Spotlight On
Roulette catches up with artist Sarah Goldfeather for a quick Q+A.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I am a violinist, a singer, a songwriter, and a composer. I run, perform, and write music for a band called Goldfeather, a soprano-violin duo called Cipher, a septet called Exceptet. I also enjoy puns and funny socks.
Describe the project you are developing for Roulette.
Exceptet was the result of an impulse to start a new music ensemble with a silly name that took commissioning and performing music seriously. We have in fact commissioned and performed works from nine young and talented composers since our 2015 inception. Our project with Roulette will be an evening-length concert that focuses on three brand new premieres — substantial pieces by Brendon Randall-Myers and Matt Evans, and a short piece by myself. Each piece will come from a distinctly different sound world, and will shape out an evening of contrasting musical voices that work with sound and space. Brendon and Matt are both high-caliber musicians on and offstage, and we at Exceptet are thrilled to be collaborating with them. Brendon’s piece will feature each member of the septet; Matt’s piece will utilize the space by breaking the group into subsets; and my own piece is the synthesis of my normally disparate worlds of pop songwriting and contemporary classical music.
What is your favorite Roulette memory?
There have been a great many highlights, but one concert in particular that sticks out was Invisible Anatomy’s semi-staged evening-length work, Transfigure. The show was visually stunning, the music captivating and memorable, and the performers were incredibly engaging — I remember being completely absorbed and inspired. The performers were stationed in the middle of the space, and I recall appreciating how versatile Roulette is as a performance space.
What is your favorite record?
It is difficult to pick just one, but if I had to choose a record that influenced most of my musical tastes today, it would probably be Sunlandic Twins by Of Montreal. The songwriting is incredibly creative and the harmonies and textures take so many unexpected yet satisfying twists and turns. Coincidentally, the album was the exact length of my commute to my high school youth orchestra, so I really got to sing along the whole way through twice every Saturday morning for a few glorious adolescent years.
What are your top three favorite or most visited websites and why?
In 2003 I started my very own Geocities account and dedicated a whole page titled “Good Sites,” which consisted solely of numerous Lord of the Rings Parody websites. Since then, my tastes have broadened somewhat. Aside from the popular news/social media/email correspondence sites, I am most fond of Goodreads.com, which I update fastidiously; Megan Amram’s twitter account, because she might be the funniest person who has ever lived; and omfgdogs.com, to be experienced on a laptop with the volume all the way up.
What is influencing your work right now?
Interpersonal relationships of the past and present, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, music with unusual chord changes and/or unexpected meter changes, Kimbra as an artist, the music of Mitski, Anna Meredith, Ted Hearne, and Scott Wollschleger, the writing of Lydia Davis, Maggie Nelson, and Louise Gluck.
How long have you lived in New York City and what brought you here?
I have lived in Brooklyn for over 7 years, and honestly it’s hard to pinpoint exactly how I ended up here — I suppose a friend from college asked me to move to Brooklyn with her, and it certainly seemed like the proper place to migrate after graduation. I didn’t really have a plan back then, and certainly didn’t have any illusions that it was possible to be a musician at the time. Looking back, I’m grateful I followed that whim, as I don’t know if I could have grown as an artist and musician without this wonderful musical community stationed here.
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Exceptet performs Mouth Full of Ears by Sarah Goldfeather, alongside new works from Matt Evans and Brendon Randall-Myers on February 8, 2018.