Composer and flutist

“McGowan’s music strives for an idiom in which various musics – American popular, European classical and avant-garde, Carnatic, a fascination with proportionally intricate rhythms, the use of microtones in the search for new subtleties of melody – and many others, rub against each other and generate new meanings.” This is how musicologist Bob Gilmore describes composer Ned McGowan. McGowan was born in the United States in 1970 and has been living in the Netherlands since 1994. His works have been performed throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia by the Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Sinfonia Rotterdam, American Composers Orchestra, musikFabrik, Ricciotti, Calefax, Zapp4, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Great Noise and his own band Hexnut.  Ned McGowan teaches composition at the College for Arts, Media and Technology in Hilversum, Netherlands.

Splinter Reeds is the Bay Area’s first reed quintet, composed of five talented and innovative musicians whose reeds vibrate primarily to the sounds of the 20th and 21st Century. Splinter is committed to presenting top tier performances of today’s best new music, demonstrating the vast possibilities of the reed quintet, with an emphasis on commissioning new works, collaborating with fellow musicians and artists, and educating the next generation of musicians and music enthusiasts.

What is a reed quintet? The first reed quintet – Calefax – was formed in the 1980s in Amsterdam; the configuration has since developed into a vibrant and growing chamber music genre. Think of it as an evolutionary detour from your traditional “wind quintet,” with the advantages of a more closely related instrumental family. Subtract a flute and a horn, add a bass clarinet and saxophone. If you did the math correctly, you are left with a uniquely virtuosic and dynamic instrumentation: oboe (Kyle Bruckmann), clarinet (Bill Kalinkos), saxophone (David Wegehaupt), bass clarinet (Jeff Anderle), and bassoon (Dana Jessen).

Calefax is following