Aquíestoy (Carlos Snaider) – guitar, vocals, synthesizers
souschef – synthesizers
Rocky Martin – drums
Mario Layne Fabrizio – drums

Aquíestoy (Carlos Snaider). Guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, singer and rapper. Aquíestoy, Spanish for “I am here,” is the name of his personal creative laboratory, with music exploring encounters of the present moment through intimate and elemental expressions of sound, language, grooves and songs. Based in Seattle for the last five years, his musical background leads to sonic explorations at the nexus of Black American and Latin American music, electronica, meditative praxis and hip-hop. Since 2015, Carlos has been a member of the international performance troupe Ay Ombe Theatre, incorporating the creative system/philosophy Performance Autology into his work. Carlos co-leads the songwriting jazz quartet EarthtoneSkytone and experimental salsa band Eléré. He holds a Bachelor degree in Music and African American Studies from Harvard University.

In preparation of his forthcoming album “Multiverso”, Aquíestoy (Carlos Snaider) is presenting a new configuration of trusted collaborators to enact Creative Music sound worlds with joy as a guiding technology. Working with traditional and syncretic forms, the Multiverso songbook explores diaspora, macro and microcosm, English and Spanish, being lost in translation, Silence, subjectivity, and the Higher Self. Aquíestoy’s musical trajectory has led him from composing and performing with bands, to recording most of the instruments on his album himself, to now having the unreleased recorded music informing how he orchestrates his live bands. Sous chef (Antoine Martel) brings an element of textural and performative sensitivity on synths and electronics, while Mario Layne Fabrizio and Rocky Martin bring drum languages that span the Americas. This is the first time that Snaider is presenting himself with his artist name Aquíestoy, with the NonSeq series being a trusted space for experimentation.

Curated for Nonsequitur’s NonSeq series by Noel Brass, Jr.

Kin of the Moon returns from their Denver collaboration with Nebula Ensemble with two new works in hand. All works will be performed by Kin of the Moon.

Kin of the Moon (Heather Bentley, viola; Kaley Lane Eaton, voice; and Leanna Keith, flutes) is “an experimental chamber troupe with an ear for the eclectic. A power trio with classical roots and sprawling musical tastes, their intimate performances blend classical music with sonic ritual, dissolving genre and erasing boundaries between performer and audience.” – Maggie Molloy, Second Inversion. Just back from a residency in Denver at the Metropolitan State University, KOTM will share new works by Sarah Perske of Nebula Ensemble (“The Lack of Anchors”) and Leanna Keith (“Built to Last”). Perske’s piece deals with the emotional states of Panic, Anxiety, and being unmoored, while finding solace in a twelve tone waltz. Keith’s trio is an unhinged ode to Late Capitalism in three movements.

(Photo: Shaya Bendix Lyon)

The Forbidden Valley Ensemble is set to make a stunning debut with their upcoming recital, a captivating celebration of the works of renowned composer Kaija Saariaho. This highly anticipated performance is part of the Wayward Music Series and coincides with International Women’s Day, honoring the contributions of female composers to the world of music. The ensemble will present an evocative selection of Saariaho’s works, including Changing Light, Leino Songs, Light and Matter, and Five Reflections on Love from Afar. Each of these pieces showcases Saariaho’s unique ability to blend the ethereal with the emotive, creating an immersive auditory experience that transcends traditional boundaries.

The recital will feature a talented lineup of performers, including soprano Emerald Lessley, baritone Darrell J. Jordan, violinist Emily Acri, cellist Chris Young, cellist Michael King-Leiferman, and pianist Steven Damouni. Together, they will bring to life Saariaho’s intricate compositions, emphasizing the beauty and complexity of vocal music alongside strings and piano. Audiences can expect a mesmerizing evening where the interplay of voice, strings, and piano creates a rich tapestry of sound, perfectly capturing the essence of Saariaho’s visionary work. This debut promises not only to be a showcase of exceptional musical talent but also a celebration of the profound impact of women in music, making it a must-attend event for enthusiasts and newcomers alike.

Nonsequitur kicks off the 2025 NonSeq concert series with a special performance introducing this year’s team of Community Curators:

Noel Brass, Jr. is a composer/keyboardist based out of Seattle’s thriving musical landscape. He’s a founding member and leader of the improvising space-funk trio Afro Cop along with other side projects. His solo work is part ambient, part psychedelic, all soul. Influenced by early sci-fi soundtracks, film noir, and improvisation, his scenes are synth-lush and spliced, while dosed with mood changing textures, dystopic yet hopeful.

