Tomàs Peire-Serrate Five Haiku
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Left Coast Reflections on Music and Nature Podcast Episode Live on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
ABOUT THE EPISODE
Composer Ryan Suleiman talks with members of Left Coast Chamber Ensemble Anna Presler (violin/artistic director), Tanya Tomkins (cello), and Stacey Pelinka (flute) about their collaboration with composer Clarice Assad on “Lemuria,” about ancient mythical people and their work on Crumb’s timeless Vox Balanae. They get philosophical about the question of what does an artist do in times like these (should one become an activist?) and speculate about the influence of soundscapes on musicians in past centuries versus now. Anna reflects on her walks in the Berkeley hills and we talk about birds, who evidently learn better from their teachers than from pre-recorded songs.
WATCH
ABOUT THE PODCAST
What does it mean for one’s music to be inspired or informed by nature? How do musicians engage with nature in their own work? What does this word nature even mean?
In this interview series, composer Ryan Suleiman (Ph.D.) talks with composers and performers about the role of nature in the work they do generally and asks what the role of artists is in our troubled times.
On an aesthetic level, music provides a crucial space for us to reflect on the beauty around us and try to grapple with very deep and sometimes troubling philosophical questions that face us as individuals and as a civilization.
Inspired by the heroic contributions of others at the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Ryan hopes that sharing ideas and conversations about how musicians engage with nature will help inspire others to use their skills to help us find a way out of this crisis of our relationship with nature.
All visual art is by Sakurako Kanemitsu.
Left Coast is Hiring a Stage Manager!
Season 29 Concerts Available Now on Our YouTube Channel
Season 29 Concerts Available Now on Our YouTube Channel
With our 29th season (2021-22), Left Coast successfully returned to live performances—albeit with some hiccups— after a long hiatus imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether or not you were able to join us, we are happy to share with you the recordings of our season 29 concerts, now available on our YouTube Channel.
Enjoy our concert recordings? Please consider making a tax deductible contribution today so that we can continue to make these high-quality recordings possible. Your contribution makes the music happen. Every donation makes a difference.
With Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, nothing is out of bounds, and anything is possible.
Recordings by Concert:
LONG DISTANCE CALL
Responding to the forced separation and longing for connection we all experienced during Covid-19 pandemic, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble commissioned works conceived as long distance conversations between a piano trio and a soprano. Laura Rose Schwartz and Ryan Suleiman each contributed a new piece using a call and response model— the singer and ensemble alternate in sending each other musical postcards! It is intended that the work can be successfully performed either together or remotely.
Music by Olivier Messiaen and Louise Farrenc completes the program.
CLARINET PARTY
For an evening of clarinet virtuosity, LCCE brings together three amazing clarinetists: Left Coast’s Jerome Simas and guests Jeff Anderle, a founding member of the ensembles Sqwonk and Splinter Reeds, and Carey Bell, principal clarinetist of the San Francisco Symphony. The trio will perform Mozart’s Divertimento for 3 Basset Horns and an arrangement by Anderle of the song Zoetrope. David Garner’s new clarinet work receives its world premiere and music of Olly Wilson, Jesse Montgomery and Sebastián Tozzola is also featured.
LIVING IN COLOR
Inspired by the irresistible fun of I prefer living in color, Sarah Gibson’s 2019 Left Coast Composition Competition winning work for percussion and ensemble, this program celebrates composers particularly adept at exploiting instruments’ timbral possibilities—from Errolyn Waller’s stormy characters in Dervish to vibrant bird songs captured in John Adams’ Three Canticles of the Birds.
MYTH & MEMORY: BERIO FOLK SONGS WITH NEW COMPANIONS
Luciano Berio celebrates the rich materials of folklore in Folk Songs, arranging songs from all over the globe — from Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair to the Azerbaijan Love Song. New commissions by Left Coast remix additional folk songs to complement Berio’s masterpiece, and Carl Schimmel gives us a topsy-turvy resetting of the classic Little Red Riding Hood story for the 21st century!
