Composer Highlight: Adam Roberts

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! We are so excited to be playing Adam Roberts' Shift Differential  twice this week! It is a beautiful piece that is surprisingly short and will definitely leave you wanting more. If you are in Boston today you should come on out to hear us and the enchanting Lilit Hartunian (violin + electronics) at The Record Company (960 Mass St.). 

Now it is time to meet Adam and see what he has to tell us about himself, his piece, and his snacking habits!

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What was the inspiration for this piece?

In the back of mind was the texture of Indian alap. I am interested in small inflections, little expressive glissandi. The opening material reflects that inspiration. I was also interested in creating a background texture with very quiet harmonics in the opening, a thin layer of background paint, so to speak.

What are you most excited for this spring?

I am excited for the weather to warm up and to spend more time walking comfortably outside and hanging out in parks! I've recently moved to NYC and love walking aimlessly, getting to know new streets, blocks, areas. Spring will make that by far more pleasant. 

What is your favorite and/or least favorite thing about writing for the violin/viola combo?

Strings are so flexible, able to produce sounds of great delicacy and aggression. I love the range of expression of strings. This duo in particular offers an extensive pitch range with a lot of registral overlap. I appreciate the melding, super-instrument qualities of this duo. 

SNACKS! Give us some fresh ideas. What are you snacking on these days?

I keep a bag of apples and peanut butter around. It's a quick hit of sugar and protein that allows me to keep working without too much of a break on busy days.

Tell us something we don't know (about you, about your music, or about the world in general).

I just returned to the States after four years of living and teaching in Istanbul. Many musicians and friends end up in NYC, and I'm enjoying meeting people again after, in some cases, 10, 15, or more years from all periods of my life—from childhood, university, music festivals, etc. And I enjoy making new friends as well!

If you want to check out more stuff by Adam (and you should!) take a look at his website! 

http://adamrobertscomposer.com/

Composer Highlight: Brooks Frederickson

photo cred: Melody Loveless

Welcome to concert week with andPlay! We had a really fun time yesterday at the New Music Bake Sale both performing and (wo)manning a booth. Tomorrow we will be in Boston performing on the Times Two Series run by Robert Honstein and Maria Finkelmeier. It will be a split show with our dear violinist friend, Lilit Hartunian, and it is shaping up to be a mega-good time! If you are in Boston on March 17th and want to hear some great music hit up our show at The Record Company (960 Mass Ave.) at 8 PM!

Now it is time for you to meet the wonderful composer and our good friend, Brooks Frederickson. We will be playing his piece Contact Is Truth on the both the Boston show and on March 19th in NYC at the Cornelia St. Cafe as part of the Contagious Sounds series. Get to know Brooks a bit better, and then come out to a show and hear his piece!

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What was the inspiration for this piece?

The title comes from a piece of graffiti that I use to pass on my way home from work. I thought "Contact is Truth" was a strange thing to write - not strange, but ya know most graffiti is swear words, but this was sort of sweet, sort of naive.  

What are you most excited for this spring?

I'm thinking of buying a new bike for the Spring. Maybe I'll do that before the bike stores raise their prices. 

What is your favorite and/or least favorite thing about writing for the violin/viola combo?

I like how sometimes you can't tell who is playing what. It makes it seem like the music is coming from somewhere else, like it's not the players who are making the music, but the combination of the players somehow makes the music happen. 

SNACKS! Give us some fresh ideas. What are you snacking on these days?

Sweet: Pat Swoboda's Girl Scout cookies that he forgot about in our freezer. Savory: Chips and salsa. 

Tell us something we don't know (about you, about your music, or about the world in general).

When I first moved to the city, the only job I could find was working in a Kale Chip factory in Brooklyn. It was terrible.

To check out more of Brooks' music head on over to his website! 

http://www.brooksfrederickson.com/

Composer Highlight: Nicholas DeMaison

Don't let this photo scare you away! Nick is great, and we are thrilled to share his music with you tonight! He is also a wackadoodle and we highly recommend chatting with him at the show--you are bound to leave with some fun anecdotes and a smile on your face. 

Read his answers to our questions, and savor them, for this is the last composer highlight of 2014! 

Also, today is the day that we have all been waiting for! The show is TONIGHT at 8 PM at Cloud City (Williamsburg, Brooklyn).  We will be on the first half at 8, and the lovely and brilliant Fragments Duo is up on the second half. They will be playing music by Eric Shanfield, Lisa Bielawa, and Gyorgy Kurtag. Definitely now to be missed!

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Can you describe your piece in three words?

Actually, I think the title of the piece is three words: 

from perfect nowhere

That's rather convenient, wouldn't you say?

