New Music Concerts: May 2016 Seattle * Eastside * Tacoma

SI_button2Second Inversion and the Live Music Project create a monthly calendar featuring contemporary classical, cross-genre, and experimental performances in Seattle, the Eastside, Tacoma, and places in between! 

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Keep an eye out for our this flyer in concert programs and coffee shops around town. Feel free to download, print, and distribute it yourself! If you’d like to be included on this list drop us a line at least 6 weeks prior to the event.

Program Insert - May 2016(updated) - onesided

 

 

Racer Sessions
A weekly showcase of original music with a jam session based on the concepts in the opening presentation.
Every Sunday, 8-10pm, Cafe Racer | FREE

Wayward Music Series
Concerts of contemporary composition, free improvisation, electronic/electroacoustic music, & more.
Various days, 7:30/8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-15

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Noise Yoga with John Teske
Noise Yoga is a series of yoga classes that combine the meditative intentionality of yoga with the sonic depth of live performance by local musicians
Sun, 5/1, 11:30am, Frye Art Museum | $10

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Josh Archibald-Seiffer + Ania Stachurska
UW composers Josh Archibald-Seiffer & Ania Stachurska present works with themes spanning political civil war, children’s lit, language, & the uncanny.
Thurs, 5/5, 8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15

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Seattle Composers’ Salon
Composers, performers, & audience gather in a casual setting that allows for experimentation & discussion of finished works & works in progress.
Fri, 5/6, 8pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15

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The Esoterics: Milton Babbitt
A celebration of Babbitt’s centenary featuring his entire catalog of a cappella choruses, several of which have never been performed in live concert.
Fri, 5/6, 8pm, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Seattle | $15-$20
Sat, 5/7, 8pm, Holy Rosary Church, West Seattle | $15-$20
Sun, 5/8, 7pm, Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma | $15-$20

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Seattle Wind Symphony: American Places
Donald K. Miller leads the SWS in a program of Donald Grantham, William Schuman, Eric Whitacre, Ron Nelson, and more.
Sat, 5/7, 7:30pm, Shorewood Performing Arts Center | $5-$20

7/8
Seattle Rock Orchestra performs Neil Diamond
SRO celebrates the man, the myth, the legend: Neil Diamond. SRO will explore his entire catalogue, performing hidden gems and revered hits alike.
Sat, 5/7, 8pm, The Moore Theatre | $20-$37.50 (+ fees)
Sun, 5/8, 2pm, The Moore Theatre | $20-$37.50 (+ fees)

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Inverted Space: Long Piece Fest
A double-header concert featuring two commissions from Seattle composers Kevin Baldwin and Takemitsu prize-winner Yigit Kolat.
Tues, 5/10, 7:30pm, Good Shepherd Chapel | $5-$15

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Seattle Symphony: Sonic Evolution: This is Indie!
This concert features Michael Gordon, William Brittle, Tomoko Mukaiyama, Fly Moon Royalty & Filmmaker Bill Morrison. Co-Presented With SIFF.
Fri, 5/13, 8pm, Benaroya Hall | $25-$52

20/21
Universal Language Project: The Elements
An interactive event featuring visual artist Scott Kolbo and iconoclast band TORCH.
Fri, 5/20, 8pm, Resonance at SOMA Towers, Bellevue | $10-$25
Sat, 5/21, 8pm, Velocity Dance Center | $15-$25

21
Kirkland Choral Society: Luminous
KCS premieres a commission from Ola Gjeilo plus many Gjeilo favorites from previous concerts and will be joined by the Skyros Quartet.
Sat, 5/21, 7:30pm, Bastyr University Chapel | $15-$20

21
SMCO Season Finale: Mozart, Carter, Ligeti, and Haydn
Seattle Met. Chamber Orchestra welcomes Cristina Valdes, Matthew Kocmieroski & Maria Mannisto – 3 soloists in high demand for contemporary music!
Sat, 5/21, 8pm, First Free Methodist Church | $15-$20

22
Music of Remembrance: Jake Heggie’s Out of Darkness
This two-act opera and portrait of survival conveys the vastness of the Holocaust’s scope through emotionally rich depictions of those caught in its grasp.
Sun, 5/22, 4pm, Benaroya Hall | $30-$45 ($5 TeenTix)

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Town Music at Town Hall: Season Finale
Joshua Roman, Arnaud Sussman, Karen Gomyo, & Kyle Armbrust will perform Britten’s String Quartet No. 2 and a commissioned piece by Andrius Zlabys.
Tues, 5/24, 7:30pm, Town Hall | $5-$25

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Second Inversion Showcase at Folklife
Join us for Second Inversion’s 2nd annual showcase at Northwest Folklife! We’ll feature bi-coastal musicians and local favorites alike.
Fri, 5/27, 8pm, Center House Stage | FREE

 

LIVE CONCERT SPOTLIGHT: June 5-7

by Maggie Molloy

This week’s concert calendar expands beyond music and into poetry, mythology, philosophy, and more!

