Travis Laplante & Yarn/Wire: Inner Garden

Tuesday, May 21, 20198:00 pm
Travis Laplante is a 2019 Roulette resident artist

Inner Garden is a three-movement work inspired by a dream. In the dream the members of Yarn/Wire and I descended, by way of falling, into to the center of the Earth. Instead of being taken to a place filled with iron or metal, we landed in the most beautiful and generous garden, beyond anything I could have imagined. I was filled with so much joy, but also the pain and shame of having lived my life up until this point having forgotten the true nature of where we live. The piece attempts to share this journey with the listener.”
— Travis Laplante

Roulette resident artist Travis Laplante presents Inner Garden, a newly commissioned long-form work composed for the mesmerizing two piano/two percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire and Laplante on tenor saxophone.


Performers:
Travis Laplante — composition, tenor saxophone
Laura Barger — piano
Ning Yu — piano
Ian Antonio — percussion
Russell Greenberg — percussion


Travis Laplante is a saxophonist, composer, and qigong practitioner living in Brooklyn, New York and southern Vermont. Laplante leads Battle Trance, the acclaimed tenor saxophone quartet as well as Subtle Degrees, his newest project with drummer Gerald Cleaver. He is also known for his solo saxophone work and his longstanding ensemble Little Women. Laplante has recently performed and/or recorded with Trevor Dunn, Ches Smith, Peter Evans, So Percussion, Michael Formanek, Buke and Gase, Ingrid Laubrock, Darius Jones, Mat Maneri, and Matt Mitchell, among others. He has toured his music extensively and has appeared at many major international festivals throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. As a qigong student of master Robert Peng, Laplante has undergone traditional intensive training. His focus in recent years, under the tutelage of Laura Stelmok, has been on Taoist alchemical medicine and the cultivation of the heart. Laplante is passionate about the intersection of music and medicine. He and his wife are the founders of Sword Hands, a qigong and acupuncture healing practice based in Brooklyn, New York and Putney, Vermont.

Yarn/Wire is a quartet of two percussionists and two pianists. This instrumental combination allows the ensemble flexibility to slip effortlessly between classics of the repertoire and modern works that continue to forge new boundaries. Founded in 2005 while at Stony Brook University, Yarn/Wire is admired for the energy and precision they bring to performances of today’s most adventurous music. The results of their collaborative initiatives with genre-bending artists such as Two-Headed Calf, Pete Swanson, and Tristan Perich point towards the emergence of a new and lasting repertoire that is “spare and strange and very, very new.” (Time Out NY)

Image result for facebook icon png


Travis Laplante & Yarn/Wire: Inner Garden is made possible, in part, by the Jerome Foundation.

The Jerome Foundation, a long-time supporter of young composers, was a mainstay in Roulette’s early development and continues to help us fulfill our mission by presenting ambitious work by promising artists. Each year, the Jerome Foundation supports five artist residencies and four commissions at Roulette.

Travis Laplante & Yarn/Wire: Inner Garden

Tuesday, May 21, 20198:00 pm
Travis Laplante is a 2019 Roulette resident artist

Inner Garden is a three-movement work inspired by a dream. In the dream the members of Yarn/Wire and I descended, by way of falling, into to the center of the Earth. Instead of being taken to a place filled with iron or metal, we landed in the most beautiful and generous garden, beyond anything I could have imagined. I was filled with so much joy, but also the pain and shame of having lived my life up until this point having forgotten the true nature of where we live. The piece attempts to share this journey with the listener.”
— Travis Laplante

Roulette resident artist Travis Laplante presents Inner Garden, a newly commissioned long-form work composed for the mesmerizing two piano/two percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire and Laplante on tenor saxophone.


Performers:
Travis Laplante — composition, tenor saxophone
Laura Barger — piano
Ning Yu — piano
Ian Antonio — percussion
Russell Greenberg — percussion


Travis Laplante is a saxophonist, composer, and qigong practitioner living in Brooklyn, New York and southern Vermont. Laplante leads Battle Trance, the acclaimed tenor saxophone quartet as well as Subtle Degrees, his newest project with drummer Gerald Cleaver. He is also known for his solo saxophone work and his longstanding ensemble Little Women. Laplante has recently performed and/or recorded with Trevor Dunn, Ches Smith, Peter Evans, So Percussion, Michael Formanek, Buke and Gase, Ingrid Laubrock, Darius Jones, Mat Maneri, and Matt Mitchell, among others. He has toured his music extensively and has appeared at many major international festivals throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. As a qigong student of master Robert Peng, Laplante has undergone traditional intensive training. His focus in recent years, under the tutelage of Laura Stelmok, has been on Taoist alchemical medicine and the cultivation of the heart. Laplante is passionate about the intersection of music and medicine. He and his wife are the founders of Sword Hands, a qigong and acupuncture healing practice based in Brooklyn, New York and Putney, Vermont.

Yarn/Wire is a quartet of two percussionists and two pianists. This instrumental combination allows the ensemble flexibility to slip effortlessly between classics of the repertoire and modern works that continue to forge new boundaries. Founded in 2005 while at Stony Brook University, Yarn/Wire is admired for the energy and precision they bring to performances of today’s most adventurous music. The results of their collaborative initiatives with genre-bending artists such as Two-Headed Calf, Pete Swanson, and Tristan Perich point towards the emergence of a new and lasting repertoire that is “spare and strange and very, very new.” (Time Out NY)

Image result for facebook icon png


Travis Laplante & Yarn/Wire: Inner Garden is made possible, in part, by the Jerome Foundation.

The Jerome Foundation, a long-time supporter of young composers, was a mainstay in Roulette’s early development and continues to help us fulfill our mission by presenting ambitious work by promising artists. Each year, the Jerome Foundation supports five artist residencies and four commissions at Roulette.

 

Travis Laplante & Yarn/Wire: Inner Garden at Roulette 2019