A summer of Wild Sound- South Bend 2014

As part of our Ensemble-in-Residence position at the University’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, we spend about a month each summer living in South Bend, developing the projects that we’ll be bringing to the DeBartolo stage during the come year, meeting with faculty and students, and generally getting our act together.

This year we decided to bring in some guest artists to help further our continued growth as musicians. During our first week at Notre Dame, we had the privilege of working with Musekiwa Chingodza, a world-renowned Mbira player from Zimbabwe.  Musekiwa was in the states for about 6 months, busily traveling around the country performing and teaching, and we managed to get him to South Bend for a few days to work with us on Shona music.

image

Here’s Musekiwa teaching us “Chamutengure,” one of his signature songs.

 

image

And doesn’t that T-shirt look great on him?

 

image

It was a really memorable and educational experience for all 4 of us. Thanks to the Kutsinhira Cultural Arts Center for coordinating Musekiwa’s visit. We hope to work with him again soon!

The following week we had percussion guru Russell Hartenberger out to South Bend to listen to us play, give us feedback, and generally share his experiences from 40+ years playing in Steve Reich & Musicians and the percussion ensemble Nexus, trailblazers in our field. Russ was deeply insightful and great to work with.

image

 

Here he is helping us get the perfect bass drum sound for Reich’s Sextet:

image

It was excellent to take the time for professional and artistic development with these two great guys. It’s something we all agreed we need to make sure we do more often.

The biggest project of our Notre Dame time was working on our new project with Glenn Kotche, Wild Sound.  This project has been years in the making, and has grown into the most elaborate production we’ve ever been a part of. This piece involves pre-made video and audio tracks that accompany the live performance, live video, amplification through a variety of means, and zero ordinary instruments. Every sound comes from a found object, or an instrument we create on stage during the piece, or the sounds of creating those instruments.

image

We’re incredibly fortunate to have a team of interns at Notre Dame, students with both engineering and music backgrounds, who helped develop some of the more advanced technology that will be used in this piece. Here’s Glenn checking out some of what they’ve been working on with Arduino technology:

image

 

And here Glenn’s working with Peter on his “fishing-line violin” part:

image

 

And one of the interns, Jonathan, showing us what he can do with an X-Box Kinect:

image

This piece is going to be really amazing! You can see the premiere October 3 at the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, with subsequent performances in St Paul (MN), New York and Chicago. You can also get a sneak peak at a little bit of the piece, and the process behind it, at our “Inside the Composer’s Studio” event with Glenn!

Our gracious host for our 4 weeks in South Bend was a young man named David Matthews. I’ve never met someone who was so passionate about the ongoing revitalization of downtown South Bend. He showed us a whole new side of the city, and we’ve got a few new places on our list to visit during our future time at Notre Dame.

image

 

Finally, our summer time in South Bend is our time to cook giant meals for the ensemble.  Here are a couple of highlights:

image

Migas a la Skidmore

 

image

Kung Pao Chicken a la Dillon

 

image

Chicken and Dumplin’s a la Skidmore

 

image

Cumin Lamb a la Dillon

 

image

…and the final feast!  Featuring lemon baked chicken and potatoes from our new South Bend buddy Velvet, Chinese Broccoli a la Dillon, and Gyoza a la Min Park.

 

 

 

Bravo! Vail Residency

What better way to start our 2014-2015 season than a residency at the Bravo! Vail music festival in Vail, CO!?!  Over the course of 11 jam-packed days we played 9 concerts, including: chamber recitals at several chapels throughout the Vail Valley, a presentation on “The Science Behind Sound” at the Walking Mountains Science Center, numerous interactive “Little Listener” concerts at local libraries, an appearance on Good Morning Vail, a late night concert at the Vail Ale House and a thrilling collaborative finale with pianists Gilles Vonsattel and Bravo! Vail Artistic Director Anne-Marie McDermott that was broadcast live over Colorado Public Radio.  Phew!

When we could remember, we snapped a few photos along the way of performances, rehearsals, schlepping, hiking, eating…

Enjoy!

– David, Peter, Rob, Sean

 

We loaded up the ole box truck to the brim and headed out across the plains to the Rockies.  Nebraska seemed to last forever…

 

We hit the ground running and played 3 unique recital programs over the course of 4 days with music by some of our favorite composers, including: Timo Andres, Tobias Broström, John Cage, Clay Condon, Thierry De Mey, Alexandre Lunsqui,  Marc Mellits, Minoru Miki, Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Augusta Read Thomas, and our very own David Skidmore.

 

 

 

 

 

Edwards Interfaith Chapel was our first concert stop…

 

 

 

 

 

…and then it was on to Vail Chapel where we played two more concerts.  The view out the window of the chapel was of  a babbling mountain creek and hummingbirds darting to and fro.  Too bad Colorado isn’t pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most exciting collaborations we had during our time in Vail was with the Walking Mountains Science Center as part of  their “Science Behind…” series.   We presented a project developed in conjunction with the College of Engineering at the University of  Notre Dame entitled ND Waves which focuses on the intersection between science and the arts.

 

As part of the NDWaves project, Professor Jay Brockman and a team of Notre Dame students helped Third Coast design and develop instruments that illustrate basic characteristics and qualities of sound waves.  Peter Martin of TCP then composed a piece for Third Coast and an audience of any size to perform together.

 

 

 

 

 

Using technology such as oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers, we illustrated what technically happens to sound waves when percussionists make changes in pitch, dynamics, timbre, and purity of tone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the gang assembling all of the instruments before the show…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…and the crowd of all ages at Walking Mountains being instructing how to play the instruments during the concert.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everybody loves those pipes and log drums!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up: late night concert at the Vail Ale House as part of “Vail After Dark”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This concert was just plain FUN.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interspersed between all of these amazing concerts, we shot out to several local libraries and made music with some very hip, very eager 3 – 7 year olds as part of Bravo! Vail’s Little Listeners series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again: just. plain. FUN!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our final concert featured landmark collaborative works for two pianos and percussion by Béla Bártok and Steve Reich.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, Bártok didn’t compose parts for four percussionists.  So while Dave and Rob were rehearsing with Annie Marie and Gilles…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…Pete and Sean got to go for a hike into the Whitewater National Forest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup.

 

 

 

 

 

A big THANK YOU to all of our new friends at Bravo! Vail and the audiences in Colorado for an incredible experience and amazing start to our season!