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Friction Quartet and Christian Pincock

Only a small fraction of classical musicians play with the ferocity and force of the San Francisco-based Friction Quartet. The group is committed to expanding the string quartet repertoire and audience for adventurous new music through collaborations with composers and artists of all disciplines.

This weekend, you can see them perform a works by local Seattle composers, including world premiere performances of Roger Briggs’ “Friction,” Tom Baker’s“Invisible Cities,” Nathan Campbell’s “Treescape” and a new work by John Teske.  The program also features John Adams’ dynamic and dramatic String Quartet No. 1.

Trombonist and composer Christian Pincock will open the performance, combining digital music and a DIY aesthetic to present solo works scored for trombone and computer—all while using homemade controllers and software for live control of sound processing.

The performance is this Friday, June 5 at 8 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford.

Kate Soper and Seattle Modern Orchestra Present “Sound Me Out”

SOPER-photo-by-Richard-BurbridgeThe story of Orpheus and Eurydice is an ancient Greek legend—Orpheus, with a voice so beautiful he could charm all living things, descends into Hades in a fruitless attempt to bring his dead bride Eurydice back to life. And while the myth has been recreated again and again in opera and music for centuries, this weekend you have the chance to experience a not-so-classical setting of this classic tale.

For its season finale, Seattle Modern Orchestra is presenting two works for soprano and ensemble by American composer and vocalist Kate Soper, including a world premiere of a new ensemble version of her piece “now is forever: I. Orpheus and Eurydice.” Through a combination of music, drama, rhetoric, and fearless expressivity, the piece explores a discrete moment in the story when Orpheus and Eurydice first meet.

Soper and Seattle Modern Orchestra will also perform the Seattle premiere of her passionate and poignant piece “Door” for soprano, flute, saxophone, electric guitar, and accordion. The program also features two more Seattle premieres: Italian composer Fausto Romitelli’s philosophical “Blood on the floor, Painting 1986” and Georg Friedrich Haas’s virtuosic “Monodie” for 18 instruments.

The performance is this Saturday, June 6 at 8 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. A pre-concert presentation will begin at 7:30 p.m.

EKSTASIA: Pursuing Ecstasy and the Search for the Divine

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“In Heaven a spirit doth dwell, whose heart-strings are a lute” wrote Edgar Allan Poe in an 1831 poem. That spirit is Israfel, the Muslim archangel of song. But you don’t have to leave Seattle to hear his heavenly music—next weekend the Esoterics are uniting with Skyros String Quartet to present vivid choral settings of “Israfel” and other divine poems.

The Esoterics and Skyros will be performing composer Tarik O’Regan’s “The Ecstasies Above,” an unearthly setting of Poe’s “Israfel” filled with daring modal harmonies and driving rhythms. They will also present Charlie Leftridge’s poignant “Of Seasons I Have Sung.” The a cappella portion of the program includes Aaron Jay Kernis’ ethereal “Ecstatic Meditations” and Eric Banks’ evocative “I am Among Them.”

Performances are Friday, June 5 at 8 p.m. at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Seattle, Saturday, June 6 at 2 p.m. at First Christian Church in Portland, and Sunday, June 7 at 3 p.m. at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in West Seattle.

 

CONCERT SPOTLIGHT: May 7-11

by Maggie Molloy 

Add some color to your May with a jaunt down “Abbey Road,” a trip to a microtonal music instrumentarium, and many more multihued music events!

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Machinations Musical, Divers & Sundry

Music and machine unite this week at a diverse and sundry performance featuring the electroacoustic works of students and graduates from the University of Washington.

“Machinations Musical, Divers & Sundry” will feature original works by composers who are currently studying (or have previously studied) at UW’s School of Music or Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS). The wide-ranging program has everything from 19-tone equal temperament electric guitars to violin-horn duos to computer-realized surround sound to kinetic sculpture—all performed by the composers themselves.

The performance is this Thursday, May 7 at 8 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford.

Seattle Composers’ Salon

owcharuk-38-600x400Jazz up your Friday night with a trip to the Seattle Composers’ Salon, featuring a selection of Seattle’s smoothest, snazziest jazz cats.

The bi-monthly Salon presents new music in a casual setting, offering composers, performers, and audience members a space to experiment and discuss contemporary works. This evening’s performance features composer, jazz pianist, and accordionist Michael Owcharuk, jazz drummer Matthew James Briggs, and composers Jessi Harvey and Ian McKnight.

