We’re thrilled to be performing for the 2017 Third Practice festival at University of Richmond.
Program:
Lily Chen, Hypochondriasis
Leah Reid, Ring, Resonate, Resound
Judith Shatin, for the fallen
Sophia Chen, The Unveiling: I. Metallum II. Crystallum
D. Edward Davis, singer
Angelica Negron, Dust
Mary Kouyoumdjian, Two Suitcases
Tracy Nguyen, Self-Defining
In celebration of Interlochen’s Steve Reich Festival, we’ll be joining Third Coast Percussion for a performance of Music for 18 Musicians and Sextet.
Will Oldham and Bryce Dessner join us for a performance featuring the music of Frederic Rzewski, Julius Eastman, Will Oldham, and Bryce Dessner. For more information, visit https://ntlhomecoming.com/tickets/
Program:
Bryce Dessner: Murder Ballades
I. Omie Wise
II. Young Emily
III. Wave the Sea
IV. Brushy Fork
Bryce Dessner: Down in the Willow Garden
Frederic Rzewski: Coming Together
Bonnie Prince Billy Songs TBD
Julius Eastman: Stay on It
Annually at the end of June, The Lab brings together a number of artists and resources for an intense two-week immersion set on a secluded campus setting at the Besant Hill school in Ojai, California:
- 30 Tuition-Free Fellowships, inclusive of room and board – 24 instrumentalists and 6 composers will be invited to participate each year based on their talent, technical proficiency, ability to communicate, personality, curiosity and creativity.
- 9 Faculty – The 6 members of Eighth Blackbird will be joined by 2 professional composers and 1 choreographer/director at the top of their field.
- Guest Artists – Periodic and ongoing visits by creative experts in a diverse array of fields will added based on the selected fellows’ creative project proposals.
- Key Partners – The Besant Hill School will provide the facilities and community connections that allow The Lab to achieve its lofty artistic, educational and audience engagement goals.
- Over the course of the two-week experience, fellows will participate in:
- Coaching Sessions – Daily two-hour sessions led by faculty and guests
- Salon Hours – Gatherings before dinner for informal performances, cocktails and other non-musical activities
- Guest Lectures – Structured and unstructured opportunities to talk about a variety of musical and professional development topics with faculty and guests
- Individual Practice – Time for fellows to practice and study on their own
- Performances – Two culminating public performances to be captured on video
The Lab’s mission is to inspire the next generation of performers and composers to share in the ensemble’s vision: to champion a distinctive, dynamic and engaging performance aesthetic. This intensive, human-centered experience will immerse lab fellows in a learn-by-doing, exploratory process of creating new work. By discovering and developing an audacious curatorial vision, lab fellows will be launched on their paths as provocateurs and visionaries in the arts.
Help support the Lab by donating here: https://www.blackbirdcreativelab.org/donate/fund-a-fellow/
The Blackbird Creative Lab is supported in part by the Colburn Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.
Click here for a full schedule of the festival, and for more information.
Sounds of Future’s Past
Sponsored by James Tocco
John Novacek, Philip Setzer, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins, Callisto Quartet, Blackbird Creative Lab (~Nois, Juxtatonal and The Furies), Eighth Blackbird
Join us for a celebration of the past, present and future of composition featuring the Callisto Quartet’s world premiere performance of a work by Stone Composer Fellow Annika K. Socolofsky; Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 3 featuring Philip Setzer, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins and John Novacek; and selections from some of contemporary music’s most applauded composers performed by modern-classical superstars, Eighth Blackbird.
PRELUDE: LIGETI | String Quartet No. 1
Callisto Quartet
ANNIKA KALE SOCOLOFSKY |the meantime (WORLD PREMIERE)
BRAHMS | Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60
LUDWIG | Josquin Microludes
NEUWIRTH | …ad auras…in memoriam H.
DEWHIRST | #nofilter
CUONG | Electric Aroma
Re-Generations
James Tocco, Leila Josefowicz, Philip Setzer, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins, Blackbird Creative Lab (~Nois, Juxtatonal and The Furies), Eighth Blackbird, Ivalas Quartet, Thalea String Quartet
Eighth Blackbird returns for a performance of all things contemporary featuring works by Stone Composer-in-Residence Sarah Kirkland Snider, Annika Kale Socolofsky and Viet Cuong. Plus, witness a Festival showstopper as Leila Josefowicz, Philip Setzer, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins and members from the Thalea String Quartet and Eighth Blackbird combine for a cross-generational performance of Shostakovich’s Two Pieces for String Octet.
PRELUDE: SHOSTAKOVICH | String Quartet No. 3 in F major, Op. 73
Thalea String Quartet
DVOŘÁK | Waltzes, Op. 54
SNIDER | Chrysalis
SOCOLOFSKY | Who Am I To Say?
SNIDER | You Are Free
SOCOLOFSKY | Don’t Say a Word
CUONG | Prized Possessions
BRAHMS | Trio for Clarinet (Viola), Cello and Piano in A minor, Op. 114
SHOSTAKOVICH | Two Pieces for String Octet, Op. 11
Audio/Visual
Sponsored by High Wire Lab
Eighth Blackbird, Blackbird Creative Lab
Join Eighth Blackbird for a celebration of the Blackbird Creative Lab, a summer program Eighth Blackbird initiated in 2017. Eighth Blackbird will be joined by three lab alumni groups — ~Nois, Juxtatonal (who formed at the Lab in 2017) and The Furies — in a performance featuring several lab alumni composers who represent some of the most innovative and appealing voices of a new generation: Gemma Peacocke, Molly Joyce, Nina Shekhar, Fjola Evans and Danny Clay. The evening will start with Björk’s The Pleasure is All Mine and culminate in a performance of Julius Eastman’s seminal 1971 work, Stay On It, performed by everyone.
BJÖRK | The Pleasure is All Mine
PEACOCKE | Dwalm
PEACOCKE | Cicada
JOYCE | Less is More
CLAY/PARK/PARK | Opposites
SHEKHAR | Food Fight
EVANS | Eroding
EASTMAN | Stay On It