Four Songs from The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Sustinui Te

The Digital Honkbox Revival on the Washington State University Faculty Artist Series
Friday, March 1, 8pm
Kimbrough Concert Hall at Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Katherine Crawford, mezzo-soprano and the Digital Honkbox Revival

More information: http://on.fb.me/126r7ND

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RECENT PERFORMANCES

Rondo alla Smirk and Separations: a lament (solo cello)

WSU Festival of Contemporary Art Music – Faculty Composers Concert
Thursday, February 7, 8pm
Bryan Hall Theatre at Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Dr. Ruth Boden, cello

More information: http://libarts.wsu.edu/artmusic/

OCTOBER 2012

Queen of Heaven (piano and electronics)

Western Michigan University
Tuesday, October 30, 7:30pm
Dalton Center Lecture Hall, Kalamazoo, MI, 49008
Kari Johnson, piano and electronics
FREE
Press release HERE
Program HERE (PDF)

Four Songs from The Caucasian Chalk Circle (voice and electronics)

Composer’s Voice Concert, presented by Vox Novus
Sunday, October 28, 1:00pm
Jan Hus Church, 351 East 74th Street, New York, New York 10021-3798
Katherine Crawford, mezzo-soprano; David Morneau, electronics
FREE
More information here:
http://www.voxnovus.com/composersvoice/program/12-10-28.htm 

JULY 2012

Sustinui Te (voice and electronics)

KC Fringe Festival
Saturday, July 28, 10:30pm
La Esquina, Kansas City, MO
Katherine Crawford, mezzo-soprano; Timothy Roy, electronics
Tickets at the door ($10 for the whole evening–five concerts, starting at 9pm!)
More information here:
http://kcmetropolis.org/issue/early-july-2012/article/new-music-festival-debuts-at-the-kc-fringe-festival

APRIL 2012

Sustinui Te (voice and electronics)
Yard Pears (amplified fruit, bass clarinet and electronics [and more!])

Digital Honkbox Revival at University of Iowa Electronic Music Studios
Sunday, April 29, 8pm
Katherine Crawford, mezzo-soprano; Scott Blasco, electronics
The Digital Honkbox Revival, with special guest Rebecca Ashe, flute

FEBRUARY 2012

Four Songs from The Caucasian Chalk Circle (mezzo-soprano and electronics)

WSU Festival of Contemporary Art Music – Faculty Composers Concert
Thursday, February 2, 8pm
Bryan Hall Theatre at Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Sheila Converse, mezzo-soprano; Scott Blasco, electronics

More information: http://libarts.wsu.edu/artmusic/ (not yet updated)

Queen of Heaven (piano and electronics)

WSU Festival of Contemporary Art Music – Electroacoustic Music Concert
Friday, February 3, 3:00pm
Kimbrough Concert Hall at Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Kari Johnson, piano; Scott Blasco, electronics

Press release HERE
More information: http://libarts.wsu.edu/artmusic/

Queen of Heaven (piano and electronics)

Montana State University – Guest Artist Recital
Sunday, February 5, 7:30pm
Reynolds Recital Hall at Montana State University, Bozeman, MT
Kari Johnson, piano; TBA, electronics

Press release HERE
More information: http://www.montana.edu/wwwmusic/concerts/

DECEMBER 2011

Queen of Heaven (piano and electronics)

Kari Johnson Doctoral Piano Recital
Sunday, December 4, 2:30pm
James White Recital Hall at University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO
Kari Johnson, piano; Richard Johnson, electronics

More information: UMKC Conservatory Performances

I posted the following on FB last night, and as it seems to have gotten the attention (both favorable and not) of some fellow musicians in the last 24 hours, I thought I’d share it here, as well:

So I was musing to myself. Mozart wrote the Prague Symphony (1786) 44 years before Berlioz wrote “Symphonie Fantastique” (1830). Another 44 years to the last of Wagner’s Ring cycle (Götterdämmerung, 1874). 50ish more to the first works for theremin (1920s), and another 40ish to Terry Riley’s “In C” (1964), which itself is now almost 50 years old. It’s remarkable that so many musicians in 2012 still think of pieces like “Le Sacre du Printemps” (1913) or Webern’s Symphony Op. 21 (1928) as adventurous programming. That would be like Brahms thinking it was really hardcore to drop some Mozart, or Mozart getting craaaazy by busting out a little Buxtehude.

 

And that’s what I do to put off doing other things. I should go to bed.

Kari Johnson’s recording of Queen of Heaven is now available for streaming and purchase on Irritable Hedgehog’s website! Digital download alone is $5, CD (and instant download) $7… and as with all of Irritable Hedgehog’s recordings, you can listen online for free.

Many thanks to Kari and the Irritable Hedgehog family for all of the work that they put into this recording. It sounds simply amazing!

Exciting news: Queen of Heaven will be recorded in August by Kari Johnson for a late 2011 release on Irritable Hedgehog!

