push / bend / pull
|
Spitting Image Collective presents its second round of commissions and concerts. The collective has commissioned five new works from a diverse mix of Twin Cities composers to be premiered at our push / bend / pull concerts on May 2, May 3, and June 11 in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Come early on May 2-3 for pre-concert composer interviews at 7 p.m. with Charlie McCarron, host of the Composer Quest podcast! |
|
Works include:
Raba by Scott Miller Pinning a Shred by Joey Crane Très Furias by Daniel Nass The Lotus Flower by Ted Moore bend to the light by Katherine Bergman Performers include: James DeVoll, flute; Jeffery Kyle Hutchins, saxophone; Erika Blanco, violin; Carlynn Savot, cello; Jeremy Johnston, percussion; Stan Rothrock, conductor |
|
|
May 2, 2015
7:30 p.m. Studio Z 275 E. 4th St., Suite 200, St. Paul $15 / $10 students Tickets Pre-concert interviews at 7 p.m. hosted by Charlie McCarron |
May 3, 2015
7:30 p.m. Honey 205 E. Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis $15 / $10 students Tickets Pre-concert interviews at 7 p.m. hosted by Charlie McCarron |
June 11, 2015
7:30 p.m. Dreamland Arts 677 Hamline Ave N, St Paul $15 / $10 students Tickets Buy tickets online for 25% off at Groundswell Coffee. |
|
|
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. |
about the composers
Scott Miller is a composer of electroacoustic, orchestral, chamber, choral and multimedia works frequently performed at venues and in exhibitions throughout North America and Europe, including the 10th International Music Festival New Music Plus in Brno,The Contemporary Music Festival at the Ostrava Creative Center and Janácek Conservatory, Mladé Pódium International Festival of Young Artists, the 12th International Festival of Electroacoustic Music in Brno, the Leipzig Neue Gewandhaus, at Dvorak Hall, Prague, and at Galerie EXPRMNTL, in Toulouse, France. Miller's music has been described as 'not for the faint-hearted listener' (Juliet Patterson, mnartists.org) and 'inspir[ing] real hope & optimism for the future of electroacoustic music.' (Simon Cummings, 5against4.com).
Known for his interactive electroacoustic chamber music and experimental performance pieces, Miller has twice been named a McKnight Composer Fellow, and his work has been recognized by the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Central Minnesota State Arts Board, and the MUSICA NOVA 98 International Electroacoustic Music Competition. His music has been released on the Innova, Eroica, CRS, rarescale and SEAMUS labels. His music is published by ACA (American Composers Alliance), Tetractys, and Jeanné.
Miller is a Professor of Music at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, where he teaches composition, electroacoustic music and theory. He is currently President of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S. (SEAMUS). He has lectured on electroacoustic music and composition in universities and secondary schools across the United States, Europe and Mexico. He holds degrees from The University of Minnesota, The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and the State University of New York at Oneonta, and has studied composition at the Czech-American Summer Music Institute and the Centre de Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis.
Known for his interactive electroacoustic chamber music and experimental performance pieces, Miller has twice been named a McKnight Composer Fellow, and his work has been recognized by the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Central Minnesota State Arts Board, and the MUSICA NOVA 98 International Electroacoustic Music Competition. His music has been released on the Innova, Eroica, CRS, rarescale and SEAMUS labels. His music is published by ACA (American Composers Alliance), Tetractys, and Jeanné.
Miller is a Professor of Music at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, where he teaches composition, electroacoustic music and theory. He is currently President of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S. (SEAMUS). He has lectured on electroacoustic music and composition in universities and secondary schools across the United States, Europe and Mexico. He holds degrees from The University of Minnesota, The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and the State University of New York at Oneonta, and has studied composition at the Czech-American Summer Music Institute and the Centre de Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis.
Raba
In the fall of 2014, I visited Marimetsa Raba, an Estonian bog. A hike through a fairytale forest eventually leads to 11 kilometers of floating wood planks allowing you to walk across an immense bog, the result of thousands of years of decay, layer upon layer of peat built up a millimeter at a time. Marimetsa Raba is many meters thick, representing millenia of history; it is stitched together and compacted by time, floating in a vast nature reserve.
