If you missed our showcase at Northwest Folklife in May, or hey, even if you were there, we have a little throwback treat to one of our favorite moments, filmed a few weeks later at Resonance at SOMA Towers: Skyros Quartet‘s rendition of Peteris Vasks’ String Quartet No.3: II. Allegro energico. We love this video and hope that you do too!
Be sure to check out our other videos, shot in our studios and in fun venues around Seattle, too!
String quartet and steel pan? It’s an awesome combination, but we don’t really need to tell you that…
San Francisco-based Friction Quartet was recently in Seattle for a residency at Cornish College of the Arts and their friend, composer and steel pan virtuoso Andy Akiho, joined them at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center for one of Second Inversion’s video shoots. This piece, In/Exchange, is Andy’s first composition for string quartet and steel pan.
Andy is a virtuoso steel pan player, and just as many composers would write on the piano, thinking about structure and harmony and translating it to other instruments, he relates his music back to the steel pan. This instrument has incredible timbres and melodic possibilities and In/Exchange is a perfect example of relating those possibilities to the string quartet. By doing so, Andy takes both the steel pan and the string quartet to places they have never been before.
In/exchange was commissioned by the Ethel String Quartet and the Jerome foundation, and premiered in Merkin Hall in New York City as part of the Tribeca New Music Festival.
Spektral Quartet – photo credit: Drew Reynolds
We are thrilled to present the video premiere of Hack by Chris Fisher-Lochhead! This is an amuse-bouche (literally) for Spektral Quartet’s upcoming album, Serious Business, featuring three world premieres (and one not-world-premiere by Haydn), all thematically centered around humor in classical music.
Hack (2015) takes painstaking transcriptions of bits from famous stand-up comedians (including Sarah Silverman, Dave Chappelle, George Carlin, Robin Williams, Rodney Dangerfield, Kumail Nanjiani, Richard Pryor, and many more) as the piece’s launch point, and mines the nonverbal elements of humor: cadence, pitch, and timing. The staggering score is by turns rapturous, heady, and hyperkinetic.
Serious Business is released on January 29 on Sono Luminus. Stay tuned for Second Inversion’s album review!
Hello, world. Do you know The Westerlies? Here’s a warm introduction, if not. They’re a brass quartet based in New York, but all four musicians are Seattle natives and longtime friends, and “dedicated to the cultivation of a new brass quartet repertoire that exists in the ever-narrowing gap between American folk music, jazz, classical, and indie rock.”
We are thrilled here at Second Inversion to present the video premiere of The Westerlies’ “Sweeter than the Day” from their album Wish The Children Would Come On Home: The Music of Wayne Horvitz. The album, which Horvitz produced, was recorded in August 2013 and was recently released by Songlines Recordings. In between takes, they shot this video outside the studio on Lopez Island, one of the most peaceful and relaxing places in the Northwest, especially on these clear, summer evenings (yes, we have them and yes, I’m giving away one of our best Northwest secrets).
The Westerlies will be all over the west this summer in CA, OR, WA, and Vancouver BC. Upcoming Seattle performances to note:
Friday, June 27, 8pm @ Seattle Art Museum (Opening for HUMAN FEEL)
Sunday, August 3, 8pm @ Café Racer (Curating the Racer Sessions)
Friday, August 8, 8pm @ Royal Room (Official CD release party!)
Monday, August 25, 8pm @ Good Shepherd Center (Album Release Tour)
Stay tuned for more Second Inversion coverage of this talented, innovative ensemble!
Photo: Adam Guy