Phil Kline's Unsilent Night + Party!

Presented by Seattle Composers' Salon, Nonsequitur, and Joshua Parmenter. Phil Kline's Unsilent Night is a free outdoor participatory sound sculpture of many individual parts, recorded on cassettes, CDs and MP3s, and played through a roving swarm of boomboxes carried through city streets every December. People bring their own boomboxes and drift peacefully through a cloud of sound which is different from every listener's perspective. Since 1992, this project has grown into a worldwide annual communal event that has become an essential part of many winter holiday celebrations. Please join us for this unusual sonic celebration of the Winter Solstice and the Seattle experimental music community.

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Vance Galloway & Friends: Resonant Planes

Vance Galloway and Charles Stanyon present an evening of music and experimental sound based on the concept of resonance. Environmental video and light by artists Peter Bill and Killing Frenzy. A multi-channel bath of sound generated by electro-magnetic, electro-mechanical, and traditional acoustic means with extensive real-time processing. Swaths of color and light, abstract imagery and shifting geometries provide a visual component.

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Neal Meyer: Gradus: Three Rungs

GRADUS for Fux, Tesla and Milo the Wrestler is Neal Meyer’s piano composition-in-perpetual-progress. The nutshell version of the score is: “Learn to play the piano one note at a time.” Since January 2002, Neal Meyer has been systematically realizing GRADUS through extended improvisations on each individual piano tone, and all possible combinations of piano tones.

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Trey Gunn & Beth Fleenor

Longtime friends Beth Fleenor (clarinets, voice & electronics) and Trey Gunn (touch guitar) come together with a host of other found objects for this special, one-night only improvised performance.

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The Tiptons Sax Quartet + Drums

Presented by Nonsequitur. The Tiptons (Amy Denio - alto saxophone, clarinet, voice; Jessica Lurie - alto and tenor saxophone, voice; Sue Orfield - tenor saxophone, voice; Tina Richerson - baritone sax, voice; John Ewing - drums) perform original compositions and arrangements of world music on saxes, clarinet, voices and drums/percussion, creating some of the wildest sounds ever to come out of a sax quartet.

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Michael Nicolella

Michael Nicolella performs music for classical and electric guitar written from 1945 to the present by Francis Poulenc, Elliott Carter, Steve Reich, Jacob ter Veldhuis, Joaquin Nin-Culmell, Robert Beaser, Laurence Crane, Jimi Hendrix, and Michael Nicolella.

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Hell's Bellows + James Hoskins

Hell's Bellows accordion quartet is a 21st century ensemble with the radical idea that the accordion is just another instrument. Scott Adams, Amy Denio, Marchette DuBois, and Eli Kaufman have been creating original work for the accordion since 2006, and you will be amazed at the variety of sounds they can get out of the instruments. James Hoskins is a gifted cellist and improviser based in Boulder, CO since 1991. He plays in the Balkan/Middle-Eastern musical groups Sherefe and Barbelfish, the jazz group County Road X, and in a duo with Akemi Iwase that plays Japanese folk-inspired music.

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Fluke

A new project featuring Brian Kinsella (piano), Chris Symer (bass), and Chris Icasiano (drums), Fluke plays primarily the music of Seattle composer Jim Knapp, as well as music from films and original compositions. Fluke utilizes a traditional jazz trio instrumentation - acoustic piano, acoustic bass, drum set - but its music is in the realm of free improvisation, noise, and pop classicism.

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Estuary: a merging of sound & dance

Briana Jones (butoh dance) with music by Sentient Explosive (gongs with analog modular synthesizer); Victoria Jacobs (flamenco/modern/fusion) with music by Sataray with Celadon (dark sirenic vox & harmonium with industrial/ambient sound); Jessica Ludescher & Christian Swenson (dance movement and voice) with music by Ahmad Yousefbeigi & Andrew Sorkin (Iranian percussion w/ beat box).

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Darin Gray + Alchimia

Darin Gray (St. Louis) is best known as Jim O’Rourke’s go-to bassist for nearly 20 years, as half of the duo On Fillmore, and as the bassist for Grand Ulena, Dazzling Killmen, and Brise-Glace. As an improviser he has performed and recorded with Loren Connors, Masami Akita (Merzbow), Josh Abrams, Jason Roebke, Axel Dorner, Kevin Drumm, Alan Licht, Thollem Mcdonas, and Jim O'Rourke. He has toured extensively in the United States, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Russia and Europe. Alchimia (Dawud Mateen: sax, flute, percussion, voice; Brad Smarjesse: violin, keyboard, percussion, voice; Robert Iwanik: bass, voice) is a trio of Seattle improvisors exploring jazz, ambient and avant territories.

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Rob Angus + Stuart Dempster & Susie Kozawa

Rob Angus creates ambient-industrial soundscapes using acoustic instruments to generate sounds that are manipulated, layered, and sent out into a 4-channel surround-sound system. Stuart Dempster and Susie Kozawa explore space with small instruments, sound toys and re-purposed objects.

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Eric Barber's MetriLodic + Bad Luck

Eric Barber's MetriLodic is a freely improvising trio that breaks most of the rules of groove-based ensembles. Featuring Eric Barber on sax and electronics, with longtime collaborators PK on electric bass and Byron Vannoy on drums, this band take rhythm, meter, groove, and melody in a new direction. Bad Luck (drummer Chris Icasiano + saxophonist Neil Welch) use live loops and pedals to create an astounding range of sound, quickly shifting into fierce improvisations, sound art, and carefully constructed harmonic palettes.

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Monktail Composers Series, Vol. 7

Monktail Creative Music Concern presents a performance of their improvising big band Non Grata. This season's performance features conduction, spontaneous composition, and full group improvisations featuring Bill Monto, Darian Asplund, Paul Hoskin, Bill Jones, Stephen Fandrich, Steven Bell, Mark Ostrowski, Bill Horist, Stephen Parris, David Milford, Paul Kemmish, John Seman and more.

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The Last Minute: electroacoustic music

Electroacoustic music and digital video by UW alumni and students associated with the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) and the UW School of Music. The concert includes a digital video work, Symphony By Numbers, by Donald Craig and three surround sound pieces: Risonanza for computer-realized sound by Joshua Parmenter, Heat by Pete Moss, and Minotaur for horn and surround sound by Ewa Trebacz, with horn player Josiah Boothby. It will also include two works for viola and computer-realized sound: Retro by Douglas Niemela, and a new work by Donald Craig titled November 16, featuring violist Brianna Atwell.

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Danse Perdue + Joy Von Spain Ensemble

Danse Perdue (Alex Ruhe, Vanessa Skantze): Butoh dance/movement performance, with live improvised music by: Joy Von Spain - piano, voice/other and friends Will Hayes - prepared guitar/other, Joe Eck - percussion, Count Constantin - violin, Jacob Herring - trombone.

