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Howling Winds

All right here is the show as promised!
Below you will find the program and each of the six pieces (plus a really fun encore!) listed in order. Click on the program to enlarge and see more information.  Hit the back arrow of your browser to exit this view.
In the bottom right corner of each video, you will find an HD option and a full screen option. Toggle these as your device allows.

Howling Winds was a blast to perform, and I am excited to finally share it with all of you!
Thanks again to Patricia, Blair, Anita and Rene for making this show happen.
Enjoy!

 

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New Piece, Updates and Extended Horizons Project Volume II

Hello all – It’s well into January now, and that means it’s time for Extended Horizons Project Volume II!  To start the season off, I have posted two of the videos that I used for grad school applications. Take a listen and keep your fingers crossed for me…

The first video is of an improvisation with Katie Levine on piano and Julio Lopez on violin.  Thanks so much Julio and Katie for lending me your fantastic musicianship!

The second video is of a piece I wrote called ‘Spectrum.’  This is my latest piece, composed for flute alone.  The piece uses primarily multiphonic tremolos and takes some of its inspiration from Seattle’s own Neil Welch.  The form of the piece is modeled after traditional jazz improvisation, minus the changes.  There is a ‘head’ at the beginning and a modified repetition of it at the end, with the middle section being an improvisation using the material in the head as a guide and point of departure.  There will be a better quality audio version on SoundCloud soon.  Hope you all are having a wonderful winter, and thanks for listening.

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Eric Barber & friends: Hush

Fall is officially here, and already it’s a busy one.  As you all know, I was lucky enough to have the chance to perform with Eric Barber at the Chapel last night.  It was a quiet gig; the theme of the evening was to explore the possibilities of the dynamic range from mf (medium-loud) and below.  Also, there were three people in the audience.  But it was a lot of fun, and man does it sound good in there.  I wish I could practice in the Chapel…

The performance was entirely free improvisation and included Carmen Rothwell on bass, Mike Gebhart on percussion, Christian Pincock, trombone and of course Eric Barber on saxophones. Please check these fabulous musicians out.

Thanks so much Maggie for coming out hear us play!

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Upcoming Gig: the Chapel

Alright, here we are into September already.  Growing spiders lurk in trees next to solitary yellow leaves and, despite the lingering warm temperatures, there is a subtle bite in the air.  School has started (for those who are still stuck going!) and the Autumn Equinox is less than two weeks away.  And on September 27th, I will performing at The Chapel Performance Space with the wonderful Eric Barber.  Here is the text from the listing on http://www.waywardmusic.org/event/eric-barber/:

HUSH – music of the lower decibel persuasion

 

We’ll be creating some beautiful improvisations in the Chapel that will focus on the wide dynamic range from medium to quite quiet. Featuring Carmen Rothwell, bass; Mike Gebhart, percussion; Christian Pincock, trombone; Ammon Swinbank, flutes; and Eric Barber, saxophones.

Here is more about Eric Barber: http://www.ericbarbermusic.com/.  I will be very grateful to all those who are able to make it out to this event.  It will be the first time that I perform at The Chapel, and I look forward to it with eager anticipation.

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Extended Horizons, 9.5.2014

For this weeks post, I have uploaded an improvisation based on some material for a flute solo I am currently working on.  The materials included are pitch bends, altered timbres and my latest obsession: multiphonic tremoli (you have probably heard these in my previous posts).  Most of the sounds in this piece are based on the fingering for low B with different keys either vented or trilled, or both.  I have managed to scrawl a rough draft of this piece finally, and perhaps soon there will be a post of the piece itself.  In the meantime this improvisation will hold its place.  

 

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Extended Horizons, 9.1.2014

For this improvisation I used a new fingering I learned that readily lends itself to some pretty cool multiphonic tremoli.  I enjoyed exploring this fingering in washes of sound and then making little melodies out of the fingering and similar ones.  The style of the tremolo-multiphonics is inspired by Neil Welch, from whom I was very fortunate to receive a lesson a couple of weeks ago.

Please enjoy 🙂

 

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Extended Horizons with Julio Lopez 8.25.2014

So I have already broken two of my own rules: first of all, this track is late, having been posted on Monday instead of Saturday.  I have an excuse!  I’ve been super busy and really tired!  (Yeah, yeah, excuses excuses.  All ya had to do was post the track!)

The second broken rule is the one of time.  This one is seven minutes long – but it’s worth it.  For this recording, I was lucky enough to have, at my place one week ago today, the fabulous violinist and composer Julio Lopez (look him up at https://soundcloud.com/juliolopez-11).  It was the first time we had ever played together outside of class, and the first time we had done a free improvisation together.  We did several that day, and the one I present before you is the cream of that delicious crop.  There were times when it was very hard to play because I wanted to grin so badly – Julio has a way of playing exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment.  The effect is divine.  Now, if only I could smile while playing the flute…

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Extended Horizons, 8.16.2014

Here it is August already, and school is about to start.  Not that I will be going this year – instead, I am busy putting together my portfolio to apply for Grad School.  I am not sure what my Master’s will actually be in, but I do know that one way or another I will be studying composition, improvisation and the flute.  I could end up in Northern California, Southern California or even New York.  So stay tuned, there will be more about that process to come.  In the meantime, here is the first official installment of Extended Horizons.  For this improvisation, I used an unconventional fingering that produces several different multiphonics.  With this fingering, and similar ones, I created a kind of ‘bamboo’ melody which I then interspersed with tremolo sections in which I experimented with some of the multiple tones that can be produced by this fingering.  I recorded this improvisation on the top floor of Kerry Hall at Cornish College of the Arts, the same room in which Nellie Cornish slept when she still ran the school.  This isn’t the most ideal for practicing because it makes you sound so good, but it worked well for recording, because it made me sound pretty good!  So while the sun set over glittering blue-grey Seattle, I played this little number for you….