Aug. 16th at 5pm
Stream 1: Concert
Cyberspace | August 16 | 5:00 pm CDT
Float
Yi-Ting Lu
Yi-Ting Lu's ""Float"" for soprano and bassoon was written for the Pushback Collective in 2020. This commission was made possible by generous support from the International Double Reed Society.
The texts are an extract from ""The Waves"" by Virginia Woolf.
Pushback Collective
Alexandra Smither, soprano
Ben Roidl-Ward, piano
Steps and Leaps for guitar and electronics
Tom Flaherty
Steps and Leaps (2019) by Tom Flaherty was composed for the 50th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon, its title inspired by Neil Armstrong’s first words from the surface of the moon, “One small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind.” The music brings to my mind the beating hearts, ticking clocks, interlocking actors, rising tension, and release into weightlessness that I associate with that first lunar landing.
“Steps and Leaps” is dedicated to Aaron Larget-Caplan
Aaron Larget-Caplan, guitar
tomflahertymusic.com | alcguitar.com
Pay Gaps not Thigh Gaps
Elizabeth McNutt, Kourtney Newton, Sarah Ruth Alexander
BST is an inclusive feminist performance group that pushes the boundaries of improvisation by exploring current events, feminism, misogyny, and performance taboos, in theatrical and comedic performances. Using instruments, voices, and common household items, BST recycles and questions everyday tropes of American culture, from tampon commercials to heavy metal power ballads, Eminem to Supreme Court briefs, Joan Didion to Frank Sinatra.
Bitches Set Traps
Elizabeth McNutt, flute
Kourtney Newton, cello
Sarah Ruth Alexander, hammered dulcimer
Antennae Studies
Paula Matthusen
Antenna Studies is a work which explores geometries of transmission, between FM transmission, cell-phone streaming of original audio files, acoustic instruments, and live-electronics. The work involves multiple layers of sound that may be tuned into by performers and audience members at different points, either by radio or phone. The hope is to forge different forms of intimacy, as well as agency, in listening to and across different spaces, and the devices used to bridge them.
Splinter Reeds
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
David Wegehaupt, saxophone
Jeff Anderle, bass clarinet
Dana Jessen, bassoon
splinterreeds.com | antennastudies.com | paulamatthusen.com
Stream 2: Concert
Cyberspace | August 16 | 5:00 pm CDT
Junk Pile of the Sea
Hassan Esrakhrian
Single-use plastics were collected over the course of my stay at an artist residency in Florida and implemented into the visuals and audio of this work. All sounds except for the piano, voice, and ocean recording were sourced from plastics and then manipulated in various ways to produce the recording. No sea creatures were directly harmed in this production, but most likely indirectly.
Hassan Estakhrian, voices/plastics/electronics
Michele Cheng, piano
Bewitch Yourself
Alexa Dexa
An electroacoustic toy opera/ritual for resourcing ourselves + sharing our resources. Call in the resources you need to guide your way as we craft a songspell that holds space for infinite possibility. Gain insight with a collective reading from Alexa Dexa’s Sacrosanct Oracle//Composition Deck, which doubles as indeterminate graphic scores. Bewitch Yourself, manifesting transformation through deep listening, as we cast our songspell. Join in with any mechanism for sound-making + a sense of play.
Alexa Dexa, voice, toy harp, toy glockenspiel, kalimba, toy piano, pitched desk bells, and live electronic processing in MaxMSP
alexadexa.com/bewitch-yourself
Around
Julie Barwick
New Arts Collaboration is a music and art project for presenting and advocating new piano works with extended technique and multimedia.
Around, a solo piano piece with fixed media, mixes and blurs the sounds surrounded, and the piano lives in this sonic environment created from the sounds of distant construction, traffic, and simple household sounds. This piece is in collaboration with visual artist Nicki Davis for multimedia production and will be premiered on November 7th in San Francisco.
New Arts Collaboration
Ting Luo, piano, director
newartscollaboration.org | Facebook New Arts Collaboration
In the Land of Fertile Fields: a collaborative, improvised soundtrack
Leslee Smucker
This project is an exquisite corpse-like collaboration for New Music Gathering 2021. I have been doing a series of workshops and online performances on improvising collaboratively to home movies and archival material from the Prelinger Archive of films.
For NMG 2021 I have selected “In The Land of Fertile Fields” from 1920s Minnesota. I am asking anyone who wants to participate to create an improvised part following a few cohesion guidelines.
Leslee Smucker, violin
Ting Luo, piano
Paul Safar, piano, melodica, percussion
lesleesmucker.com | paulvsafar.wordpress.com | ltingarts.com
21st Century Unaccompanied Tenor Saxophone
Density 15.1
David Ludwig
Inspired by “Density 21.5″ of Edgar Varése, Density 15.1 is so named because it is the combined density of copper and zinc, the two metals that combine to form the brass that combine to form a saxophone. The work makes use of some of the same musical materials as Varése’s work, and also plays off of the word “density,” to explore variations in texture, volume, and speed.
delta waves
Malin Bång
Hyper-active intense courses of events, at the same time as complete stillness and relaxation. The sleep cycle is like a paradox of complex motions and deep tranquility entwined in one simultaneous action. During the three first phases of the cycle we are moving from a light and easily disturbed sleep towards heavy and deep sleep, while the muscle activity and eye movements slowly disappear. During the fourth phase the extremely slow brain signals called delta waves appear and take over.
Vision
Niloufar Iravani
Vision creates a multilayered yet unified manifestation of the tone and techniques of saxophone. The beginning section, Expressive, presents dramatic phrases ending in either descending or ascending motions. The section Lyrical, followed by a shortened version of the Expressive section, presents constant alterations in the registral areas. Finally, the coda section Peaceful, using material originated from the beginning section, ends the work a half step lower than where it began.
Five Etudes: I. Andante
Andrew Mead
All five, but especially the first three, of these etudes owe an enormous debt to the giants of the tenor saxophone. Astute players will have no doubt which of these is reflected in each etude, and what standards might be lurking in the background. These etudes are an act of homage, an expression of gratitude for the wonders we have been bequeathed.
In Motion
Akira Ito
Part of Nathan Merten's Japanese Commission Project 以下日本語:
I’m very excited to be leading a commissioning consortium of six Japanese composers to each write a new work for the contemporary saxophone repertoire! The commissioned composers are from diverse backgrounds, write in a wide array of styles, and represent the next generation of Japanese composition. They will each write a new 4-7 minute solo work (electronic/piano accompaniment or unaccompanied) for any saxophone that they wish.
Snapped
Ryan Lindveit
There are four definitions of SNAPPED on Urban Dictionary
1 To have lost one's sanity; to have been broken under intense pressure mentally
2 To become insanely enraged
3 Opposite of flopped; when someone comes thru
4 When someone fulfills their potential and begins to perform dramatically better in a given sport or activity. Basically the idea of someone just rising above and outperforming all others in triumph.
This piece was inspired by all of these definitions and includes literal snapping.
Andrew Hosler, tenor saxophone
andrewhosler.com | davidludwigmusic.com | malinbang.com| niloufariravani.com | lindveit.com