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Transport: Solstice Quintet

Presented by Jack Straw Productions & Washington Composers Forum, with assistance from 4Culture and the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. The Solstice Quintet arrives from across the mountains to perform Gregory Yasinitsky's Wooden Miniatures, Oliver Knussen's Three Little Fantasies, Carl Schimmel's Towns of Wind and Wood, Ryan M. Hare's Mythos: Five Legends for Wind Quintet, and Ruth Crawford Seeger's Suite.

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Neil Welch: Solo + Sleeper CD release concert

Saxophonist and composer Neil Welch celebrates the release of two new albums. Iron Creek was recorded live at various performances throughout 2010 and early 2011. A player of subtle and abrasive techniques alike, this acoustic, unedited album captures the unique style and fervent energy of Welch's live shows. Sleeper is Welch's first recorded major ensemble work, composed in response to a Human Rights First Report chronicling the death of an Iraqi inmate during the war in Iraq. The Sleeper Ensemble includes Neil Welch, saxophones; Ivan Arteaga, saxophones; Greg Sinibaldi, bass clarinet; Vincent LaBelle, trombone; David Balatero and Natalie Hall, cello.

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Malcolm Goldstein: Alone & Together

Presented by Nonsequitur and Earshot Jazz Festival. Known for radically expanding the sonic, tonal, and expressive possibilities of the violin, Malcolm Goldstein has been a key figure of the American avant garde since the 1960s. This concert features his improvisations (Soundings) and compositions for solo violin, plus two ensemble works, Configurations in Darkness and Two Silences, performed with Seattle musicians Eric Barber (saxophones), Stuart Dempster (trombone), Beth Fleenor (clarinet), Lori Goldston (cello), and Esther Sugai (flute).

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Seattle Composers' Salon

8:00 PM; $5 - $15 sliding scale suggested donation at the door.

The Seattle Composers’ Salon fosters the development, performance and appreciation of new music by regional composers and performers. At bi-monthly, informal presentations, the Salon features finished works, previews, and works in progress. Composers, performers, and audience members gather in a casual setting that allows for experimentation and discussion. Everyone is welcome! Join us this month for an evening of music and discussion with Seattle composers Nelda Swiggett, Conan McLemore, Scott Adams, and Yvonne Hoar.

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Seattle Chamber Players + Ivan Sokolov: Marriage at the Eiffel Tower

Presented by Seattle Chamber Players. Jean Cocteau's Marriage at the Eiffel Tower serves as the basis for two works on the program. One of them, a collective work by Henry Cowell, John Cage and George McKay, was choreographed and produced by Bonnie Bird at the Cornish School in Seattle in 1939. Only several movements of the score (and only the works by Cowell) have since been published and performed. Ten years after the premiere of the Cowell/Cage/McKay piece, Bonnie Bird commissioned another work with the same title from composer Lou Harrison. Tonight, SCP presents both versions, along with Lou Harrison's Music for Remy, with guest pianist Ivan Sokolov and choreographer Paige Barnes.

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Seattle Modern Orchestra: Music on Words

Led by Co-Artistic Directors Julia Tai and Jeremy Jolley, the Seattle Modern Orchestra opens its second season with two monumental pieces that interpret poetry in very different ways: Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, OP. 21 (1912), and George Crumb’s Night Music I (1963). Both works feature soprano Maria Mannisto, pianists Oksana Ezhokina & Harumi Flesher, percussionist/narrators Gunnar Folsom & Matthew Kocmieroski; with Jessica Polin, flute/piccolo; Angelique Poteat, clarinet/bass-clarinet; Brittany Boulding, violin; Jason Totzke, viola; Maria Scherer Wilson, cello; Julia Tai, conductor.

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Earshot: Nelda Swiggett's Stringtet

Presented by Earshot Jazz Festival. Pianist Nelda Swiggett's music is clear, direct and crisp, her improvisations coming out of her roots in classical music. For this performance, Swiggett adds Seattle Symphony members Rachel Swerdlow on viola and Walter Gray on cello, with Chris Symer on bass and Byron Vannoy on drums. They'll play music from Swiggett’s releases This Time and Hands On, plus ten new unrecorded pieces.

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TrimTab + Tribal Trauma

Tribal Trauma blends recent electronic styles with modern guitar motifs and classic cello melodies, enhanced with a multi-media visual production. TrimTab is the brainchild of guitarist Jason Goessl, whose study of the work of R. Buckminster Fuller informs his approach to musical form and meter. He takes the idea of the dymaxion house, car, map, and expresses it in musical form by melding classical, jazz, eastern, African, and rock concepts to a style all his own. The current line-up features Phil Cali on bass and Brian Oppel on drums.

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Earshot: Avram Fefer Trio

Presented by Earshot Jazz Festival. With a distinctive voice on alto, tenor and soprano saxophones, as well as bass clarinet, Avram Fefer brings depth, intelligence and soulfulness to every situation he’s in. Tonight he takes the stage with his formidable trio featuring drummer Chad Taylor and former Seattle bassist Michael Bisio, performing many selections from his latest release, Eliyahu.

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Earshot: Rich Halley Trio + 1

Presented by Earshot Jazz Festival. Portland saxophonist Rich Halley returns with his Tap Rack Bang Trio, featuring four veterans of progressive jazz: Vancouver bass stalwart Clyde Reed, and Oregon drummer Carson Halley, plus special guest, the acclaimed trombonist Michael Vlatkovich.

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Midday Veil & Ken Ueno

David Golightly and Midday Veil present this unique improvised collaboration with SF Bay Area vocalist Ken Ueno, featuring live video feedback with Garek J. Druss (a Story of Rats, Tecumseh) at the helm. This will not be a typical Midday Veil set, but an intuitive collaboration with the physical environment of the Chapel and the eternal moment of the performance.

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Renwick & Goldston: Charismatic Megafauna

Portland-based film maker Vanessa Renwick interweaves Super8 and 16mm film footage from her own teenage life in inner city Chicago, living and hitchhiking with a wolf dog, and stunning video documentation shot by biologists reintroducing wolves into the western USA in the late 90’s. Original score composed and performed live by cellist Lori Goldston, accompanied by Jessika Kenney (voice), Dylan Carlson (electric guitar), and Greg Campbell (percussion, horn).

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Jarrad Powell: Instrumental & Vocal Music

Nonsequitur presents acoustic chamber music by beloved Seattle composer Jarrad Powell, accompanied by a host of outstanding Northwest musicians. Vocal works will feature Jessika Kenney and include three premieres. Also on the program are works for solo alto flute, solo piano, piano and vibraphone, string trio, and the premiere of a new piece for voice with chamber gamelan.

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Jon Brenner: electroacoustic music

Seattle-based composer Jon Brenner presents an evening of electroacoustic compositions. walk on was composed for a film, and was originally written for viola, electric guitar, and electric organ. tour de velo is a multi-movement piece derived only from samples of bicycle components. dna land is a large work based only on isorhythms and non-retrogradable phrases, the inversions, retrogrades, and retrograde inversions of these phrases. caffeine machine is a multi-movement piece derived entirely from samples of coffee appliances.

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Eric Barber + Trio Commando

Nonsequitur presents saxophonist Eric Barber performing solo saxophone compositions and improvisations, with and without electronics. Trio Commando make their public debut, performing improvisations, excavations and conversations through a high powered trio configuration featuring Wayne Horvitz (piano), Samantha Boshnack (trumpets), and Beth Fleenor (clarinets/voice).

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Tom Baker: Invisible Cities

Composer Tom Baker presents his most recent work, String Quartet No. 1 - Invisible Cities, in a lecture-recital format. Tom will discuss the genesis and inspiration of the piece, and explore the relationship to the novel by the same name by Italo Calvino. The Quartet will be read by Eric Rynes (violin), Tari Nelson-Zagar (violin), Brianna Atwell (viola), and Peter Williams (cello).

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Tiffany Lin, Lesli Dalaba, Tari Nelson-Zagar

Pianist Tiffany Lin will play selections from J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations. Following will be a trio with Tiflin (piano), Lesli Dalaba (trumpet) and Tari Nelson-Zagar (violin) playing in an improvised setting.

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Eric Amrine Group + Dennis Rea & friends

Guitarist Eric Amrine's goals in music concern bridging the gaps between idioms, then burning those bridges to forge an independent sound and laugh at chaos. For this show he is joined by his son, Julian Amrine (violin and trumpet), Kenny Mandell (reeds, percussion), Don Berman (drums), and Tom Yoder (trombone) for a set of spontaneous compositions for 3, 4, and 5 musicians. Dennis Rea (guitar), Tom Zgonc (drums), and James DeJoie (woodwinds) will follow with more improvised music certain to amaze and astound even the most discriminating listener.

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Paul Hoskin, contrabass clarinet

As a soloist, Paul Hoskin does not involve his [compositional] self with Other selves. The eighty minute contrabass clarinet performance is both a statement and a refusal to engage with statement. What occurs is (or, as close to...) the strictly sonic. Multiple phonics, multiple (the complete array of) dynamics. The musical range bears simply with limits: all of ours.

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Hexaphonic 3 - reduced & expanded

The Hexaphonic 3 are a local trio performing original compositions, improvisations and deconstructed standards. The first set will be a duo of Bruce Greeley (bass clarinet) and Mike Sentkewitz (bass), performing a set of improvisations and a couple of old favorites. The second set we will expand to a quintet, with South (percussion/trumpet), Donna Schmidt (violin), Joel Schmidt (percussion/mandolin), and Steve Scribner (piano) for a set of original compositions. Each composition draws from their various musical backgrounds and wide range of influences which include jazz, metal, rock, klezmer, western swing, blues, free improvisation and the avant garde.

read more → Hexaphonic 3 - reduced & expanded

Monktail Composers Series, Vol. 6

The sixth installment of Monktail's ongoing Composers Series features new compositions for piano from John Seman, Mark Ostrowski and Stephen Fandrich, performed by Stephen Fandrich. Founded in 1990 by John Seman and Mark Ostrowski and rooted in Seattle since 2000, the Monktail Creative Music Concern exists to provide, propagate, promote, produce and preserve creative/experimental/exploratory music and associated art forms.

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Dale Speicher + Nat Evans: New Media & New Music

An innovative program featuring New Music in two distinct but complementary formats. In the first half, percussionist Dale Speicher performs Herbert Brun’s Plot for Percussion (1967), a premier of Stuart Saunders Smith’s Mornings (2009), and the debut of a work by Speicher using Novels in Three Lines by Felix Feneon as inspiration. In the second half, artists Erin Elyse Burns and Megan Berner have created videos for which composer Nat Evans has written ethereal and haunting scores that will be performed live. There will also be the debut of Telephone Conversation, a short work for violin and cello.

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Nigel Gavin & C3

Seattle Circle presents New Zealand-based Nigel Gavin performing improvised pieces on his 7-string acoustic guitar, with all-improv backup from Seattle’s C3 (Steve Ball, Paul O’Rear, Nathan Grigg, David LaVallee, Joel Palmer). Nigel and Steve Ball collaborated extensively in the 80s and 90s in the League of Crafty Guitarists, Prometheus (featuring King Crimson’s Pat Mastelotto), and Boston-based, Curtains. Nigel also performs on the Glissentar, an eleven string, fretless, acoustic/electric guitar, strung with nylon strings.

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Seattle Composers' Salon

The Seattle Composers’ Salon fosters the development, performance and appreciation of new music by regional composers and performers. At bi-monthly, informal presentations, the Salon features finished works, previews, and works in progress. Composers, performers, and audience members gather in a casual setting that allows for experimentation and discussion. Everyone is welcome! Join us this month for an evening of music and discussion with Seattle composers Ryan Hare, Sean Osborn, Keith Eisenbrey, John Teske, and Paul Gillespie.

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Neume (Canterbury/Ziefel/Hoskin)

This trio featuring Jesse Canterbury (clarinet, bass clarinet) Jenny Ziefel (clarinet, bass clarinet) and Paul Hoskin (contrabass clarinet) works with spontaneous composition in utterly refreshing ways. The range of sound defies expectation. Movements of passages are completely non-predictable. Conventional trio practice is ignored and/or dismantled. Foreground/background is of more interest than solo with accompaniment standards. All may bring home beauty and fascination...if nothing else.

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The Box Is Empty plays Andriessen

The Box Is Empty, Seattle’s newest contemporary music ensemble, introduces itself with a performance of two works by the groundbreaking Louis Andriessen. The program offers the rare opportunity to hear Andriessen’s early masterpiece De Volharding (perserverence). The unrelenting Workers Union completes the program for an exciting insight into the music of one the last half-century’s most innovative composers. Come hear these works that helped to launch Andriessen from composer of the Dutch avant-garde to one of international influence and importance.

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Larry Karush - The Wheel

For composer/pianist Larry Karush, improvisation is integral to the music he creates out of his roots in Jazz, Indian classical, Afro-Caribbean, western classical and 20th century music. This solo concert of his "comprovisations" will feature the northwest premiere of The Wheel, a large-scale piano work commissioned by the City of Los Angeles, and revised in 2009 during an artist-in-residency at the MacDowell Colony for the Arts (NH). Also on the program will be works by contemporary performer/composers (Bloom, Hammer), an unstandard treatment of a jazz standard, and a little 9/8 boogie-woogie.

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Microdecibel, Horist, Moe!, Pinto/Young, DAIPAN-ha

Microdecibel (Lucio Menegon/Sabrina Siegel), Bill Horist, Moe! Staiano!, and Paul Pinto/Jeff Young will set up in different areas of the space, each playing short sets and handing the music off to the next artist, creating a continuous flow of sound. The butoh dance collective, DAIPAN-ha will provide a meditation/commemoration on the anniversary week of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

read more → Microdecibel, Horist, Moe!, Pinto/Young, DAIPAN-ha

Neal Kosaly-Meyer: Gradus

Performed in memory of John Cage on the 19th anniversary of his passing, Gradus: for Fux, Tesla, and Milo the Wrestler is Neal Meyer’s piano composition in perennial progress, his systematic attempt to learn to play the piano one piano key at a time. It is also, among other things, a grappling with many core musical ideas either originating or strongly associated with John Cage. Silence, unintended ambient sound, severe compositional constraints, “letting sounds be themselves,” and a militant and purposeful devotion — all these key elements of Gradus derive from Neal Meyer’s long engagement with Cage’s thought and music.

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Paper Kingdom

Paper Kingdom is the fourth in a series of experimental small press and mixed media events organized by Sharon Alexander. Come see handsome self-published and crafted things; live music in bursts and moments; aural textures; classic, obscure and reputed reads and other nebulous surprises. James Yeary, Portland poet and visual/performance artist will be featured reader, along with David Hrivnak, Traci Eggleston and Andrew Bleeker. Independent publishing projects and zines from Jason T. Miles and Profanity Hill, Nate Orton, James Yeary, Garek Druss, Martine Workman, Sam Lohmann and others. Sound installation by Hart Boyd accompanied by Jacques Shaver and David Hrivnak. Music performances by John Teske and multimedia artist Garek Druss. Visual art and sculpture by Nate Orton, Martine Workman, Kelly Bjork, Karl Seng, Arrington de Dionyso and others.

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Resonant Forms West Coast Tour

Four solo sound performances by West Coast artists: Jessika Kenney (Seattle), John Krausbauer (Portland), Ryan Gregory Tallman (Fresno), and Zachary James Watkins (Santa Cruz). Their works are intimate, textures unfold patiently, resonance is holy, and improvisation is unavoidable.

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Unit Trio (Asplund/Campbell/Canterbury)

Unit Trio (Christian Asplund, electric viola; Greg Campbell, drums; Jesse Canterbury, bass clarinet + sound by Mell Dettmer) perform Asplund's Unit Series, a compendious epic of over 100 micro-movements in rock, funk, jazz, contemporary classical, minimalist, etc. textures that utilize quarter tones, irrational meters, canons of all sorts, polyrhythm, etc.

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Paul Kemmish: Small Sounds Played Quickly

Bassist Paul Kemmish, aka PK, offers four or five new pieces of music performed with Beth Fleenor on clarinet and Olli Klomp on drums, and four more compositions with special guest pianist Dara Quinn.

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Earshot: Operation ID + Mankinson

Presented by Earshot Jazz. Earshot’s “Jazz: The Second Century” new music series concludes with Operation ID, featuring Jared Borkowski on guitar, David Balatero on bass, Rob Hanlon on keyboards, Ivan Arteaga on reeds, and Evan Woodle on drums. Opening: ManKinSon is Matt Norman on piano, Paul Hoskin on contrabass clarinet, and Dave Abramson on drums.

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BLING! (Denny Goodhew, Beth Fleenor)

Screaming silence in a whirling pool of stillness, BLING! formed in 2004 to bring together mentor and student in a performance dynamic that investigates and activates new levels of awareness. The duo, featuring Denney Goodhew on piano and Beth Fleenor on clarinet, explores mostly spontaneously composed chamber music, occasionally throwing in a composed work by Goodhew, with a commitment to ensemble intention and focused energy.

read more → BLING! (Denny Goodhew, Beth Fleenor)

Earshot: Triptet + Zubatto Syndicate

Presented by Earshot Jazz. Earshot’s “Jazz: The Second Century” new music series continues into its fifth season, and this year presents eight resident ensembles over four evenings during the month of July. Tonight's concert will feature Zubatto Syndicate. Zubatto Syndicate is a 12-piece big band that incorporates sounds and grooves from hip-hop, rock, funk, soul, and more, as performed by some of Seattle’s finest improvising musicians. The band is led by composer and guitarist Andrew Boscardin. Opening: TRIPTET is Tom Baker on electric fretless guitar and electronics; Michael Monhart on saxophone, percussion, and Tibetan horn; and Greg Campbell on drums, percussion, and french horn.

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Substrata Festival 2

Substrata Festival continues with works of great variance and diversity that defy simple classification, yet loosely ascribe to ambient or neoclassical in their approaches to instrumentation and composition. Legendary Norwegian ambient-techno pioneer BIOSPHERE presents his latest works. Germany's NILS FRAHM makes a rare appearance to perform selections from his critically-acclaimed albums "Wintermusik" & "The Bells". Kranky recording artist BENOÎT PIOULARD debuts new drone-ambient material. Also performing will be Seattle's own I3O.

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Substrata Festival 1

The first Substrata Festival explores varying perspectives of scale though the use of sound, composition, and visuals. Opening night focuses on non-traditional approaches to the electric guitar: Australia's OREN AMBARCHI presents his brand of immersive, experimental drone-ambient music. ELUVIUM performs new compositions for piano and drone guitar. Portland's MARCUS FISCHER showcases his audiovisual works. Canadian sound artist CRYS COLE opens the showcase, performing with contact microphones, minimal signal processing and no-input mixing board.

