Border Crossings: New Music from US & Canada

Seattle composer Brad Sherman and Christopher Gainey (University of BC) team up again for a concert of new and exciting music by Canadian and USA composers. They each have premieres on the concert: Stipple and Crosshatch for guitar and violin, and Whiskey Desk for flute, banjo and piano, respectively. Also, world premieres by Kyle Grimm and Adam Hill, along with Glenn James’ US premiere of Get in Line.

Girma Yifrashewa + Amy Rubin

Presented by Nonsequitur & Unseen Worlds.

Girma Yifrashewa is Ethiopia’s most famous living pianist and composer. Using traditional tunes as a foundation, Yifrashewa’s compositions combine the ecstasy of Ethiopian harmony with the grandeur of virtuoso piano technique into an effortlessly enjoyable, heady mixture. Opening the concert is Seattle composer/pianist Amy Rubin, whose fearlessly eclectic and original music combines the rigorous structure of classical music with the spontaneity of jazz and the complex rhythms of African drumming and Latin American dance styles.

Earshot: Eric Ring + Paul Kikuchi's Autonomic Ensemble

Presented by Earshot Jazz. Pianist Eric Ring’s solo piano submission to Second Century shows the pianist in a pensive mode. He writes: “This music is an exploration of texture, voicing and song in small compositions...these pieces are deliberately quiet.” Paul Kikuchi is a percussionist, composer, educator, instrument inventor/builder, founder of Prefecture Records, and Feldenkrais practitioner. Tonight he brings his Autonomic Ensemble, which includes Taina Karr (oboe), Emma Ashbrook (bassoon), Greg Sinibaldi (bass clarinet), tari Nelson-Zagar (violin), Eyvind Kang (viola), Natalie Mai Hall (cello), and John Teske (contrabass).

New Music from the Deep North

Cellist Karl Knapp and percussionist Bonnie Whiting travel south from Alaska to present new works by Seattle composers Nat Evans and John Teske, along with music by Martin Bresnick, Qu Xiao-Song, and John Steinmetz.

Substrata 1.3 : Day 3

Concluding Substrata’s evening performance program, this showcase presents an amalgam of the most acutely distinct vocabularies to be heard in the sub-genres of post-minimalist and electro-acoustic music. Pure digital programming giving voice to glistening architectural spires. Continental monoliths of physical mass and keening tonalities. These evoke pastoral landscapes generated by the acoustic melodicism of the chamber symphony: Christina Vantzou, Jacaszek, Kim Cascone

Substrata 1.3: Day 2

The second night of Substrata plays host to an evening of the 21st century continuance of folk, psychedelic, free form and non-rock traditions of the electric guitar. Far removed from its central pop culture role as the locus of the rock band, these artists explore the guitar through obfuscation of the ego, in abstract forms drenched in effects, enveloping dissonance and hypnotic untethered repetition:Sean Curley, Ken Camden, Grouper, Noveller.

Substrata 1.3: Day 1

Substrata Festival explores varying perspectives of scale though the use of sound, composition and visuals. Tonight we offer electronic structures and rhythms drawing on conceptual references ranging as far as the isolated landscapes of Iceland, the haunting woodlands of the Pacific Northwest, the celestial Music of the Spheres and imagined, encephalonic spaces between: Ethernet, The Sight Below, Yagya.

Jeph Jerman

For over twenty-five years, Jeph Jerman has been a seeker of sound. In 2010 he recorded a series of drone pieces using pot lids and metal bowls, played in the manner of Tibetan singing bowls. Titled arrastre, these were released as a three-part work on LP, CD-R, and cassette, and performed as a quartet in St. Paul, MN in 2012. Tonight it is performed by a septet of Jerman, Dave Knott, Doug Theriault, Mike Shannon, Esther Sugai, David Stanford, and Carl Lierman – a dense, shimmering wall of singing metal, rich in overtones and marked by gradual harmonic evolution.

Earshot: Syrinx Effect + Chemical Clock

Presented by Earshot Jazz. Jazz: The 2nd Century is Earshot's annual juried showcase featuring Seattle artists performing original, forward-looking music, in a concert setting.

Syrinx Effect is an experimental platform for trombonist Naomi Siegel and saxophonist Kate Olson. The duo plays contemporary, improvised music with electronics. Olson mixes jazz licks and space on soprano sax above a layer of laptop effects, Buddha Machine loops, and snaps, pops and analog electronic sounds from a Cracklebox. Siegel explores the range and booms of trombone and lays down a background of looped brass thwarted by guitar pedals, plus field recordings from her travels.

Chemical Clock is an aggressive and determined young band with a lot of good ideas and more than enough chops to pull them off. Led by keyboardist and composer Cameron Sharif, the quartet includes Ray Larsen (trumpet), Mark Hunter (bass), and Evan Woodle (drums). Their self-titled debut CD EP is a brief and refreshing blast of post-everything avant fusion, encompassing aspects of jazz, electronic dance music, prog-metal, contemporary classical music, and the indefinable electro-acoustic music currently being explored by edgy rock bands such as Lightning Bolt and Hella.

Stuart Dempster & Dennis Rea: Double Tanabata Birthdays!

Presented by Nonsequitur.

Seattle composers Stuart Dempster and Dennis Rea celebrate their shared birthday that falls on July 7, which is also the Japanese Tanabata festival. Dempster premieres Seventy Seven Sevens, featuring nine trombonists surrounding the audience, along with bass drummers Paul Kikuchi and Dean Moore. Rea's ASJ, premiered at the Chapel last January, this time incorporates the trombones along with John Seman, bass and Kate Olson, soprano sax.

Seattle Composers' Salon

The Seattle Composers’ Salonfosters 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! Composers for this month: Neal Kosaly-Meyer, Carson Farley, and Kam Morrill.