Winter-Spring 2018 News & Events

A number of exciting performances and projects coming up in the first few months of 2018 …

In February I’ll be one of the featured composers (with Robert Normandeau) at the Florida Contemporary Music Festival in Gainesville, Florida. I’ll be giving some lectures and masterclasses, and the residency will conclude with a concert of six works (two fixed media, two trombone solos, and two clarinet solos). The performers are Weston Olencki, trombone, and Carlos Cordeiro, clarinet, and the concert will conclude with an improvisation with Carlos (clarinets), Weston (modular synthesizer), and me (live electronics).

The following day (16 Feb) I catch an early flight to Buffalo, New York, for a lecture and masterclass at the Center for 21st Century Music at the University at Buffalo, my alma mater and an institution that has a special place in my heart.

Other highlights include the fourth performance of the full 35-minute ensemble version of The wreck of former boundaries. The performance will include two new performers who weren’t part of the autumn 2016 performances, including a new trumpet soloist (Marco Blaauw) and a new double bass player (Kathryn Schulmeister). I’m curious and excited to see how the personnel changes affect the work, particularly given the role of improvisation in the piece as well as the constant recombinations of chamber ensemble groupings within the work’s structure. This is the first point at which the performance practice of the piece will push beyond the first ‘wave’ from that initial 2016 tour, and in the meantime several of the performers in the ensemble will have performed the extractable/standalone solo and chamber works several times as well. And this is also a very welcome return visit for the piece to Australia following the BIFEM premiere in Bendigo, and will be the first performance there of the revised version that was performed in Zürich and Huddersfield in November last year.

Further details & additional early 2018 events are listed below.

In terms of composition activity, at the moment I’m working on a new piece for percussion trio for my friends Line Upon Line, from Austin, TX. We had two wonderful development/workshopping sessions in May and October 2017, and I’m really enjoying working on the piece, which has a planned premiere as part of the group’s 2019 concert series. And then there are four other projects on the docket—also mostly for 2019/2020—that I’ll write about a bit once the pieces are up and running.

Performances

William Lang, trombone.  Mt Vernon Salon, Oakland, California. January 5, 2018. songs only as sad as their listener

Portrait Concert, Florida Contemporary Music Festival. Gainesville, Florida. February 15, 2018. With Carlos Cordeiro and Weston Olencki.

I, for example, …, (2017, World Premiere)
The wreck of former boundaries (5.1 channel electronics) 
(2014–15)
Because they mark the zone where the force is in the process of striking (2008)
songs only as sad as their listener (2006)
metallic dust 
(1998–99)
The wreck of former boundaries (B-flat clarinet) 
(2016, USA Premiere)

Spectrum NYC, February 17, 2018. I, for example, …

Electric Spring Festival. Huddersfield, UK. February 21, 2018. I, for example, … (UK Premiere)

Frank Wörner, voice (ExVoCo). tonArt 2018, Esslingen, Germany. February 25, 2018. I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips

Joshua Hyde, saxophone. University of Huddersfield. March 19, 2018. The wreck of former boundaries (saxophone and live electronics—extended version) (World Premiere)

Nina Dante, voice. Indexical (joint recital with Jaap Blonk), Santa Cruz, USA. March 31, 2018. I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips

ELISION. Metropolis New Music Festival. Melbourne, Australia, April 18, 2018. The wreck of former boundaries

Daryl Buckley, electric lap steel guitar. Redland Performing Arts Centre Concert Hall, Queensland, Australia. May 11, 2018. The wreck of former boundaries (lap steel & electronics)

Forum Wallis Ars Electronica, Schloss Leuk, Switzerland. May 18, 2018. I, for example, …

Adam Zahller, voice (113 Collective), Studio Z, St Paul, Minnesota, USA. June 1, 2018. I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips

Guest Lectures & Masterclasses

Florida Contemporary Music Festival. February 14, 2018: Composition Masterclass with University of Florida composition students; Lecture (“Gestural modeling & compositional constraints: the articulation of accident as compositional method”). February 15, 2018: Lecture (“The wreck of former boundaries”).

University at Buffalo, Center for 21st Century Music. February 16, 2018. Lecture (“The wreck of former boundaries”) and Composition Masterclass.

Recordings

Phantom Images. HCR17. Includes I, for example, … along with works by Sam Pluta/Charmaine Lee, Chris Mercer, and Katie Young, as part of the CeReNeM Speculations in Sound international research network. To be released, 20 April 2018.

In mid-April, I’ll be in Melbourne with Daryl Buckley and Kathryn Schulmeister to record the lap steel & electronics and double bass versions of The wreck of former boundaries for future release.

Other events will be added as details are confirmed.

One Comment

  1. Hi Aaron, great to see performances in the U.K early next year. Already looking forward!
    A

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