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Earshot: Hexaphonic 3 + Trio Real

Presented by Earshot Jazz. In the summer of 2006, Earshot began a comprehensive project entitled “Jazz: The Second Century”. This concert series seeks to address jazz’s progressive transition into the future, bringing the discussion into creative motion where it matters most - on the stage, with an attentive audience. The July 14 concert will feature Dave Anderson’s Trio Real with Anderson on soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones, Jon Hamar on bass, and Brad Boal on drums. Opening are Hexaphonic 3, with Bruce Greeley on bass clarinet, Mike Sentkewitz on bass, and Ryan Burt on drums.

read more → Earshot: Hexaphonic 3 + Trio Real

Monktail Composers V: Fandrich, Denio, Fleenor

The Monktail Creative Music Concern has created an indoor series at the Chapel Performance Space, highlighting the works of its members. Each event features a stellar line-up of Monktail composers, with numerous performers of note participating in each concert. Vol. 5 will feature music for solo piano performed by Stephen Fandrich, as well as improvised duets presented by Amy Denio & Beth Fleenor. This series is a fundraiser for Sounds Outside 2011.

read more → Monktail Composers V: Fandrich, Denio, Fleenor

Earshot: Bad Luck + Andy Clausen's Wishbone

Presented by Earshot Jazz. Earshot’s “Jazz: The Second Century” is intended to address jazz’s progressive transition into the future, bringing the discussion into creative motion where it matters most - on the stage, with an attentive audience. The series enters its fifth year, presenting eight resident ensembles over four evenings in July. Tonight's concert features trombonist Andy Clausen’s Wishbone Ensemble with Ivan Arteaga on clarinet, Aaron Otheim on accordion, Gus Carnes on piano, and Chris Icasiano on drums. Opening: Drummer Chris Icasiano and saxophonist Neil Welch continue to develop a unique musical voice together as the duo Bad Luck.

read more → Earshot: Bad Luck + Andy Clausen's Wishbone

Kris Davis/Tyshawn Sorey/Ingrid Laubrock Trio

Presented by Earshot Jazz. Vancouver pianist Kris Davis teams up with New Jersey drummer/trombonist Tyshawn Sorey and German-born saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock. The trio’s first album, Paradoxical Frog, was released last July on the Lisbon-based Clean Feed label.

read more → Kris Davis/Tyshawn Sorey/Ingrid Laubrock Trio

Seattle Composers' Salon

The Seattle Composers’ Salon fosters the development, performance and appreciation of new music by regional composers and performers. At bi-monthly, informal presentations, the Salon features finished works, previews, and works in progress. Composers, performers, and audience members gather in a casual setting that allows for experimentation and discussion. Everyone is welcome! Join us this month for an evening of music and discussion with Seattle composers Jeffrey Izzo, Stuart Wheeler and Tom Baker.

read more → Seattle Composers' Salon

Seattle Pianist Collective: Lingua Franca

The Seattle Pianist Collective (Stephen Fandrich, Brian Kinsella, Peter Vukmirovic Stevens, Adrienne Varner and Kelly Wyse) is a modern piano and chamber music group that performs eclectic programs throughout the year, including electronic and experimental music, and often debuting new works from around the world. We are excited to present an eclectic and dynamic program featuring works by local composers Nat Evans, Jessika Kenney, Mark Ostrowski, Stephen Parris, Jarrad Powell, Jim Knapp, and others.

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Paul Rucker: Scribe, Send, Sound

For this new interactive piece, Scribe, Send, Sound, Paul Rucker invites audience members to send stories, poems, and other writing to the band (Paul Rucker: cello, double bass; Hans Teuber: saxophone; Eric Eagle: drums) before and during the show. New compositions will be created based on the messages received. Writers will also be invited to bring laptops and other mobile devices and write during the performance.

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Brad Sherman + Christopher Gainey

Presented by WA Composers Forum. Seattle composer Brad Sherman and University of Iowa composer Christopher Gainey present a concert of some of their latest solo and chamber music, including two world premieres written specifically for this event.

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Jay Hamilton et al: Honor

We would be honored by your presence at the performance of HONOR, a new musical experience by Jay Hamilton and the Turtling Dithers (Darryl Estes, Gordon Frazier, and Maurice Colasurdo).

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Chrysalis Collective + Moon & Tides

Chrysalis is a women's vocal ensemble that studies and incorporates a wide range of traditional, experimental, and contemporary vocal practices. Tonight they present an evening of new choral works by local composers curated by Hanna Benn, with members of The Esoterics and Gamelan Pacifica: Hanna Benn, Samantha Bosch, Marit Hanson, Whitney Lyman, Erica Atnip, Carly Hodgson, Jessika Kenney, Maeg O'Donoghue Williams Sukarwanto, Holly Johnson. Opening the evening will be Moon & Tides, a duo of Gwen Bayly (saxophone) and Cynthia Dillard (piano).

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Jim Haynes, Brendan Murray, Steven M. Miller

Nonsequitur presents an evening of diverse electro-acoustic music featuring recent work by Jim Haynes (San Francisco), Brendan Murray (Boston), and Steven M. Miller (Singapore).

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Bad Luck + Cristina Valdes

Following a successful West Coast tour, the hot-fresh saxophone and drums duo Bad Luck celebrate the release of their second album for Seattle new music label Table & Chairs, Two. Pianist Cristina Valdes performs an opening set of pieces by Wayne Horvitz, John Luther Adams, and Orlando Garcia.

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John Teske: new works for double bass

John Teske premieres new works for double bass along with local musicians Maria Scherer Wilson and Beth Fleenor. Ranging from meditative to raucous, these pieces are based on personal evolution, ethereal atmospheres, and playful rhythms and structures. Each composition was commissioned through the "haulin' bass" bike trailer project of 2010, all of which are currently being recorded. Two older works will also be performed with Jen Kozel and Jenn Glenn.

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Lullabies for Falling Empires

Richard Webb's indie chamber orchestra returns for another evening of lush ambient melodies.

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Richard Johnson Logan-Greene

Presented by DX ARTS. Richard Johnson Logan-Greene is a composer, improviser and instrument inventor, soon finishing a DMA at UW. This concert features solo and duo improvisations for two experimental instruments - a computer-controlled contrabass clarinet (played by Jesse Canterbury) and a motorized cello (played by John Teske) - and a 3d video of Heather Raikes' multimedia dance piece, Corpus Corvus. Also on the program are I Think I Want to Be Myself for recorded voices, instruments and algorithms, and Submersions I for Submersible and live percussionist Greg Campbell.

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Michael Owcharuk: Chamber Bomb

Composer/pianist Michael Owcharuk presents a special evening of new chamber works bringing together through-composed and improvised music. The program includes his 3 Meditations for solo clarinet, 4 Preludes for violin and piano, Maneuvers #1 for String Trio and 2 Improvisers, performed by Beth Fleenor (clarinet), Mai Li Pittard (violin), Erica Johansen (violin), Nicola Reilly (violin), Jennifer Ellison (violoncello), Michael Owcharuk (piano).

