NEW VIDEO: Steve Reich’s Cello Counterpoint

Posted on January 31, 2016 by maestrobeats

Continuing our series of “Steve Reich videos around Seattle,” we’re pleased to share Rose Bellini’s performance of Cello Counterpoint at On the Boards!

This is our second of three Steve Reich videos in collaboration with On the Boards Ambassador James Holt, who is presenting a concert dedicated to the music of Steve Reich on Tuesday, February 2 at 8pm:

Counterpoint | Phase – A hypnotic evening of music in a non-traditional setting from the American master of minimalism.

LINEUP:
Nagoya Marimbas: Erin Jorgensen & Memmi Ochi
Cello Counterpoint: Rose Bellini
New York Counterpoint: Rachel Yoder
Violin Phase: Luke Fitzpatrick/Marcin Pączkowski

Pre-sales for this event are sold out. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door.

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Cellist Rose Bellini is an avid performer of a wide variety of music, especially contemporary and experimental music. She regularly performs with classical music ensembles, modern dance companies, bands, and chamber and orchestral groups from Seattle to New York City to San Francisco.

A founding member of mixed-chamber ensembles REDSHIFT and Hotel Elefant, Rose also regularly appears with the Seattle Modern Orchestra and Seattle Rock Orchestra. Other notable appearances include with the Wordless Music Orchestra, Ensemble Signal, FLUX Quartet, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, East Village Opera Company, Phoenix Ensemble, folk and rock bands, and in venues from ranging from neighborhood bars to Carnegie Hall.

Rose frequently collaborates with living composers from around the world and often premieres and records new works for cello and for chamber ensemble. A doctoral graduate of Indiana University-Bloomington, her primary teachers were Emilio Colón and Janos Starker.

As an arts entrepreneur, Rose has established herself as a resourceful fundraiser and leader in the music and arts community working in development for a variety of organizations. Rose serves on the board of the Switchboard Music Festival in San Francisco, CA.

NEW VIDEO: Steve Reich’s New York Counterpoint

Posted on January 24, 2016 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Stapleton

New York Counterpoint for amplified clarinet and prerecorded clarinets is one of many pieces in Steve Reich’s “counterpoint” series, in which one live performer typically plays against up to a dozen recordings of the same instrument. Reich aims to capture “the throbbing vibrancy of Manhattan” in this work, performed here by Rachel Yoder, who also recorded the backing tracks.

This is our first of three Steve Reich videos in collaboration with On the Boards Ambassador James Holt, who is presenting a concert dedicated to the music of Steve Reich on Tuesday, February 2 at 8pm:

Counterpoint | Phase – A hypnotic evening of music in a non-traditional setting from the American master of minimalism.

LINEUP:
Nagoya Marimbas: Erin Jorgensen & Memmi Ochi
Cello Counterpoint: Rose Bellini
New York Counterpoint: Rachel Yoder
Violin Phase: Luke Fitzpatrick/Marcin Pączkowski

Pre-sales for this event are sold out. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door.

Stay tuned for our of video Violin Phase! Cello Counterpoint is now up and running

Rachel Yoder is a versatile clarinetist and teacher based in the Seattle area, currently performing with the Seattle Modern Orchestra, Madera Wind Quintet and the Odd Partials clarinet/electronics duo. Rachel is editor of The Clarinet, journal of the International Clarinet Association, and works as adjunct professor of music at the DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, WA. She has performed and presented throughout the United States, including appearances at conferences of the International Clarinet Association, International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), and Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS). She holds a doctorate in clarinet from the University of North Texas, and also holds degrees from Michigan State University and Ball State University.

ALBUM REVIEW: ZOFO Plays Terry Riley

Posted on June 22, 2015 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Molloy

With piano, the musical possibilities are so vast that sometimes your biggest limitation is the fact you only have two hands—which is why internationally acclaimed solo pianists Eva-Maria Zimmermann and Keisuke Nakagoshi teamed up to create ZOFO, a four-hand piano duo committed to performing contemporary classical music.

ZOFO, which is shorthand for 20-finger orchestra (ZO=20 and FO=finger orchestra), is one of only a handful of duos worldwide devoted exclusively to piano duets, and they are paving the way for other four-hand duos by focusing on 20^th and 21^st century repertoire and commissioning new works from celebrated contemporary composers.

Their latest musical project was in collaboration with one of the biggest names in contemporary classical: Terry Riley. Riley, who turns 80 years old this Wednesday, was one of the pioneers of minimalist music, alongside other influential American composers like La Monte Young, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass.

Minimalism began in the 1960s as a new musical approach which focused on observing the internal processes of the music rather than striving to reach a thematic or harmonic goal. Some of the prominent features of minimalism were consonant harmony, steady pulse, repetition, phasing, and gradual transformation.

