected as worthless; trash

…but also within the word there are many other words: fuse (noun & verb), use, reuse. Each shade of meaning has something to do with the piece. re[(f)use] uses a lot of “junk” sounds – cell phone noise, speaker hums, cell phone ringtones. The aesthetic here is an attempt to reverse the hierarchy of “beauty” to which many composers and musicians often strive. Rather than taking something that’s already beautiful, like a violin melody, and transforming it into something less beautiful (perhaps in attempt to question its beauty), re[(f)use] takes sounds which are inherently ugly and transform them into something beautiful. Hodge performs on live processed melodica along with the (amplified) JACK Quartet.

It’s always a pleasure to feature Seattle-based artists here on Second Inversion. Huck Hodge has received more accolades before the age of 40 than many of the world’s greatest composers have achieved in their entire life, including the Rome Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, Gaudeamus Prize, and the Aaron Copland Award.. Alêtheia and another one of Hodge’s works, Zeremonie, will be featured on the upcoming Saturday, November 15 Seattle Modern Orchestra concert. PS, Tune in to The Takeover on Wednesday, November 12 at 3pm to hear SMO Co-Artistic Director Jeremy Jolley share some of the music from the upcoming season.

You can purchase the disc from New World Records here. Enjoy!