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5 for 40 premiere on Nov. 7 at 1pm

Bring a blanket, a picnic, a loved one for the world premiere of my new piece, 5 for 40, presented by Synchromy!

Serene and poignant, 5 for 40 creates a soundscape for our disquieted times using repurposed organ pipes. From a church decades-since demolished, these pipes have been retrofitted to be human-powered, changing the nature and source of their sound. Synchromy has set 5 for 40 amongst the Tabebuia Trees of a quiet terraced garden.

I wrote the score for 5 for 40 in August of 2020. The skies of LA were a thick grey from the nearby Bobcat Fire, and the air was smokey. Whole charred leaves from the San Gabriel Mountains drifted into our backyard and, combined with half a year of pandemic isolation, made the world seem particularly apocalyptic. 5 for 40 was my response to that time, along with my continued interest in presenting music outdoors. The stillness of the piece hopefully offers an invitation to be present outside and just listen – to sounds both intentional and unintentional.

Note: 6-inch Sandwiches from the Eastside Italian Deli are available for pre-order, and must be ordered a week before the event. They will be distributed to you at the park when you arrive.

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Neuston & Mount San Antonio 1944

My bass quartet Neuston was recently premiered by the UCSD bass quartet. Also, Partch LA commissioned me to write a trio for their ensemble, titled Mount San Antonio 1944. That piece will be premiered in early June!

More info about Neuston
More info about Mount San Antonio 1944
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Hodad music and postcard!

Have you ever wondered what a duet for violin and ocean waves sounds like? Have you ever tried to listen to the electromagnetic field of the earth?

Music for Your Inbox presents my new piece Hodad – a collaboration with violinist Myra Hinrichs that explores these questions – as the March edition of their 2021 season!

Myra Hinrichs played Hodad
Violinist Myra Hinrichs performing Hodad at Trestles Beach
Artwork by Janelle Iglesias
(not what’s on the postcard)

Sign up by March 10 to receive an online video of Hodad and a limited-edition [physical] postcard.

The video is a 20 minute performance of Hodad by Hinrichs, playing at Trestles Beach at sunset and responding to the rhythms of the ocean waves. Music for your Inbox will also mail you a limited edition postcard featuring artwork by Janelle Iglesias.

If you’re Hodad–curious but unsure what it’s all about, please check out the Micro Moment video below, presented by MicroFest LA.

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Canon in Am

I was recently asked by pianist Lorenzo Marasso to write a short piano piece in response to Bach’s Invention #13 in Am. My piece is cleverly titled Canon in A Minor. It’s a strict canon at the octave, with the two voices one 16th note apart from each other.

Lorenzo will play Canon in A Minor along with pieces by 14 other composers this Sunday 7/26 at 6pm, live-streaming on YouTube and Facebook.

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Concerto for Having Fun with Elvis on Stage, Oct. 18!

I’m collaborating with Alexander Gedeon and the Now Hear Ensemble on a piece I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time, titled Concerto for Having Fun with Elvis on Stage.

We will premiere CHFES on October 18 at Automata!

CHFES combines live music and theatrical performance to reframe the cultural significance of the “worst album in rock and roll history.”

Get Tickets

“Having Fun with Elvis on Stage” is a 1973 album collaged entirely from Elvis speaking on stage between songs at live concerts – no music. AllMusic’s Mark Deming declared “hearing it is like witnessing a car wreck, leaving onlookers too horrified and too baffled to turn away.” Concerto for Having Fun with Elvis on Stage reimagines this vilified recording as the libretto for a sort of ghost opera, combining pop art nostalgia with new technology and classical instruments to create a memetic hologram of the endless purgatory of celebrity afterlife.

Members of the Now Hear Ensemble (Federico Llach, Brian Walsh, and Daniel Corral) will perform my original live musical score along with the original LP as if they were the pit orchestra for opera or musical theater – sometimes harmonizing with the words, painting emotions in the spaces between, or reacting theatrically. Meanwhile, Gedeon’s “Elvis” persona becomes a vehicle to explore all things banal and absurd in pop idolatry, as well as the performative aspects of ‘stage presence.’

Get Tickets

The performance of CHFES will be preceded by a screening of Count In, a video piece by Daniel Corral that combines the voice of Poly Styrene (from 70s British punk band X-Ray Spex) with musical minimalism and colorful video. The result is a mix of Steve Reich, James Turrell, X-Ray Spex, LaMonte Young, and Sesame Street Pinball Number Counts.

Get Tickets

October 18, 8:30pm

Automata
504 Chung King Ct, Los Angeles, CA 90012

$20 general
$15 students/seniors/Automata members

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Video from Summits premiere

If you missed the live performances of Summits thus far, you can see the premiere on the Santa Monica Public Library’s YouTube channel 🙂

This video playlist is from March 20 at the Sound Waves concert series at the Santa Monica Public Library.

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Summits premiere at Soundwaves, March 20, 2019!

I hope you can join me for the world premiere of Summits on March 20!

Summits is a new song cycle using texts I have collected over the last decade while hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains. Each song is based on entries I have documented in various summit registers (notebooks often found at the top of mountain trails). These personal chronicles from regional pinnacles portray the wisdom, humility, and humor that can only be found on a mountain peak.