But wait - you were looking for something more insightful - so let's turns that into a haiku, because that has 3 lines, which is kind of like three words, and what better way to infuse a useless response with deep and profound insight:

it's so convenient

my title is three words long:

from perfect nowhere

Now you can use all of the words that you want!

The title is a part of a line of an e.e. cummings poem. Don't tell his publisher, please. Maybe he's old fashioned by now, but I still really like the way cummings treats language as a kind of raw material - introducing chaos into what seem to be structures intended to provide organization, using organizational structures to clarify and to confuse, the play between sound and meaning, etc. etc. He's like the Grisey of poetry, in a way. (Don't make me defend that statement.) I try to think about sound and musical organization in a similar way - a (hopefully interesting) play between familiar patterns of organization, bits of chaos, and toying with what it is that seems to be providing the organization and what it is that seems to be in chaos. 

The piece develops out of the idea of vibrato. It's just a sound that is a given part of string playing...one might say it's the first "intentional sound" that comes out the perfect nowhere of a straight tone drawn on a string. 

But that's a very "composerly" response. Probably I should say something about a supernova, or bending time, or the need for groovey-ness, or socioeconomic realities. Yup - all of that.  

What inspired you while writing this piece?

Why, the TWO OF YOU did, of course! 

Well, you two and the very regular calendar imposed on me by my teaching schedule that demands I work when I must. 

What are you listening to on repeat these days?

http://auroranealand.com/store/

Buy their CD! Yes! Buy it! 

What is your go-to midnight snack?

Corn tortillas toasted in the toaster oven and slathered with peanut butter. Or with cheese. But generally not both.

Any fun winter travel plans? Bundled up, bathing suited up, or staying put?

Troy, NYC, Rochester, NYC, Troy, NYC....just big circles on the New York State Thruway. Aren't you jealous?

Composer Highlight: Robert Honstein

It has been such a blast working with Rob on his new piece for us! We had a great rehearsal together even though he lives in Boston--Skype and the powers of the internet are so magical!

Read his words, have some chocolate and/or whiskey, and then come hear us play the entire dynamic spectrum in his piece Talking in Circles (Wednesday, Dec. 17th at Cloud City @ 8 PM)!

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Can you describe your piece in three words?

fast, slow, fast

Now you can use all of the words that you want!

Do I have to? I kind of like the three word description. Ok, fine. So, Talking in Circles is a conversation that becomes an argument. Two characters are in dialogue, talking but not agreeing. They repeat arguments, making the same points in different ways. There is progress, but ultimately the conversation goes nowhere. In three movements –Give and Take, At odds, Agree to Disagree – the pieces traces this evolution. Give and Take features an exchange, a constant back and forth between the instruments. At Odds, is a standoff. Lines have been drawn. Each side pleas their case, but their cries fall on deaf ears. Finally, in Agree to Disagree the pair are at an impasse. There is some common ground. The musicians find a way to come together, but it is an obstinate unity, a begrudging acceptance of differences

What inspired you while writing this piece?

This is an interesting question because it was never really meant to be a 'piece' in the first place! Each of the movements were kind of homeless scraps, studies, or leftovers from other projects: the first movement contains material that later became a string quartet; the second movement was originally a violin/cello duo that never really had a home in the first place; and the third movement is material that became part of a larger ensemble piece. When I first saw you guys play a year or so ago I thought a) I want to work with these guys! and b) maybe I can find a home for music that I really liked but didn't necessarily have a clear place to live. Then I got to thinking about how/why/if the movements belonged together and I felt like they all had a conversational quality and that idea of dialogue seemed perfectly suited to a duo, so I got really into thinking about each movement as a different take on argument and disagreement, which I think makes sense and is definitely in the music. 

What are you listening to on repeat these days?

There is a three minute piece called 'Liebeslied' by Hans Abrahamsen that I've been obsessed with recently. It's really simple but extremely beautiful. I absolutely love the sound and color, particularly how he takes what essentially is a single-line scrap of melody but makes it sound like so much more. In a slightly different vein I've also really fallen for an album called 'Purcur' by these Norwegian guys Trygve Seim and Andreas Utnem. It's definitely a 'jazz' album but it's incredibly spare and hyper focused on melody and capturing really subtle expressive things like breath and release of notes. Everything feels so well placed and considered. It's also just beautifully recorded so you kind of feel like you are inside the sound at all times. Wonderful winter, headphone music.

What is your go-to midnight snack?

whiskey and/or chocolate

Any fun winter travel plans? Bundled up, bathing suited up, or staying put?

A little of both! Hitting up the family in New Jersey and then Florida. Otherwise it's all bundles and composing up in Boston. 

Check out more of Rob's works on his website! http://www.roberthonstein.com/