Austin residency
ELISION ensemble. Big Medium Gallery, Austin, Texas, October 20, 2017. Ben Marks, trombone: Because they mark the zone where the force is in the process of striking and songs only as sad as their listener (my first performances in Texas since I was a high school student near Dallas, 25 years earlier). And performer (live electronics) in Richard Barrett’s Codex IV.
Guest lecture, Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, October 18, 2017.
And creative development sessions with Line Upon Line percussion ensemble towards a new piece for 2019, October 17 & 19, 2017.
News
I’m very pleased to report that The wreck of former boundaries has been nominated for a 2017 British Composer Award in the Chamber Ensemble category. As many of my friends will know, this piece was a particularly long, challenging path. At one point in the lead-up to the BIFEM premiere, I was ready to walk away from composing altogether—the piece was a mess, none of the piece’s experiments worked, and I felt absolutely defeated by the whole experience. After one of the rehearsals I went and sat in a corner and cried for 20 minutes. … But I then spent a few exhausting months doing 14-16 hours a day of rewrites and revisions, throwing away about six months worth of work, and in the end the hcmf// performance of the revised version was easily the most exhilarating experience I’ve had as a composer. I’m really touched that the piece has had a bit of formal recognition, and, though it sounds like a cliché, I really am honoured to be on a list with so many friends and colleagues whose work I admire! (Also, I suppose I’m at least unofficially British now.) The winners are announced at the British Museum on 6 December.
Oct–Dec 2017 Performances
ELISION ensemble (Ben Marks, trombone). Big Medium Gallery, Austin, Texas, October 20, 2017. Because they mark the zone where the force is in the process of striking and songs only as sad as their listener
Diego Castro, electric guitar, Nicolás Kliwadenko, electronics. XXVII Festival de Música Contemporánea, Instituto de Música, Santiago, Chile, November 17, 2017. The Pleats of Matter
Diego Castro, electric guitar, Nicolás Kliwadenko, electronics. Relincha Festival, Valdivia, Chile, November 24, 2017. The Pleats of Matter
Frank Wörner, voice (ExVoCo). Klangraum 2017, Kunstraum Filderstrasse, Stuttgart, Germany, December 9, 2017. I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips