New Music Concerts: May 2016 Seattle * Eastside * Tacoma

Posted on May 3, 2016 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 drop us a line at least 6 weeks prior to the event.

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

Wayward Music Series
Concerts of contemporary composition, free improvisation, electronic/electroacoustic music, & more.
Various days, 7:30/8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-15

1
Noise Yoga with John Teske
Noise Yoga is a series of yoga classes that combine the meditative intentionality of yoga with the sonic depth of live performance by local musicians
Sun, 5/1, 11:30am, Frye Art Museum | $10

5
Josh Archibald-Seiffer + Ania Stachurska
UW composers Josh Archibald-Seiffer & Ania Stachurska present works with themes spanning political civil war, children’s lit, language, & the uncanny.
Thurs, 5/5, 8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15

6
Seattle Composers’ Salon
Composers, performers, & audience gather in a casual setting that allows for experimentation & discussion of finished works & works in progress.
Fri, 5/6, 8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15

6-8
The Esoterics: Milton Babbitt
A celebration of Babbitt’s centenary featuring his entire catalog of a cappella choruses, several of which have never been performed in live concert.
Fri, 5/6, 8pm, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Seattle | $15-$20
Sat, 5/7, 8pm, Holy Rosary Church, West Seattle | $15-$20
Sun, 5/8, 7pm, Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma | $15-$20

7
Seattle Wind Symphony: American Places
Donald K. Miller leads the SWS in a program of Donald Grantham, William Schuman, Eric Whitacre, Ron Nelson, and more.
Sat, 5/7, 7:30pm, Shorewood Performing Arts Center | $5-$20

7/8
Seattle Rock Orchestra performs Neil Diamond
SRO celebrates the man, the myth, the legend: Neil Diamond. SRO will explore his entire catalogue, performing hidden gems and revered hits alike.
Sat, 5/7, 8pm, The Moore Theatre | $20-$37.50 (+ fees)
Sun, 5/8, 2pm, The Moore Theatre | $20-$37.50 (+ fees)

10
Inverted Space: Long Piece Fest
A double-header concert featuring two commissions from Seattle composers Kevin Baldwin and Takemitsu prize-winner Yigit Kolat.
Tues, 5/10, 7:30pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15

13
Seattle Symphony: Sonic Evolution: This is Indie!
This concert features Michael Gordon, William Brittle, Tomoko Mukaiyama, Fly Moon Royalty & Filmmaker Bill Morrison. Co-Presented With SIFF.
Fri, 5/13, 8pm, Benaroya Hall | $25-$52

20/21
Universal Language Project: The Elements
An interactive event featuring visual artist Scott Kolbo and iconoclast band TORCH.
Fri, 5/20, 8pm, Resonance at SOMA Towers, Bellevue | $10-$25
Sat, 5/21, 8pm, Velocity Dance Center | $15-$25

21
Kirkland Choral Society: Luminous
KCS premieres a commission from Ola Gjeilo plus many Gjeilo favorites from previous concerts and will be joined by the Skyros Quartet.
Sat, 5/21, 7:30pm, Bastyr University Chapel | $15-$20

21
SMCO Season Finale: Mozart, Carter, Ligeti, and Haydn
Seattle Met. Chamber Orchestra welcomes Cristina Valdes, Matthew Kocmieroski & Maria Mannisto – 3 soloists in high demand for contemporary music!
Sat, 5/21, 8pm, First Free Methodist Church | $15-$20

22
Music of Remembrance: Jake Heggie’s Out of Darkness
This two-act opera and portrait of survival conveys the vastness of the Holocaust’s scope through emotionally rich depictions of those caught in its grasp.
Sun, 5/22, 4pm, Benaroya Hall | $30-$45 ($5 TeenTix)

24
Town Music at Town Hall: Season Finale
Joshua Roman, Arnaud Sussman, Karen Gomyo, & Kyle Armbrust will perform Britten’s String Quartet No. 2 and a commissioned piece by Andrius Zlabys.
Tues, 5/24, 7:30pm, Town Hall | $5-$25

27
Second Inversion Showcase at Folklife
Join us for Second Inversion’s 2nd annual showcase at Northwest Folklife! We’ll feature bi-coastal musicians and local favorites alike.
Fri, 5/27, 8pm, Center House Stage | FREE

Second Inversion Showcase at Northwest Folklife 2016!

Posted on May 1, 2016 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Stapleton

We are excited to announce the lineup for Second Inversion’s 2nd annual showcase at Northwest Folklife on Friday, May 27 from 8-10pm! RSVP to our Facebook event and invite your friends to this exciting FREE event!

