Category: 2019 – 2020

“The most inventive and exciting young guitar ensemble today.”
– Sergio Assad, Grammy Award-winning guitarist

Mobius Trio has made it its mission to fully integrate the classical guitar into the 21st century’s nascent musical lexicon. The Trio exclusively performs music that they have commissioned; they seek to expand the guitar ensemble’s repertoire to encompass all of the myriad currents passing through contemporary art music. Mobius Trio has commissioned over three dozen composers in their first few years of existence, and that pace isn’t slowing. Recent commissions include Sergio Assad, Luciano Chessa, and Ryan Brown, with more pieces and collaborations on the way.

Mobius Trio was formed in 2010 by guitarists Robert Nance, Mason Fish, and Matthew Holmes-Linder while studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They started things off with a bang, commissioning and learning five pieces within the span of a couple of months, and performing many of those pieces at Washington, DC’s Kennedy Center the following April. Matt, Rob, and Mason are all accomplished, competition-winning guitarists in their own right, and they all live and work in San Francisco.

Free Admission

More info: https://mobiustrio.com/

Called “outstanding” by the San Francisco Chronicle, “transcendent” by the Charleston City Paper, and “a fully distorted perpetual motion of awesome” by I Care If You Listen, The Living Earth Show (guitarist Travis Andrews and percussionist Andy Meyerson) is a megaphone and canvas for some of the world’s most progressive artists. One of the premiere contemporary chamber arts ensembles in the United States, The Living Earth Show received the grand prize in the SAVVY Chamber Arts Competition and runner-up in the open division of the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, has
commissioned and premiered over 60 new works by some of the most vital composers in the world, and released two critically acclaimed albums, and has performed, lectured, and given masterclasses across the country.

Memorizing every work it performs, The Living Earth Show thrives on pushing the boundaries of technical and artistic possibility in its presentation of commissioned electro-acoustic chamber music. It has presented seasons of commissioned multimedia productions since 2011, working with dance companies, visual artists, sculptors, poets, and other musicians to craft compelling, immersive, San Francisco-centric work. The ensemble has commissioned and premiered works by such composers as Anna Meredith, Timo Andres, Nicole Lizée, M. Lamar, Raven Chacon, Christopher Cerrone, Alireza Mashayekhi, Jacob Cooper, Brian Ferneyhough, Samuel Adams, Ken Ueno, Luciano Chessa, Danny Clay, Sharmi Basu, Ted Hearne, Sarah Hennies, Morgan Craft, Adrian Knight, Ava Mendoza, Alden Jenks, and Zachary James Watkins. Many of these commissions can be found on the group’s critically acclaimed albums High Art (Innova Records, 2013) and Dance Music (New Amsterdam Records, 2016).

The Living Earth Show’s 2018-19 San Francisco season includes several world premiere variable media productions. The first, “Hyphen”, is curated by composer Farnood HaghaniPour and investigates the sonic unification (if any exists) of Iranian musical artists living in Iran and abroad, featuring new works written by Alireza Mashayekhi, Aida Shirazi, Nima Rowshan, and HaghaniPour himself, presented in conjunction with projected video created by Iranian video artists of the composers’ choosing. The second, “American Music”, is a show of works written by eight composers illustrating the range of works created within and about the current borders of the United States. The third, COMMANDO, features works by the ensemble created in collaboration with eight of the most renowned queer and trans vocalists on the west coast, blending rock, metal, spoken word, and chamber music in the service of using traditionally masculine and heteronormative art forms as sites to celebrate and revel in queerness. The final work, “Tremble Staves”, is a multimedia production created for the ensemble by Raven Chacon and will be presented in the waters of Sutro Baths. The Living Earth Show will also release its third album, “Echoes”, created in collaboration with Kronos Quartet and Youth Speaks, and serve as artists in residence at the University of South Carolina and the University of Michigan.

