Doors open 7 PM.
The Northwest Experimental Guitar Orchestra is an ensemble of musicians from diverse performative backgrounds, with members in Seattle, Bremerton, Portland, and surrounding regions. They perform new works that explore alternative methods of scoring, conducting, and technology integration, favoring methods that avoid traditional Western music notation, making participation accessible to everyone, regardless of background, training, or education. They will present three new works by Blake DeGraw, including a composition for prepared guitars and a piece conducted by a side-scrolling video score, projected onto the wall. Visuals will be provided by Maisy Gibbons.
Daniel Reyes Llinás, a Colombian-born, Portland-based guitarist and composer, will perform Electric Counterpoint, one of the most celebrated works for electric guitar. Performing live alongside a pre‑recorded backing track of layered guitars, Llinás will honor the 90th anniversary of the iconic American composer. His interpretation highlights both the rhythmic vitality and the meditative clarity that have made Electric Counterpoint a landmark of contemporary music. In the words of Steve Reich:
I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the sounding music. Performing and listening to a gradual musical process resembles: pulling back a swing, releasing it, and observing it gradually come to rest; turning over an hour glass and watching the sand slowly run through the bottom; placing your feet in the sand by the ocean’s edge and watching, feeling, and listening to the waves gradually bury them.
Waxing Gibbous Quintet will present music for strings, woodwinds, and vibraphone. This sound is made with sustained harmonic frequencies and is inspired by the sonority of Otter Falls. John Teske (contrabass), Hanna Broback (violin), Justin Lazar (clarinet), Aaron Micheal Butler (vibraphone), Noel Kennon (viola, clarinet, composition).