Oct
06
Thu October 6th, 2016
7:00PM
Main Space
Minimum Age: All Ages
Doors Open: 6:00PM
Show Time: 7:00PM
Event Ticket: $15 / $20
Day of Show: $20 / $25
free for members
Table Seating: $20 advance, $25 day of show
Standing Room: $15 advance, $20 day of show
The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) performs music by Danish composers Frans Bak, Ejnar Kanding and MBD73 (aka Carsten Bo Eriksen). The three composers have chosen music for this concert that captures what they call the Nordic “dark sides” or Nordic Noir — music that captures a coolness, calmness, and a mindfulness.
The concert begins with “Memory Pieces” by Carsten Bo Eriksen (artist name MBD73 which is short for My Beautiful Decay 1973). This piece revolves around the theme of “lost memories and sounds” and will feature the world premiere of a new “memory piece” for string quartet and electronics, written for ACME, with video.
Inspired by his surroundings, Frans Bak is focusing his evocative powers on the wider elements of his home region. This program also features the US premiere of music from Bak’s latest album, “Sound of North,” performed by ACME with Frans at the piano. The album, which includes music from his score for the TV series “The Killing,” was released on June 17 on Mercury Classics/Universal Music and is partly inspired by his background as a jazz composer. The music meshes a string quartet with electronic loops, the ethereal vocals of singer Josefine Cronholm, and Bak’s own piano playing.
Ejnar Kanding’s music unites electronic and acoustic sound in complex textures, physical energy and delicate simplicity. According to Kanding, music should not embellish, but be a realm of fantasy – a sensuous voyage to the unknown areas of inner life. Kanding’s “Sensitive Shades” completes the program.
ACME musicians performing include Ben Russell, violin; Yuki Numata Resnick, violin; Caleb Burhans, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello and artistic director, plus Ejnar Kanding and Carsten Bo Eriksen, electronics and video; and Frans Bak, piano.
Program:
MBD73 aka Carsten Bo Eriksen: “Memory Pieces” (2011/2016, world premiere)
Frans Bak: “Sound of North” (2016)
Ejnar Kanding: ”Sensitive Shades” (2015)
EarUnit is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation & Danish Composers’ Society’s Production Pool and Koda’s Cultural Funds
Photo Credit: Mark Shelby Perry
Ticketing Policy
TABLE SEATING POLICY
Table seating for all seated shows is reserved exclusively for ticket holders who purchase “Table Seating” tickets. By purchasing a “Table Seating” ticket you agree to also purchase a minimum of two food and/or beverage items per person. Table seating is first come, first seated. Please arrive early for the best choice of available seats. Seating begins when doors open. Tables are communal so you may be seated with other patrons. We do not take table reservations.
A standing room area is available by the bar for all guests who purchase “Standing Room” tickets. Food and beverage can be purchased at the bar but there is no minimum purchase required in this area.
All tickets sales are final. No refund or credits.
ACME
Since 2004, led by cellist and artistic director Clarice Jensen, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) has risen to the highest ranks of American new music through a mix of meticulous musicianship, artistic vision, engaging collaborations, and unwavering standards in every regard. The membership of the amorphous collective includes some of the brightest stars in the field. NPR calls them “contemporary music dynamos,” and Strings reports, “ACME’s absorbing playing pulsed with warm energy. . . Shared glances and inhales triggered transitions in a flow so seamless it seemed learned in a Jedi temple.” ACME was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the “virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers.”
The ensemble has performed at leading international venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, BAM, The Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Stanford Live, Chicago’s Millennium Park, Duke Performances, The Satellite in Los Angeles, STG Presents in Seattle, Melbourne Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House in Australia, and at festivals including the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Poland, All Tomorrow’s Parties in England, Auckland Arts Festival in New Zealand, Summer Nostos Festival in Greece, Boston Calling, and Big Ears in Knoxville, TN. ACME has performed Max Richter’s Sleep, an eight-hour lullaby for a sleeping audience, with him around the world, including at the Great Wall of China; on the piers of Auckland, New Zealand; in Hobart, Tasmania; at the Sydney Opera House; and in LA’s Grand Park, among others.
World premieres given by ACME include Clarice Jensen’s evening-length piece The Exaltation of Inanna for string quartet, guitar, and four singers; Ingram Marshall’s Psalmbook; Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Drone Mass (commissioned by ACME in 2015); Caroline Shaw’s Ritornello; Phil Kline’s Out Cold; William Brittelle’s Loving the Chambered Nautilus; Timo Andres’ Senior and Thrive on Routine; Caleb Burhans’ Jahrzeit; and many more. In 2016 at The Kitchen, ACME premiered Clarice Jensen’s transcription of Julius Eastman’s The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc for ten cellos, the score of which had been lost since the premiere in 1981. Jensen transcribed a recording of the work to recreate the score.
ACME’s collaborators have included The Richard Alston Dance Company, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance, Gibney Dance, Satellite Ballet, Meredith Monk, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, actress Barbara Sukowa, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, Blonde Redhead, Grizzly Bear, Low, Matmos, Micachu & The Shapes, Jeff Mangum, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Roomful of Teeth, Lionheart, and Theo Bleckmann.
In March 2022, ACME released the world premiere recording of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s contemporary oratorio Drone Mass on Deutsche Grammophon, with Theatre of Voices led by Paul Hillier. Gramophone included the album on its list of Best New Classical Recordings. Of the album, Gramophone wrote, “Since Jóhann Jóhannsson’s death in 2018 at the age of only 48, his label DG has done much to promote the Icelandic composer’s posthumous reputation by releasing several soundtrack albums and retrospective collections. One nevertheless senses there exists among the many musical cues and film themes a work of real vitality, power and significance – a jewel in the crown of Jóhannsson’s creative achievements. Drone Mass may well be that work. On one level, this contemporary oratorio for voices, string quartet and electronics – commissioned by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) led by cellist Clarice Jensen, who are superb on this recording – is typically Jóhannssonian in its uncanny juxtaposition of the strange with the familiar and its rich interplay of multiple meanings.”
ACME’s discography also includes its first portrait album, Thrive on Routine, on Sono Luminus; Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Orphée and Max Richter’s Sleep, both on Deutsche Grammophon; Fantasias with thereminist Carolina Eyck on Butterscotch Records; Joseph Byrd: NYC 1960-63, the first commercial recording of the music of rediscovered American Fluxus composer Joseph Byrd, on New World Records; William Brittelle’s electro-acoustic chamber work Loving the Chambered Nautilus, and Jefferson Friedman’s On In Love with vocalist Craig Wedren, both on New Amsterdam Records.