Avant-garde wind quintet The City of Tomorrow performs a program with custom theatrical lighting design by Alex Deahl. The music of this concert reflects spatial relationships, visual elements, and the divisions between the introverted and the extroverted. Included is Seattle-based composer John Teskes Topographies, a graphic score based on topographical maps, which the quintet will use as a basis for improvisation and movement on stage.
Approaching the delta where contemporary classical music, experimental music, environmentalism, and humanism converge, the City of Tomorrow is a woodwind quintet with unusual ambition. Seeking to give voice to emotions of people living in the world today, the quintet makes music to provide an outlet for our reactions to environmental destruction, endless war, the pixelization of our memories, the overwhelming mass of information collected on humanity every day, and other contemporary issues.
Forging a new identity for the wind quintet in the same way that Kronos Quartet did for strings, the City of Tomorrow commissions new works, seeks relevancy for older compositions from the 20th century, and continues to shatter expectations for a concert of wind chamber music. This frequently means unexpected sounds: conch shell horns, strange timbres coming from double-reed instruments, wails from the French horn, improvisation in the clarinet, and a flute that can whisper, spit, talk, and sigh.
The City of Tomorrow is a touring ensemble that has performed across the U.S. and Canada in venues ranging from concert halls to the Mayo Clinic. The group is the first woodwind quintet to win a gold medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in over ten years and in 2014 was awarded a Classical Commissioning Grant from Chamber Music America. ====================================
Program
Julia Wolfe "On Seven Star Shoes" Kaija Saariaho "Duft" John Teske "Topographies" Jacob Druckman "Delia Contente Che lAlme Beatte"
INTERMISSION
Hildegard Westerkamp - Fantase for Horns II Alex Temple "Thick Line" Esa-Pekka Salonen "Memoria"
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This concert is presented by Spontaneous Combustion New Music Festival, a new model for the presentation of contemporary art music. 3-day available at scnmf.org/cities/portland/
