Sunday With Our Good Friends:

ANALOG arts ensemble and Monument Piano Trio
An Die Musik
409 N. Charles Street (2nd Fl), Baltimore
Sunday, February 30
3 PM
$20 ($15 Seniors/$10 Students)

PROGRAM
Michael Sheppard, Let Beauty Awake
Jonathan Leshnoff, Song Without Words
James Lee III, Scenes from Eternity's Edge*
Stuart Saunders Smith, Part
Rudolf Kamper, Music for Five Players*

* world premiere

PERSONNEL
Marcia Kamper, flute
Rudolf Kamper, trumpet
Michael Sheppard, piano
Dariusz Skoraczewski, cello
Igor Yuzefovich, violin

Dolf assembled a program of Baltimore music for our show this Sunday with members Monument Piano Trio. It's a nice mix of styles, ranging between the twin poles of the moment: modernism and romanticism.

We're giving the first performances of two new works on Sunday. Dolf's is a texture for the full ensemble. He describes it as contemplative, which surely can't have anything to do with the newborn baby that's been dominating his daily life.

The other premiere was arranged through Monument Trio's agent, who came across a wonderful local composer and professor at Morgan State. James Lee writes a great deal of music inspired by the Bible, and Scenes Upon Eternity’s Edge deals specifically with the eschatological aspects of the Good Book, particularly the books of Revelation and Daniel. Even though he was writing for us, we swear we didn't force him to deal with Michael's battle with the dragon in Revelation. (We promise: no formulas!)

It's always a pleasure to work with Monument, and Sunday's concert is really a windup for the other concerts we'll do at An Die Musik this spring, including a CD release party for Dariusz' solo debut.

Congrats to our NEW Iron Composer Sunny Knable!!

If you didn't listen to the live webcast last night, you certainly missed something special. History was made in the Third Annual Iron Composer Composition Competition, held at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio.

Our Man in Japan - wrapup

We had another successful event at An Die Musik, the other night. ANALOG arts ensemble was pleased to feature the works of member Jason Taylor, in from Japan.

This concert was a great example of the diversified capabilities of the ANALOG collective, as we were lucky to invite ANALOG member Jason Taylor in from Japan, Christina Carr in from NYC as well as several Baltimore local members.

Dariusz Skoraczewski (pictured above, rehearsing backstage before the show) performed George Crumb's Cello Sonata, that will be available on his new recording of solo-cello music. We had a group of very talented musicians to perform Morton Feldman's The Straits of Magellan, Toru Takemitsu's Toward the Sea II, and Frank Martin's Four Sonnets to Cassandra. Christina Carr reprized her work with Marcia Kämper from a very early ANALOG performance of the Sick Moon from Pierrot, and of course Jason Taylor both performed some guitar pieces and shared some of his newer and older compositions.

It was great to sit down with Jason before the concert and talk about his life in Japan, since he moved out there from Baltimore about 8 years ago. He is currently teaching English at what he says is the school famous for producing pro figure skaters and actors. A lot of times the kids ask him whether or not he saw them on TV the night before. He said that, on one of his first days in class, there was a student sleeping in the back of the room. The other school teachers told him to let him sleep - as he has a lot of work outside or school.

Jason started out as an "English Conversationalist" when he first moved out. He said it was common for special English-language schools to hire English speakers as "conversationalists." Jason described the experience as being in a small room, forced to make conversation the whole day long...

"How was your day today?" ... "That's nice, and how do you find the weather?" ... "What sort of food do you like to eat?" ...

At first he thought "This is the best job a guy could have!" "I get paid to converse!" After a short period of this - daily - he began to become sick of even his friends' conversations. If his buddies asked him a question he would quickly shush them or run the other way.

Jason is currently working on a series of guitar duo pieces that will be recorded and performed this coming December, and a String Quintet(string quartet and guitar) to be performed on Halloween. Look for more ANALOG concerts to include Jason Taylor in the future - both in Baltimore and Japan!

Be sure to watch for more ANALOG events!