I was inspired by the idea of an immense surface that seems somehow empty, perhaps even simple, but when your eye is drawn to a detail, it leaps from the landscape. And once you begin to probe the surface, you discover a fantastically complex ecosystem above and below. In Raba, the percussionist is probing the tam1tam, revealing the interwoven partials that combine to create the sound we think of as the instrument. The alto flute, violin, cello, and electronics are tuned to reinforce, interact, and interfere with these partials revealed by the percussionist. The interaction of all these elements activates the room, causing a pulsing, living audio experience in the performance space.
In the fall of 2014, I visited Marimetsa Raba, an Estonian bog. A hike through a fairytale forest eventually leads to 11 kilometers of floating wood planks allowing you to walk across an immense bog, the result of thousands of years of decay, layer upon layer of peat built up a millimeter at a time. Marimetsa Raba is many meters thick, representing millenia of history; it is stitched together and compacted by time, floating in a vast nature reserve.
I was inspired by the idea of an immense surface that seems somehow empty, perhaps even simple, but when your eye is drawn to a detail, it leaps from the landscape. And once you begin to probe the surface, you discover a fantastically complex ecosystem above and below. In Raba, the percussionist is probing the tam1tam, revealing the interwoven partials that combine to create the sound we think of as the instrument. The alto flute, violin, cello, and electronics are tuned to reinforce, interact, and interfere with these partials revealed by the percussionist. The interaction of all these elements activates the room, causing a pulsing, living audio experience in the performance space.
|
|
|
Joey Crane is a composer, improviser, and performer specializing in improvisatory and contemporary music. He received a Bachelor’s of Music in Composition and Theory from the University of Missouri-Kansas and a Master’s of Music in Composition at the University of Louisville. Currently at the University of Minnesota, Crane is pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition.
Pinning a Shred
"Blank wall. So nightly. Up. Socks. Nightgown. Window. Lamp. Backs away to edge of light and stands facing blank wall. Covered with pictures once. Pictures of...he all but said of loved ones. Unframed. Unglazed. Pinned to wall with drawing-pins. All shapes and sizes. Down one after another. Gone. Torn to shreds and scattered. Strewn all over the floor. Not at one sweep. No sudden fit of...no word. Ripped from the wall and torn to shreds one by one. Over the years. Years of nights. Nothing on the wall now but the pins. Not all. Some out with the wrench. Some still pinning a shred."
Samuel Beckett, A Piece of Monologue
Pinning a Shred
"Blank wall. So nightly. Up. Socks. Nightgown. Window. Lamp. Backs away to edge of light and stands facing blank wall. Covered with pictures once. Pictures of...he all but said of loved ones. Unframed. Unglazed. Pinned to wall with drawing-pins. All shapes and sizes. Down one after another. Gone. Torn to shreds and scattered. Strewn all over the floor. Not at one sweep. No sudden fit of...no word. Ripped from the wall and torn to shreds one by one. Over the years. Years of nights. Nothing on the wall now but the pins. Not all. Some out with the wrench. Some still pinning a shred."
Samuel Beckett, A Piece of Monologue
|
|
|
The music of Daniel Nass has been reviewed as “playful,” “eerie,” and “witty.” He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including ASCAP awards, as well as invitations to SEAMUS and SCI national conferences, the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, and the International Computer Music Conference in Singapore. He has been awarded prizes in the ISU Carillon Composition Competition, the UMKC Chamber Music Composition Competition, and was one of three composers awarded a commission to write a new choral work for the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus. Other recent commissions include guitarist Jonathan Dotson, pianist Matthew McCright, and the dream songs project.
A native of Howard Lake, Minnesota, Nass holds degrees from Saint Olaf College, the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and the University of Texas at Austin. Past teachers include Kevin Puts, Donald Grantham, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Peter Hamlin. His works are distributed through his self-publishing company, Daniel Nass Music, and professional recordings are available on the Innova Records, Crescent Phase Records, and Centaur Records labels.
A native of Howard Lake, Minnesota, Nass holds degrees from Saint Olaf College, the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and the University of Texas at Austin. Past teachers include Kevin Puts, Donald Grantham, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Peter Hamlin. His works are distributed through his self-publishing company, Daniel Nass Music, and professional recordings are available on the Innova Records, Crescent Phase Records, and Centaur Records labels.
Très Furias
Très Furias was inspired by a Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition I visited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Part of the installation focused on what the artist called furias, or “intense obsessions with certain performers who would enthrall him for a single season or several years.” In Très Furias, I focus on three musical ‘obsessions’ in the form of three different collections of pitches.