Chloe Harris (aka Raica) has been an integral and influential figure in the Pacific Northwest music community for over two decades. Her contributions as a musical artist, producer, DJ, mentor, record label owner (Further), and record shop owner have helped lay the groundwork and build the foundation upon which rests the current success of Seattle’s underground electronic music scene.

Christopher Icasiano is a Filipino-American percussionist and composer from Redmond, WA. Based now in Seattle, he has been performing and touring professionally for over 15 years. His specialization in free-improvisation and experimental music combined with his vast experience with pop and rock have made him a highly sought after collaborator in all genres of music. He co-founded the grassroots arts organization Table & Chairs, as well as the Racer Sessions, a weekly performance series and free-improvisation jam session. He is committed to anti-racist and anti-sexist organizing within Seattle’s DIY and art communities in order to create more accessible and safer spaces.

Ha-Yang Kim is a cellist, composer, and improviser who has developed a unique language of extended string techniques and creates her own music based on this work, as well as collaborating on new pieces from other composers. Her musical influences draw equally from a range of western classical music, American experimentalism, rock, jazz, and improvised music, to non-western musical sources from Bali, Korea and South Indian classical music (Karnatic). She has collaborated/performed with many diverse musicians such as Evan Ziporyn, Cecil Taylor, John Zorn, Christian Wolff, Lee Hyla, Louis Andriessen, Lukas Ligeti, Larry Polansky, and Stefan Poetzsch.

Mark Wilson presents an evening of his own compositions exploring his interest in integrating the musical fingerprints of kora music from Gambia, theorbo music from 17^th century Italy, American hip hop from the 90’s and the French Baroque, along with canons and tango. All of this through the lens of living in a time of racial reconciliation, the too-soon death of a friend, the success of another beating cancer, while living a life of music, teaching, playing and listening.  

It is an evening of compositions and collaborations by Mark Hilliard Wilson with flutist Leanna Keith, oboist Bhavani Kotha, clarinetist Bev Setzer, bassoonist Kate MacKenzie, tenor and trumpet player Peter Nelson King, soprano Teresa Tam, and the Seattle Guitar Orchestra.

Stone & Sky is the meditative improvisational project of Trevor Eulau, Tara, and Rocky Martin. The performance aims to bring together musical expressive arts with mindfulness and spiritual practice.
The performance will include a guided meditation led by Tara, the sonorous sound of various bells and singing bowls, along with Tara and Rocky’s beautiful sound on the tenor saxophone and drum set. 

Trevor Eulau is an improviser, guitarist, and composer based in Seattle, WA, whose music is guided by a deep sense of mindful exploration and spiritual openness. Through his evocative melodies and fluid improvisations, he creates a sacred sonic space. Trevor just got home from 4 months at a Buddhist monastery.

Tara is an award-winning artist and multi-instrumentalist based in Seattle, deeply influenced by their training in Buddhism, psychology, jazz saxophone, and multimedia composition. They studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and have performed across Europe and North America. Inspired by meditation, spiritual practice, psychology, social connection, and dance, Tara aims to embody open-hearted spontaneity and an embodied loving presence while creating music — while hopefully having a lot of fun!

Via New York City, and raised in Chicago, Rocky Martin resides in Seattle, performing, creating, and teaching. While rooted in the history of jazz drum set, Rocky leads and curates projects that may incorporate visual art, spoken word, martial arts/movement, or various plant life to supplement their music. In addition to bandleading, teaching drum set, composition, and beginner piano, Rocky is dedicated to the study of soil science, farming, food cultivation, various cultural arts in Seattle, and honoring the histories and ancestrality of Seattle’s recognized Duwamish territory.

Lori Goldston plays written and spontaneous work on cello, and works as a composer, teacher, bandleader, and prolific, widely varied collaborator. Her voice as a cellist is singular, deeply textured and original, investigating thresholds, instability, and connections between far-flung modes of thought. She lives in Seattle and performs in venues large and small throughout North America and Europe as a soloist and collaborator with composers, folk musicians, film makers, writers, theater directors, choreographers, visual artists, orchestras and bands.

This concert lays groundwork for ideas to explore in a seven-week trip that starts the following day.

(photo: Austin MacDonald)

Confluence is an ongoing series of open collaborative concerts, allowing Seattle’s adventurous musicians the opportunity to perform small sets with total creative freedom. After last August’s exciting premiere show, Confluence is back for 2025, and this lineup isn’t to be missed, ranging from world premiere piano works to electronic improvisation on a custom instrument!

