Please join us for this unique program of premieres and new music by local composers from Kitsap and Pierce Counties, featuring contemporary chamber works for voice, ukuleles, piano, guitar, bass, and brass. Electronic multi-media music will also be featured.

Participants include composers Sheila Bristow, Clement Reid, and Carson Farley. Performers Elaina Lewis, Walter Kovshik, Krissy Villaruz, John Wells, and Tommy Hawthorne will make this a varied and memorable evening.

Ramen Trio was formed in 2016 by three veterans of the Seattle music scene with the purpose of writing, improvising and performing music that branches out while at the same time acknowledges the lifeblood of music that came before. The band – James DeJoie (clarinet, bass clarinet), Doug Lilla (5-string bass guitar), Greg Campbell (drums) – combines form and freedom through composition, improvisation, jazz and contemporary classical styles while adding splashes of folk and rock resulting in an open-ended dance of ideas. Any player can “float to the top” at almost any time once these guys start rolling. They welcome drummer Greg Campbell to the band after Jay Weaver’s recent move to Berlin. The evening will open with a short set by James DeJoie (woodwinds) and Brian Oppel (drums).

Three internationally celebrated performers/composers meet for a night of improvised music in the intimate setting of the Chapel: Canadian clarinetist François Houle, Swiss violist Charlotte Hug, and American pianist Wayne Horvitz.

(Photos: Hug by Kai Bienert, Houle by Michèle Bühler, Horvitz by Tom Chargin)

Celebrated artists come together for an evening of collaborations within dance and music. Seating is limited to ~60 people, so get your tix in advance!

Sound/Movement artist pairings: Jason E Anderson & Corrie Befort, Alina To & Paige Barnes, Chari Glogovac-Smith & Nia-Amina Minor, Leanna Keith & Moonyeka, Hope Wechkin & Beth Graczyk, Tom Baker & Alia Swersky.

Night Music arose from conversations during the Covid-19 pandemic between composer Hope Wechkin and choreographer Beth Graczyk. While “night music” is often understood to be music intended to divert – to lull one to sleep, to entertain, or to distract – it can also serve as a medium for investigation: an opportunity to explore darkness and the concerns that may pale in the light of day.

Like the hours of the day, the hours of the night are particular and distinct: in mood, in the presence of light vs. darkness, in “feel,” in level of activity, and in the perception of the passage of time. For many people, the night is a time of reckoning, and for many people around the world, this period in our social and cultural development is also a time for facing and contending with darkness. And, as we emerge from the confines imposed by the pandemic, it is also a time for renewed commitment to creativity and community. Night Music provides a space for 6 artist pairs to connect with each other and the audience to contemplate, reckon with, and celebrate the infinite shades of the dark of night.

(Photo: Leanna Keith & Moonyeka by Michelle Smith-Lewis)

Co-produced by Earshot Jazz and Nonsequitur

Portland-based ensemble Be Present Art Group (BPAG) is a multidimensional revolving artists collective who specialized in improvisational creative collaborations. Founded in 2021 by Roman Norfleet, BPAG strives to empower through collaboration, creativity, and education. Earlier this year they released an album titled Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group (Mississippi Records). The ensemble for this concert includes Roman Norfleet (saxophone, percussion, vocals, keys), and Jacque Hammond (vocals), Andre Raiah (Brown Calvin) (keys), Harlan Silverman (cello), Dae Bryant (drums), Machado Mijiga (drums), Cam Haskins (percussion), and Scotty Williams (Based Zeus) (bass).

Originally from Lockport, Illinois, Roman Norfleet is an interdisciplinary cultural producer, healer, and mystic who uses sculpture, music compositions, performance, and social organizing in his quest for spiritual and social development. Norfleet’s life and work has been informed by his early musical influences from his time spent in the Baptist Church to the Hindu philosophies that he immersed himself in at an ashram in Los Angeles. Norfleet seeks to continue that artistic, expressive expansion by continuing to incorporate visual and performance art elements that challenges the status quo, encourages spiritual expansion, and calls for audiences to be present in the now moment.

*Earshot Jazz COVID-19 Policy: Earshot recommends that all ticket holders be vaccinated. Policy subject to change. Full COVID policy here.

Roman Norfleet and Be Present Art Group photo courtesy of Roman Norfleet

Kin of the Moon and Shadow Girls Cult team up to present: COVE. Featuring new works by Kaley Lane Eaton, a new commission by UK composer Dominic Matthews, and Heather Bentley’s Rewilding. The Kin of the Moon trio features classically trained composer/performers who utilize electronics and embrace improvisation to create wild new soundscapes. Bentley’s Rewilding is a sonic platform for a ritual improvisation honoring history’s first named writer, the poet and high priestess Enheduanna who served her goddess, Inanna, and her people of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur. For Matthew’s Cosmic Sermon, KOTM brought in the shadow puppet company Shadow Girls Cult, to create a visual storytelling experience of sci-fi, using liquid light to delve through the cosmos. The collaboration will be truly out of this world. 

Autumnal Resonances – Three local experimental music artists (Carbon In Prose, RM Francis, and Flicker Duo) perform original compositions ranging from ambient, noise, electroacoustic, and free improvisation.

