Live: 'Blackbird,' by the numbers

The math behind eighth blackbird’s program Tuesday night at the Orange County Performing Artscenter, titled "The Only Moving Thing," was this: The ensemble, based at the University of Chicago, takes its name from Wallace Stevens' poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," an inspiration for many composers. The musicians number six: flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano (the grouping Schoenberg came up with nearly a hundred years ago for "Pierrot Lunaire"), plus percussion. The concert, given in the intimate Samueli Theater, contained two major new pieces -- Steve Reich’s Double Sextet and "singing in the dead of night" by the Bang on a Can collective -- but involved four composers. One piece was for 12 players. There were more instruments onstage than I could count. Is birdseed poured on an amplified table one instrument or many?

Reich's pulsing pleasures sung by blackbird

For classical music critics, premieres can be heady stuff. In an art form routinely disparaged for repeatedly programming the same museum collection of works, the unveiling of a new work – even as a "West Coast" premiere rather than the "world" variety – offers a chance to celebrate a living, growing art. And Tuesday night's performance by the chamber sextet eighth blackbird at Samueli Theater was no garden-variety premiere. Both pieces on the program, Steve Reich's Double Sextet, a co-commission of the Orange County Performing Artscenter, and the three-composer collaboration "singing in the dead of night," could hardly have been newer.

Blackbird virtuosos need no visuals

In addition to playing their instruments like demons, members of the phenomenal new-music sextet, Eighth Blackbird, often incorporate stage movement into their performances. At its best, the group dispatches intricate and demanding scores - generally from memory - while supplementing the music with elegant visual counterpoint.

Mature Eighth Blackbird flies high
Ensemble performs beyond the fringe

It's been a thrill for metro Detroiters to watch Eighth Blackbird grow into a leading new music ensemble, because we've known about the group's charisma and skill longer than most.

Bright in the Dead of the Night

Eighth blackbird’s concert on Saturday defied elementary arithmetic. For example, the program featured two pieces, but four composers, which might seem twice as many composers as was required. Similarly, the first piece specified 12 musicians, but was performed by only six, which might seem twice too few.

REVIEW: Eighth Blackbird