Veteran Seattle composer Keith Eisenbrey returns to the Chapel with brand new additions to his ongoing series of Sinfonias for piano. Cellist Mary Riles is joined by multi-instrumentalist Peter Nelson-King for a pair of 21st-century cello/piano gems. Peter then joins pianist Jennifer Chung and composer Aaron Keyt to premiere Keyt’s new set of piano duet compositions and perform a rarely-heard charmer by Otto Luening. Saxophonist Soren Hamm will be premiering new works for unaccompanied tenor sax.  Clarinetist Beverly Setzer will be playing classic music by the world-famous, Seattle-based experimental clarinetist/composer William O. Smith. Rounding out the program is a set by trombonist Christian Pincock where he plays his one-of-a-kind Quadapod.

The Shepherd’s Purse plant (represented on the event’s poster) symbolizes the ability to adapt and exist in diverse environments. Tonight’s event holds this spirit in that the performers (environments) are sundry in aural and visual presentation with a motive to have an audience (the plant) adapt to the array of sounds and sights.

DANIEL MENCHE is an iconic experimental musician from Portland, Oregon. His extensive history of recording and performance continues to span over three decades. Menche’s sonic abstractions manifest through intense noise, immersive drones, dense ambiance, abused acoustic instruments and many other sources creating an absolute, abstract sonic world.

FHTAGN is an experimental chamber wind ensemble with a rotating lineup of musicians from an assortment of musical backgrounds. They will be performing a game piece called Siopirós composed by Blake DeGraw.

LUKAS DICKSON lives in Bremerton. He self-medicates with noise.

MONED is a guitar conduit that, by sculpting feedback, manipulating frequencies, and layering volume levels, further explores this instrument’s endless possibilities to sound nothing like this instrument’s traditional applications. MONED performances are venue-specific. This evening’s will perpetuate a dense larsen effect that intends to sculpt an auditory meditation by utilizing The Chapel’s acoustics and COLORBARD’s visuals.

GLUM REAPER is an amorphous glob of drone. For tonight’s performance, this cavernous cabinetry will be occupied by Hanna Broback, Ian Gwin, and Eric M. Acosta.

COLORBARD‘s Matthew Terry turns sound into vivid, textured visuals that amplify the sensory experience of live performances. Using (and abusing) an array of hardware to create a raw, immersive connection between music and motion.

Threshold is a quartet comprised of Seattle improvised music scene veterans. Organized by Don Berman, the group assembled for a free-ranging session in 2023, and discovered they can enter a musical space “through threshold” where they improvise together in a deep listening manner that almost sounds composed. Some call it “great band chemistry”.

This project is the manifestation of a musical vision Don had held for years: a 21st century string quartet. Deeply influenced by his late father, William Berman, a master violist who performed extensively in symphonic and string chamber music settings, the decision was made to create a contemporary chamber group. In his words: “I took the liberty of choosing cello, two guitarists, percussion, and creative electronics, as opposed to the classic two violins, viola, and cello format. Complex polyphony that fits together extremely well.” Threshold is: Heather Bentley (cello, electronics), Don Berman (percussion), Simon Henneman (guitar, electronics), Dennis Rea (guitar, electronics). The show will celebrate the release of Threshold’s second recording, “Live at Vermillion”, mixed, mastered and produced by Gregg Miller, for his exciting new label, Sonic Action Records.

Far-reaching in musical scope but containing approachable sonic inroads, the Neil Welch Trio explores compositions and improvisations with deep grooves, malleable time, swinging phrasing, jagged phrasing, microtonal melodies, and much more. The group will perform all original compositions by Neil Welch, crafted specifically for this ensemble. Neil Welch (soprano, tenor and bass saxophones), Julian Weisman (acoustic bass), and Greg Campbell (drums, percussion objects, and french horn).

Saxophonist Neil Welch is a Seattle-based improviser, acoustic and electronic artist, curator, composer, recording artist and educator. His practice is firmly linked to the natural world, welcoming inspiration from the abundant wildernesses of the Pacific Northwest. These influences are sonically reflected by a measured use of space and activated silence, with such specialized techniques as multiphonic-acoustic chord playing, microtonal pitch content, and air/wind-based sound. He is also a deep practitioner in the sculpting of a compelling melody, played on horn voices ranging from soprano to bass saxophone.