Andrew Friedman is a San Francisco-based clarinetist, composer, and educator devoted to performing music new and old, large and small. His freelance credits include symphony, ballet, and opera institutions around the Bay Area and beyond; he is also a frequent performer at the Hot Air Music Festival and tours nationally with the Oakland-based classical/hip-hop fusion group Ensemble Mik Nawooj. Recorded appearances include on the From The Top and Performance Today radio programs, the soundtrack to Christopher Coppola’s 2017 feature film Torch, and Bay Area composer Taylor Joshua Rankin’s debut album Palettes.
Friedman graduated with honors from the University of Puget Sound with degrees in Music Performance and English and holds an MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; he spent summers training at the Round Top Festival Institute and the Eastern Music Festival. His teachers included Carey Bell, Dr. Kelly Burke, and Jennifer Nelson.

www.andrewfriedmanclarinetist.com

In the Refuge of a Cave:
Before there were bunkers, fortresses, or strongholds, there were caves. Since long before the dawn of recorded history, caves have held a universal significance as a source of refuge—a safe haven from the elements, predators, and natural disasters. Inversely, however, caves have widely been known to inspire a sense of apprehension and foreboding as well—potentially harboring in the darkness the very dangers from which they are meant to offer protection.
Writing these program notes in late July of 2020, I can't help but compare the duality of caves to the tremendous changes that have taken place during the last six months. The Pandemic has forced just about everyone to reinvent their lives in order to preserve their safety and security. Whether metaphorically or analogously, we have all retreated to our caves in one way or another. For example, while many of us have achieved refuge through social distancing and sheltering-in-place, doing so has forced us to face the existential darkness of isolation and confinement.
In the Refuge of a Cave (2020) is my perspective on these themes as a composer and musician. What musical artists could once rely upon—concert spaces, audiences, even the ability to perform onstage together—has disappeared or drastically transformed in mere days. Now, one's own insights, abilities, and resources are the only certainties in their musical endeavors. When writing In the Refuge of a Cave, I imagined these restrictions as a literal cave surrounding the musical artist. What could a musician do to create music if they were isolated within a cave? How could one find artistic fulfillment in such a lonely and remote place? The only natural answer is that a musician would need to make do with the sonic resources and tools that the space granted them. The musician would utilize the reverberations and echoes generated by the cave's walls; in doing so, they would stumble upon a way to play music with another—a past version of theirself—an echo.
In the Refuge of a Cave is dedicated to my many friends and colleagues who have found themselves forced to navigate a unique cave of their own in these challenging times. Thus, it is designed to be playable by any instrument or voice type, and no two performances will ever sound alike.

Composed and mastered by Nicholas Denton Protsack.

Performed and recorded by Andrew Friedman.

Andrew Friedman (clarinet) - In The Refuge Of A Cave

An ongoing aspiration of BMI Award-winning composer and cellist, Nicholas Denton Protsack, is to seek new connections between music and the natural world. Called a "(composer) to keep a close eye on" by the Canadian Music Centre, Nicholas' ecologically informed music includes composed works, studio albums, and experimental improvisations, and has been featured in a wide variety of concert settings across North America, Europe, and New Zealand. Recent accomplishments include two first prizes in the 2021 SOCAN Foundation Young Composers Awards and commissioned works for the Toronto Summer Music Festival and the American Prize-winning Ensemble for These Times (E4TT).

	As a cellist, Nicholas is an active freelance performer and advocate of new music—frequently involved in collaborative projects that range from traditional to highly experimental concert idioms. Although primarily a chamber musician, he has also appeared as a soloist with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra and the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra.

	Nicholas is currently undertaking a PhD in music at Victoria University of Wellington (NZ), studying with composers Michael Norris and Dugal McKinnon. His other major teachers have included David Garner (composition), Jean-Michel Fonteneau (cello), Jennifer Culp (cello), and Morna Howie (cello).