Clocks in Motion will be giving a concert at Constellation Chicago featuring works by Chicago Composers’ Consortium works including:

T for percussion solo and electronics by Beth Bradfish about the intersection of cross-rhythms and drones. According to Bradfish, “Cross-rhythms represent in some societies the place of conflict in our lives. Drones, in their traditional role, hold the opportunity for finding our center in the midst of strife.”

Timothy Ernest Johnson’s Ritual Dance Spirit, a quartet for percussion instruments of indefinite pitch. Drums, cymbals, wood blocks, and various hand percussion dominate the texture. Inspired by Korean Shaman ritual, New Orleans stomp and Arabic rhythms, the music also incorporates jazz elements in its freedom of embellishment and improvisation.

Lawrence Axelrod’s Emeq, which takes its titles form the Yup’ik (Alaska tribe) word for water. This piece captures water as a sonic experience in three very distinct forms.

In Elizabeth Start’s Spoiler: 5 Disruptive Vignettes “Corrections” involves increasingly insistent reiterations of quarimba pitches (1/4 tone low) and sequences on other instruments that are tuned at the “right” pitch. “Dance Trip” sets up a dance rhythm that gets knocked off balance in various ways. “Culture Shift” takes us from a somewhat Asian inspired atmosphere to a more rigorous Western European approach. “Colateral Damage” begins with a quiet village scene obliterated by heavier forces. “Progress” takes us on a whirlwind history of music, from chant, early organum, Baroque, classical, etc., ending with serialism.

Frequency Series
Constellation
3111 N. Western Avenue.
Sunday, May 22 8:30 PMClocks in Motion, percussion quartet
A program of new works by members of the Chicago Composers’ Consortium
$15/$10 students and seniors

http://www.constellation-chicago.com/event/1130823-clocks-in-motion-chicago/

ABOUT CLOCKS IN MOTION:

Clocks in Motion Percussion Ensemble

Hailed as “nothing short of remarkable” (ClevelandClassical.com) and “the most exciting addition to Madison’s classical music scene” (The Isthmus), Clocks in Motion is a group that performs new music, builds many of its own instruments, and breaks down the boundaries of the traditional concert program. Formed in 2011, Clocks in Motion is quickly becoming a major artistic force in today’s contemporary music scene. Among its many recent and upcoming engagements, the group served as performers at the Interlochen Arts Academy (MI), The Stone (NY), The Overture Center for the Arts (WI), Casper College (WY), University of Michigan (MI), Baldwin-Wallace University (OH), The University of North Carolina-Pembroke (NC), and The Ewell Concert Series (VA).

With a fearless and uncompromising ear to programming challenging and adventurous contemporary percussion ensemble repertoire, Clocks in Motion consistently performs groundbreaking concerts which involve performance art, theater, and the construction of new instruments. Clocks in Motion’s instrument collection now includes a set of 88 microtonal steel pipes known as the Galvitone, a microtonal marimba known as the Quarimba, and six sets of Sixxen, large metal microtonal keyboard instruments built for Xenakis’ 1979 masterpiece, Pleiades. These instruments serve as a great resource and inspiration to the creation of new music and are useful in the performance of pre-existing works. Featuring world premieres alongside rarely performed classic works, Clocks in Motion strives to create a new canon of percussion repertoire.

Not only known as a virtuosic performing ensemble, Clocks in Motion works passionately to educate young audiences through master classes, residencies, presentations, and school assemblies. The individual members of Clocks in Motion’s unique skill sets and specialties contain an impressive mix of musical styles including, rock, jazz, contemporary classical music, orchestral percussion, marching percussion, and world music styles. Clocks in Motion works regularly with all age groups in accessible hands-on workshops.

CLOCKS IN MOTION is…
Matthew Coley
Chris Jones
Sean Kleve
Garrett Mendelow

www.clocksinmotionpercussion.com

A veteran to the Experimental Sound Studio, Alejandro Acierto performs three pieces for three different media this Sunday at 7:30 pm.

