Backbone Benefit

A diverse evening of collaborative performance to benefit the Backbone Campaign. Poet-bard Chris Chandler partners with Seattle songster Paul Benoit; instrument inventor-performer Ela Lamblin is accompanied by percussionist (and Backbone's Executive Director) Bill Moyer; and brothers Vishal & Ujwal Nagar give a mind-boggling Classical Indian tabla and vocal performance – Ujwal's debut performance in the US.

Festival of Wayward Music: The Marathon

Nonsequitur thanks all of the artists and volunteers who made this weekend so amazing. In case you didn't attend, it went like this:

12:00-2:00 - Steve Barsotti, environmental sound interludes (Phonographers Union); Robert Mittenthal & Nico Vassilakis, text (presented by Subtext); Stuart Dempster, trombone; Matt Weiner & Del Rey, double bass & ukelele (presented by Jack Straw Prods.); Amy Denio, voice & accordion; Claire Evans, text (presented by Clear Cut Press); Bob Rees, vibraphone (presented by Jack Straw Prods.); Bill Horist, acoustic guitar; Jim Knodle & Rosalynn DeRoos, trumpet & clarinet

2:00-4:00 - Perri Lynch, environmental sound interludes (Phonographers Union); Sam Lohmann, text (presented by Clear Cut Press); Dave Knott, nylon string guitar; Lori Goldston & Angelina Baldoz, cello & trumpet; Heidi Drucker, voice; Travis Nichols, text (presented by Clear Cut Press); Gavin Borchert, piano (presented by WA Composers Forum); Keith Eisenbrey, piano (presented by WA Composers Forum); Shulamit Kleinerman & Michael Connolly, medieval fiddle tunes (presented by Jack Straw Prods.)

4:00-6:00 - Katie Gately, environmental sound interludes (Phonographers Union); Bryant Mason, text (presented by Subtext); KnotPineBox, electric guitar & vocals; Dennis Rea & Ed Petry, electric guitar duo; Jesse Canterbury & Greg Sinibaldi, clarinet duo; Ezra Mark, text (presented by Subtext); Eric Lanzillotta, analog synthesizer; Marc Barreca, laptop & digital accordion; Yann Novak, laptop

6:00-8:00 - Rob Millis, environmental sound interludes (Phonographers Union); Jeanne Heuving, text (presented by Subtext); Unused Lexical Variable, 2 guitars & contrabass (presented by Seattle Composers Salon); Tom Baker/Jesse Canterbury/Greg Campbell, guitar/clarinet/percussion (presented by Seattle Composers Salon); Paul Taub & Michael Partington, flute & classical guitar; Seattle Chamber Players & friends (presented by DoubleSharp): Juliana Svetlichnaia, ancient Russian ritual songs; Paul Taub (flute) plays Antanas Kucinskas (Lithuania); Laura DeLuca (clarinet) & Joshua Roman (cello) play Derek Bermel (USA); Mikhail Shmidt (violin) plays Michel van der Aa (Netherlands); Anna Stovall (voice, guitar) & Luba Malkina (domra) play Russian folk songs and Georgy Sviridov (Russia)

8:00-10:00 - Jonathan Way, environmental sound interludes (Phonographers Union); Garrett Fisher Ensemble, musical theater; Paul Rucker, cello; Susie Kozawa, Esther Sugai, Mike Shannon, Asian & homemade instruments; Gamelan Pacifica, Indonesian percussion chamber ensemble; Charles Mudede, text (presented by Clear Cut Press); Wally Shoup, alto saxophone; Climax Golden Twins, guitars, junk, metaphones; One World Taiko, Japanese drum ensemble (presented by Jack Straw Prods.)

Read a preview in The Stranger and a review in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Festival of Wayward Music: Piano Christening

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Good Shepherd Center, and to officially introduce our new music venue to the community, we are having a festival of epic proportions, featuring a huge sampling of the Seattle creative music community. To start things off, nine fantastic pianists spanning a variety of genres will help us welcome our newly acquired 1920's 9-foot Knabe concert grand to the Chapel: Gust Burns, Dawn Clement, Wayne Horvitz, Julie Ives, Duo Juum, Johanna Kunin, Victor Noriega, Amy Rubin, and Cristina Valdes.

Francisco Lopez + Matt Shoemaker

Presented by Nonsequitur.

Francisco López (Madrid, Spain) has, over the last 25 years, developed an astonishing sonic universe based on a profound listening of the world – destroying boundaries between industrial and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion.

Matt Shoemaker (Seattle) focuses upon the treatment of sonic phenomena sourced from both natural and electronic means, manipulating sound in an affected and often grotesque manner, molding it into compositions that uniquely imagine a space encrypted to the point of vanishing definition. His essential technique is one of obsessive artifice; it is the clarity of nuance and attention to detail that contrasts and balances any intended obscurities.

Lisa Moore, piano: The Pianist Speaks

Presented by Nonsequitur.

Australian-born, New York-based pianist and Bang on a Can All-Star Lisa Moore performs Frederic Rzewski's De Profundis with spoken text by Oscar Wilde, and Martin Bresnick's Willie's Way and For the Sexes: The Gates of Paradise, with a text by William Blake. (reviewed in the Seattle P-I)

Dennis Rea & Stuart Dempster: Tanabata

This date marks the only 07-07-07 convergence in 100 years as well as the observance of Tanabata ("Seven Evenings"), an Asian festival celebrating the annual meeting of the celestial lovers Altair and Vega. It is also the birthday of Seattle creative musicians, guitarist Dennis Rea and trombonist/'Sound Gatherer' Stuart Dempster. To celebrate the occasion, Dennis and Stuart have invited a number of musical friends to join them in an intimate, wide-ranging concert featuring acoustic and electric improvisations, unusual arrangements of traditional Chinese and Japanese pieces, and invocations of the Tanabata spirits. During the performance, visual artist Suiren (Renko Ishida Dempster) will improvise artwork to accompany the music.

Milind Raikar + Hell's Bellows!

Milind Raikar, an accomplished violinist from Goa, India, performs a concert of North Indian classical music, accompanied by Kunthal Roy on tablas. Seattle multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio will join them for a short version of the raga Yaman at the end of their set. The second part of the concert features a performance by contemporary accordion quartet Hell's Bellows!, who will join Milind for a final improvisation on raga Bhairavi.