April 14, 2012
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| Cristina Valdés |
Mano a Mano: an evening of contemporary piano music by Latin American composers
Poncho Concert Hall - Cornish College of the Arts - Seattle
Tiento VI - German Cáceras
Simurg - Mario Lavista
Tres Piezas para piano - Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann
oscurecimiento gradual - Orlando Jacinto Garcia
Mano a Mano - Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
I was turning pages for Cristina, so my attention was on matters other than simple enjoyment. The choice of these pieces, of these composers, and of this ethnic segment of the repertoire, without shoving it in our faces, make it clear that the chosen ethnic segment is anything but a monolith, that the featured composers are vibrantly musical, and that the pieces are glimpses of a vast and manifold wealth of deeply engaged musical thinking over on the other side of our shamefully militarized border. I very much appreciate Cristina's able championship of this music. It is my understanding that she has recorded most, if not all, of these pieces. I eagerly await the finished recordings!
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| Adrienne Varner |
Adrienne Varner
Chapel Performance Space - Good Shepherd Center - Seattle
Ellie - Jarrad Powell
In A Landscape - John Cage
Tara's Love Will Melt the Sword - Janice Giteck
Opening - Philip Glass
Prelude - Jarrad Powell
Three Irish Legends (I. and III.) - Henry Cowell
Sugar Cubes - Bunita Marcus
Until a week ago this concert was to have been shared with Tiffany Lin, who unfortunately had to bow out due to a hand injury. Rather than cancel, Adrienne stepped up to the plate and put on a full show with very little warning. Well done!
I was glad to hear how well our local composers shone amidst their more widely known colleagues. Janice's set of four short pieces were fragmentary patternings of sonorous figures, richly textured fabric scraps, musics not of propulsion or drama, but of inhabitance and empathy. Jarrad's Ellie was puckish and fey, looking at us from an upside-angle, while his Prelude (my favorite piece of the evening) was like an artist's palette in which some inscrutably chosen array of color-layers has been slipped askew.
I was not a big fan of Philip Glass before, and I'm still not.
In A Landscape is proof again of Cage's early fascination with keyboard figuration, as though some scrap of Satie had been left to bleach in the sun for 50 years. Can there really be anything left when there was nothing there to begin with? Cowell is big and splashy, always fun to hear, and Bunita Marcus's Sugar Cubes is (are?) tiny and careful - an interesting choice to finish with.
Adrienne is an excellent pianist, but a young performer, and it feels like she's still searching for a comfortable sense of herself as a physical presence on stage. Her fall-back persona last night was, for want of a better description, 'student recitalist'. For my money that has got to go. It has a tendency to put the audience into 'student recital' mode, with all its attendant judgmental ickiness. It isn't necessary either, since she plays quite well, and with obvious affection and sympathy for her chosen repertoire (big thumbs up for local music!) I am sure that with experience will come confidence, allowing us to see more fang now and then. I hope she visits Seattle often!
Recorded
April 16, 2002
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| Eckstein Middle School |
My oldest son attended Eckstein Middle School in Seattle. By far the best part of the experience was the superb music program run by Moc Escobido. Many of these kids went on to the award-winning jazz programs at Roosevelt and Garfield. This is the sampler disk from the 2004-2005 school year.
Banned Rehearsal 776 - (June 2010, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, and Neal Meyer)
The 26th Bannediversary. An assembly of parts, a bell rung, fed back into realms of pressure quanta punctuated: an accumulation of pointednesses.
April 17, 2002
Glory Glory Glory Glory to the Lamb - Kentucky Ramblers
Walking To New Orleans - Fats Domino
I Got You Babe - Sonny & Cher
Incandescent by sheer dumb luck.
Walk Awhile - Fairport Convention
Jealous Again - Black Flag
maleloquence.
April 18, 2002
Banned Sectional 3 KEE NWM - (May 1985, Keith Eisenbrey and Neal Meyer)
An improv session at which only two are in attendance was early on dubbed a sectional, rather than a full rehearsal. We had at the very least an agreed upon a starting point, vocalizing on a single pitch (something like a C-sharp), easing into multi-phonic space. Looking back we must have planned this out pretty carefully, because 20 minutes in we start plucking on ukulele and mono-chord, and everything is tuned to the same C-sharp. I can't remember what the mechanics were, but we also had a subtle feedback system in place, bringing forward the standing waves.
April 19, 2002
Banned Rehearsal 237 - (November 1990, Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt)
All bell (h)reeks loose. Triumphal stampede in tambourine overdrive. The Funmaker finds the funny chord (haywire flat five, I think). Grand!
April 20, 2002
Psalm 22:9-10 - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, soprano
Gathered Songs Test Mixes - Keith Eisenbrey - Karen Eisenbrey, soprano
Various slices of a recording session in May of 2005.
In Session at The Tintinabulary
April 16, 2010
Gradus 210 - Neal Meyer
The paths through these points are not straight.
Upcoming
Friday May 4, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Seattle Composers Salon - The Chapel Performance space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
I will be playing Emily Doolittle's Minute Etudes Book 1.
Saturday June 23, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
music by Emily Doolittle, Keith Eisenbrey, Aaron Keyt, and J. K. Randall
Saturday October 13, 2012 concert begins at 8:00 PM
Keith Eisenbrey - piano recital at The Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle
Preludes in Seattle Part 4: Preludes by Ken Benshoof, Keith Eisenbrey, Lockrem Johnson, and Greg Short
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