Full Description:

Interactions Quartet East features Andrew Raffo Dewar (s. saxophone), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Jessica Pavone (violin/viola), and Aaron Siegel (percussion). The quartet will perform excerpts from Dewar's "Interactions #1-6 (2009)," "Piece for Four Instruments (2002)" and new work in progress.

The "Interactions" series of compositions explore a variety of strategies in notation and performance combining traditional scoring, photographs read musically, notated structural materials that function invisibly within the music, and improvisations that can be difficult to determine where they lie on the spectrum of fixity and flux. "Piece for Four" is a work using invented spatial notation that explores group dynamics and indeterminate counterpoint resulting in an array of irrational rhythmic relationships. These compositions destabilize conventional approaches to foreground and background sound events in favor of a collective sound that allows the listener to draw their own conclusions.

Andrew Raffo Dewar (b. 1975 Rosario, Argentina) is a composer, musician, scholar and educator. In addition to leading his own ensembles, he works internationally in collaborative groups with a wide range of musicians and artists. Dewar studied and has worked with musical innovators such as Anthony Braxton, Bill Dixon, Steve Lacy and Alvin Lucier. He holds an MA and PhD in music from Wesleyan University and teaches at the University of Alabama.

www.freemovementarts.com

Jazz Composer Series is supported in part through an anonymous contribution.

 

Photo by Peter Gannushkin

Full Description:

Happiness is the Problem

Christie Finn, soprano
Megan Schubert, soprano
Lisa Komara, mezzo-soprano

"But, I mean, in order to, to actually do human trials you have to go through all this rigmarole, and rent is due, we don't have time"¦"

Happiness is the Problem is a two-act opera buffa and comic book about idealism and disillusionment. It presents three young women who sell an elixir of happiness derived from the secretions of slugs which they market as "Euphoressence."

Happiness is the Problem has had preview performances at The Stone, the Wilmette Theater, and Issue Project Room.

Brother Brother

For this evening's concert, Aaron Siegel will be presenting two excerpts from Brother Brother, featuring Amanda Sidebottom (soprano), Patrick Fennig (countertenor), Jonathan Hampton (tenor), Thomas McCargar (bass), and Emily Manzo (piano).

Brother Brother is an operatic work for percussion, strings, choir soloists and actors that explores the enigma of brotherhood. The story follows the lives of two pairs of brothers-one historical (Orville and Wilbur Wright) and one fictional (Red and Blue)-as they discover the character of their bond to one another.

To Scale

To Scale, is a work-in-progress that details the relationship between an architect and her scalies — the two-dimensional characters who populate architectural models.  Co-written by Lynn Levy, Dave Ruder, and Aliza Simons, To Scale explores the gap between creator and created.  The piece will also play with novel techniques to bridge the gap between singer and listener, including the use of localized transmitters, picked up by radios in the audience.

 

Learn More about tonight's show on Roulette's BLOG

 

 

Full Description:

The Aaron Siegel Ensemble will be premiering two movements of a work for percussion and pianos entitled, "Preparing the Past." Drawing on tangled narratives of memory and anticipation, "Preparing the Past," juxtaposes the moment of observation with the trail of its reflections. Also on the program will be selections from Siegel's "Book of Notions," for piano and vibraphone.



Tonight Aaron will be joined by Emily Manzo, Anna Dagmar, Joe Bergen, Mike McCurdy, Chris Graham, and Al Cerulo.



Aaron Siegel writes experimental music that lies at the intersection of abstraction and intuition. His work ranges from solo compositions and chamber music to improvised ensembles and collaborative theater pieces. He has been hailed as an "evocative composer," with "meditative ease and grace" working at the "frontiers of sound research." His work has been presented throughout the United States and Europe and performed by ensembles including the Flux Quartet, Till by Turning and Kyklos. The premiere recording by the Aaron Siegel Ensemble, "Every Morning, A History (2007, Peacock Recordings)" was praised by Signal to Noise as being representative of the flowering DIY chamber music scene in Brooklyn. In the spring of 2009, the online label Shsk'h will release "Our Reluctance is Overstated," for six timpanists as performed by percussionist Joe Bergen. Siegel is a member of the Anthony Braxton Septet and the improvisational trio, Memorize the Sky.

Full Description:

Composers Aaron Siegel and Chris Peck share an interest in methodical, process-based compositions that unfold over an extended period of time. Both artists work with unconventional acoustic sound sources, including plastic recorders, undisciplined singing, resonant metals and ceramic bowls. The two new works presented this evening are the result of their collaborative effort to deal with a large ensemble of performers from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds, including untrained musicians and self-described "non-artists."

Aaron Siegel is a Brooklyn-based composer and percussionist. His most recent concert of new works was a collaboration with composer Sabrina Schroeder at the Chocolate Factory in Long Island City in May 2006. He is currently at work on a new composition for the chamber ensemble Till by Turning that will be presented in a series of concerts in March 2007. A forthcoming recording of recent works entitled Every Morning, A History will be released in February 2006 on Peacock Recordings. Check out: http://www.aaronsiegel.net

Chris Peck is a Michigan-born, Brooklyn-based composer primarily concerned with listening, field recording, live performance and improvisation with the computer, collaboration with visual and dance artists and organizing large ensembles. He makes music with Manpack Variant (with Jaime Fennelly) and x2764 the band and directs the Brooklyn Adult Recorder Choir, a thirty-member acoustic noise ensemble, with choreographer Beth Gill. His collaborative work includes commissioned scores for choreographers John Jasperse, David Dorfman and Ming Yang/Dance Forum Taipei, installations with Fritz Welch and The Intensity Police Are Working My Last Gay Nerve with video artist Charles Atlas. Check out: http://www.intermittentmusic.com