Our Man in Japan - coming soon!

The concert Our Man in Japan features ANALOG member Jason Taylor who is visiting Baltimore from Nagoya, Japan. Composer and guitarist, Jason Taylor, holds degrees and awards from Peabody and the Virginia Carty deLillo Competition, among others. His music has been performed world wide and has been published by Homadream, GuitarDream magazine, and recorded by the German duo CordAria.

The concert on August 7, at An Die Musik will also include a large chamber ensemble with your favorite ANALOG artists from Baltimore and New York for an eclectic mix of new and old music.

Monument Trio and ANALOG

Fans of ANALOG know The Monument Piano Trio from several joint concerts, as well as their featured performances at last year's ARTSaha and Iron Composer composition competition.

There was a great article covering our joint concert last month in the Baltimore Sun:

"The Monument Piano Trio closed its season Sunday night at An die Musik with a bold 20th-century program.

Of particular interest was George Crumb's Vox Baelenae (Voice of the Whale), a 1971 work for amplified flute, cello and piano that blends a certain theatricality - the players are asked to wear masks - with subtle, mostly slow-moving, exotic washes of sound.

The challenging score was delivered with remarkable skill and sensitivity by cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski, pianist Michael Sheppard and the concert's guest artist, flutist Marcia Kamper.

Morton Feldman's Durations I from 1960 presents plenty of challenges, too. It's like a conversation between four people addressing four different topics in four different languages, yet somehow achieving coherence.

Kamper, Skoraczewski, Sheppard and violinist Igor Yuzefovich articulated the time-stopping music in telling fashion. Atmospheric duos by Arvo Part and Kajia Sarriaho filled out the fascinating evening.

The Monument Trio will be back in residence at An die Musik next season with a series of five concerts between September and May."

Feldman and ANALOG

ANALOG arts ensemble is pleased to be presenting a concert in Baltimore featuring "Our Man in Japan" guitarist and composer Jason Taylor.

We'll be playing some Feldman graph scores, among other things... stay tuned.

Oktoberfest Tonight

ANALOG plays the Beer Tent from 6 - 8 pm tonight. Set list includes:

'The Old Castle' from Pictures at an Exhibition
Too Fat Polka
Bugs Bunny's version of 'Tannhauser'
Deodato's version of 'Also Sprach Zarathustra'
Roll Out The Barrels
'Canon Cancricans' from The Musical Offering
Edelweiss
The Third Man Theme
Os Mutantes' 'Baby'
Black Orpheus
Tales From The Vienna Woods
& many more...

Hope to see you there!

'Burgle' Theme

Available now at eMusic

ANALOG Arts Ensemble Tonight

Galapagos Art Space

April 25, 2007
10.30pm

70 North 6th Street
between Kent and Wythe
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
NY 11211


ANALOG curates a collaborative performance featuring all-stars from the Brooklyn indie chamber music scene, including Loop 2.4.3 with members of Object Collection and Arsenic-Free Music. You can expect a wide-ranging exploration of found sounds, field recordings and accidental sounds.



Playlist for the night:

Johnny Chang: Los Angeles Transcriptions (6): il corral
Dolf Kamper: Number 25
Nigel Rawles: Jokes...
Christian Kesten: Dodger Stadium
Steve Reich: Pendulum Music (preview mp3 from the rehearsal)
Joseph Drew: Arena
Samuel Beckett: Quad Variation from Samuel Beckett
Kozumplik/Watson: DBC
Johnny Chang: Two Violins
Eric Clark : Slaughter Series
Devin Maxwell: Music for Space Ships to Make Love To (Battle of Los Angeles)
Samuel Beckett: Breath
Kozumplik: Mantra
Velvet Underground: The Gift

ANALOG @ Galapagos, 4/25

LAist Profiles Echo

LAist published the first installment of a two-part profile of echo in preparation for Analog's Los Angeles debut next week.

In the profile, echo gives the lowdown on sounds found and the LA scene. Check it out.