Summits is written for voice, string quartet, and guitar/accordion, and I am happy to be joined by singer Joanna Wallfisch and the Koan Quartet in bringing it to life.

We will premiere Summits at the Soundwaves Concert Series on March 20 in celebration of their 50th event!

7:30pm
Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Soundwaves Concert Series
FREE

Martin Luther King Auditorium
Santa Monica Public Library
601 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

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Polytope live at LAX Festival, Oct. 17 and 19

Treat your senses to the sonic/visual mandala of Polytope, performed live at the Think Tank Gallery on October 17 and 19 as part of the LAX Festival!
Musicians Erin Barnes, Cory Beers, and Andrew Lessman will join me in performing this work of JI electronic minimalism and live feed video shadow play.
You can get tickets from the LAX Festival website. I hope to see you there!
Think Tank Gallery
939 Maple Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 9001

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Polytope coming in March

Excerpt from Polytope:

I’m very excited to announce the premiere of Polytope this coming March! Polytope is a multimedia microtonal performance for MIDI quartet.
To perform Polytope, I’ll be joined by Erin Barnes, Cory Beers, and Andrew Lessoman.
Performed entirely in darkness, it’s a mesmerizing dance of silhouettes of fingers over colorful glowing MIDI buttons, captured on live feed video and projected large and bright as a moving, visual score. Polytope is rhythmically charged in the vein of musical minimalists such as Phillip Glass, Steve Reich, or Arnold Dreyblatt, but harmonically inspired by the microtonal explorations of James Tenney, Erv Wilson, or Harry Partch. The multimedia style of presentation is somewhere between a string quartet, Kraftwerk, James Turrell, and an Indonesian dhalang (master shadow puppeteer).
Three performances of Polytope are scheduled in March:

  • Automata, Los Angeles, March 18
  • Wayward Music Series, Good Shepherd Chapel in Seattle, March 23
  • Center for New Music in San Francisco, March 25.

MORE INFO SOON!
 
 

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Comma at REDCAT!

I am excited to say that I will perform Comma on August 4-6 as part of New Original Works Festival at REDCAT! There will also be works by Wilfried Souly and I am a Boys Choir!
Here is an excerpt of Comma, which will feature 4-channel sound and live feed video projections!

Also, some of my music was used in the video trailer for NOW Festival 2016! Check it out:

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Diamond Pulses CD release show this Saturday, Sept. 12!!!

This Saturday, September 12, there will be a CD release show at Automata for my new album on Diamond Pulses, with special guests Danny Holt and Mike Robbins!
There will be two shows at 8 and 10pm, and I will perform Diamond Pulses at both. The 8pm show will also feature Mike Robbins and Danny Holt in a rare duo performance of Workers Union, a seminal and uncompromising work of musical minimalism by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. The 10pm show will feature a performance by Danny Holt of Philip Glass’ Two Pages, an early exploration of additive processes derived from his time working with Ravi Shankar.
Stream the album now from Orenda Records’ Bandcamp page:
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1844134484 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]
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Saturday, September 12, 8pm and 10pm
Automata
504 Chung King Court
Los Angeles CA 90012
8pm:
• Workers Union, performed by Danny Holt and Mike Robbins
• Diamond Pulses, performed by Daniel Corral
10pm:
• Two Pages, peformed by Danny Holt
• Diamond Pulses, performed by Daniel Corral
But tickets online here:
https://www.artful.ly/store/events/6883#
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Daniel Corral’s Diamond Pulses is a 32 minute aural experience combining electronic polyrhythms, microtonal tuning systems, classical minimalist influences, and noisy ambiance to open new sonic dimensions. Constantly evolving minimalist grooves recall Terry Riley or Cluster. The microtonal tuning systems recall Harry Partch, James Tenney, or Arnold Dreyblatt. Meanwhile, the counterpoint of noisy washes recalls the sound of ocean waves on the shore.
This performance of Diamond Pulses will feature projections of live video of the piece’s colorful interactive score.
___
Mike Robbins and Danny Holt will also perform several seminal works of musical minimalism. At 8pm, they will play a duo version of Louis Andriessen’s Workers Union, a minimalist masterpiece written for “any loud sounding group of instruments.” At 10pm, Danny Holt will play “Two Pages” by Philip Glass, an early exploration of additive processes derived from his time working with Ravi Shankar. Robbins is the director of Eighteen Squared, a new music ensemble specializing in the music of Steve Reich. Holt is a virtuosic pianist described as described as “the classical music equivalent of an extreme sports athlete” (The Record).
Danny Holt’s website:
http://dannyholt.net/
Mike Robbins’ website:
http://highstimulation.com/

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Refractions this weekend!

I’ll be performing Refractions, a new piece for music box and electronics, twice this weekend!

Saturday night at Irisphere Visual Arts:
refractions-music-event-copy

and Friday night at Battery Bookschandelier

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Playing at The Series at Ace Hotel, 8/28

On August 28, I’ll be playing the following piece as part of Nicole Disson’s THE SERIES. Our performance will feature poetry by Mandy Kahn, and I’ll be joined in the music by Timothy Maloof, David Celia, and Eli Miller. However, there are loads of other performances throughout the evening!