Free Admission

More info: https://thelivingearthshow.com

~Nois is a Chicago-based saxophone quartet that defies categorization by working between the boundary of contemporary classical music and experimental improvisation. Founded in 2016 by graduate students at Northwestern University, ~Nois (pronounced “noise”) has quickly emerged as one of the premier young ensembles dedicated to innovative and engaging performances. Known for
their “masterclass-level demonstrations of precise articulations and glowing legatos” (I Care if You Listen), “truly innovative musicianship,” and “raw creativity” (Cacophony Magazine), ~Nois has been awarded prizes at prestigious chamber music competitions including the Second Prize in the Open Division of the 2018 M- Prize International Chamber Arts Competition, the Silver Medal at the 2017 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, Second Prize at the 2018 North American Saxophone Alliance Quartet Competition, and First Prize at the 2016 Chicago Woodwind Ensemble Competition. ~Nois was invited to be an Ensemble Fellow to the 2018 Blackbird Creative Lab, where they worked closely with fellow Chicago- based ensemble, Eighth Blackbird.

~Nois’ third season features many exciting projects including a residency at the University of Chicago’s Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition. Throughout the academic year, the quartet will collaborate with the composition department’s graduate students and Postdoctoral Researcher Tonia Ko to create an immersive experience connecting music and performance to the design and architecture traditions of Chicago. ~Nois will perform Pulitzer Prize winner William Bolcom’s Concerto Grosso with conductor Dr. Mallory Thompson and the Northshore Concert Band to open the ensemble’s 63rd season. The 2018-2019 season will also see ~Nois twice return to the Frequency Series at Constellation. The first performance in September 2018 will be a collaborative concert with F-PLUS, while the second in June 2019 will feature world premieres of works composed by members of the Chicago Composers’ Consortium. ~Nois will perform with My Brightest Diamond when the band performs at Chicago’s renowned Metro. ~Nois will also join forces with the Zafa Collective to present a collaborative concert at the Fulton Street Collective in February of 2019. Outside of Chicago, ~Nois will travel to Princeton University in November 2018 to perform Gemma Peacocke’s Dwalm at the Princeton Sound Kitchen. ~Nois will also collaborate with three New York City based composers — Nathan Hudson, Howie Kenty, and Ed Rosenberg — to present concerts throughout the city including a performance at Brooklyn’s Areté.

Highlights of previous seasons include performances at the 2018 Omaha Under the Radar Festival, the 2018 Continuum Music Festival in Memphis, the Frequency Series at Constellation in Chicago, New Music Chicago’s Impromptu Fest, and the Irving Park Fine Arts Series. In March of 2018, ~Nois embarked on a five-week-long tour throughout the eastern United States with performances and master classes at Baldwin Wallace University, East Tennessee State University, James Madison University, Lee University, Manhattan School of Music, Tennessee Technological University, and the Universities of Akron, Georgia, Maryland, South Carolina, and Tennessee. During the tour, the quartet performed with the Bang On A Can All- Stars for the U.S. premiere of Michael Gordon’s Big Space at the Big Ears Festival, a multi-genre music festival in Knoxville, TN. ~Nois has also performed with members of Eighth Blackbird, flutist Claire Chase, and singer-songwriter Shara Nova of My Brightest Diamond.

~Nois is Hunter Bockes, János Csontos, Jordan Lulloff, and Brandon Quarles

Free Admission

More info: https://www.noissaxophone.com/

Panic Duo is a Los-Angeles based ensemble dedicated to the performance of music of our time. Featuring violinist Pasha Tseitlin and pianist Nic Gerpe, the Duo’s performances of contemporary music have been described as “exciting”, “virtuosic”, and “irresistible”. Engaging audiences into unfamiliar music through a combination of dialogue and uncompromising musicality, Panic Duo has brought a variety of repertoire to audiences since 2009.

Unique in their facility with works from different styles and periods – classical and contemporary, jazz, modernist, world-music inspired – Panic Duo’s performances feature surprising juxtapositions of works. On the cutting edge of new music, their repertoire includes pieces by John Adams, John Corigliano, Nico Muhly, and Jennifer Higdon, and they have collaborated with composers such as Gernot Wolfgang, Anne LeBaron, Stephen Cohn, Isaac Schankler and Juhi Bansal, commissioning, premiering, and recording new works.