Sound of Late
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Sound of Late is a new music ensemble that creates distinctive performances and unexpected collaborations that build and inspire the communities around us. They believe music is best when shared with other people, which is why Sound of Late is working to support the artistic and creative community across the Pacific Northwest. By dissolving the boundary between artist and audience, they hope to inspire new collaborations and to raise the visibility of our region.

For more on Sound of Late, visit our “Meet the Artist” feature!

Skyros Quartet
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The Skyros Quartet, praised by the Topeka Capital-Journal as “stellar,” brings a bright and inventive style to the concert hall and can be seen performing, teaching, and leading community events in their new hometown of Seattle, as well as concertizing around the US and Canada.The Skyros Quartet is passionate about the future of music and performing works by living composers. They have worked extensively with composers Tonia Ko, Andy Davis, Devin Maxwell, and Liza Sobel.

For more on Skyros Quartet, visit our “Meet the Artist” feature!

The Westerlies
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The Westerlies (“prevailing winds from the West to the East”) are a New York based brass quartet comprised of four friends from Seattle, Washington: Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler on trumpet, and Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch on trombone. They re-imagine the chamber music experience through boldly personal performance, recording, collaboration, education, and outreach. Since their inception in 2011, they have cultivated a new brass quartet repertoire featuring over 50 original compositions as well as adaptations of Ives, Ellington, Bartok, Ligeti, Stephen Foster and numerous traditionals. Their music exudes the warmth of their longstanding friendships, and reflects the broad interests of its members.

For more on The Westerlies, visit our “Meet the Artist” feature!

LIVE CONCERT SPOTLIGHT: June 5-7

Posted on June 3, 2015 by maestrobeats

by Maggie Molloy

This week’s concert calendar expands beyond music and into poetry, mythology, philosophy, and more!

Friction Quartet and Christian Pincock

Only a small fraction of classical musicians play with the ferocity and force of the San Francisco-based Friction Quartet. The group is committed to expanding the string quartet repertoire and audience for adventurous new music through collaborations with composers and artists of all disciplines.

This weekend, you can see them perform a works by local Seattle composers, including world premiere performances of Roger Briggs’ “Friction,” Tom Baker’s“Invisible Cities,” Nathan Campbell’s “Treescape” and a new work by John Teske. The program also features John Adams’ dynamic and dramatic String Quartet No. 1.

Trombonist and composer Christian Pincock will open the performance, combining digital music and a DIY aesthetic to present solo works scored for trombone and computer—all while using homemade controllers and software for live control of sound processing.

The performance is this Friday, June 5 at 8 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford.

Kate Soper and Seattle Modern Orchestra Present “Sound Me Out”

SOPER-photo-by-Richard-Burbridge The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is an ancient Greek legend—Orpheus, with a voice so beautiful he could charm all living things, descends into Hades in a fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride Eurydice back to life. And while the myth has been recreated again and again in opera and music for centuries, this weekend you have the chance to experience a not-so-classical setting of this classic tale.

For its season finale, Seattle Modern Orchestra is presenting two works for soprano and ensemble by American composer and vocalist Kate Soper, including a world premiere of a new ensemble version of her piece “now is forever: I. Orpheus and Eurydice.” Through a combination of music, drama, rhetoric, and fearless expressivity, the piece explores a discrete moment in the story when Orpheus and Eurydice first meet.

Soper and Seattle Modern Orchestra will also perform the Seattle premiere of her passionate and poignant piece “Door” for soprano, flute, saxophone, electric guitar, and accordion. The program also features two more Seattle premieres: Italian composer Fausto Romitelli’s philosophical “Blood on the floor, Painting 1986” and Georg Friedrich Haas’s virtuosic “Monodie” for 18 instruments.

The performance is this Saturday, June 6 at 8 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. A pre-concert presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m.

EKSTASIA: Pursuing Ecstasy and the Search for the Divine

“In Heaven a spirit doth dwell, whose heart-strings are a lute” wrote Edgar Allan Poe in an 1831 poem. That spirit is Israfel, the Muslim archangel of song. But you don’t have to leave Seattle to hear his heavenly music—next weekend the Esoterics are uniting with Skyros String Quartet to present vivid choral settings of “Israfel” and other divine poems.

The Esoterics and Skyros will be performing composer Tarik O’Regan’s “The Ecstasies Above,” an unearthly setting of Poe’s “Israfel” filled with daring modal harmonies and driving rhythms. They will also present Charlie Leftridge’s poignant “Of Seasons I Have Sung.” The a cappella portion of the program includes Aaron Jay Kernis’ ethereal “Ecstatic Meditations” and Eric Banks’ evocative “I am Among Them.”

Performances are Friday, June 5 at 8 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Seattle, Saturday, June 6 at 2 p.m. at First Christian Church in Portland, and Sunday, June 7 at 3 p.m. at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle.