The Sound Ensemble will present Stravinsky’s L’histoire du soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), with narrator. Join us for this fable-like story about wisdom vs. folly, materialism vs. meaningful relationship, as our soldier (Joe) struggles with many of the issues that we face in more subtle forms each day.

Somewhere tangled in the frequency-sheets of sound stands a lone guitar player; glaciers of distortion covering invisible mountains of sound with blankets of white noise atop towering peaks. Impossible to reconcile the enveloping sound from common six-stringed instrument; the full-on maelstrom barely representing the visible playback mechanism slung over-shoulder. Expectations submerged in an enveloping cloud of cacophony, dipped in a modulated acid-bath of signal processing and reverberation; sound emerging as a rippling pool of cascading sound-waves lapping on the shore of consciousness.

Lost Chocolate Lab presents a set of solo guitar atmospheric improvisations that weave threads of the new Lost Landscapes album set against a projected backdrop of visuals created to accompany the release.

(NOTE: Possibly Possible has proved to be impossible this time around. No opener, performance begins at 8:30 sharp.)

This piano recital celebrates the diversity of music in our time with works by celebrated British and American composers. It ranges in style from neo-romanticism to jazz-classical fusion, and in inspiration from the English countryside to the shores of the Pacific. The recital also commemorates the birthdays of Howard Skempton (70) and Frederic Rzewski (80). The piano is joined by piccolo for the performance of a dazzling piece by Seattle-based composer Ken Benshoof. The program concludes with the American premiere of a piano fantasy by John Joubert based on Jane Eyre, the composer’s internationally acclaimed opera.

Images – Howard Skempton
The Stourhead Follies, Op. 4 – Ian Venables
I’m Still Here – Stephen Sondheim/Frederic Rzewski
Spindrift – Ken Benshoof
Lyric Fantasy on Themes from ‘Jane Eyre’, Op. 144 – John Joubert (American Premiere)

Eric McElroy is an American composer-pianist based in England at the University of Oxford. Colleen McElroy plays flute/piccolo with the Spokane Symphony and Boise Philharmonic and teaches privately in Seattle.

Cacophonie will perform original compositions. Following the concert, they will answer questions and speak about their composition process. Listen on BandCamp and watch on YouTube.

Dr. Kelsey ‘Cacophonie’ Tamayo is an ex-classical musician who likes to hit things, strum things, and, in general, make noise. Earning multiple music degrees from Peabody Institute and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Michigan State University, Cacophonie uses their extensive knowledge of percussion to create a wonderful mix of classical and folk/singer-songwriter styles.

They recently moved from to Seattle from mid-Missouri, where they were the percussion professor at Drury University and percussionist/keyboardist for the Springfield-Drury Civic Orchestra, Springfield Regional Opera, and Taneycomo Festival Orchestra.

Currently, Cacophonie is the drummer for the Power Converters Band in Hello Earth’s “Wars Outdoors: A New Hope in the Park” and a percussionist for the Seattle Video Game Orchestra and Choir. Cacophonie is a part of the Social Justice Bards, a community of musicians, story tellers, and creatives that regularly stream and collaborate on Twitch and IRL. Cacophonie is a proud artist endorser of Planet Marimba and Artifact Percussion.

Presented by Seattle Composers Alliance, a non-profit professional organization made up of working composers, students, and others interested in professional music composition. The SCA was created so that composers could gather with their peers in a relaxed, non-competitive atmosphere and share knowledge, experience and information. But we also have an agenda: special forums and seminars of interest to our members; expanding Seattle’s reputation as a center for musical creativity; and educational outreach to our community.

Presenting an array of electronic music with violin performed recently at Stanford University’s CCRMA, SPECTRUM Female Composers Festival in Brooklyn, and CINETic in Bucharest.

David A. Jaffe: Impossible Animals for violin and computer generated voices (1989)

Constantin Basica: The Making of “The Making of a Violin” (2018)
concept, text, soundtrack and video by Constantin Basica, recorded and live improvisations by Karen Bentley Pollick

Nina C. Young: Sun Propeller for scordatura violin and electronics (2012)

Christopher Jette: Simetra for violin and electronics (2018)

Chris Lortie: Jouska for violin and electronics (2017)

Milica Paranosic: Al’Airi Lepo Sviri for violin, electronics and video (2005)

Melanie Mitrano: Remember Who You Are for violin and tape (2015)

Rest & Digest is an evening of experimental music and poetry. Guests are invited to bring blankets and repose for the sets. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Ashley Eriksson Project a psych-techno music group based on Whidbey Island. It is composed of Ashley Eriksson on vocals and spacious storytelling, and Gabe Adams, Elijah Moore and Nick Toombs on a variety of drone-y instruments.

MeriAnanda is a Sound Healer who lives in Gig Harbor, Washington. She has been using vibrational sound healing tools since 2004. During a Restful Sound Bath she combines the Tibetan and Crystal singing bowls to create a pure and organic sound that seems to assist people into a relaxed state. It is heavenly, soulful and naturally uplifting. There is nothing like using the sacred sounds to tune us up to our natural state of peace, love, joy, and freedom. A true respite from the stresses of everyday life.

