Harold Taw, Composer Spotlight, January 9., 2014

Harold Taw speaking at Jack Straw’s Composer Spotlight Series

Programs for Composers

The Composer Spotlight series, which ran from April 1999 to January 2014, was presented by Jack Straw Cultural Center and Washington Composers Forum (WCF). This series of talks and performances of new music highlighted an innovative composer or performer on the second Wednesday of each month at Jack Straw Cultural Center. Presenters shared recordings and performances of new work and discussed their process.

Composer Spotlight History:

April 1999: Susie Kozawa
May 1999: Samuel Jones – Composing for a Community
June 1999: Gerhard Samuel – His Life and His Music
July 1999: Christopher DeLaurenti – Making your Compact Disc and the Music Business
August 1999: Christopher Shainin – Writing for Trans-ethnic Instrumentation
September 1999: Mathew Sperry – Film Music
October 1999: Gavin Borchert – Talk about his Music
November 1999: Keith Eisenbrey – Slow Blues
December 1999: Open House – Open House
January 2000: Jovino Santos Neto – Commission for Musicians Accord
February 2000: Kevin Goldsmith – Intonarumori Project, Collaborations with other Sound Artists
March 2000: Michael Shannon – Overtone Vocalist Project
April 2000: Jim Knodle – Music for Quintet and Sextet
May 2000: Janice Giteck – New Residencies Seattle
June 2000: Mark Polishook – Video Opera “Seed of Sarah”
July 2000: Chen Yi and Robert Sirota – Musical Languages
August 2000: Yu Ping Chen – Bamboo Hammers
September 2000: Lynette Westendorf – Twelve-tone Composition in Jazz and Improvisation Structures
October 2000: David Paul Mesler – Current Projects
November 2000: Musicians Accord – The Composer and Chamber Music
December 2000: Elizabeth Falconer – Koto Music
January 2001: Present Sounds Recordings – Recording New Music
February 2001: Janice Giteck and Judith Roche – Navigating the Light
March 2001: Cindy McTee – Gender and Music Composition: A Personal Perspective
April 2001: Mina Miller – Music of Remembrance
May 2001: Benjamin Boretz – A Talk
June 2001: Bob Barraza and KT Niehoff – Composer/Choreographer
June 2001: Jin Hi Kim – Living Tones
July 2001: Munir Nurettin Beken – Re-confessions of a “New” Music Composer
August 2001: Sean Osborn – Mp3 Production on the Web
September 2001: Marcos Carmona – Flamenco Composition
October 2001: Koo Nimo – “Palmwine” Guitar Music
November 2001: Jay Clayton – Jay Clayton In and Out
December 2001: Carolyn Graye – Poems by Denise Levertov
January 2002: Seattle Chamber Players and Elena Dubinets – Icebreaker
February 2002: Dan Blunck – Jazz in the Present Tense
March 2002: Rik Wright – Isomorphism: Composing Improvisation
April 2002: Quake – New Ensemble
May 2002: Brian Lawlor – Altering the Moment
May 2002: Byron Au Yong – History as Imagination: remembering the Nippon Kan Through Performance
June 2002: Jack Straw Turns 40!!
July 2002: Stuart Wolferman & Britta Johnson – Composing in Abstract
August 2002: Philip Munger – KRAB and My Compositions
September 2002: Mark Polishook and Lisa Hutton – Revisiting September 11, 19[72]
October 2002: Undermind Arts Collective & Pleione – Music from Ode to Icarus
November 2002: Lena Nietfeld & Jonathan Greene – Clarinet Duo
December 2002: Bret Bettey – Computer Modeling of Ornaments in Hindustani Classical Music
January 2003: Ela Lamblin & Leah Mann – Rhythm of the Landscape
February 2003: Trimpin – Klavier Nonette
March 2003: David Mahler – On the Vocal Line
April 2003: Christi Denton & Celeste Hutchins – Ensemble & Tape Works
May 2003: Steve Roden – Sound Exhibition
June 2003: Tom Baker – Concerto for Piano(s) and Orchestra
July 2003: Nate Brown with Gary Fukushima – Jazz Composition
August 2003: Ray Holman – Steel Drum Virtuoso
September 2003: Peter Seibert – Works Since 2001
October 2003: Robin Holcomb – Looking Both Ways
November 2003: Curtis Taylor – Theatre Media Sound
December 2003: Amy Rubin – How Narrative, Form, and Rhythm Come Together
January 2004: Ken Benshoof – Composing – Why I Became Addicted
February 2004: Gerhard Samuel – Contemporary Opera
March 2004: Wrick Wolff – New Audio Works
April 2004: Steve Layton – Real and Unreal:”Virtual’ Sounds, Times and Places
July 2004: Laura Kaminsky – Recent Works and the Challenges They Posed
August 2004: Keith Eisenbrey – Sowing Dischord
September 2004: Adam Diller – Small Ensemble Compositions
October 2004: Wayne Horvitz – New Theater Work
November 2004: Linda Waterfall – Songs From the Tao Te Ching
December 2004: Lesli Dalaba – Paleontology, Geology, Music . . .
January 2005: Joe Diebes – Quartet Installation
February 2005: Karen P. Thomas – Composer / Conductor
March 2005: Doublends Vert – Developing a Common Musical Language
April 2005: S. Lyn Goeringer – Listening to Spaces
May 2005: John Mackey – Composer-in-Residence
June 2005: Abel Domingues, Stuart Dempster, Tamara Weikel – Ambient Soundings
July 2005: Arun Chandra – Music and Human Desires
August 2005: Joshua Parmenter – Musical Reflections
September 2005: Eric Mandat – Composing for Clarinet
October 2005: Richard Karpen – Solo / Tutti
November 2005: Christopher DeLaurenti – Symphonies of Protest
December 2005: Joël 20François Durand – Reflections on Recent Music: Re-Envisioning History
January 2006: Douglas Kahn – Radio Was Discovered Before It Was Invented
February 2006: Daniel Bernard Roumain – DBR & The Mission
March 2006: Alan Lechusza – Music For Mad Trio
April 2006: Patrick Stoyanovich – Piano Westerns
May 2006: Gabriela Frank – Música Mestiza
June 2006: Wayne Horvitz – Quartet Improvisation
July 2006: Arun Chandra and Ensemble – Music of Kenneth Gaburo
August 2006: Donald J. Stewart – Music is Made as Life Itself
September 2006: Kotoka Suzuki – Sift
October 2006: Evan Flory Barnes
November 2006: Joe Colley
December 2006: Bonnie Miksch & Christopher Penrose – Harmonic and Timbral Embodiment; Three Compositions sparked by dreams, shapes, and songs
January 2007: Sarah Bassingthwaighte – Eleven Portraits – How to Composers Paint and Painters Compose?
February 2007: Ryan Hare – Fighting the Imaginary Fight: Impulse and Irrationality in Music
March 2007: Wally Shoup – Featuring a Live Performance with Bob Rees and Gust Burns
April 2007: Brad Sherman – A Composer’s Search for Ideas
May 2007: Stephen Cavit
June 2007: Paul Rucker
July 2007: Martin Bresnick – With a Live Performance by Cristina Valdés and Michael Lim
August 2007: Tim Root – Towards Theatre: I’m feeling incredibly “un” today
September 2007: Dean Moore
October 2007: Eric Lanzillotta
November 2007: Brandon Pettit – The Music and Sound Sculptures of Brandon Pettit
December 2007: Kevin Patton
January 2008: Gust Burns
February 2008: Hope Wechkin – Charisma
March 2008: Dennis Rea – ReciprocAsian
April 2008: Anna Homler – Pharmicia Poetica
May 2008: Bill Smith – Space in the Heart: A jazz opera
June 2008: Tom Baker – The Unadorned Composer and the Extravagant Art of Opera
July 2008: Tom Varner – Order Out of Chaos: Composing for an Improvising Tentet
August 2008: Bruce Hamilton – Many Voices, One Voice: Embracing Eclecticism
September 2008: Joshua Kohl & Jeff Huston – Creating the music for c(H)ord with inkBoat
October 2008: Michael Owcharuk – I’m with the Band
November 2008: Sean Osborn – Cyrille Rose & the Clarinet
December 2008: Richard Johnson – Composition and Experimental Instrument Demonstration
January 2009: Emily Doolittle – Animal Songs