But as all musicians know, minimalism is far from simple—as is evidenced by Riley’s beautifully complex piano music. For ZOFO’s latest project, they devoted an entire album to exploring Riley’s music for four-hand piano.

The album, titled “ZOFO Plays Terry Riley,” features the five pieces from Riley’s four-hand piano suite “The Heaven Ladder, Book 5,” a handful of four-hand piano arrangements of other Riley works, and one newly commissioned work written specifically for ZOFO.

The album is framed by the five pieces in “The Heaven Ladder, Book 5,” and ZOFO dances through the complex choreography of each with effortless grace and precision. First is “Etude from the Old Country,” a vibrant and adventurous four-handed braid of circling melodic motives.

Next is “Jaztine,” which was written for Riley’s foster child. The piece is full of childlike joy and curiosity—and it also illustrates a heightened sense of imagination; in his composer’s note, Riley described the piece as being “interrupted suddenly at one point by a heavily trodding march of elephants ceremoniously dressed in Thai raiments.” The piece is followed by “Tango Doble Ladiado,” a short, sweet, and spirited Latin American tango.

ZOFO completes the four-hand suite with “Waltz for Charismas” and “Cinco de Mayo” at the end of the album. Inspired by Schoenberg’s piano music, “Waltz for Charismas” explores a number of time signatures outside the typical waltz pattern of three beats per measure, creating a lively and multihued musical texture. ZOFO finishes the suite with “Cinco de Mayo,” dancing through the swirling Latin melodies with freedom and flair, exploring the keyboard’s full range of pitches, colors, and characters.

The album also features three four-hand arrangements of Riley’s other instrumental works, which Zimmermann and Nakagoshi arranged in collaboration with Riley. Nakagoshi created four-hand piano versions of two Riley string quartets. His arrangement of “Half-Wolf Dances Mad in Moonlight” is pure passion and poetry, while his arrangement of “G Song” captures all the warmth and lyricism of a string quartet with just a single piano keyboard. The four hands weave in and out of each other so seamlessly that it’s difficult to tell where one player’s hands end and the other’s begin.

“The challenge of playing piano-four-hands is that the space you have for yourself is limited,” Zimmermann said. “But if you work around each other in a graceful way, it actually does not need to be something negative. When we rehearse really well and intensively, I still feel free—completely free with my movements.”

Zimmermann’s arrangement of “Simone’s Lullaby” from Terry’s “The Heaven Ladder, Book 7” (originally written for solo piano) is a soft and delicate beauty, exploring the piano’s full range through twinkling melodies above a rich, warm bass accompaniment.

The final piece featured on the album is “Praying Mantis Rag,” a dazzling, jazz-infused four-hand piece commissioned by ZOFO. The piece highlights the duo’s playful charm and vibrant virtuosity through its lively ragtime rhythms and its glitzy, glamorous, and unapologetically jazzy character.

“ZOFO Plays Terry Riley” proves that the musical magic of piano extends far beyond a pianist’s 10 fingers. Through their exploration of Riley’s works, Zimmermann and Nakagoshi paint a vivid and colorful picture of the immense textural, timbral, and stylistic possibilities of piano duets. After all, it’s amazing what a pianist can do with an extra hand or two.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Octet Ensemble’s “Scatter My Ashes”

Posted on December 8, 2014 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Molloy

I have always considered poetry to be the distant cousin of music. After all, both combine elements of rhythm, sound, lyricism, and storytelling. However, after listening through the OCTET Ensemble’s performance of “Scatter My Ashes,” I thought perhaps these two artistic mediums may be even closer than cousins; perhaps they could even be brother and sister.

“Scatter My Ashes” is a series of five poems written by Sue Susman about life, death, and darkness. Her brother, composer and keyboardist William Susman, then transformed the poems into a five-movement composition for OCTET, his New York-based contemporary music ensemble.

OCTET is essentially a jazzy big-band-turned-a-little-smaller: their sound features one of each instrument in the brass section plus rhythm. The ensemble is composed of soprano vocalist Mellissa Hughes, saxophonist Demetrius Spaneas, trumpeter Mike Gurfield, trombonist Alan Ferber, composer and keyboardist William Susman, pianist Elaine Kwon, double bassist Eleonore Oppenheim, and drummer and percussionist Greg Zuber.

“Scatter My Ashes” is the title track on OCTET’s debut album, where it is brilliantly framed by three other works which combine a neoclassical sound with jazz and pop elements. Hughes’ dazzling vocals soar above each piece, transitioning flawlessly from singing lyrical poetry to percussive wordless vocals depending on the composition.

The title track lays Hughes’ crystal clear voice over a relatively sparse, brass-dominated musical texture. The result is a harmonious mixture of minimalism and jazz, filled with swirling brass melodies and tender, lyrical vocals. Hughes’ voice amplifies the sorrow, hope, and drama of the poetry, making each word glow with very minimal vibrato.