Nick Toombs has played music from an early age but it was not until the birth of his first daughter and move to Whidbey that he started to seriously consider playing in public and composing. He has regularly played at the farmers markets and small Whidbey venues as a solo artist where he incorporates folk elements with electronics in the experimental ambient vein. He can also be found playing bass in the avant rock band Marshlands. For the past three years he has been a regular musician at the Bayview Hall Sunday prayer body dances, singing and playing percussion, bass, and 6 string banjo. These dances are 2 hours of improvised music based on the 5 rhythms dance template with a rotating cast of musicians stepping in to fulfill different roles. The synergy between musicians and dancers and the improvised spirit feeds him in ways he could not have expected and he greatly values the freedom embodied there.

Dog Sister is an experimental poetry band with a rotating cast of players. For this set Lauren Moore will be collaborating with Vida Rose to present poems surrounding digestion and guide the audience through an interactive body scan experience.

mmuumm is a moniker of Seattle artist Brit Ruggirello. Combining her love of distorted loops and electronic voice echoes, Brit explores the sounds of womb resonance tones + somber aches of love.

I have really enjoyed some special collaborations with members of the Seattle Phonographers Union together with live instrumental improvisers, over the past four years. We’ve done three concerts with different instrumental combinations, and this will be our fourth, this time returning to our original setting of field recordings, mixed brass, and percussion. These concerts have been, frankly, magical — you might hear some gorgeous muted brass long tones meeting up with crackling ice, insects, or sounds of a totally unknown origin! Feel free to move around — we will set up in all corners of the beautiful Chapel space. Please join us!

Tom Varner, French horn, with:
Steve Barsotti, Amy Denio, Doug Haire, and Steve Peters, field recording improvisers
Samantha Boshnack, Greg Kelley, Jim Knodle, Ray Larsen, and Thomas Marriot, trumpets
Stuart Dempster and Haley Freedlund, trombones
Greg Campbell, percussion and brass

Tom Varner is a French hornist, composer, improviser, bandleader, and teacher, who moved to Seattle in 2005, after 26 years in New York. He’s played with Steve Lacy, LaMonte Young, John Zorn, Bobby Previte, Jim McNeely, and many others, and has 14 CD’s out as a leader/composer.

Radon Daughters is a free improvised sound collaboration of between Patrick Neill Gundran (Uneasy Chairs), Clifford Dunn, Blake DeGraw (FHTAGN, Plancklength) and horridus (devilsclub). Tonight they will be joined by Butoh artist Kaoru Okumura. Exploring the interaction of sound, movement and light without expectation, the goal is no goal.

With guests:

Caspar Sonnet is a composer, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist currently residing in Portland, Oregon. He has been composing and performing experimental/improvisational music since 1996. Sonnet’s multi-instrumentalist abilities include: lap steel dobro, harmonica & percussion. Native American mythology, pre-war blues, world music and minimalist composition are among many of his current interests.

Adam Levitt is a frequent collaborator and solo performer, using saxophone and electronics to create improvised material that usually lands somewhere between noise, drone, ambient and free jazz. Over the last year, he has done a series of performances using a dying amplifier, producing unique and varied results.

Live video projections by CitrusSheila.

A night of original electroacoustic works presented in a six-channel surround sound.

Plancklength is a multidisciplinary sound-art collective consisting of Jeff Anderson, Chloe Wicks, and Blake DeGraw. Their work celebrates sound as a physical phenomenon and typically explores music as a three-dimensional construct. Plancklength’s surround-sound works have been featured internationally as part of Vox Novus’ 60×60 concert series, and they recently presented La Voix des Airs, a month-long interactive sound-art installation utilizing manipulatable tone generators the collective built themselves.

Morher is the musical project of Ambrosia Bardos, a multimedia artist based in Seattle and Chicago (aka w r t c h). Creating swells of sound and silence using vocalization and biometric data in tandem with analog sound manipulation, their work is improvised with intentionality of body and electronics functioning as a channel. Bardos is informed by their diasporic Rroma and indigenous Quileute ancestry; in dialogue with Queer genealogies; in process with experiences of crisis and catharsis as asex worker and survivor of pre-verbal trauma. Their artwork is a vessel for liminal spaces of communion.

Noel Kennon is a composer, performer, and improviser from Tennessee, currently studying composition at Cornish College of the Arts. His works indeterminacy, stochasticity, and microtonality.

Rebecca Lawrence and James Vitz­-Wong first met as bass section-mates in Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. Seven years later, they are both striving to expand bass repertoire outside of the boundaries of classical music. Tonight they present acoustic and electronic, contemporary and original works for the double bass.

Seattle native James Vitz­-Wong is a multi­disciplinary artist and performer, and a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and California Institute of the Arts. James’s sonic work focuses on layering soundscapes and digitally manipulated bass. Other explorations include interactive installation, immersive theater, and contemporary dance.

Rebecca Lawrence is an emerging artist committed to the performance of contemporary solo and chamber music for the double bass. A 2018 Bang On A Can fellow, her work explores the spaces between classical music, folk, pop music and experimental improvisation. She is a recent graduate of the University of Southern California and will continue her studies this fall in Paris with François Rabbath.