Thirteen Ways is a blog written by the members of eighth blackbird. Here you can find posts about the group - including news, behind the scenes action and reviews of concerts (positive and positively negative) - as well as general music posts, random comments and links to cool sites. We will post pictures from tours and rehearsals on our Photoblog, as well as audio and video files on our Podcasts page.
eighth blackbird
Tim Munro, flutes
Michael J. Maccaferri, clarinets
Matt Albert, violin & viola
Nicholas Photinos, cello
Lisa Kaplan, piano
Matthew Duvall, percussion+
Described by The New Yorker as “friendly, unpretentious, idealistic and highly skilled,” eighth blackbird promises its ever-increasing audiences provocative and engaging performances. The ensemble is in residence at the University of Richmond in Virginia and at the University of Chicago.
Highlights of eighth blackbird’s 2006-07 season include a return to the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, two concerts at The Kitchen in New York City, and tours through New York, California, Colorado, and Texas. In previous seasons the sextet has appeared in South Korea, Mexico, Canada, Amsterdam, and throughout North America, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Metropolitan Museum, the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress, and has performed as soloist with the Utah Symphony and the American Composers Orchestra.
eighth blackbird has commissioned works from composers including Steve Reich, Steven Hartke, George Perle, Frederic Rzewski, Joseph Schwantner and Jennifer Higdon.
In November 2006, the ensemble released its fourth CD on Cedille Records, Strange Imaginary Animals. The first, thirteen ways, featuring works by Perle, Schober, Joan Tower and Thomas Albert, was selected as a Top 10 CD of 2003 by Billboard magazine. In 2006 the group debuted on the Naxos label in a performance of The Time Gallery by Paul Moravec.
eighth blackbird is active in teaching young artists about contemporary music and, in addition to their residencies, has taught master classes and conducted outreach activities throughout the country.
The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”:
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know
