Seattle Modern Orchestra Benefit w/ pianist Stephen Drury

For our first benefit concert,  Seattle Modern Orchestra welcomes pianist Stephen Drury for an exciting and virtuosic solo recital. Drury's program features three works rarely heard in Seattle:

Serynade by German composer Helmut Lachenmann focuses on the inevitable natural law that the sound of the piano is always fading out, and explores how the piano sound can be kept alive, worked and shaped to stop its death and therefore, time.

John Cage's Etudes Australes consists of 32 indeterminate pieces written using star charts, which results in an unbound independence of the performer's hands.

Finally, Charles Ives' Concord Sonata represents his "impression of the spirit of the transcendentalism" of Emerson, Hawthorne, the Alcotts, and Thoreau.

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IMP Fest V: King Tears Bat Trip + Japanese Guy + How Glass Is Made

Presented by UW Department of Music. The Improvised Music Project's annual IMP Fest returns with three nights of out jazz, improvisation, and new music by UW students and master players. Tonight, King Tears Bat Trip + Japanese Guy + How Glass Is Made.

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IMP Fest V: Revis/Poor/Vu/Sinibaldi + Sequoia

Presented by UW Department of Music. The Improvised Music Project's annual IMP Fest returns with three nights of out jazz, improvisation, and new music by UW students and master players. Tonight, Eric Revis with Ted Poor, Cuong Vu, Greg Sinibaldi and students. Also: Sequoia.

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IMP Fest V: Bill Frisell + Insistent Caterpillars

Presented by UW Department of Music. The Improvised Music Project's annual IMP Fest returns with three nights of out jazz, improvisation, and new music by UW students and master players. Tonight, the great guitarist Bill Frisell leads a student ensemble. Also: Insistent Caterpillars!

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Denise Fillion & Chris Graham

Presented by WA Composers Forum. Denise Fillion and Chris Graham are members of the Iktus Percussion collective. The New York-based percussion/piano duo perform works with electronics: John Luther Adams' Red Arc / Blue Veil (2002); Adam Haws' The Third Eye (2013 - world premiere); Bruce Hamilton's Attractors (2013 - world premiere) and Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kontakte (version for tape, piano and percussion) (1960).

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The Grace In Letting Go + PK, solo bass

The Grace In Letting Go is an improvising trio (vocalist Michele Khazak, percussionist Lalo Bello, drummer Adam Kessler) exercising emotional and psychological catharsis via sound in real time. The performance philosophy is simple: whether negative or positive, new or old – whatever thought or feeling comes along is immediately released, creating space for whatever comes next, which in turn is also immediately released; bring it with you, let it go. PK (Paul Kemmish) opens with a solo bass set.

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John Cage: 90 stories / Empty Words, Part III

Roger Nelson and Neal Meyer present a simultaneous performance of John Cage's one-minute stories (Nelson), and Part III of Cage's epic text composition, Empty Words (Meyer). Cage's stories are alternately hilarious, poetic, and epiphanic. Empty Words, Part III is a mix of words, syllables, and letters from the Journal of Henry David Thoreau. The performance is a tribute to the classic Folkways album, Indeterminacy, in which Cage recorded his stories in one room, while David Tudor performed Cage's Solo for Piano in another.

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Evan Smith: new works for saxophone

Presented by The Box Is Empty. Saxophonist Evan Smith, an avid commissioner of new saxophone works, performs a program highlighting new electro-acoustic music: on and off, off and on by Anthony Vin, Jillian Whitaker’s like quicksand, Nat Evans’s Two Old Ghosts, and Jacob ter Veldhuis’s The Garden of Love.

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Sam Boshnak Quintet + Amplified Clarinet Trio

Formed in 2011 the Sam Boshnack Quintet performs all original music composed and performed by Samantha Boshnack (trumpets) with Beth Fleenor (clarinets/voice), Dawn Clement (piano), Isaac Castillo (bass), and Max Wood (drums). Boshnack creates work with intricately woven soundscapes harboring deep grooves and punctuated, explosive improvisations. Featuring Beth Fleenor, Amy Denio & Craig Flory, the Amplified Clarinet Trio performs all improvised music using clarinets and electronics.

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The Water Line Is Rising

Five established improvisers involved in diverse stylistic practices converge for the first time to produce music that encompasses extended techniques, curved thoughts and emotional wanderings: Seattle natives Greg Campbell (percussion), Stuart Dempster (trombone), and Lori Goldston (cello) meet Oregon residents Kevin Patton (guitar) and Dana Reason (piano).

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