Composer Viet Cuong‘s music has been described as “show-stealing,” and his writing for oboe is no exception. His Suite for oboe trio was the winner of the 2010 Trio La Milpa Composition Competition, and went on to win a 2013 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award. His works for solo oboe, Six Canadian Scenes and Soda Apple, written six years apart, explore multiple facets of the oboe’s sound and technical capabilities. Soda Apple, which will receive its world premiere at this concert, pushes the oboe to its technical limits. Finally, ​Trains of Thought, ​his trio for oboe, bassoon, and piano energetically blends together the resonant sound of the piano with the distinctive sounds of the double reeds. Join oboist Ursula Sahagian and friends for a riveting evening of music for double reeds.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Good Shepherd Center is technically closed this weekend for the Memorial Day holiday. For this reason, audience members will only be able to enter the building between 7 and 8:30 PM. If you arrive after 8:30 you will be locked out, so don’t be late!

Expanding the contemporary classical saxophone repertoire, Kevin Baldwin will premiere new works by local Seattle composers, as well as lesser-performed pieces from famed composers Luciano Berio, Gerard Grisey, and Giacinto Scelsi. All of the works will focus on exploring extended techniques and various compositional methods of dealing with the resultant sounds. These pieces include Berio’s Sequenza VIIb and Scelsi’s Tre Pezzi for soprano saxophone, and Grisey’s Anubis et Nout for baritone saxophone. These works, and the ones created by local Seattle composers, will use a variety of techniques unique to the saxophone to create a unique concert experience.

As a saxophonist and composer, Kevin Baldwin has traveled and performed as a soloist and in ensembles all over the world, including Beijing and Shanghai, China; Paris, France; and Maccagno, Italy. The New York Times called Kevin’s playing “…precise and energetic…” Since then, Kevin has performed with numerous ensembles such as Iktus+, Ensemble Mise-en, Tactus, Qubit, and Tempus Continuum Ensemble. Recently, Kevin has been asked to perform as a soloist and with ensembles at many venues, such as Symphony Space, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and Galapagos in New York City.

An evening of electronic music by three Seattle-based artists, presented by Nonsequitur.

Stella Haze (Cristin Miller) is a writer and musician based in Seattle. Her work emerges from involvement with the improvised and experimental music communities, along with formal training in classical piano, voice and composition. Over the last decade she has performed with a variety of artists in various collaborations including Murderous Copulation of Birds, Seattle Improviser’s Orchestra, and Emma Zunz. Tonight she’ll play two new compositions for voice and electronics. One uses a jazz piece by her late father, composer Kenneth Miller, as a departure point. The piece was originally written as part of a suite to be performed by the LA philharmonic in the 60s. The second composition is inspired by a short story by Rick Bass, The Lives of Rocks.

Pulling Out the Light is sound artist Briana Jones. She uses analog modular synth, sequencers and a looper to create dark ambient soundscapes. Watch videos here, here and here.

Raica is Chloe Harris, electronic musician and co-founder of the Further Records label. Raica always improvises with the machines and boxes. The idea of never knowing what to expect and adapting to the room and surroundings is what drives this project. Analog and digital meet to marry a wall of sporadic and intermixed sounds. Read more about her in the Stranger.

YESOD is a meeting of Middle Eastern and Middle Western musical influences where pure musical impulses flux between sound explorations and accessible improvisational hooks. Dynamic and bold percussion mix with intricate intertwining stringed instruments creating a foundation for voice, violin, clarinet and other melodic instrumental experimentation. YESOD is William Wolford (multi-instrumentalist/strings player) and Ahmad Yousefbeigi (Kurdish and multi-instrumental percussionist) with special guests Costică Usanu on violin and Amy Denio on bass, vocals, clarinet. (watch a video)

After our musical performance John Murphy, Artistic Director of The Cabiri will be discussing the ethnographic direction of Ezid, a performance happening in June in collaboration with YESOD, including the influences on this work that came from his recent travels in Iraq living with Kurdish Yezidi refugees of the Sinkjar massacre. There will also be a short performance of dancing that will hint of the direction of the show and the essences of the characters. (watch a video)

Frank Clayton (bass) and Greg Campbell (drums, percussion) present an evening of structured improvisations in which players will move toward and away from composed material. The ensemble will also feature Gregg Belisle-Chi (guitar), Julio Lopez (violin), and Lori Goldston (cello).