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S. Eric Scribner: StormSound Cycle

Having presented various fragments over the past few years, Seattle composer S. Eric Scribner unveils the complete 9-hour open-form epic StormSound Cycle. The entire Cycle is twenty-one separate movements, each for instruments with prerecorded electronics derived from nature recordings by J. R. Storm. With performers Mike Sentkewitz (bass), S. Eric Scribner (piano/found objects), Ivan Arteaga (clarinet), Neal Kosaly-Meyer (electric guitar), Matt Kocmieroski and Dale Speicher (percussion), Bruce Greeley (bass clarinet), Jay Hamilton (mey/homemade instruments), Keith Eisenbrey (found objects), Clifford Dunn (flute), David Paul Mesler (piano), and Ryan Burt (drums).

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Monktail Composers' Series, Vol. 4

Presented by Monktail Creative Music Concern. This edition of the Monktail Composers Series presents graphic scores by John Seman, Stephen Fandrich, Stephen Parris, Mark Ostrowski, Beth Fleenor, Denney Goodhew, and Ari Joshua performed by them and other members of the Monktail collective.

read more → Monktail Composers' Series, Vol. 4

Bryan Eubanks/Paul Hoskin/Doug Theriault

Reed player Paul Hoskin and Bryan Eubanks perform a piece for reed-driven tubes tuned to, and accompanied by, recordings of these instruments made in the Cistern at Ft. Worden State Park, part of a series of pieces using material generated by and recorded in the Cistern. Eubanks and Doug Theriault perform duo improvisations on electronics and self-designed instruments.

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Matt Carlson + RM Francis: Outsider Electronic Music

Gift Tapes presents a special night of outsider electronic music, featuring Portland-based Matt Carlson (Golden Retriever, formerly of Parenthetical Girls) performing modular synthesizer music, and Seattle-based RM Francis performing new electronic works and real-time compositions for computer.

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Seattle Occultural Music Festival

The Seattle Occultural Music Festival celebrates new & experimental music in the Pacific Northwest of psychic, ecological, or otherwise deeply resonant importance. Our diverse programs incorporate performers and composers spanning the region's breadth of genres and musical generations. Tonight: Anacortes rockers Mt. Eerie, Milton goth-folk druids Novemthree, and the droney mash of Paintings for Animals + noisepoetnobody.

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Shoemaker, Pacione, Sheffield

Presented by Elevator Bath. Matt Shoemaker manipulates sound sourced from both natural and electronic means in an affected and often grotesque manner, so as to convey compositions that uniquely imagine a space encrypted to the point of vanishing definition. Adam Pacione is a Ft. Worth-based sound artist who’s work primarily falls within the ambient/drone genre. Colin Andrew Sheffield focuses on the strict re-contextualization of commercially available recordings, distilling the essential qualities of these works for use in new compositions.

read more → Shoemaker, Pacione, Sheffield

Seattle Composers' Salon

The Seattle Composers' Salon is an informal presentation of new music by regional composers. The salon meets the first Friday of every other month, and features finished works, previews, and works-in-progress. It brings together composers, performers and audience members in a casual concert setting that allows for discussion and experimentation. Tonight: recent music by Yvonne Hoar, Doug Palmer, Steve Scribner, Ben Houge, and Jeffrey Izzo.

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Improvised Music Project: IMPfest

Presented by UW Dept. of Music and Table & Chairs Music. A thriving student group from the UW brings together local talent and internationally acclaimed artists for IMPfest III: a yearly celebration of new, improvisation-focused music pairing local up-and-coming avant-music visionaries with some of the world's top performers. Tonight's concert features Juan Pampin & Matt Ingalls, Psychoangelo, and Troon.

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Improvised Music Project

Presented by UW Dept. of Music and Table & Chairs Music. The Improvised Music Project is an annual festival presenting adventurous young players in Seattle's new jazz and improvisation scene, alongside more established elders at variety of venues around town. Tonight's concert features Bad Luck, Smallface, and Humans Get Hungry

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Splash!

Splash! presents a program of new music, most of it by living Northwest Composers, and dance by Victoria Jacobs. Roger Nelson, piano and Janna Wachter, voice with guests Shawna Avinger (voice), Victoria Jacobs (dance), Jamie Maschler (accordion), Dale Speicher (percussion), Greg Sinibaldi (saxophone), Rob Alinder (lighting), works by Roger Nelson, William Ransom, Greg Sinibaldi and Janna Wachter, Elena Ruehr, Christian Wolff and John Cage.

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Scrape

Jim Knapp and Eyvind Kang's string orchestra Scrape presents new music featuring Jessika Kenney, guest vocalist. Premieres include Eyvind's Lady Welby, a piece based on a new algebraically inspired notational system, and three works by Jim: From Burnt Norton, Listening to Reason, and Approaching Yvones. The self-led, democratic orchestra comprises improvising-friendly professional string players with concertmaster Heather Bentley and guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi. (Video here.)

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Splash!

Splash! presents a program of new music, most of it by living Northwest Composers, and dance by Victoria Jacobs. Roger Nelson, piano and Janna Wachter, voice with guests Shawna Avinger (voice), Victoria Jacobs (dance), Jamie Maschler (accordion), Dale Speicher (percussion), Greg Sinibaldi (saxophone), Rob Alinder (lighting), works by Roger Nelson, William Ransom, Greg Sinibaldi and Janna Wachter, Elena Ruehr, Christian Wolff and John Cage.

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Melanie Sehman

New York-based percussionist Melanie Sehman presents a series of newly commissioned and recent electro-acoustic works from composers across the country including Cenk Ergün (Princeton), Ben Hackbarth (University of California San Diego/IRCAM), Ryan Manchester (Brooklyn), Jordan Munson (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) and others. With guests Dale Speicher of Seattle Percussion Collective and Steven Sehman.

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Steve Barsotti, with Paul Kikuchi

Presented by Nonsequitur. Seattle Phonographers Union member Steve Barsotti presents an evening of reduced listening, performing a work in three parts featuring improvisation with invented instruments and field recordings collected around the world over the past twenty years. Barsotti will play his Spring Frame, a home-built instrument consisting of springs, strings, and other objects amplified through contact microphones. Joining him for a portion of the evening will be instrument inventor and percussionist Paul Kikuchi.

read more → Steve Barsotti, with Paul Kikuchi

Neil Welch + Quantum String Quartet

Saxophonist Neil Welch spent a year living in a house tucked away in the woods on Whidbey Island. Spending his days practicing, he would periodically come back to the city and record some solo music. Boxwork is the outcome - a collection of fourteen musical vignettes spanning a wide range of Neil's unique solo style. From explorations in pitch timbre, threads of sound energy, to extreme dynamics and guttural screams, all is performed acoustically. Opening is the Quantum String Quartet, performing Bartok's String Quartet No. 3, and Ives' Scherzo for String Quartet.