Recent performance highlights include a featured concert on the People Inside Electronics series, including the World Premiere of Anne LeBaron’s Fissure, for violin, piano and electronics, which was commissioned by the Duo. The Duo also gave a concert of World Premieres of works for violin and piano by the composers’ collective Improvisatory Minds, a group dedicated to chamber music written by jazz musicians and consisting of Gernot Wolfgang, Michael Patterson, Ed Neumeister and Bevan Manson. The Duo has performed on the Los Angeles-based new music concert series Tuesdays at Monk Space, and have been featured on the Sundays Live series at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Panic Duo also recently performed the opening concert of the 2013 Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles, to great acclaim. They “wowed the audience… the Festival opened with thunderous applause” (Scott Brennan, Paso Robles Daily News), and “played with great bravado, passion and skill” (Krysta Close, USC Polish Music Center).

Panic Duo have performed at venues including Leo S. Bing Theater at LACMA, the California Center for the Arts, Thayer and Newman Halls in Los Angeles, California State University Los Angeles and Classical Encounters Foundation, and were the artists in residence for the 2013 New Lens Concert Series.

Free Admission

Program

Bird Song (2012) – Vivian Fung

After The Sheepdog Trials (2015) * – Andrew Sigler

Adieux (2018) * – Hugh Levick

Fifteen Ways to Splinter a Sunset (2019) † – Dale Trumbore

errours, faults, sinnes, folies (2012) – Alan Shockley

From Illness to Health (2019) * † – Alexander Miller

with special guest Alexander Miller, electric guitar

Illumination Rounds (1981) – David Lang

*  world premiere

† Panic Duo commission

More info: http://panicduo.com/

EVENT CANCELLED due to the COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The Mivos Quartet, “one of America’s most daring and ferocious new-music ensembles” (The Chicago Reader), is devoted to performing works of contemporary composers and presenting new music to diverse audiences. Since the quartet’s beginnings in 2008 they have performed and closely collaborated with an ever-expanding group of international composers representing
multiple aesthetics of contemporary classical composition. They have appeared on prestigious series such as the New York Phil Biennial, Wien Modern (Austria), the Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Germany), Asphalt Festival (Düsseldorf, Germany), HellHOT! New Music Festival (Hong Kong), Shanghai New Music Week (Shanghai, China), Edgefest (Ann Arbor, MI), Música de Agora na Bahia (Brazil), Aldeburgh Music (UK), and Lo Spririto della musica di Venezia (La Fenice Theater, Italy). Mivos is invested in commissioning and premiering new music for string quartet, striving to work closely with composers over extended periods of time; recently Mivos has collaborated on new works with Sam Pluta (Lucerne Festival Commission), Dan Blake (Jerome Commission), Mark Barden (Wien Modern Festival Commission), Richard Carrick (Fromm Commission), George Lewis (ECLAT Festival Commission), Eric Wubbels (CMA Commission), Kate Soper, Scott Wollschleger, Patrick Higgins (ZS), and poet/musician Saul Williams. Every year, the quartet additionally awards the Mivos/Kanter String Quartet Composition Prize, established to support the work of emerging and mid-career composers, and the I- Creation prize, a competition for composers of Chinese descent. Beyond expanding the string quartet repertoire, Mivos is also committed to working with guest artists, exploring multi-media projects involving live video and electronics, and performing improvised music. In addition to collaborations with the aforementioned Blake and Williams, this has led to performances with artists such as Ambrose Akinmusire, Ned Rothenberg, Timucin Sahin, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and Nate Wooley. The quartet is the recipient of the 2019 Dwight and Ursula Mamlok Prize for Interpreters of Contemporary Music.

In addition to their performance season, Mivos is active in education and has conducted workshops at UC Berkeley, Duke University, CUNY Graduate Center, Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Shanghai Conservatory (China), University Malaya (Malaysia), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory (Singapore), the Hong Kong Art Center, and MIAM University in Istanbul (Turkey).

The members of Mivos are: violinists Olivia De Prato and Maya Bennardo, violist Victor Lowrie Tafoya, and cellist Tyler J. Borden.

More info: https://www.mivosquartet.com/