Kari is, of course, the pianist who both commissioned and premiered the work, so it is fantastic that she will be able to make the first recording of it as well. She has a recording of the premiere performance posted (at least for the moment) on her SoundCloud page here, if you’d like to hear more than the two movements I’ve posted on my own. It was a very demanding piece to write, and very rewarding as it came together, and Kari has been completely wonderful to work with throughout the whole process.

Details forthcoming, but you can watch Irritable Hedgehog’s Twitter and Facebook pages for updates on this and other great projects. Seems they always have something interesting up their prickly sleeves…

Queen of Heaven (piano and electronics)
@ KcEMA: Unity
Saturday, April 16, 7:30pm
Unity Temple on the Plaza, Kansas City, MO
Kari Johnson, piano; Richard Johnson, electronics

$10, students $5

More information:
http://www.kcema.net/

Location:
Unity Temple on the Plaza
707 West 47th Street
Kansas City, Missouri
http://www.unitytemple.com

Program note:
The Blessed Virgin Mary has been an object of devotion and a source of comfort and inspiration to Christians from the earliest years of their history. Throughout this time, many artists and musicians have dedicated their efforts to her reverence, adding their voices to the generations who have ever called her “blessed.”

Each of the five movements of Queen of Heaven is in a sense conceived as an icon: each concerns itself with a single idea, turning it over and over, meditating on it from different angles. The first movement, “Hail, Holy Queen,” imagines the greeting of the Virgin by the hosts of angels, in enormous, sonorous and terrifying voices like immense chimes. The second and fourth movements each take their inspiration from titles for Mary: “Full-of-Grace” from kecharitomene, the Greek word of greeting spoken by the Archangel Gabriel in Luke 1:28; and “The-One-Who-Gives-Birth-To-God” from Theotokos, an ancient Mariological title used in liturgical contexts. These two are divided by “The Unburnt Bush,” based on an icon of the same title that connects the Virgin and the burning bush of Exodus, as expressed in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom: “Let us honor the Pure Theotokos! She accepted the Fire of Divinity in her womb but was not consumed!” The fifth and final movement returns to the heavenly setting of the first, now drawing its imagery from Revelation 12: “And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

Yard Pears (bass clarinet, amplified pears, electronics)
@ Exchange of Midwestern Collegiate Composers
Friday, April 8, 8pm – FREE
UMKC Student Union Theatre, Kansas City, MO
Brad Baumgardner, bass clarinet and fruit; Scott Blasco, electronics and fruit

More information:
EMCC website and KCMETROPOLIS

Location:
UMKC Student Union
5100 Cherry Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64110
816.235.1411

Program note:
“Yard Pears is a collaboratively composed structured improvisation for bass clarinet, electronics, and amplified pears from the backyard of a friend’s former neighbor. Brad and Scott have both been offered these pears in the past, which Scott ate and Brad gave away. Given that yard’s inaccessibility, the grocery store has provided our fruit instruments for tonight’s performance. The work itself explores gestural and timbral transformations at the nexus of live bass clarinet, live processing and sampling, and the amplification and abuse of fruit.”

Elegy (string quartet)
Friday, February 18, 8pm
10th Floor Performance Space, Riverside Church
Locrian Chamber Players

More information:
http://locrian.org

Location:
490 Riverside Drive
New York, New York 10027
212-870-6700

De Profundis
@ UMKC Composers Guild Concert
Wednesday, December 1, 7:30pm, White Hall (address below)

@ Kevin Maret doctoral percussion recital
Sunday, December 5, 5:00pm, White Hall

Location:
James C. Olsen Performing Arts Center
University of Missouri-Kansas City
4949 Cherry St.
Kansas City, MO 64110

For both performances, the performers will be:
Hayes Bunch, conductor
Katie Woolf, soprano
Katherine Crawford, mezzo-soprano
Jedd Schneider, tenor
Grace Lai, flute
Sharra Wagner, clarinet
Paul Roberts, horn
Brendan Bondurant, electric guitar
Brian Padavic, electric bass
Kevin Maret, drum set
Spencer Jones, glockenspiel
Chris Howard, vibroaphone
Kari Johnson, piano
Katie Benyo, violin
Lizz Hougland, viola
Stamos Martin, cello

Four Songs from The Caucasian Chalk Circle
@ SCI Region V Conference
Friday, October 2, 2:00pm, Denkmann Hall
Augustana College, Rock Island, IL
Katherine Crawford, mezzo-soprano; fixed-media electronics

Four Songs from The Caucasian Chalk Circle
@ Electronic Music Midwest 2010 Festival
Saturday, October 16, 5:00pm
Lewis University, Romeoville, IL
Katherine Crawford, mezzo-soprano; fixed-media electronics

My favorite piece of the night was the most “traditional” even though the accompaniment was computerized. The song cycle Four Songs from the Caucasian Chalk Circle, written by Scott Blasco and performed by versatile mezzo-soprano, Katherine Crawford.  Originally written for a theater group performing the Bertolt Brecht play by the same name, and it was, in my opinion, nothing less than phenomenal.

Read it all here.