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Fisher Ensemble: Kocho

With music by composer Garrett Fisher and choreography by Christy Fisher, Kocho is a multimedia music-theater piece based on the Noh play by Nobumitsu that tells the story of a wandering Priest who meets a butterfly and "liberates" it by letting it dance under the plum blossom. With the support of the Fisher Ensemble, the score incorporates sounds and instruments from multiple cultures. Pianist Byron Schenkman also performs Fisher's new Piano Raga No. 1.

read more → Fisher Ensemble: Kocho

Fisher Ensemble: Kocho

With music by composer Garrett Fisher and choreography by Christy Fisher, Kocho is a multimedia music-theater piece based on the Noh play by Nobumitsu that tells the story of a wandering Priest who meets a butterfly and "liberates" it by letting it dance under the plum blossom. With the support of the Fisher Ensemble, the score incorporates sounds and instruments from multiple cultures. Pianist Byron Schenkman also performs Fisher's new Piano Raga No. 1.

read more → Fisher Ensemble: Kocho

Ask the Ages: Harp & Horns

For this special “Harp and Horns” presentation, Ask the Ages (guitarist Brian Heaney, saxophonist Kate Olson, vibraphonist Steven Bell, bassist John Seman, drummer Greg Campbell) are joined by guests Stuart Dempster (trombone), Matt Reid (trumpet), Melissa Walsh (harp), Archana Bennur (classical South Indian volcals), and Dale Speicher (marimba).

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Seattle Percussion Collective

The Seattle Percussion Collective will present an evening of chamber music written for percussion, including the following works: In Memoriam...Esteban Gomez by Robert Ashley, Beaten Paths by Milton Babbitt, Letters from the Earth by Sarah Bassingthwaighte (World Premiere), Transition by Nat Evans (World Premiere), Music for Magnets by Paul Kikuchi (World Premiere), Canon #5 by Larry Polansky, I Riti: Ritual March by Giacinto Scelsi, and Bicoastal by Roger Zahab.

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Beth Fleenor: New Music for Blindfolded Ensemble

Presented by The Frank Agency and Advocates for Abundance through Action in the Arts. An evening of performance and discussion surrounding Beth Fleenor’s expanding compositional series: Movement Exercises for Blindfolded Ensemble. A 9-piece ensemble featuring Fleenor (clarinet) with Michele Khazak (voice), Craig Flory (reeds), Chris Credit (reeds), Samantha Boshnack (trumpet), Andy Coe (guitar), Michael Owcharuk (piano), Paul “PK” Kemmish (bass), and John Ewing (drums), will present Movement Exercises No. 1 - 4.

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Fundamental Forces + Iron Kim Style

Guitarist Rik Wright's group Fundamental Forces is a revolving consortium of players whose explorations center around a set number of loosely defined charts and guidelines. Stylistically, all preconceptions are out the door. Iron Kim Style is an explosive Seattle-based jazz-rock improvisational quintet who gleefully blend structure and abstraction, lyrical melodies and scalding noise, wicked funk and weightless balladry, jazz phrasing and bracing experimentalism.

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Chad McCullough + Krispen Hartung Trios

Chad McCullough presents his new project, performing on effected trumpet in a trio with pianist Wayne Horvitz and guitarist Ron Samworth. Saxophonist Brent Jensen and guitarist Krispen Hartung have collaborated together for years, and this concert will bring pianist Bill Anschell into the group, expanding the dynamic interplay between the musicians.

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Hollow Earth's MAGMA Festival

Seattle's favorite internet radio station, Hollow Earth Radio, presents it's annual Magma Festival. Shows are all over town all month long, so check their schedule. Tonight: Shana Cleveland & the Sandcastles; Jason Dodson (Maldives); Michael Hurley

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Hollow Earth's MAGMA Festival

Seattle's favorite internet radio station, Hollow Earth Radio, presents it's annual Magma Festival. Shows are all over town all month long, so check their schedule. Tonight: Sue Ann Harkey (guitar, vocals) & Lori Goldston (cello); Ô Paon; Mecca Normal.

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Christopher DeLaurenti

Christopher DeLaurenti presents an evening of solo electronics, unusual field recordings from around the world, and the debut of Thrill, which features the recorded voices of jazz singers Dawn Clement, Josephine Howell, Kelley Johnson, and Greta Matassa layered in duos, trios, and quartets singing the classic torch song "You're My Thrill." Thrill is made possible with support from the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs.

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Seattle Chamber Players & Agata Zubel

Presented by Seattle Chamber Players, in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York. SCP and the extraordinary Polish vocalist Agata Zubel perform Luciano Berio's Sequenza, the US premiere of the flute/voice version of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's Changing Light, and Estonian composer Helena Tulve's Island for clarinet and violin, as well as Agata Zubel's own Parlando and her dynamic and ethereal vocal tour-de-force, Cascando.

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Brad Sherman

Brad Sherman presents a concert of world premieres for solo piano, solo cello and solo clarinet composed specifically for this event and for these specific performers: Julie Ives on piano, Mary Riles on cello and the composer on clarinet. Tom Bell (piano) and Sue Buttram (mezzo-soprano) join up for the performance of “In Death’s Place”, an earlier piece composed for mezzo-soprano and piano: a haunting setting of an e. e. cummings poem.

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Seattle Composers' Salon: Wayne Horvitz

The Seattle Composers' Salon is pleased to welcome composer and pianist Wayne Horvitz for a discussion and presentation of his music.

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Joy van Spain & Eratoxin

Singer/keyboardist Joy Von Spain is joined by Jean-Paul Garnier (voice, guitar/bass), Count Constantin (violin), Dean Moore (percussion), and Butoh dancers Vanessa Skantze & Briana Jones for a program of original material and unusual arrangements of contemporary and ancient songs.

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Jherek Bischoff's Ambient Chamber Orchestra

Seattle composer/musician/producer Jherek Bischoff (Ribbons, Dead Science, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Xiu Xiu, Evangelista) premiers a collection of ten ambient pieces composed during a recent residency at Pt. Townsend’s Fort Warden State Park, specifically written for and recorded in the park’s massive cistern — an empty, two million gallon underground water tank boasting an incredible 45-second reverb. For this event, Jherek will be joined by a live orchestra and sound engineers to help recreate the incredible sonic ambience of the cistern.

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Frances-Marie Uitti

Presented by Nonsequitur. The remarkable Amsterdam-based cellist, composer and improviser Frances-Marie Uitti has pioneered a revolutionary dimension to the cello by using two bows in one hand, transforming it for the first time into a polyphonic instrument capable of sustained chordal and intricate multi-voiced writing, contemporaneous cross accents, multiple timbres, contrasting 4-voiced dynamics, and simultaneous legato/articulated playing. Tonight she performs works by Salvatore Sciarrino, Jonathan Harvey, Giacinto Scelsi, Lisa Bielawa, Annie Gosfield, György Kurtág, and her own Rap't.

