An Evening with Mother Tongue

Enjoy an evening designed by Mother Tongue’s Angelina Baldoz, and Katherine Cohen with music, movement, and poetry. Special guests poet Omar Willey, dancer Ezra Dickinson, and trumpeters Greg Kelley and Ray Larsen will join for this one-night-only special offering.

Mother Tongue is a two-headed art making machine specializing in post-disciplinary creation, formed in 2015 by composer and musician Angelina Baldoz and multidimensional artist Katherine Cohen (kt shores) who both have decades of performance experience and now run Studio Current in Seattle.

Presented by Nonsequitur.

DXARTS: Iterations

it·er·a·tion
/ˌidəˈrāSH(ə)n/
noun
noun: iteration

the repetition of a process or utterance.

repetition of a mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem.
a new version of a piece of computer hardware or software.

plural noun: iterations

As in math, or computer programming, the concept of iteration is used to express the different versions/steps of an algorithmic process, in the arts it represents an intrinsic characteristic of research methodology. Artists iterate techniques, tools, technologies and forms to create, experiment with and refine concepts, to explore narratives, ask questions and structure collective experiences. In this context, the Research Studio at DXARTS (Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media) at the University of Washington focused on the field of live performance as an iterative technique for PhD students to present their work. The works that will be presented at the Chapel include error-prone improvisational experiments, ritualistic and meditative compositions, contemporary dance with diy electronics, and an archival mosaic of the story behind the Good Shepherd Center.

Participants: Riah Buchanan, Chanee Choi, Cameron Fraser, R.M-TNKRT, Breana Tavaglione and Rihards Vitols.

Organized by the Center for Digital Arts & Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington.

An evening of performative experiments by DXARTS PhD students: Riah Buchanan, Chanee Choi w/ Sarah Lisette Chiesa, Cameron Fraser, R.M-TNKRT, Breana Tavaglione and Rihards Vitols. Organized by the Center for Digital Arts & Experimental Media (DXARTS) at the University of Washington.

Works:

Riah Buchanan & Sarah-Jane VavrinA Mother is a Clock – Pre-recorded audio from The Good Shepherd Oral History Project, originally collected by archivist Toby G Harris in 1999, including interviews from nuns and girls residing at the Catholic home in the 1950s. Live performance by soprano Sarah-Jane Vavrin of Cornish College of the Arts, who will sing Ave Maris Stella.

Cameron Fraser & Rihards Vitols: The kitten is scratching me – Live performance with synthesized video projection, resonant objects, cassette players and feedback circuits.

Chanee Choi & Sarah Lisette Chiesa, sound by Cameron Fraser: Polaris – Contemporary dance performance with interactive wearables and embedded LEDs.

Breana Tavaglione: Lineage 1 – An audible family tree read by Tavaglione, featuring field recordings and audio interviews with her paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother.

R.M-TNKRT: The Conscious Rhythm Of Her Dream: A Puerto Rican Eulogy – Glitched vocal & piano performance.

A few words about the participants:

Riah Buchanan is a graphic designer currently researching the dissemination of official government images and documents through the lens of speculative design. She is interested in the aesthetics of digital networks that modify and respond to the physical landscape.

Chanee Choi is a multidisciplinary interactive artist. Her artwork combines Korean traditional crafts and new media forming a hybrid genre focused on immersive experiences.

Sarah Lisette Chiesa is an American-born, Seattle-based multimedia and contemporary dance artist. She teaches as a pre-doctoral lecturer and dances with Chamber Dance Company.

Cameron Fraser composes music for unique acoustic/electric hybrid instruments, sculptures and installations. His work employs indeterminate strategies, ecoacoustic methods and feedback systems.

R.M-TNKRT is a Puerto Rican artist whose audiovisual voice illustrates the psychosomatic space between the real and the dream. She sees identity as a spectrum in-flux and has adopted the pseudonym R.M-TNKRT to suggest this paradox. By using strategies of chance to push the boundaries of the self, she explores fractured bodies, dual identity, glitch theory, & new media aesthetics in sound, photo, & video.

Breana Tavaglione is a composer and sound artist from Riverside, California, whose primary musical interest is experimenting with sound, often via field recordings and improvisation. Her work consists of recordings, installations, and live performances which explore the intersections of language, fairy tales, feminism, relation to place, and decolonization.

Sarah-Jane Vavrin is a soprano who recently received her Bachelors of Music from Cornish College of the Arts studying under the direction of Dr. Natalie Lerch. Sarah-Jane’s performances include: … (ellipsis) by Kyle Morrow, A Performance of Myself by Nicholas Mackelprang, and The Three Crowns by Caleb Sapa, The Spring and the Fall, and Faure’s Requiem conducted by Richard Ross.

Since 2011 Rihards Vitols has been working with sound artists providing them with visual element for their live performances. He likes to imagine sound in graphical elements that changes over the time and interacts with audio. Now and then he provides sound artists with fixed time media for their sound pieces.