The album’s opening track, the three-movement “Camille,” plays on the intermingling of vocal and instrumental timbres, using wordless vocals as a melodic and, at times, percussive element. The circling, minimalist melodies and vocal rhythms of the first movement give way to the piece’s somber, slower, jazzier middle movement before picking up the pace for the triumphant final section, a repetitive, rhythmic return to the minimal music aesthetic.

Another highlight is the ensemble’s “Piano Concerto” which, of course, is no ordinary piano concerto. Rather than showcasing a flashy soloistic piano part, the piece carefully blends subdued piano melodies with wordless vocals and brassy highlights to create a dreamlike atmosphere. The result is a beautiful and texturally fascinating sonic landscape which fully encompasses the listener in its sinuous melodies and jazz-infused rhythms.

The album finishes with “Moving in to an Empty Space,” a series of three more poems written by Sue Susman which her brother set to music for OCTET. The poignant poems explore themes of loneliness and isolation in the everyday human experience, the expressive lyrics further complimented by the softly sparkling background melodies. The pieces showcase Hughes’ impressive vocal range over a brass-dominated backdrop.

Though the entire album runs just under 45 minutes, each note is perfectly crafted and expertly executed. The precision and accuracy of each instrument’s part is a true testament to the musicianship OCTET’s members.

Without a single moment wasted, the album stands as a timeless combination of contemporary classical music, minimalism, and jazz into a profound and dynamic multidisciplinary work.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK: Julia Wolfe’s “Steel Hammer”

Posted on August 18, 2014 by maestrobeats

by Jill Kimball

Almost everyone has heard some version of a song about the man called John Henry. Legend has it that John Henry was a steel driver–someone who drilled holes into rock so that explosives could blast entire mountainsides and make way for tunnels and railroads. One day, he tried to keep up with a machine and succeeded, only to die of stress-induced heart failure on the spot.

A statue of John Henry in Summers County, West Virginia.

The character is fictional, but he represented the hordes of exploited laborers who built miles of American railroad in the late 19th century in harsh conditions for next to no pay. To this day, he is a symbol of unfair labor practices, of human strength, and of the skilled worker’s ongoing struggle to find work in an age of machines.

The folk song “John Henry” is well-known across so many genres. Everybody from Bruce Springsteen to Johnny Cash to Aaron Copland to They Might Be Giants has recorded, arranged or referenced it. Rather than being deterred by its ubiquity, though, the composer Julia Wolfe was inspired by it. Believe it or not, she waded through every version of “John Henry” she could find, noted all the lyric differences–since it’s an old folk tale, there are many–and wrote her own tribute in an album called Steel Hammer.

Musically, there’s a lot going on in this album. Norway’s vocal Trio Mediaeval provides strange, haunting and ethereal vocals throughout, accompanied by vastly different groups of instruments on each track. But the concept is simple: it’s an amalgamation of every John Henry story ever told, the details of which are often contradictory.

The album begins with mysterious, minimalistic vocals that reminded me a lot of fellow Bang on A Can composer David Lang. Then, a few effects are layered over the voices as they mimic the sound of a train whistle amid what sounds like a steel hammer driving into rock and the constant chug-a-chug of a steam engine.

According to legend, John Henry worked on a railroad in West Virginia. Or perhaps it was Kentucky. Or was it Columbus, Ohio? All of John Henry’s supposed locations are listed off in the folky, meandering second track, “The States,” which is pleasantly dissonant in all the right places. I especially like the introduction of driving percussion later in the track.

Two other tracks, “Characteristics” and “Polly Ann – The Race,” poke fun at the inconsistencies between John Henry stories. Some say he was tall; others say he was small. While some versions call his lover Polly Ann, others call her Mary Ann.

In “Destiny,” we learn that John Henry sealed his fate when he discovered his strength. “This hammer’s gonna be the death of me,” the vocal trio repeats as a piano and a cello play frenetic dissonant patterns and grow ever louder. The whole track ends loudly and abruptly, creating a frightening cliffhanger. We’re on the edge of our seats even though we all know the story’s tragic end.

“Mountain” paints a musical picture of the setting around which John Henry worked. At first it’s contemplative and tonal, but it grows increasingly dissonant as the steel driver’s death sinks in.

The two last movements, “Winner” and “Lord, Lord”, are like the modern answer to a Requiem mass, a seven-minute opportunity to come to grips with John Henry’s death, to grieve, and finally to hope that he is at peace now.

There’s a reason why this album was the runner-up for a Pulitzer Prize. It’s a triumph: beautiful but challenging, modern but accessible, at once relaxed and disquieting. I highly recommend you check it out! It’s available now on Cantaloupe Music‘s website.