The performance is this Friday, May 8 at 8 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford.

Prism: Pärt and MacMillan

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“I could compare my music to white light which contains all colors,” said Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. “Only a prism can divide the colors and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.”

In honor of Pärt’s 80th birthday, Seattle Pro Musica is performing a concert full of the influential composer’s colorful choral works. Known for his sacred and classical music, Pärt is inspired by elements of minimalism as well as his own mystical experiences with chant music.

The concert will also feature the melodic, modern works of James MacMillan, the multihued harmonies of Brian Edward Galante, and a world premiere of a new commission by John Muehleisen.

Performances are this Friday, May 8 and Saturday, May 9 at 8 p.m. at St. James Cathedral in Seattle.

Seattle Rock Orchestra Performs the Beatles’ “Let It Be” & “Abbey Road”

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This weekend, Seattle Rock Orchestra is taking fans down a “Long and Winding Road” through the Beatles’ discography. The performance is the fourth entry in their chronological exploration of the band’s catalogue of classics, arriving at their final studio recordings: “Let it Be” and “Abbey Road.”

“Come Together” for this beautiful evening of beloved Beatles tunes which will take you “Across the Universe,” to an “Octopus’s Garden,” all the way along “Abbey Road’s” famous 16-minute medley, and through countless other rock ‘n’ roll classics. The performance will feature guest vocalists Zach Davidson (of Vendetta Red), Tamara Power-Drutis, Matt and Mike Gervais (of Mikey & Matty), and Miranda Zickler (of Wild Rabbit).

Performances are this Saturday, May 9 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 10 at 2 p.m. at the Moore Theatre.

Music of Today: Harry Partch Instruments Presentation

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Harry Partch was a composer, music theorist, and instrument maker interested in much more than just your typical 12 intervals to the octave. He was one of the first 20th century composers in the West to work with microtonal scales, building his own custom-made instruments in different tunings in order to perform his compositions.

And now, you can see (and hear) these instruments in all their microtonal magnificence at the University of Washington. Next week Charles Corey, director of the Harry Partch Institute at UW, will be giving a public demonstration of instruments from the collection. The Harry Partch Instrumentarium is currently in residence at the UW School of Music.

The presentation is this Monday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m. at UW’s Meany Hall.

LIVE CONCERT SPOTLIGHT: April 23-26

by Maggie Molloy

This week’s eclectic concert calendar is overflowing with river music, graphic scores, marimba music, and more!

Nick Norton, Nat Evans, and John Teske

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Most contemporary composers are not afraid to sprinkle a few unusual sonorities here and there—but few choose to use “wrong notes” as liberally as Los Angeles-based composer Nick Norton. This week, you can hear his piano piece “All the Wrong Notes” in all its erratic glory, performed by pianist Cristina Valdes.

The performance is part of an evening of new music featuring the works of composers John Teske, Nick Norton, and Nat Evans. The program includes performances of composed works for piano and graphic scores for small ensembles—including Teske’s “topographies,” a series of graphic scores which require the musicians to perform using contour maps composed of musical symbols.

As if that’s not adventurous enough, the performance will be preceded by a site-specific listening and tea event created by Seattle-based sound artist and composer Nat Evans. The piece, titled “New Forest,” is created from numerous field recordings of the second growth forests clear cut in the 1940s and 50s, accompanied by records pressed during the same era. Audience members can sip tea as they sit inside of an environment of Chinese ink calligraphic drawings listening to the sounds of the 1940s and 50s.

The performance is this Thursday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford.

Joshua Roman Bellingham Recital

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Cellist Joshua Roman is a Seattle star who needs no introduction. He first made music headlines when he became the youngest principal player in Seattle Symphony history at age 22, and since then he has cultivated a remarkably diverse solo career. Most recently, he’s been working as Artistic Director of Seattle Town Hall’s Town Music series, as well as Artistic Advisor for yours truly, Second Inversion.

But this weekend, you can see Roman back on the stage for a special Festival of Music recital performance in Bellingham. He’ll be performing a wide range of virtuosic works, including Henri Dutilleux’s colorful “Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher,” Alberto Ginastera’s captivating Puneña No. 2 “Hommage a Paul Sacher,” and J.S. Bach’s classic Cello Suite No. 6 in D Major. Roman will also be performing an original work titled “Riding Light.”

The performance is this Friday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Western Washington University Performing Arts Center.

Longhouse Media and NW Film Forum Present: “Yakona” Film Screening and Live Performance

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It’s no wonder the sounds of the sea inspired so many Impressionist composers—the lull of rushing water can be inherently musical. And this weekend, you can experience the sights and sounds of the crystal clear waters of the San Marcos River in Texas, all from the comfort of a Seattle movie theatre.

Longhouse Media in partnership with Northwest Film Forum will present a film titled “Yakona” accompanied by a live performance of its musical score by Justin Sherburn. The word “yakona” means “rising water” in the language of the indigenous people of the San Marcos River, and the impressionistic film is a visual (and aural) journey through the waters of the river from prehistoric times through the modern era—all from the perspective of the river itself.

Performances are this Friday, April 24 and Saturday, April 25 at Northwest Film Forum on Capitol Hill at 7 p.m. Both the filmmaker and composer will be present, and there will be a free public reception both evenings at 6 p.m. in the lobby.

Inverted Space Presents Washington Composer’s Forum Commission Concert

11169760_936145579771368_8303959025926708823_oThe cream of the musical crop are coming together this weekend at the Washington Composer’s Forum Commission Concert. The University of Washington’s contemporary music ensemble Inverted Space will be performing works by the five winners of the recent Washington Composer’s Forum call for scores competition.

The program includes the methodical music of composer Scott Rubin, the eclectic soundscapes of composer and sound designer Nick Vasallo, the instrumental and electroacoustic creations of composer Onur Dülger, the melodic musings of composer Michal Raymond Massoud, and the mixed-media melodrama of composer and conductor Whitney George.

The performance is this Friday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Brechemin Auditorium at the University of Washington School of Music.

Washington State Percussive Arts Society’s Day of Percussion

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Sometimes you get stuck in the rhythm of the daily work grind and forget to take time to experience new and exciting music. This weekend, escape the humdrum of your sluggish Sunday with a trip to Washington State Percussive Arts Society’s Day of Percussion.

 

The all-day event features masterclasses, clinics, performances, prizes, and play-alongs with a pretty impressive collection of percussion pros. They’ll teach you everything you need to know about pit and theater percussion, marching drumlines, marimba music, Ghanaian drumming, graphic scores, and even timpani mallet-wrapping. Among the festival’s many performers are the Seattle Seahawks Blue Thunder Drumline, for the 12th Man among you.

Day of Percussion is this Sunday, April 26 at University of Washington’s Meany Hall from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. For a full schedule of events, check out the Washington State Percussive Arts Society website.

LIVE CONCERT SPOTLIGHT: January 9 & 12

by Maggie Molloy

Why not make it your New Year’s resolution to listen to more new music? This week is packed with innovative contemporary music performances to start your year off right!


Universal Language 21st Century Music Project’s “Inception”

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It’s a new year and a new music organization is taking root in Seattle. This year marks the inaugural season of the Universal Language 21st Century Music Project, which is pushing the boundaries of contemporary music in Seattle and beyond. For the first concert of their 2015 season, they are premiering new works by composers Wayne Horvitz and Sean Osborn.

Horvitz is a composer who has performed throughout the world as an improviser on both piano and electronics, while Osborn is a critically acclaimed clarinetist whose music uses extended clarinet techniques to create a unique new genre-bending sound.

The performance is this Friday, Jan. 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Velocity Dance Center on Capitol Hill.


Seattle Composers’ Salon’s New Music Holiday Office Party

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Celebrate the city’s bustling contemporary music scene in style this weekend at the Seattle Composers’ Salon’s New Music Holiday Office Party.

Seattle Composers’ Salon is dedicated to supporting new music by regional composers and performers. At informal gatherings twice a month, the Salon features new works and works in progress by local composers and performers. This weekend’s gathering will feature music by Neil Welch, Cole Bratcher, Ivan Arteaga, and Matthew James Briggs.

The performance is this Friday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford. The concert will be preceded by a New Music Holiday Office Party from 6:30 to 8 p.m., where composers, performers, and audience members are invited to visit, share CDs, enjoy snacks, and listen to live music performed by cellist Carson Farley.


Town Music Presents Third Coast Percussion

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Third Coast Percussion is a Chicago-based group that marches to the beat of its own drum. The ensemble is dedicated to exploring all of the far-reaching possibilities of percussion through unique instrumentation and the integration of new media in performances. This weekend, the quartet is coming to Seattle to perform a colorful program of percussion works by David T. Little, Tan Dun, and John Cage. (Yes, John Cage.)

Third Coast Percussion will perform Little’s “Haunt of Last Nightfall,” a piece which laces together pre-recorded heavy metal sounds with live percussion. Also on the program is Cage’s “Credo in Us,” a wartime piece written after the attacks on Pearl Harbor. The quartet will also be joined by guest cellist Joshua Roman to perform Dun’s “Elegy: Snow in June,” a piece which was written to commemorate the 1989 massacre in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

The performance is this Monday, Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall Seattle. If you can’t make it to the concert, don’t fret: we’ll be live broadcasting this performance on Second Inversion!