From the Curator…
I first performed Mauricio Kagel’s Finale on my 21st birthday; it is inextricably linked to my coming of age as a musician and artist. The wild scope of this historical piece of experimental Music Theatre taught me to truly see performers’ bodies, to extend myself and my collaborators beyond perceived limits, and to question the hierarchies that have historically dominated Eurocentric Classical Music. Years later, I learned that a composer hero of mine, Bethany Younge, had written a fascinating article connecting Kagel’s work to contemporary disability studies, exploring how bodies and objects transcend their traditional roles. Her new piece for SMO Beyond/Species points to new futures in music, harnessing the childlike delight of new sounds and experiments, alongside beautifully embodied movement and fully-integrated electronics. It pairs well with her piece Orbits, which will envelop Town Hall Seattle in spatialzed sound through a quartet’s moving bodies and various instrumental PVC extensions.
There’s so much to see in this concert, so we enlisted bass trombonist, actor, director, and dancer C. Neil Parsons (my collaborator of 20 years, and most recently director of SMO’s production of Kate Soper’s Ipsa Dixit.) I’m thrilled for him to join us as a soloist on Frederic Rzewski’s Moonrise with Memories, which features text by Langston Hughes and shimmering cells of shifting tonality and groove. Always conscious of the place of music in society, and questioning hierarchies himself, Rzewski reminds us that: “… music probably cannot change the world. But it is a good idea to act as if it could… At the very least, you stand a chance of producing some good music. And music is always better than no music.”
–Bonnie Whiting, SMO curator, percussionist, and board member
Bonnie Whiting, PC: Titilayo Ayangade
From the Director…
A baton descends, and bows draw across strings. Mallets strike and rebound. Breath animates wood and metal. Gesture becomes sound.
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by the physicality of music-making. As an audience member, I find myself observing the actions of musicians as much as I am listening. As a performer, I chose to play the trombone, in part, for the simple reason that it is a fun instrument to watch.
Much as actors learn to inhabit their roles through the practiced adaptation of their physical and vocal qualities (what some call the “instrument of self”), musicians train themselves to embody a composer’s intentions. They become, in composer Bethany Younge’s words, “bodily agents of sound.”
In Corporeal Worlds, the musicians of the Seattle Modern Orchestra embark on elaborately choreographed rituals of transformation. Our three composer/tour guides employ their own unique strategies for managing (and upending) our expectations, leading us to a heightened state of awareness at each new destination. At the invitation of Mauricio Kagel, Frederic Rzewski, and Bethany Younge, we are urged to awaken our senses, observe our surroundings, and reevaluate the many discrete tasks, precise gestures, coordinated breaths, as well as the very human interactions which make live concert music possible.
– C. Neil Parsons, guest director, choreographer, and soloist
C. Neil Parsons, PC: Andy Batt