New music ensemble loadbang
(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.) – I/O Fest ’16, this year’s three-day festival of new music at Williams College, takes place Thursday, January 7, through Saturday, January 9, and will feature performances exploring works by composers including Steve Reich, David Lang, Terry Riley, Ornette Coleman, Frederic Rzewski, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and John Cage.
The festival includes concerts, a lecture, several world premieres, music of many composers, performances by the I/O Ensemble and IOTA, and New York City-based contemporary music quartet loadbang. All events are free and open to the public. Neither tickets nor reservations are required.
I/O Fest is the Williams College Department of Music’s annual immersion in today’s music. Over the course of three days and nights, students, faculty, guest performers, and audiences delve deeply into new and adventurous music from around the world and around the corner. Performances take full advantage of the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance, making use of its technical capabilities and unconventional spaces. Featuring guest ensemble loadbang, and performances by the I/O Ensemble, IOTA, and many others, I/O invites listeners to explore the music of now.
Thursday, January 7 at 8 p.m., CenterStage, ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance
Featuring Oscar Bettison’s blues-infused Requiem Mass “O Death,” and works by Pierre Jodlowski, Ornette Coleman, and Frederic Rzewski. Performers: Kris Allen, Jason Ennis, Matthew Gold, Doris Stevenson, Samantha Stone ‘17, and John Wheeler.
Thursday, January 7 at 10:30 p.m., Dance Studio, ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance
“After Hours” is a program of late night music in the glass walled dance studio featuring music by Terry Riley, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, John Cage, and others.
Friday, January 8 at 3:15 p.m., Bernhard Music Center, room 30
Prof. Ed Gollin offers a talk, “Idea and Machine: Process in Steve Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood.” The talk will look at Steve Reich’s “Music for Pieces of Wood” (1973) from several perspectives: its relation to and development of techniques in other of Reich’s music of the period; its relation to African drumming traditions; and its relation to works of conceptual art that Sol LeWitt was exploring at the time.
Friday, January 8 at 8 p.m., CenterStage, ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance
The celebrated New York quartet “loadbang” presents “monodramas,” a program featuring dramatic works by Hannah Lash and Andy Akiho composed for their unique lineup of trumpet, trombone, bass clarinet, and baritone voice. The program also includes works by Alex Mincek and Adam Zahller.
Student-run new music ensemble Iota
Saturday, January 9 at 2 p.m., the Clark Art Institute
I/O Ensemble performs a one-hour program of works they call “Out of the Box” for percussion, voices, strings, and winds on the lower level of the new Clark Center. The program features works by Steve Reich, Ryan Ross Smith, James Tenney, Jacob Walls, and David Lang. Step out of the concert hall for new music close up in an extraordinary space. The concert is free, but admission to the Clark’s exhibits is $20 for general admission and free for students, children under 18, and members.
Saturday, January 9 at 8 p.m., CenterStage, ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance at Williams
The student run IOTA Ensemble presents the next generation of composers as well as Steve Reich’s classic, “Eight Lines” and Sam Pluta’s supercharged “Machine Language” featuring Jay Sager, solo percussion.
Williams concert hotline: 413-597-3146