Ceaseless Cease (2009) for clarinet and electronics by Kyong Mee Choi • She writes:

Ceaseless Cease depicts the endless turmoil of the human condition that stems from human desire. If we try to stop desire, however, we create another form of desire. The title refers to this dichotomy in the attempt to end what cannot be ended.

Water Study #2 (2016) by Timothy Edwards • The composer writes:

This is one of a series of pieces that transforms sounds from the clarinet captured on microphone during performance.  

all that remains (2015) by Alejandro Acierto • The composer writes:

As part of my last recorded project Amid These Traces, this work foregrounds the voice as an expressive and conceptual subject embodying strategies of constraint. As a way to consider the body, presence, and communication, the voice is interrupted in multiple iterations through live processing. Caught in the moment of communicative dis-clarity, this work draws on improvisational parameters – colliding in ways that reference the virtuosic demands of classical music’s “new complexity.” Through this work, the vestiges of language glisten though words are never spoken. The normalization of stutterances forces us to contend with its about- to-ness – as pregnant combinations of breath and sound prevail. Pushed towards exhaustion, frustration, and physical (dis)ability, the body’s facility to communicate is troubled. These residual sounds that remain after the voice has undergone multiple constraints are the traces of language that linger between music, speech, communication, and utterance.

Alejandro T. Acierto is an artist and musician working in time-based media.  He has exhibited his work at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Issue Project Room, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Salisbury University, SOMArts and presented performance works at the Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, Center for Performance Research, and Center for New Music and Technology. Acierto has held residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Banff Centre, High Concept Laboratories, and Chicago Artists’ Coalition. He is currently a FT/FN/FG Consortium Fellow, a Center Program Artist at the Hyde Park Art Center, and teaches at UIC and Truman College. Acierto received his undergraduate degree from DePaul University, a MM from Manhattan School of Music,  an MFA in New Media Arts from University Illinois at Chicago, is a recipient of the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at the Darmstadt Festival for New Music, and founding member of contemporary chamber orchestra Ensemble Dal Niente in Chicago. You can find out more about him at alejandroacierto.com.

Also on the program:

Skallagrimsson, for 2-channel audio and piano by David Heuser performed by Lawrence Axelrod • The composer writes:

Skallagrimsson, for 2-channel tape and piano, is based on a solo piano piece (Piano Solo No. 8 – Skallagrimsson) which I wrote in 1989. It is in four sections (fast, fast, slow, fast). The close synchronization required between the performer and the tape reminds me at times of John Henry’s race against the railroad spike driving machine. Hopefully our performer will not suffer his fate (I haven’t lost anyone yet). The name of the work comes from the title character of Egil’s Saga, Egil Skallagrimsson. Egil’s Saga, one of the major Icelandic sagas, was written around 1230 AD, possibly by Snorri Sturlason. Egil Skallagrimsson, like many Icelandic saga character, is full of contradictions. He is a hulking, violent brute with a misshapen head and an axe nicknamed Skullsplitter, and he is also a poet of great talent and renown.

Getting By (2016) for Moog theremini and processing by Elizabeth Start

Melt (2016) for guitar, cello, piano and three laptop computers by Beth Bradfish • performers include Elizabeth Start, Timothy Johnson, Lawrence Axelrod, Kyong Mee Choi, Timothy Edwards and the composer

Aurora Inscrutabile (2016) for cello and electronics by Timothy Ernest Johnson performed by Craig Hultgren

Sunday, April 3 at 7:30 pm

Experimental Sound Studio
5925 N Ravenswood
Chicago
$15/$5

tickets: c3icewater.brownpapertickets.com

The Chicago Composers’ Consortium’s annual electronic music concert

This year’s c3 electronic music event will be held at the Experimental Sound Studio on Sunday, April 3 at 7:30 pm.

