Lost

I'm Kenneth Stewart. Please call me Ken. Thanks for reading. I'd say I'm a bit of a ‘renaissance man’. If I'm playing, it usually has strings. If I'm in the role of curator or composer, a background in performance becomes useful in other ways.

In a previous utterance, music assisted by physical interfaces and sound processing played heavily on my work, however once I finished school my desire to stay behind the desk dwindled. I took to acoustic genres. I'd say for a couple of years I became fascinated with the subtle differences between Jazz and Bluegrass, yet the vast differences in the harmony, sets and motifs specifically in Old-Time and New Acoustic show that what you hear is not always what you expect.

Using the instruments I play I seek to explore the roots of the music that happens around me here in Durham, NC.

The scholarly study of composition prepared me by to use the tools of a composer to develop musical ideas far beyond my own. I took to standards as experimental tools for learning how to create works with rich, melodious textures and romantic harmony.

I'd like to think that the time away from school helped me enhance my original obsession with weaving into my work an underpinning of the ambient electronic music and that of the avant-garde. Or my insistence a perversion for unusual sounds and peculiar timbres somehow coalescing into something familiar and hopeful.

While I do musical research that engages concepts of instrument modification and design and his non-compositional creative work of signal processing (linear and digital) and the hacking and modifications of electronic and acoustic musical instruments and their electronic effects, sometimes what's necessary is putting that all away and singing a simple song.

As a quasi-alumnus member of the Slippage Lab formerly at Duke University now at Northwestern, under the directorship of professor Thomas DeFrantz. Most of my time with Slippage was when I was a graduate student at Duke..
Some other things of note: I was one of Gordon Epperson's final cello students. Nancy Green, and protege, Nelvimar Neves and two summer festivals of lessons and masterclasses as a teenager with Brinton Averil Smith and countless lessons via conversation with colleagues. 

My composition mentors, whom shaped my vision for music creation: Daniel Asia, Pierre Jalbert, Durham’s Scott Lindroth and as well as a summer in Berlin with Samuel Adler; ditto on the colleagues.

Ph.D. from Duke University, and additional degrees from Rice University, The University of Arizona and Pima College in Tucson, AZ.
KennethDStewart.com

Lauren Jones has been playing Cello for nearly 20 years.  Her love of music (rock music especially) started at a young age when she would sing along with her favorite musical movies and listen to her parents' record collection. Lauren decided to play the cello in elementary school after seeing it in a school orchestra concert. She loved its beautiful sound and unique size.

Beginning in middle school, Lauren became interested in the idea of playing rock and experimental cello. In high school, she discovered and was inspired by rock cello groups such as Apocalyptica. Her first "electric cello" experience was playing "The Star Spangled Banner" Jimi Hendrix style for a church rock concert. She hooked a specially designed cello pick-up to her bridge and played it through a guitar amp with a wah pedal.

Lauren attended music school at the University of Arizona. While there, she studied cello under Nancy Green, Nelzimar Neves, and Mark Votapek. She also joined her first rock band, The Evergreen. She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education in 2008.

After graduation, Lauren taught orchestra, general music, and choir in the Avondale Elementary School District. In 2009 she founded the band, orchestra, and elementary violin program at the Rancho Solano Private School Gilbert campus and taught there for the next two years.

While teaching, Lauren joined a funk metal band called Risky Agenda. This band performed in the Tempe area and eventually changed into the band PoorWater, a progressive rock band. While in PoorWater, Lauren purchased her first fully electric six string cello. Having a fully electric cello with a larger range in both the high and low ends dramatically changed her sound possibilities and allowed her to be able to stand while performing.

PoorWater released their album, Harvesting Habits, in 2011. PoorWater stayed together until late 2012, performing at various venues around Tempe, Mesa, Phoenix, and Scottsdale and opening for national acts such as Smile Empty Soul and 10 Years.

In early 2013, Lauren joined the electric rock project Don't Panic. They released an E.P., Dos Robot Circus, in December 2014.

In the summer of 2015, Lauren parted ways with Don't Panic and reconnected with two cellists she had known and played with throughout high school and college, Michael G. Ronstadt and Kenneth D. Stewart, to form The Plenary Art Ensemble. They played their debut concert of experimental and improvisational modern music for cello, bass, guitar, voice, and electronics at the New Directions Cello Festival in Ithaca, New York.

 

Later that summer, Lauren also joined the ambient alternative band, Ghostwalk. They released their first full-length album, Archive, in October 2015 and are performing in the Phoenix area.

Lost

Cellogirl22