Carbon In Prose is the ambient music project from Seattle-based composer Cam MacNair. Inspired by movements in nature and the human juxtaposition to it, the project aims to capture its moments in stasis, in full acceptance of its beauty. Cam will be performing material from the new album Salt Water Blood.

RM Francis is a Seattle-based artist working with computer-generated sound via recordings, performances, and installations. In addition to his solo projects, in recent years he has collaborated with Jack Callahan & Jeff Witscher, Jung An Tagen, and farmersmanual, among others. His most recent releases are pedimos un mensaje (Superpang), AToGRNN Prism (tokinogake), and Every Single Person Has Some Muscle (FLEA).

Flicker Duo, a collaboration between Sarah Pyle, flute, and Janna Webbon, violin, creates incandescent moments that evolve between sound and noise. Based in Western Washington, they build improvised sonic worlds inspired by visual art and the rich ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. Seeds is a new work by Flicker Duo that uses the structures of native wildflower seed pods to inform improvisation.

Earshhot Jazz Festival presents a solo concert by pianist Craig Taborn.

Born in Minneapolis and now based in Brooklyn, Craig Taborn has been performing piano and electronic music in the jazz, improvisational, and creative music scene for over twenty five years. His mastery of the form is legendary. Taborn has collaborated with a myriad of other musicians including Wadada Leo Smith, Tim Berne, John Zorn, Evan Parker, Steve Coleman, David Torn, Vijay Iyer, Kris Davis, and Nicole Mitchell among others. Hear music from Taborn’s most recent solo albums released on ECM, Shadow Plays (2021) and Avenging Angel (2011) in this concert.

“Taborn’s penchant for sustaining creative fluency through a 360-degree span of stylistic taxonomies, in contexts “inside” and “outside”, acoustic or electronic, makes him a singular figure among improvisers of his generation” – DownBeat

**Earshot Jazz COVID-19 Policy: Earshot recommends that all ticket holders be vaccinated. Policy subject to change. Full COVID policy here.

Craig Taborn photo courtesy of BigFish

NOTE: On the same day as this concert at 3 PM in the Chapel there will be a workshop with visiting Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga – “The Third Note: Strategies for Tackling Writer’s Block.” $15 advance, $20 at the door. Details and tickets here.

Bamboo and Brass LTD Sax4Tet is thrilled to feature the music of Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga. Eisenga’s compositions incorporate twelve-tone techniques, baroque music, pop songs, sustained ostinato rhythms, and eastern music. For the last twenty years, Eisenga has gained world-wide attention. He works with British writer David Mitchell, American choreographer Claudia Schreier, Italian harpist Assia Cunego, and the Russian Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble. Closer to home, he writes music for harpist Lavinia Meijer, pianists Marcel Worms, Jeroen van Veen and Gerard Bouwhuis, Cello Octet Amsterdam, Slagwerk Den Haag, and many more. Rounding out the concert will be compelling compositions written by Seattle Composers Alliance members Jacob Stenzel and Adrienne Albert, a premiere composition by Ryan Shepherd, and quartet favorites. With a special thank you to the Dutch government for providing Douwe Eisenga with a travel grant, Bamboo and Brass LTD is ecstatic to have Douwe Eisenga in the audience for this once-in-a-lifetime concert.

Bamboo and Brass LTD was created to discover and explore the wide-range of saxophone quartet repertoire, as there has been an explosion of quartet music for saxophone in the past 20 years. Presenting first-rate performances showcasing the dynamic and stylistic versatility of the saxophone, Ken Murphy (soprano sax), Evan Takle (alto sax), Barbara Hubers-Drake (tenor sax), and Lori Shepherd (baritone sax) met while participating in various jazz orchestras throughout the Seattle area. The quartet first came together in 2019 to perform in the international Bach in the Subway Festival and has added an diverse mix of ensemble music since then, exploring many musical genres. Individually, all have performed nationally and internationally with numerous ensembles at weddings, corporate events, parties, concerts, festivals, educational events, restaurants, clubs, churches, and theater pit orchestras.

Presented by Seattle Composers Alliance.

SONIDOS: MUSIC OF THE AMERICAS

Seattle Modern Orchestra presents an evening of dynamic chamber music from across the Americas. Curated by Cristina Valdés, longtime SMO pianist and founder of the Seattle Latin American Music Festival, this program features music by composers with roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Argentina. Works by Angélica Negrón and Luis Fernando Amaya utilize electroacoustic soundscapes, José-Luis Hurtado’s Retour invites SMO musicians to explore individualized timbral worlds, and the music of Silvina Milstein and Carlos Sanchez-Guiterrez offers the thrill of intricate chamber music dialogue.

PROGRAM: (composer bios here)

Angélica Negrón – Espacios, objetos, sonidos y tiempo for flute, percussion, piano, cello & electronics (2021)

Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez – Trio Variations for flute, clarinet & piano (2005) 

Silviina Milstein – cristales y susurros (whispers and crystal) for quintet (2007) US premiere

Luis Fernando Amaya – Bestiario: seis for soprano, flute, clarinet, percussion, and electronics (2020)

José-Luis Hurtado – Retour for seven instruments (2013)