Garth Knox at Harvard - Catalyst online

On Valentine's day, Garth Knox gave a great viola recital in Paine Hall, at Harvard Music Department.

My friend Edgar Barroso is the first composer to post a video of his piece. It is called Catalyst.

Listen to and download a mp3 version of the recording from Edgar's Catalyst web page.

The team of composers

During the dress rehearsal on Saturday afternoon, Edgar took a picture of all the composers. From left to right: Bert Van Herck, José-Luis Hurtado, Jean-François Charles, Tolga Yayalar, Adam Roberts, professor Hans Tutschku, soloist Garth Knox, Sasha Siem, Dominique Schaffer, and Edgar Barroso. Only composer Josiah Oberholtzer is missing from this shot.

Thanks Edgar!

Garth Knox - New Music for Viola at Harvard

You are invited to the second Harvard Group for New Music concert of the year, starring Garth Knox. The concert is taking place on Saturday, February 14th, in Paine Hall, Harvard Music Building, at 8pm. Free admission.

The concert will feature new compositions for solo viola by Edgar Barroso, José Luis Hurtado, Josiah Oberholtzer, Adam Roberts, Dominique Schafer, Sasha Siem, Bert Van Herck, and Tolga Yayalar. For my part, I composed Lapalu, a new work for viola and live electronics. Last Saturday, I wrote program notes.

Program notes

Lapalu, for viola and live electronics, with interactive video art by Ean White

Lapalu was inspired by the Alpine Marsh Violet, a perennial forb of the genus Viola. This flower inhabits moist meadows and marshes. It is the feast of the Fritillary butterfly.
Lapalu is a chamber music work for Viola, Live Electronics, and Interactive Video Art. It has taken its present form after a fertile improvisation session with Garth Knox on October 13th, 2008, and several meetings with Ean White in the Fall. The interaction with both artists incited me to leave much freedom in the parts. I am glad that the work benefits from their talents for creation and improvisation.
Lapalu is based on a simple musical formula. To see sketches and excerpts from the score, visit my blog www.jeanfrancoischarles.com
Lapalu’s sister work is Viola palustris, a flugelhorn concerto. Alea III, a 15-instrument ensemble, will premiere the piece in the Tsai Performance Center, in Boston, on Monday, March 23rd.
Make sure you visit Ean White’s web site: www.incendiaryarts.org

Update

Feb. 12th. Well, the video won't be part of this first performance. But Ean and I will work on making that happen for another version of the piece. I'll let you know...

David Fiuczynski at Harvard

I am thrilled to announce that the next guest of the Harvard Group for New Music Colloquium Series is Dave Fiuczynski. He is not only a virtuoso guitar player, but also a professor, a composer, a producer, and more.

I wanted him to be invited because he is a true creator of new music. He has been playing fretless and microtonal guitars for years. More importantly, he has incorporated microtonality in a contemporary music context, both in melodic and harmonic ways. For instance, listen to Moonring Bacchanal on this page: KiF Express. I strongly encourage you to listen to his most recent album, Kif Express on amazon. Here is an excerpt from the allaboutjazz review:

Kif Express places Fuze beyond cutting-edge, as a conceptualist of daunting capabilities and unwavering vision and one of the instrument's continuously consistent innovators.

Picture CC by Hiromi Uehara

Fretless Guitar with multiple colors

On this video on archive.org, check out when David explains how he plays with different sound colors: sitar, oud, slide guitar...

There is a nice picture of a 1/6th tone guitar in this thread on thegearpage forum.

Finally, here is an interesting interview, combined with concert excerpts. Forget about the microtones, enjoy the music!