Guitar Cult + Bill Horist + Evan Flory-Barnes

Composer/guitarist Ben McAllister debuts his new group The Guitar Cult, Evan Flory-Barnes brings original songs with chamber ensemble vibes, and Bill Horist brings the inimitable Bill Horist guitar experience.

The global devastation and human misery wrought by the lack of solid guitar worshipping and noisemaking activities – to say nothing of natural and man-made disasters – is unmistakable. They threaten to rip the social fabric to shreds and in many parts of the world these societal ills have already caused irreparable damage. What is conspicuously lacking in combating these virtually apocalyptic scenarios are effective solutions. To that end, in the course of his decades of research into the mind and spirit, Ben McAllister developed methods by which to address the crises that threaten our world. To bring those solutions to bear, the Seattle center of the Cult has been established to act as a “picking temple.” The result: the Guitar Cult’s revolutionary social betterment and humanitarian programs, reflected in live performances and recorded form. They are utterly unique, indisputably cutting edge and most importantly—effective.

Seattle guitarist Bill Horist has established himself as an internationally known improviser/composer/performer in a wide array of genres including rock, jazz, contemporary chamber, avant garde, folk, new music and several subgenres within each. He has appeared on over 70 recordings and has performed well over 1000 concerts throughout North and Central America, Europe, and Japan. Over the past two decades, Bill has collaborated with a long list of notable musicians from around the world. He has toured and recorded with a number of bands including Master Musicians of Bukkake, Nobodaddy, Phineas Gage, Axolotl, UnFolkUs, Zahir, Tablet, Nervewheel, Ghidra, Rollerball and the Paul Rucker Ensemble in addition to extensive solo activity.

Mandalas | The Guitar Cult | May 26, 2017 from listen faster on Vimeo.

SIMF: Paul Hoskin Tribute

(Originally scheduled for Feb. 9 as part of the 34th Seattle Improvised Music Festival, but cancelled due to snow. The original artist line-up has since changed somewhat due to the number of participants and their conflicting schedules.)

A large group of veteran Seattle improvisers gather to pay tribute to SIMF founder Paul Hoskin, who passed away last November. Various groupings and solos TBD, and an ensemble performing Hoskin’s open score Quietude. Sets punctuated with gongs by Stuart & Renko Dempster. Shrine by Sue Ann Harkey. (The final set list is shown below.)

Rob Angus, John Hawkley, Eric Muhs
• Johnny Calcagno
Lori Goldston, Austin Larkin
Robert Hinrix, Jim Knodle, Neal Kosaly-Meyer
• Charley Rowan, Bradley Stevens
• Gust Burns, Greg Campbell, Mark Kaylor, Kelvin Pittman, Wally Shoup
• Jesse Canterbury, Carol J. LevinJenny Ziefel
Quietude: Greg Campbell, Stuart Dempster, Scott Granlund, Jim Knodle, Dave Knott, Neal Kosaly-Meyer, Pete Leinonen, Carol J. Levin, Fran Lukas, Charley Rowan, Wally Shoup, Bradley Stevens, Jenny Ziefel

Dan Joseph + Blevin Blectum

A shared evening of electronic and electroacoustic music with recent Seattle transplant Blevin Blectum (Bevin Kelley) and New York-based composer Dan Joseph. Blectum will present a new set of electronic pieces, while Joseph will present Dulcimer Flight, a long-form work for hammer dulcimer and electronics informed by acoustic ecology, ambient music and early minimalism. The evening will conclude with an impromptu collaboration.

Blevin Blectum (born Bevin Kelley) is an electronic musician and multimedia artist whose work explores “polyphasic avitronic wordless sonic worldbuilding.” Currently based in Seattle, Blevin is perhaps most best known as one half of the recently reformed and reunited groundbreaking digital duo Blectum From Blechdom (with Kevin Blechdom aka Kristin Erickson) who received the 2001 Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in Digital Musics for their album The Messy Jesse Fiesta. In 2013 she co-founded the electroacoustic-radioplayers The Traveling Bubble Ensemble with fellow sci-fi enthusiast and sibling Kelley Polar (Michael Kelley). Left to her own devices, Blevin produces turbulent electronics with a more oblique slant on the basic BFB sensation of things-not-quite-right-here – clanking, creaking grooves and anti-grooves as a coal-powered spacecraft from some post-steampunked parallel universe potentiality. She can be heard in radio plays, electronic toys, theater spaces, film/television scores, advertisements, clubs, concert halls, headphones, and galleries. She has releases on labels including Aagoo, Estuary Ltd., Tigerbeat6, DeluxeRecs, Praemedia, Vague Terrain, and Phthalo. (photo: Carlos Cruz)