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Seattle Phonographers Union: for Julius

Breaking away from their usual "politburo" performance set up, the Seattle Phonographers Union honors the recent passing of the German sound artist and composer of "small music" Rolf Julius (1939 - 2011) with a performative sound environment. While still using unprocessed field recordings as source material, group members will be spread (and in some cases moving) throughout the space, playing through small, localized sound systems to create a sonic environment made up of many smaller micro-climates, with the audience free to move through the space or sit if they wish.

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26th Annual Seattle Improvised Music Festival

February 9 - 12. Presented by Seattle Improvised Music and Nonsequitur. The longest running festival of its kind in North America, the annual Seattle Improvised Music Festival presents a host of international improvisers representing a sampling of the world’s major players/scenes/movements. This year’s line up includes: Jeffrey Allport percussion (Vancouver), Gill Arno radios (NYC), Gust Burns piano, inside piano (Seattle), Lou Cohen laptop/Csound (Boston), James Coleman theremin (Boston), Mark Collins bass (Seattle), Paul Hoskin contrabass clarinet (Seattle), Andrew Lafkas bass (NYC), Radu Malfatti trombone (Vienna), Wilson Shook alto saxophone (Seattle), Jonathan Way field recordings (Seattle), Tyler Wilcox soprano saxophone (Seattle), John Teske bass (Seattle).

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Tribute to Tricia Woods

Pianist/composer Tricia Woods recently lost a long battle with breast cancer. She was an important contributor to the Seattle music scene before moving to New York, and was part of an influential group of young musicians that included Mike Stone, Briggan Krauss, Geoff Harper, Tari Nelson-Zagar, Andrew Drury, Craig Flory, Hans Teuber, Eyvind Kang, Reggie Watts and many more. As a celebration of Tricia's life and artistic vitality, musicians from the Seattle community are putting together an event filled with music she would have been passionate about. Performers include Geoff Harper, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Craig Flory, Dawn Clement, Tom Varner, Mike Stone, Andy Roth, and others. All proceeds will be given to Tricia’s son.

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S. Eric Scribner + Hexaphone

S. Eric Scribner performs new, partially improvised works for environmental sound, piano, hammer dulcimer and found objects, including two pieces from his “SoundScrolls” cycle. Eric’s music is modal and/or microtonal, often contemplative, and explores guided improvisation within a fixed framework and the non-randomness inherent in “random” aesthetic events. Hexafone opens (Bruce Greeley, bass clarinet; Mike Sentkewitz, acoustic bass; Ryan Burt, drums/percussion).

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Artur Avanesov, pianist

Presented by Seattle Chamber Players. Armenian pianist/composer Artur Avanesov performs his own works, as well as music by his mentor, the great Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian, Ukrainian master Valentin Silvestrov, the SCP commission Linee e Contorni by the brilliant Lithuanian composer Onute Narbutaite, and music by Alban Berg.

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Is That Jazz?: Triptet + Nels Cline Singers

Presented by Seattle Composers' Salon and Nonsequitur. The IS THAT JAZZ? festival concludes with Seattle's own Triptet and the Nels Cline Singers featuring Cibo Matto co-founder Yuka C. Honda.

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Is That Jazz?: Denio/Menegone + Anywhen Ensemble

Presented by Seattle Composers' Salon and Nonsequitur. The second weekend of the IS THAT JAZZ? festival begins with the duo of Seattle multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio and New York guitarist/composer Lucio Menegone and the AnyWhen Ensemble, led by trumpeter Douglas Detrick with guest Wayne Horvitz.

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C3

C3 is a Seattle trio that plays adventurous, mostly-improvised songs and songscapes. Leader Steve Ball is best known for his decades of work with Robert Fripp & the League of Crafty Guitarists, a group who pioneered new forms of both composed and improvised music for guitar ensembles. Steve also founded the Seattle Guitar Circle in 1993. Their spin-off project, Tuning the Air, is now in its 11th season. C3 also features guitarists Ivan Lee and Paul O’Rear. They are joined for this show by Sockethead composer/keyboardist Nathan Grigg, Emma Durand (sweet & sour songs), Joel Palmer (group loops), and David LaVallee (group loops).

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Is That Jazz?: Operation ID + Dana Reason

Presented by Seattle Composers' Salon and Nonsequitur. The second night of the IS THAT JAZZ? festival features the young Seattle group Operation ID and Canadian pianist Dana Reason.

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Is That Jazz?: Empty Cage + Sun Ra Tribute

Presented by Seattle Composers' Salon and Nonsequitur.

IS THAT JAZZ? is a festival dedicated to daring and exploratory artists who are redrawing the boundaries of jazz, and infusing the genre with new forms, new sounds, and renewed sense of immediacy. Some want to limit jazz to a specific and narrow definition; IS THAT JAZZ? embraces jazz as a living, breathing art-form, one that must change and grow. The festival's opening night concert features the The Empty Cage Quartet (Jason Mears, reeds; Kris Tiner, trumpets/flugelhorn; Paul Kikuchi, drums/percussion; Ivan Johnson, bass) and the Sun Ra Tribute Band.

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Amy Rubin & Mary Kantor + ChoroLoco

FASCINATING RHYTHMS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA presents music from the US, Argentina and Brazil. The first half features the classically-based duo of pianist/accordionist Amy Rubin and clarinettist Mary Kantor performing new, original arrangements of music by Rubin, Guinga, Nazareth, Piazzolla and others. The second half welcomes Seattle based ChoroLoco, a quintet of musicians dedicated to bringing to life the music of Brazil from the early 1900s, the music that inspired it, and the music that it continues to inspire.

read more → Amy Rubin & Mary Kantor + ChoroLoco

Sounds Outside Benefit 3/3

Presented by Monktail Creative Music Concern. For five years, Sounds Outside: A Celebration of Adventurous Music & Community has brought creative music of the highest caliber to audiences, for free, in Seattle's Cal Anderson Park. Due to tremendous financial difficulties that have gravely impacted our local economy, the festival carries a debt this year. The presenting collective has created a series of three concerts highlighting the work of its members, featuring a stellar line-up of Monktail composers and performers. Tonight's concert features Scott Adams, Samantha Boshnack, Mark Ostrowski, and Stephen Parris.

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Seattle Composers' Salon

The Seattle Composers' Salon is an informal presentation of new music by regional composers. The salon meets the first Friday of every other month, and features finished works, previews, and works-in-progress. It brings together composers, performers and audience members in a casual setting that allows for discussion and experimentation. This month's featured composers include Scott Teske, Christian Asplund, Michael Nicolella, John Teske, and Christopher DeLaurenti.

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