Pianist Tiffany Lin will play selections from J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Following will be a trio with Tiflin (piano), Lesli Dalaba (trumpet) and Tari Nelson-Zagar (violin) playing in an improvised setting.

Guitarist Eric Amrine’s goals in music concern bridging the gaps between idioms, then burning those bridges to forge an independent sound and laugh at chaos. For this show he is joined by his son, Julian Amrine (violin and trumpet), Kenny Mandell (reeds, percussion), Don Berman (drums), and Tom Yoder (trombone) for a set of spontaneous compositions for 3, 4, and 5 musicians. Dennis Rea (guitar), Tom Zgonc (drums), and James DeJoie (woodwinds) will follow with more improvised music certain to amaze and astound even the most discriminating listener.

As a soloist, Paul Hoskin does not involve his [compositional] self with Other selves. The eighty minute contrabass clarinet performance is both a statement and a refusal to engage with statement. What occurs is (or, as close to…) the strictly sonic. Multiple phonics, multiple (the complete array of) dynamics. The musical range bears simply with limits: all of ours.

The Hexaphonic 3 are a local trio performing original compositions, improvisations and deconstructed standards. The first set will be a duo of Bruce Greeley (bass clarinet) and Mike Sentkewitz (bass), performing a set of improvisations and a couple of old favorites. The second set we will expand to a quintet, with South (percussion/trumpet), Donna Schmidt (violin), Joel Schmidt (percussion/mandolin), and Steve Scribner (piano) for a set of original compositions. Each composition draws from their various musical backgrounds and wide range of influences which include jazz, metal, rock, klezmer, western swing, blues, free improvisation and the avant garde.

The sixth installment of Monktail’s ongoing Composers Series features new compositions for piano from John Seman, Mark Ostrowski and Stephen Fandrich, performed by Stephen Fandrich. Founded in 1990 by John Seman and Mark Ostrowski and rooted in Seattle since 2000, the Monktail Creative Music Concern exists to provide, propagate, promote, produce and preserve creative/experimental/exploratory music and associated art forms.

An innovative program featuring New Music in two distinct but complementary formats. In the first half, percussionist Dale Speicher performs Herbert Brun’s Plot for Percussion (1967), a premier of Stuart Saunders Smith’s Mornings (2009), and the debut of a work by Speicher using Novels in Three Lines by Felix Feneon as inspiration. In the second half, artists Erin Elyse Burns and Megan Berner have created videos for which composer Nat Evans has written ethereal and haunting scores that will be performed live. There will also be the debut of Telephone Conversation, a short work for violin and cello.

Seattle Circle presents New Zealand-based Nigel Gavin performing improvised pieces on his 7-string acoustic guitar, with all-improv backup from Seattle’s C3 (Steve Ball, Paul O’Rear, Nathan Grigg, David LaVallee, Joel Palmer). Nigel and Steve Ball collaborated extensively in the 80s and 90s in the League of Crafty Guitarists, Prometheus (featuring King Crimson’s Pat Mastelotto), and Boston-based, Curtains. Nigel also performs on the Glissentar, an eleven string, fretless, acoustic/electric guitar, strung with nylon strings.

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. Everyone is welcome! Join us this month for an evening of music and discussion with Seattle composers Ryan Hare, Sean Osborn, Keith Eisenbrey, John Teske, and Paul Gillespie.

This trio featuring Jesse Canterbury (clarinet, bass clarinet) Jenny Ziefel (clarinet, bass clarinet) and Paul Hoskin (contrabass clarinet) works with spontaneous composition in utterly refreshing ways. The range of sound defies expectation. Movements of passages are completely non-predictable. Conventional trio practice is ignored and/or dismantled. Foreground/background is of more interest than solo with accompaniment standards. All may bring home beauty and fascination…if nothing else.

The Box Is Empty, Seattle’s newest contemporary music ensemble, introduces itself with a performance of two works by the groundbreaking Louis Andriessen. The program offers the rare opportunity to hear Andriessen’s early masterpiece De Volharding (perserverence). The unrelenting Workers Union completes the program for an exciting insight into the music of one the last half-century’s most innovative composers. Come hear these works that helped to launch Andriessen from composer of the Dutch avant-garde to one of international influence and importance.