Dan Joseph is a composer, performer, writer and curator based in New York City. For the past fifteen years, the hammer dulcimer has been the primary vehicle for his music and he is active as a performer with his own chamber group, The Dan Joseph Ensemble, as well as in various improvisational collaborations and as a soloist. He produces the monthly music and sound series Musical Ecologies in Brooklyn, and is a contributing writer to The Brooklyn Rail, Musicworks Magazine and NewMusicBox.org. In 2017, the venerable New York based new music label XI Records released a 2 CD retrospective of his electroacoustic and mixed-media works titled Electroacoustic Works. (photo: Claudia Joseph)

Seattle Modern Orchestra: A Celebration of Robert Aitken

7:30 PM Pre-concert conversation with guest artist Robert Aitken and co-artistic director Jérémy Jolley

PROGRAM:
Robert Aitken: My Song for 2 flutes
Robert Aitken: Lalita for solo flute and ensemble
Toru Takemitsu: Bryce for flute, 2 harps, marimba, & percussion
Iannis Xenakis: Phlegra for 11 instruments
Brian Cherney: Die Klingende Zeit

This concert stars legendary flutist, composer, and conductor Robert Aitken. Instrumental in developing the playing of the modern flute, Aitken has worked with numerous composers such John Cage, George Crumb, Elliott Carter, Toru Takemitsu, and Iannis Xenakis, to name a few. In this unique collaboration with SMO, Aitken will be playing some of his own music and Toru Takemitsu’s Bryce, and conducting works by Iannis Xenakis and Canadian composer Brian Cherney.

Morsel Trio

Morsel Trio is a new Seattle-based ensemble, comprised of young artists that have performed all over the United States. Made up of Emily Acri (violin), Chris Young (cello) and Steven Damouni (piano), Morsel Trio is dedicated to performing works by a wide assortment of composers and in a wide variety of places. This concert takes a traditional genre with a rich history and explores many new ways it can be enhanced using twentieth century techniques and aesthetics.

This concert is a great representation of this group’s diverse musical influences and their abilities to expand on the traditional technical abilities of their instruments. This concert will involve three commissions from local Seattle-based composers. Luke Fitzpatrick‘s trio titled Morsel reflects on his earlier composition for the Partch Ensemble; the 44-tone scale is incorporated, as well as the use of improvisation, the voices of all performers, and a varied orientation for the instruments involved. Charles Corey‘s evocative work, Memories from Within a Valley Fog combines sonorous, hazy sounds with sweeping, technically dazzling gestures. Daniel Webbon‘s The old is dying and the new cannot be born provides a third distinct character, one of intensity in rhythmic demand and cohesion. Throughout this work a wide variety of textures and extended techniques are explored. The program will close with the renowned composer Kaija Saariaho’s 2014 work for piano trio entitled Light and Matter.

Earshot: Rosetta Trio

Earshot Jazz is pleased to present Brooklyn bassist Stephan Crump and his Rosetta Trio. Led by Crump on acoustic bass, the trio is a “string ensemble for the new century” (Donald Elfman, All About Jazz), with Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar and Jamie Fox on electric guitar. The lack of drums is unexpected, and the ensemble embraces the rhythmic flexibility and challenges it presents. The result is a sound that sits within the liminal space of jazz, avant-garde, and contemporary folk. Formed in 2005 as a response to the aftermath of 9/11, the Rosetta Trio has been exploring deeply personal themes of individual and collective experiences ever since. The trio continues to expand their vision, having released several albums, their latest being Outliers (February 2019, Papillon Sounds).

(photo: Nathan James Leatherman)

Seattle Composers’ Salon

We’re back!

An evening of music and discussion with Seattle composers:

Ha-Yang Kim
Neil Welch
Kaley Lane Eaton
Blake Degraw
Lily Shabbabi
Liam Hardison

Curated by Tom Baker.

The Seattle Composers’ Salon fosters the development, performance and appreciation of new music by regional composers and performers. At bi-monthly, informal presentations, the Salon features finished works, previews, and works in progress. Composers, performers, and audience members gather in a casual setting that allows for experimentation and discussion.

Don Berman’s Ascension Northwest

Don Berman and his Big Band Thing celebrate the release of their new CD with a performance of Ascension Northwest. Berman’s work is dedicated to the feeling of deep spirituality in John Coltrane’s music that heavily impacted Don when he first encountered Trane’s Live at Birdland and the Village Vanguard recordings during the summer of his sophomore year in college. The eleven-person ensemble includes Kenny Mandell, Dick Valentine, and Jenny Ziefel on tenor saxophones and bass clarinet; Seth Alexander and Jim Paul on alto saxophones; Jim Knodle and Christian Pincock, trumpet and valve trombone; Matt McCluskey, piano; Abbey Blackwell and Jeff Johnson on basses; and Don Berman on drums.

Opening the evening will be the excellent trio CHA. Carol J. Levin (electric harp), Heather Bentley (violin, viola, electronics), and Amelia Love Clearheart/the Indigo (spontaneous poet, vocalist, dancer) make up the improvising trio CHA. Each artist incorporates loops and effects, interwoven in a synergistic, immediate performance ranging from tender to wild.

Proceeds from the door will be donated to the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC).