KAREN POWER, STUART SAUNDERS SMITH
WITH QUIET MUSIC ENSEMBLE, ISABELLE O’CONNEL AND OTHERS
AT ROULETTE THURSDAY APRIL 7, 8PM

The Interpretations Series 32nd season continues on Thursday April 7th, 2022, with a split program featuring music by composers Karen Power and Stuart Saunders Smith. Visiting from Ireland, Power will preside over the US premiere of sonic pollinators, a work pairing Irish pollinators with a unique trio from Ireland’s Quiet Music Ensemble; and loaded silence for piano and Arctic ice to be performed by pianist Isabelle O’Connell. This performance has been supported by Culture Ireland. 

Vermont based composer Stuart Saunders Smith will offer a program of duos all featuring percussion, including Family Portraits, Our Home for soprano & vibraphone), The Envelope Poems, and Castine, with performers Jude Traxler (vibraphone & voice) Sylvia Smith (voice), Madeline Dethloff (marimba), Tiffany Du Mouchelle (voice), and Stephen Solook (vibraphone).

The concert will take place at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, NY. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students & seniors, available at Roulette.org and Interpretations.info.

PLEASE NOTE:  Prior to entering Roulette, everyone aged 12 and older must show proof of having received at least one dose of an approved COVID-19 vaccine. We also ask that everyone please wear a mask.

About the artists:

Irish composer Karen Power’s compositions utilize two primary sources: acoustic instruments; and everyday sounds, spaces and soundscapes. Her works are experienced as concert music, sound art, expanded instruments, real+imaginary sonic environments, and as multi-sensory moments. Everyday environments and how we hear every day sounds lies at the core of Power’s practice, with a continued interest in blurring the distinction between what most of us call ‘music’ and all other sound. Since 2012 Karen’s practice has included field recording elements around which she has developed a new approach to notation she calls aural scores + parts. This experimental inquiry provides alternate methods of communication with performers within the context of working with sounds/materials from outside of the Western Art Tradition. 

Karen has been in receipt of numerous global residencies, including The Arctic Circle, The Banff Centre + Array Music, Canada, The Guesthouse, Ireland, UCDavis, California and in 2015 she received a DAAD Award enabling residence in Berlin for one year. Her work has been commissioned by RTÉ, Bozzini Quartet, SCAW, Carin Levine, Sonar Quartet, Ensemble Mosaik, ConTempo, Ultraschall Festival, MikroMusik, Music Current, NMD Festival, Retro Disco, Isabelle O’ Connell and others. Performances include with RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Modern, the Ulster Orchestra, Argento, Ensemble Mise En, Cathy Milliken, Kate Ellis, Mmm Trio and Quiet Music Ensemble. She holds a PhD in acoustic and electroacoustic composition from SARC (Sonic Arts Research Centre), Belfast, where she studied with Prof. Michael Alcorn.

Stuart Saunders Smith is an American composer and percussionist currently based in Vermont. Smith started studying composition and percussion at six years old with Charles Newcomb, who was previously a Vaudeville performer and exposed him to many musical styles. Beginning at age 13, Smith began performing publicly in clubs and dance venues. At 18, Smith enrolled at Berklee School of Music where he furthered his studies in counterpoint, harmony and musical arrangements. He continued to study percussion and composition at Hartt College of Music and the University of Illinois at Urbana. In addition to Newcomb, his other percussion teachers included Fred Budha, Al Dawson, Alexander Lepak, and Thomas Siwe.

Smith has composed over 150 works, many of which were written for percussion instruments, with a focus on the vibraphone. In categorizing Smith’s work, four primary areas of focus have been identified: music of extreme rhythmic and melodic intricacy; musical mobiles with instrumental parts that freely interact; text-based compositions; and trans-media systems for any kind of performing artist(s). Smith uses language (in the form of body language, melody and speech) as the core of each of these styles. 

Recordings of his compositions appear on labels such as New World Records, Ravello Records, Centaur, Innova, 11 West Records, O.O. Discs, Equilibrium, GAC, Soundset Recordings, and Chen Li. In addition, anthologies of new music have included his theater music, and music of rhythmic intricacy, including Here and There, MacMillan Publishing, NYC; Return and Recall, Assembling Press, NYC; Faces, ASUC, NYC; and Transitions and Leaps, Mark Batty Publications, NYC. Articles on his music have been published regularly throughout the years in such journals as Perspectives of New Music, Percussive Notes, Interface, and ex tempore.

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The Interpretations series, now in its 32nd season, is a New York-based concert series focusing on the relationship between contemporary composers and their interpreters. Sometimes the interpreters are the composers themselves; more often, the series features performers who specialize in the interpretation of new music. Since its inception in 1989, Interpretations has featured leading figures in contemporary music and multimedia, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Robert Ashley, Anthony Braxton, Thomas Buckner, FLUX Quartet, Joseph Kubera, Annea Lockwood, and Alvin Lucier, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, Pauline Oliveros, Ursula Oppens, and Morton Subotnick.

Interpretations began as a collaboration with Robert and Helene Browning and the World Music Institute, presenting concerts at Merkin Concert Hall, then at Roulette, at its Greene Street location in Soho. When Roulette moved to the current space in Brooklyn, Interpretations moved with it. Interpretations is thrilled to co-produce at Roulette, which has developed into a premiere venue for new and innovative music, with excellent acoustics and world-class technical facilities.

UPCOMING:

THURSDAY MAY 12TH:  JUHO LAITINEN / TOM HAMILTONFinnish cellist Juho Laitinen will perform a new work for electronically generated sounds and live instrumentalists based on the notion of one-dimensional lines reacting to gravitational forces by means of implosion and explosion. / New York based composer Tom Hamilton will offer new and recent mixed-media works including TH SR, a video work by Mimi Garrard featuring dancer Samuel Roberts with Hamilton’s electronic score; and Habitat Paradox, a work for ensemble featuring Bonnie Lander (voice), Alex LoRe (saxophone), Jacqueline Martelle (flute), Joe Moffett (trumpet), Andie Tanning (violin) and Hamilton on electronics.

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ROULETTE:509 Atlantic Ave. Downtown Brooklyn2, 3, 4, 5, C, G, D, M, N, R, B & Q trains & LIRR.Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students & seniors, available at Roulette.org and Interpretations.info. All concerts begin at 8pm unless otherwise noted.