Très Furias was inspired by a Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition I visited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Part of the installation focused on what the artist called furias, or “intense obsessions with certain performers who would enthrall him for a single season or several years.” In Très Furias, I focus on three musical ‘obsessions’ in the form of three different collections of pitches.
Ted Moore is a composer, sound designer, and music educator living in Minneapolis. His work has been reviewed as “an impressive achievement both artistically and technically” (Jay Gabler, VitaMN), “wonderfully creepy” (Matthew Everett, TC Daily Planet), and “epic” (Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press). Ted’s work focuses on live electronic processing with live performers using the digital signal processing programming language SuperCollider. His music has been premiered by Spektral Quartet (Chicago), Yarn/Wire (NYC), AVIDduo (Dallas), Firebird Ensemble (Boston), RenegadeEnsemble (MSP), and the Enkidu Quartet (MSP), and has been performed across the country including Fredericksburg, VA (Electroacoustic Barn Dance); Decorah, IA (Luther College); Richmond, KY (Eastern Kentucky University); Berkeley, CA (Festival of Contemporary Music); Dublin, NH (The Walden School); Chicago, IL (Access Contemporary Music); Campaign-Urbana, IL (NASA); Kirksville, MO (New Horizons Music Festival); Denton, TX (Denton Women’s Club); and Minneapolis, MN (Cedar Cultural Center). Ted has also been featured as a sound installation artist by the St. Paul Public Library, TC Make, and notably at the 2014 Northern Spark Festival in Minneapolis. As a sound designer, Ted has worked with many independent companies, notably on Savage Umbrella’s original productions, Care Enough, Emma Woodhouse is Not a Bitch, Rain Follows the Plow, Leaves, and Rapture. He has taught music in a variety of capacities, including at McNally Smith College of Music (St. Paul), MacPhail Center for Music (Minneapolis), The Walden School’s Young Musicians Program (Dublin, NH), and as Youth Programs Coordinator of Slam Academy (Minneapolis). Ted is the Artistic Co-Director of Spitting Image Collective, a composer collective that enriches the contemporary music community of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
|
|
|
Katherine Bergman is a Minnesota-based composer who draws on literature, environmentalism, and found materials to create work that has been described as hypnotic and visceral. Her music has been performed by leading ensembles and festivals throughout the United States, including The Dream Songs Project, RenegadeEnsemble, The Antithesis Project, Esperanza Ensemble, and Spitting Image Collective.
Katherine holds a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa School of Music, where she studied composition with Jonathan Schwabe and Alan Schmitz. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota with composition instructors including Michele Gillman and Steve Wright. She has studied extensively with Mary Ellen Childs, and has received additional instruction from Samuel Adler. Recent and upcoming projects include new works for Spitting Image Collective, Brainerd High School Symphonic Winds, and clarinetist Sarah Porwoll-Lee.
bend to the light
Trees are the tallest, most massive, longest-living organisms ever to grow on earth. These remarkably resilient and resourceful beings, though often taken for granted, should be admired for their ability to fend off stress and strain, and can act as a source of inspiration amid human conflict. In the face of danger, these unique living systems add strength to their structure, compartmentalize decay, and bend to the light.
Katherine holds a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa School of Music, where she studied composition with Jonathan Schwabe and Alan Schmitz. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota with composition instructors including Michele Gillman and Steve Wright. She has studied extensively with Mary Ellen Childs, and has received additional instruction from Samuel Adler. Recent and upcoming projects include new works for Spitting Image Collective, Brainerd High School Symphonic Winds, and clarinetist Sarah Porwoll-Lee.
bend to the light
Trees are the tallest, most massive, longest-living organisms ever to grow on earth. These remarkably resilient and resourceful beings, though often taken for granted, should be admired for their ability to fend off stress and strain, and can act as a source of inspiration amid human conflict. In the face of danger, these unique living systems add strength to their structure, compartmentalize decay, and bend to the light.
|
Support
You can take part in the creation of push / bend / pull by making a tax-deductible donation to Spitting Image. We are grateful to have received a generous grant from MRAC to support the commissions, and now we just need to raise some matching funds to fully fund the project. We're almost to our goal, but we could use your help to get there! Thank you for your support and generosity! push / bend / pull from Spitting Image on Vimeo. |
|