Featured on the program are chamber performances with traditional and modern instruments, sound processing and electronics. Performers include clarinetist Alejandro Acierto, pianist Lawrence Axelrod, cellists Elizabeth Start and Craig Hultgren, guitarist Timothy Johnson, and computer-based performers Beth Bradfish, Kyong Mee Choi, and Tim Edwards.

Ceaseless Cease for clarinet and electronics by Kyong Mee Choi
Skallagrímsson for piano and electronics by David Heuser
all that remains for voice and electronics by Alejandro Acierto
Aurora inscritabile for cello and electronics by Timothy Ernest Johnson
Getting By for Moog theremini and live processing by Elizabeth Start
Melt for laptop ensemble, guitar, piano, cello, ebows and smart phones by Beth Bradfish
Water Study #2 for clarinet and processing by Tim Edwards

Tickets are $15 for general public / $5 for students and seniors

Help celebrate the Consortium’s 25th anniversary season!

CCO, Matthew Kasper, conductor
Special guests Mary Stolper, flute and
Julia Bentley, mezzo-soprano

Sunday, April 26 at 3:00
Ebenezer Lutheran Church,
1650 W. Foster Ave., Chicago

The Chicago Composers’ Consortium is teaming up with the Chicago Composers Orchestra on Sunday April 26 to present a concert of Chicago and world premieres!
Five outstanding new works

Come and join us for the celebration. Hear these outstanding and memorable new works, then afterward enjoy some refreshments, and talk with the composers.

Waking Dream for flute and orchestra
by Laura Schwendinger
featuring Mary Stolper, flute
Chicago première

Waking Dream (2009) is a single movement poem for flute and chamber orchestra. It was written for and dedicated to the 2001 Concert Artists Guild International Competition winner, Christina Jennings. The work blossoms slowly through a long and sustained dream-like span of tremolo strings with harp, and vibraphone figures, sprinkled about as the flute flitters and flies above and below. Like golden reflections of light from the setting sun on water, Waking Dream is meant to evoke an intense, and shimmering color world of sound. Available on Albany records (Troy 1390) with Christina, and was nominated by them for a Grammy.

Parallel Digressions for string orchestra
by Martha Callison Horst
World Première
Parallel Digressions (2015) for string orchestra features rapidly shifting harmonies moving in parallel motion.  As the piece progresses, musical phrases are frequently interrupted by diverging musical ideas.  Some of these digressions last for one or two measures, some last for much longer.

As Far as Cho-Fu-Sa
by Kathleen Ginther
featuring Julia Bentley, mezzo-soprano
World Première
As Far As Cho-Fu-Sa (2015) is a setting of the last stanza of The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter, from a small volume of poems entitled Cathay: Translations by Ezra Pound. Pound’s translation is a very free interpretation of a poem by the great Chinese poet Li Po about distance and longing, written by a young 8th century Chinese wife to her absent husband.  As Far As Cho-Fu-Sa was written for the CCO. It is based on a larger 3-movement work entitled The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter, written for the SIU Concert Choir and Wind Ensemble and premiered at Symphony Center in 2011.

Dreams of Summer for string orchestra
by Elizabeth Start
Chicago première
Elizabeth Start’s Dreams of Summer was written in honor of a landmark birthday year of Phyllis Jansma of Michigan’s Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Meant to evoke memories of happy summers playing music for long hours, often late into the night, with friends in a relaxed and rustic setting, the piece alludes to some of the camp’s favorite repertoire. It begins with a melody distorted from the opening of Mozart’s K. 157 string quartet, and references Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto and a bit of a tango.

The Art of Peace for mezzo-soprano & orchestra
featuring Julia Bentley, mezzo-soprano
by Timothy Dwight Edwards, text Emily Dickinson
World première
Emily Dickinson lived through the Civil War, and her poetry reflects a struggle with hope for peace and a search for the role of the artist. These three songs draw connections between those themes.
1. Hope is a thing with feathers
2. Many times I thought that peace had come
3. The martyr poets

This concert is made possible by the generous support of our contributors, including grants from Womens Philharmonic Advocacy and the Alice M. Ditson Fund.