February 2009: Randal Bays – Respecting the Envelope: Composing New Music in the Irish Tradition
March 2009: Christopher Roberts – Trios for Deep Voices
April 2009: Marcus Oldham & Chenoa Egawa w/Ethan Delavan – American Indian Composers Go Classical
May 2009: Michael Nicolella
June 2009: Donald Craig
July 2009: Srivani Jade – Composing Indian Music in the Pacific Northwest
August 2009: Christopher DeLaurenti – The New Phonographers
September 2009: Munir Beken & Gus Denhard – Oil and Vinegar: New Music and Non-Western traditions
October 2009: Susie Kozawa, Esther Sugai, & Serge Gregory – When Herons Dream
November 2009: Aono Jikken Ensemble – Sounds of Shadow and Light
December 2009: Lesley Sommer – Begged, Borrowed, or Stolen
January 2010: Garrett Fisher – Bridging Ancient and Modern Forms Through New Opera
February 2010: Curtis Taylor – Abstract Change Pleasure
March 2010: Samantha Boshnack & Reptet – How to Commit Agendacide
April 2010: Rachel Matthews – Where Did This Come From?
May 2010: Tiffany Lin, Tom Baker, Colin Ernst, Hugo Solis, and Joel Kikuchi – This Old Piano
June 2010: Cynthia Dillard – “Behind the Scenes” with The Golden Tree Story
August 2010: Huck Hodge – Metaphor as Structure
September 2010: Phillip Arnautoff – Concerning My Variations for Cello (2005-2010)
October 2010: Urtaa Gantulga – The Mongolian Horsehead Fiddle
November 2010: Ryan Hare – Quasi improvisando
December 2010: Jesse Canterbury – Vertigo
January 2011: Malic Amalya and Jac Nelson – Drifting
February 2011: Steve Scribner – The Nature (of) Sound in the ‘StormSound’ Cycle
April 2011: Brian Cobb – Campfire Songs: . . . Progress . . . Rest . . . Continue . . .
May 2011: Aleksander Sternfeld 20Dunn – Finding Your Voice in the 21st Century
June 2011: Young Sub Lee –
July 2011: Erin Lau – The Graciela Project
August 2011: Tom Baker – The Unadorned Composer and the Extravagant Art of Opera (Part 2)
September 2011: John Seman – Monktail Creative Music Concern
October 2011: Nadia Tarnawsky and Brandon Vance – Alchymeia
November 2011: Jarosław Kapuściński – Composing Juicy Intermedia. Where is Chopin?
December 2011: Beth Fleenor – The Focusing Power of Form
January 2012: Stephen Parris – Indeterminacy and Performer Interpretation in Contemporary Composition
February 2012: Wayne Horvitz – A Lumberjack’s Prayer
March 2012: Dawn Clement – Cabin Fever: A Suite for Seattle
April 2012: Steve Peters – Finding Form
May 2012: Jarrad Powell – Nourishment
June 2012: Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble –
July 2012: Daniel Barry – Not Afraid of Triads
September 2012: NF Chase – What Do I Know About Cats and Flowers?
October 2012: John Teske – Fundamentals of My Authentic Musical Language
November 2012: Bill Anschell – This Is NOT Jazz!
December 2012: Neal Meyer – GRADUS: for Fux, Tesla, and Milo the Wrestler – The Story so Far
February 2013: Victor Noriega and Gust Burns – 2 Trios
March 2013: Rinus Van Alebeek – I Have Been Awake Long Enough, It Is Time to Dream
April 2013: Nolan Stolz – An Improvisatory Approach to Composition
May 2013: Peter Vukmirovic Stevens – August Ruins for Solo Cello
June 2013: Gregory Yasinitsky – Jazz Meets Classical Music: Third Stream in the 21st Century
August 2013: Amy Denio – Immersion Composition Society
September 2013: Thomas Makucevich – Auditorialization – A Computer Music Journey
October 2013: Beth Fleenor – Workshop Ensemble
November 2013: Derek M Johnson – Making Sounds that Mean Something
December 2013: Jason Staczek and Ela Lamblin – Compositions for Heavy Metal DëVices
January 2014: Harold Taw and Chris Jeffries – Do They Really Just Start Singing? Creating Authentic Musical Voices

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