Zach Herchen

New Thread Quartet presents Electric Sax Vol. 2: Terrain and Barriers, our second annual concert of electroacoustic works for saxophone. This year’s program explores the literal and metaphorical paths across landscapes, through music about terrain, barriers, and the interconnectedness of things.

Erin Rogers’ Fledge is an electroacoustic companion piece to her 2023 work Foliage for saxophone quartet. cory ryan kasprzyk’s other transforms a physical barrier from an obstruction into something sonically intertwined to the environment. The composition is an exact transcription of a barrier resonance, performed through microtones and extended technique alongside audio and video playback. Matias Vilaplana Stark’s Senderos, leads the musicians in improvisation guided by a video score. The work is created with satellite imagery showing four landscapes from Chile. Karlheinz Essl’s colorado utilizes an interactive “particle accelerator” to superimpose live sound particles of the saxophones across a 4-channel sound projection. The electronic manipulation will be controlled live by Dennis Sullivan.

Electric Sax Vol. 2: Terrain and Barriers
Saturday, May 25, 7:30pm
The Cell – 338 West 23rd Street, New York, NY, 10011
Tickets – Free, suggested $15 donation – available online and at the door
Reception to follow

Program
Erin Rogers – Fledge, for sax quartet and live electronics * #
cory ryan kasprzyk – other, for sax quartet with audio/video playback * #
Matias Vilaplana Stark – Senderos, for sax quartet with video score
Karlheinz Essl – colorado, for sax quartet with live-electronics and 4-channel sound projection +

* world premiere
+ North American premiere
# commisioned by New Thread Quartet

Learn more at NTQ’s event page.

NTQ presents our 6th Explorations concert with a program of cutting edge works for saxophone, drawing from meditative breath, temporal flux, sine tone clusters, dissembled instruments, and vocalization.

The concert opens with works from NTQ’s residencies at New York University and Binghamton University. Neva Derewetzky‘s small voices explores time and air, growing from meditative breath to sweeping dynamic swells. Derewetzky writes the saxophone “is an instrument that begs to run… For just a few minutes, I want the instrument to be patient. To take a breath and to wait.” Michael Seltenreich‘s Ornamentation 1 uses flux in tempo to build a constant pulsing line. The work builds harmonically while always centered around the push and pull of time. Our program will continue with commissioned works by NTQ founding member Erin Rogers and by Victoria Cheah. Erin Rogers‘ Foliage utilizes timbral and harmonic shifts to produce slow motion color changes in a gradual transition to noise. Victoria Cheah‘s Walk for a shell incorporates fixed media playback alongside the saxophone quartet, and explores how actions along a path may connect you to others. Cheah writes “Pilgrimage journeys put time and effort to work at covering a distance in an offering of respect. Walk for a shell attempts this respect with gestures of tuning, ghosts of words exchanged, and offerings of effort.”

Explorations Vol. 6: Time and Breath
Sunday, Sept 10 @ 2pm
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Benzaquen Hall
450 West 37th Street, New York, NY, 10018
Tickets – $10 online and at the door

Program
Neva Derewetzky – small voices (2023), NYC premiere
Michael Seltenreich – Ornamentation 1 (2022), NYC premiere #
Erin Rogers – Foliage (2023), world premiere *
Victoria Cheah – Walk for a shell (2023), world premiere *

Learn more at our event page.

Electric Sax Vol. 1: Workings and Re-Workings is the first offering of our new annual multimedia performance series. This program draws from one of our earliest large-scale electro-acoustic projects: a residency at the University of Virginia in 2018. NTQ is excited to revisit collaborations with composers Becky Brown and Ben Luca Robertson from UVA. In addition, New Thread presents recastings of works by Aron Dahl, Ebun Oguntola, and Dennis Sullivan, and . The program features novel sounds and inspirations: from emotions researcher, Brené Brown, to garden snakes, the deeply personal to the abstract.

Tickets – $10 online and at the door

Program:
Becky Brown – some favored gem (2018)
Ben Luca Robertson – Opheodrys (2017)
Aron Dahl – Fluid Interference – (2022, revised 2023) *world premiere
Ebun Oguntola – Interim (2022) *in-person world premiere
Dennis K. Sullivan, II – As Above, So Below (2018, revised 2023) *world premiere, commissioned

More at NTQ’s event page.