rachele hales

2015 has been a huge year for us! Besides filling the 24/7 stream with new music and insights, we kept busy out in the community, on the blog, and making videos! This is the final post in a series of “Top 5 of 2015” lists (check out our Top 5 Videos and Top 5 Albums) before we plunge into 2016. Here are our top 5 moments/events/milestones/projects/good times:

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#5: John Cage Diary Series

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Armed with high-quality headphones and book in hand, over the course of eight weeks, Second Inversion’s Maggie Molloy listened through each of the eight parts of Cage’s Diary: How to Improve the World (You Will Only Make Matters Worse), recently published by Siglio Press, and created her own personal diary tracking the experience.

She gracefully navigated through the zigzagging maze that is Cage’s musical mind and shed light on some fascinating aspects of Cage’s life: his love of mushrooms, cats, anechoic chambers, technology (it’s arguable to say Cage may have predicted the internet), dance, and so much more. Dive in from the beginning and let her guide you through this incredible series! Stay tuned for more great creative features and clever wit from Maggie M. in 2016!

#4: Live Broadcasts

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In 2015 we presented SEVEN live streaming broadcast concerts from Town Hall Seattle and Meany Hall, including Third Coast Percussion, Catalyst Quartet, Deviant Septet, SYSO Alums and Mentors, Johnny Gandlesman, ETHEL and Robert Mirabal, Ensemble Variances with Lisa Bielawa! These broadcasts allowed us to connect with concert-goers in the community while reaching audiences nation and world-wide on our 24/7 stream! Many of them are also available on our live concerts on-demand page Stay tuned for plenty more in 2016.

#3: Music Videos (& a New Music USA Grant)

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We’re grateful for all of the foundation support we’ve received for Second Inversion this year! Our grant from New Music USA was particularly exciting because it to helped fund our music videos. Our video stars include Joshua Roman, Turtle Island String Quartet, Jherek Bischoff, Ashley Bathgate, Danish String Quartet, musicians from OneBeat, Christopher O’Riley and Matt Haimovitz, and so many more. It’s been a wildly fun journey connecting with artists who are passionate about sharing new music with audiences. We’re incredibly grateful for the time they donated to be a part of this project! Check out the complete video collection on our video page.

#2: Northwest Folklife Festival

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In 2015 we had our first Northwest Folklife Showcase – really, our first public performance of any kind! The Passenger String Quartet and Seattle Cello eXperiment performed for an absolutely packed Center Theatre. It was an amazing opportunity for us to contribute to Folklife’s diverse music and cultural offerings and to connect with new audiences. Some showed up expecting a more traditional “classical” concert and instead were able to Rethink Classical. Needless to say, we’ll be back for a 2nd showcase in 2016!

#1: Joshua Roman named Artistic Advisor

In March of 2015, Second Inversion brought Joshua Roman on board as the Artistic Advisor! Joshua has helped us “Rethink Classical” with our Seattle community and our national and global audiences by posting to our blog, introducing music on our 24/7 stream, and collaborating on new ideas and initiatives. Stay tuned for more from Joshua in 2016!

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 Christopher Cerrone’s “The Night Mare”:

“The Night Mare” by Christopher Cerrone is a piece which I had the immense pleasure of conducting on my first performance as a conductor with the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. This piece is for seven players and electronics and it’s a very good use of electronics, sort of creating this background against which the players punctuate with various sounds. The piece itself is not so much about a nightmare, I think as about the process of piecing together the nightmare that you’ve just had. You’re trying to figure out what you’ve heard – is it the sound of a train, is it the sound of a flute? All of these things are all very hazy, it’s all about the blurred lines. There may be a moment where everything comes together and starts to make sense, you know, as when you wake up and you start to piece together that this was in fact a dream, not reality… but that doesn’t hold for very long. It’s a wonderful piece, very evocative, very scary, and I’m excited to share it with you.

Rachele Hales on Little King’s My Friend:

Indie Chamber Pop group Little King offers up thirteen charming compositions in My Friend. The pieces are fairly short and all are so lovely and goofy that, when accompanied by Thomas Cruz’s beautiful lilting deadpan lyrics, it’s easy to imagine they could each be used as the score for a series of adorable animated short films. The lolling woodwinds support the wackiness of the album while also lending earnestness and warmth.

Stephen Vandivere* on Charles Wuorinen’s Six Trios:

The Trios by Charles Wuorinen were all composed in the early ’80s, and most of which include at least one brass instrument. My son, who played the trombone in high school and college, and took it up again a few years ago, heard this CD and had only one comment: “wow!”. This is more approachable, though still gnarly, than much of his earlier work I’ve heard. I have the intuition that more listening will eventually allow me to grasp the structure of the compositions. For now, I listen for fall and effect.