thirteen ways

Our concert last week in Idaho marked the unofficial end of our Strange Imaginary Animals tour, three months of exhausting but occasionally inspired madness. I still have unpublished posts from the tour, which will appear gradually over the next couple of weeks.

We remain in Chicago for the better part of the next two months. April/May is the period of the year during which 8bb typically does much of its work as the University of Chicago’s Ensemble in Residence. Our residency at U of C is different from that at Univeristy of Richmond, where we work mainly with student performers and ensembles. Here our primary focus is on composition: we work with student composers as well as play on the university’s new music series, contempo.

Much of May will be spent learning, rehearsing and giving performances of U of C students’ new works. This is the end of a season-long process: individually giving one-on-one time to all composers writing works for us; workshopping elements of their pieces; communicating with them via email or phone.

Now the scores and parts are all sitting in our studio, awaiting our attention.

Several of the works are scored for 8bb alone, and several for a larger ensemble, which will be conducted and include members of our fellow-Ensemble in Residence, the wonderful Pacifica Quartet.

You can hear the results at concerts on two Fridays during May: the 11th in Fulton Hall at University of Chicago, and the 18th in Ganz Hall at Roosevelt.