Photo by Thor Brødreskift

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Color Field Festival Preview

Next week brings the 2nd annual Color Field festival,  organized by a similarly named group of musicians from the contemporary music graduate program at Bowling Green State University. The Color Field Ensemble mounted a new music festival last summer in Omaha and this year are taking their show on the road to Madison, Wisconsin.  As a proud Midwesterner I may be biased, but I'm especially psyched that the ensemble and the festival are targeting that region of the country.  With "contemporary classical music" you've got to build your own audience, and with the exception of emerging new music powerhouse Chicago, the Midwest has plenty of room for ensembles/bands/etc. Even culture capitol Minneapolis lacks a strong, local new music presence (if anyone can beg to differ please clue me in!).  So this year we're taking our talent to Madison to see what sort of audience and support we can drum for the likes of Andriessen, Crumb, Reich, Romitelli, and a bunch more.

The starting lineup for this year looks fierce. In addition to Color Field members Amanda DeBoer (soprano), James Fusik (saxophone), Karl Larson (piano, shred hands), and Jeff Weston (bass), we have a roster of guest artists including myself, Liz Ann (soprano), Molly McLaughlin (flute), Domenica Fossati (flute), Liz Lee (cello), Alejandro Acierto (clarinet), and Derek Johnson (guitar/composer/Meshuggah enthusiast).  Also joining us in Madtown for the affair are two of my favorite NYC composers and dudes in general, Robert Honstein and Ravi Kittappa.

Here's the breakdown of events:

Capitol Square Event
Friday, 8/19. 6:30pm: Capitol Square
Decantations 3, by Ravi Kittappa (premiere)

Concert One
Friday, 8/19. 8:30pm: The Overture Center for the Arts Rotunda Stage
Animans                         Andrew Smith (premiere)
Temazcal                        Javier Alvarez
Trash Tv Trance            Fausto Romitelli
cotrol/option/delete       Marcos Balter
Is It Auburn?                 Robert Honstein

Concert Two
Saturday, 8/20. 8:30pm: The Overture Center for the Arts Rotunda Stage
Duo for Flute and Voice                                   David Grant
Electric Counterpoint 
                                      Steve Reich
Madrigals, Book Two                                       George Crumb
Presence, Consequence & Submissiveness      Edward Hamel (premiere)

Concert Three
Sunday, 8/21. 2:30pm: The Overture Center for the Arts Rotunda Stage
Why are you not answering me?      Robert Honstein
Slapback                                           Michael Fiday
Two Seaming                                    Jane Rigler
Decantations                                    Ravi Kittappa
Workers’ Union                                Louis Andriessen

And YES, we are performing Workers Union in Madison, the epicenter of a recent, epic, and ongoing struggle for teachers' collective bargaining rights. Don't get much better than that.