Inverted Space performs Karlheinz Stockhausen‘s Stimmung, a 70-minute meditation for 6 amplified voices. Stockhausen composed this work after spending a few weeks exploring Mayan ruins in Mexico, and found inspiration for Stimmung in the stark architecture and rituals that were conducted therein. Stimmung features a recounting of ancient gods, and some of Stockhausen’s own German poetry, all set to a single chord mimicking the overtones of throat singing. A work rarely performed, this sonic meditation inspired countless compositions after.

This performance is part of Inverted Space Ensemble’s “Long Piece Fest”, a festival celebrating contemporary music that is…really long.

Sarah Kolat, Kaley Lane Eaton, Ashley Biehl, Joseph Muriello, Elliot Kraber and Jeff Bowen, voices

FHTAGN is an experimental, spatial music collective with a rotating membership of more than 20 participants from various musical disciplines, including members of Stalebirth, Uneasy Chairs, Chaotic Noise Marching Corps, Cabana, The Colour Out of Space, Sickletree, Moon Dial, and many others. Employing elements of chance-operations, free improvisation, polytonality, atonality and alternative conducting techniques, FHTAGN seeks to deliver a massively immersive musical experience in the traditions of Charles Ives, John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

For this performance, FHTAGN will surround the audience from every corner of the chapel, providing sounds from a wide range of instruments, acoustic and electric, playing both in unison and smaller combinations for a unique, open exchange of musical ideas and sensibilities.

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. Tonight’s featured Seattle composers: Michael Owcharuk, Matthew James Briggs, Jessi Harvey, Ian McKnight.

Machinations Musical, Divers & Sundry ​is an evening of experimental music and performance, featuring new works by ​Donald Craig, Inmi Lee, Douglas Niemela, Joshua Parmenter, Anna Stachurska, and Ewa Trębacz. The composers/artists will play a dual role this evening, not only being the authors of their works, but their performers as well.

Donald Craig will be present ​3 Short Improvisations ​for his new 19-­tone equal temperament electric guitar.

Inmi Lee’s ​Inflection, Cadence, Rhythm, Pain​ will be an experimental vocal performance with real-­time sound processing and kinetic sculpture.

Composer Joshua Parmenter will perform his new work ​Passacaglia ​for cello and electronics.

Long­time collaborators Josiah Boothby and Ewa Trębacz will perform ​Iriviskia, a violin­-horn duo with computer-­realized surround sound.

Composer Anna Stachurska with flutist Daria Binkowski will present Anna’s work isolated-­disintegrated ​for flute and live electronics.

Finally, Douglas Niemela and Donald Craig’s collaborative project ​Twitity Twixt Audity​ will be a duo improvisation of sound (Niemela) and video (Craig).

All artists share one thing in common: they are all graduates or current students of the University of Washington, either at the School of Music or at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS).

Washington Composers Forum present Giacomo Fiore, Rocco DiPietro and Cristina Valdes in a concert of recent music for piano, electric guitar, and electroacoustic media.

Italian-born guitarist Giacomo Fiore is a major proponent of contemporary music for classical and electric guitar. At the Chapel he will focus on electric guitar and effects, presenting works by Eve Beglarian, Christian Wolff, Nick Didkovsky, Anthony Porter, and Larry Polansky. The San Francisco-based musician is presently touring in support of his recent album iv: american electric guitars, a project funded by New Music USA.

The first half of the program will present works by Columbus, OH composer and pianist Rocco DiPietro. A student of Bruno Maderna and Lukas Foss who has written for the Kronos Quartet, DiPietro describes himself as a social composer who moonlights as a social worker, and his music often embraces community issues. Joining DiPietro in performance will be Seattle’s excellent pianist and new music specialist Cristina Valdes.