for three glassbottle players and tape
players: Hanna Eimermacher, Genoel von Lilienstern, Ali Gorji
Heidelberger Biennale für Neue Musik 

Transparenz 2002/03 for three glassbottle players and tape

In collaboration with artists from Starlight Studio and Art Gallery, Wooden Cities presents an evening of original graphic scores composed by Starlight Arists. The evening is a culmination of sessions that teach artists how to create visual works that can then be interpreted by the ensemble. 
This program was made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts DEC Grant distributed through Arts Services Initiative of WNY, Inc..The event is Free and open to the public.

STARLIGHTSTUDIO.ORG
Starlight Studio and Art Gallery is a cooperative environment that supports adults with disabilities in their artistic development. Through technical assistance by professional artists, on-site and off-site exhibitions and other opportunities for representation and sales, the Starlight artists hone their artistic interests, become stronger advocates and better integrated citizens.

WOODENCITIES.ORG
Central to Wooden Cities' mission is a desire to introduce audiences and students to contemporary musical aesthetics and performance practice. Programs are often designed in an attempt to expose audiences to new musical experiences and ways of listening. The ensemble is also devoted to working with young musicians and encouraging them to explore new methods of creating, performing, and thinking about music. Through a variety of programs and workshops, Wooden Cities hopes to engage students in absorbing discussions and unique musical exercises aimed at increasing their awareness and experience of contemporary music.

The ensemble has done graphic music residencies at a variety of locations, including the WNY Book Arts Center, UB Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic, and at a variety of schools and community programs. The ensemble has frequently been invited to conduct student composer workshops at the University at Buffalo, and recently ran an improvisation/game piece residency at Rochester's Greece Olympia High School. In 2016, Wooden Cities received a DEC grant from Arts Services Initiative of WNY and the New York State Council on the Arts for a collaborative graphic music workshop at Starlight Studio & Art Gallery, a vibrant art studio located in downtown Buffalo that supports adults with disabilities in their artistic development. The 2016-17 season will see concert residencies at Houghton College and with the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County (Philadelphia).

PaulChandlerMermaidLagoon - JediTrialsLightSaberBattle

Piece for solo guitar, with semi-microtonal scordatura. Originally written for Magnus Andersson, this performance is played by Zane Merritt, in a version updated especially for him.

Gerard for solo guitar (2011) - Zane Merritt Version

O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden
for ensemble   
commissioned and recorded by Ensemble SurPlus for their 20th anniversary concert at the E-Werk Freiburg, on December 8, 2012


An excerpt from the program note:

In O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden, written for and dedicated to Ensemble SurPlus on their 20th anniversary, the players are given performance directions and interpretation strategies to work through five J.S. Bach chorales. Each player navigates through one of the four individual Soprano, Alto, Tenor, or Bass contrapuntal lines of the chorales, and each of their lines have been augmented, distorted, expanded, and given indications to extend expressivity through a wide variety of performance techniques – all while the players read from the same four-voice SATB Bach chorale.

To further intensify and complicate matters, there is no conductor, and each player is given a flexible, uncoordinated tempo to work through, only occasionally taking cues from the pianist or violinist. In this way, the antiquated Baroque rhythmic grid of the Bach chorales has been rendered fluid and unpredictable, with each contrapuntal voice rising and falling as waves of interpretive virility and spontaneity flow through each of them; transforming them into liquid, as if cast over water.

O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden

Wooden Cities is both an ensemble and a collective of performers and composers seeking to help increase the performance and awareness of contemporary music in the Western New York area through unique, educational presentations. Formed in July 2011, the group served as a vehicle for director Brendan Fitzgerald to present John Zorn's game piece Cobra. Since that time the group has grown to include over a dozen performers and is constantly seeking new works by new composers while continuing to present works by some of the essential, yet underrepresented composers of the 20th Century.

PaulChandlerMermaidLagoon - JediTrialsLightSaberBattle

Wooden Cities

Related tracks