Jessica Pavone will present her four-movement chamber concerto, “Clamor,” for string sextet and improvising bassoon soloist.
November 12 @ 4 pm/free
Seating is limited – preference will be given to students of Western Queens Piano and Strings
RSVP to jessicapavone@gmail.com
Clamor rethinks the notion of ‘women’s work’ as a space for both collaboration and singular voice. Just as our ensemble is limited and enabled by the written score, so might individual enunciations of how gender norms limit agency. Clamor utilizes a collective, improvisational vision that prioritizes an intentionally fluid style by employing indeterminacy, navigated by the performers via time-based scores. These principles are balanced with metered notation to shape the overall form of the pieces, reflecting circumventing obstructions to one’s freedoms. The alternating music notation styles mirror these restraints and solutions. Through the open spaces, the musicians re-create the compositions together each time they perform, creating truly experimental work while establishing a collaborative relationship between the individual musician and larger group performance. Two of the four movements feature Pavone’s old friend and long-time collaborator, bassoon soloist Katherine Young, attending to her talent for improvising within a collaborative context. Young is a composer and sound artist who has developed a unique language for bassoon. The movements to feature her have built-in moments of gently structured spontaneity that attend to her original voice.
Clamor’s movements are titled after innovations made by women throughout history to circumvent obstructions to their freedoms.
Neolttwigi is titled after and utilizes rhythms representing the 17th-century Korean standing seesaw, invented by women who could not freely go outdoors to provide a glimpse of the scenery beyond their property walls. Bloom is named after bloomers, which Amelia Bloom designed during the 1850s Victorian dress reform. Nu Shu honors the secret language created and used exclusively by Chinese women forbidden to go to school like their brothers and features the improvising soloist in dialogue with the ensemble.
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Featuring:
Katherine Young – improvising bassoon soloist
Aimee Neimann – violin
Charlotte Munn-Wood – violin
Abby Swidler – viola
Jessica Pavone – composer/viola
Mariel Roberts – cello
Shayna Dulberger – double bass
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Clamor was made possible (in part) by the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.