Our First Residency: Avaloch

Last week, Mara, Marina, composer Gabrielle Herbst, and I went to the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Boscawen, New Hampshire, a magical place where musicians and composers can have the time and space to work, not to mention delicious meals for sustenance. We were there specifically for the New Music Initiative, a program directed by Hannah Collins and Michael Compitello of New Morse Code, which focuses exclusively on ensemble/composer collaborations. The facilities were pristine, the landscape was beautiful, and the people were so lovely. We were truly lucky to have the opportunity to work with Gabi in this idyllic setting!

During our group work sessions, Gabi led improvisations that opened up the weird and strange possibilities that could come out of our instruments and our vocal cords. I don’t want to give too much away, but after this, I’m so excited to hear what Gabi creates. In addition to writing classical music, she composes short-form, vocal-centric compositions under the name GABI. If you aren’t familiar with her work yet, you can see her opera Bodiless online here and listen to (and buy!) her album, Sympathy, here.

Big thanks to Dr. Fred Tauber and Deborah Scherr of Avaloch for making such a unique place exist! And we’re also grateful to Hannah and Michael for being so receptive to our proposal.

Here are some photos. We don’t have as many in the studio because we were focused on work and rarely took our phones out, which was a refreshing change from our usual day-to-day.

Picking blueberries at the blueberry patch!

This is where we took our meals. Beautiful right?!

Our suite! Was it a French suite? an English suite? It was definitely a SWEET suite!

Wish admin work could be like this everyday...

Oh right forgot to mention we made a short "film." Coming soon to an Instagram feed near you!

Rocking out in one of our Gabi-led improv sessions. Photo: Gabrielle Herbst

This was cool. Too bad we couldn't go inside.

Shortcut path to our parking spot. We miss you already, Avaloch!

Parataxis & Pictures: MN Creative Meeting

Thursday we had a creative meeting for our upcoming synesthesia-inspired music and art installation, Mysterium Novum.

Paul said, "Anne, are you telling me how to compose?"

Isabel and Sugar mostly took Instagrams and Snapchats. They were bestowed with the important task, however, of choosing the pastries. They also ate most of them.

Joel talked about his pretty flowers. They will respond to touch. Jeanette thought of ways to make them even prettier.

Beau brought a costume prototype, made of organza. ORGANZA EXTRAVAGANZA COMING TO MYSTERIUM NOVUM!

We walked through Anne's ribbons and it was magical.

Isabel's snazzy new necklace from Brazil

The #1 reason to collaborate with us: there will always be pastries from DAK at meetings

Lighting designer Jeanette Yew and composer/new media artist Joel Mellin bossing us around (JK!)

Anne giving us the scoop on her plan for MN

Pyer Moss FW 2016 Show: our day in pictures

Today we performed songs by Fetty Wap, Future, and Roland Carter at Pyer Moss's FW 2016 show at MILK Studios, which was part of MADE Fashion Week. Sterling Overshown did the choral arrangements and Trevor Gureckis orchestrated the accompaniment for Pierrot ensemble. We were thrilled to take part in this show! The visionary Dario Calmese contacted us a week ago and we're stoked that we were able to whip this together in such a tight span of time. It helped that the choir members were incredibly talented and super pro, and Trevor has the gift of skills and speed. We're pretty exhausted since our day started this morning at 10 am and ended around 4 pm, but we had such an amazing time playing good music in branded hospital gowns and chunky boots. We hope to do more shows next season! Maybe we'll hold a sign outside MILK that says "Will work for clothes!" :-P

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Sugar is clearly addicted to social media. SHE NEEDS HELP!!!

We were joined by extraordinary cellist Meaghan Burke

Managed to squeeze in a little NCP fieldtrip! Grabbed lunch at mŏkbar in Chelsea Market. Delicious Korean food and noodles!

Pitstop at Blue Bottle coffee, right next to Milk...Studios! (haha get it?!)

Had to get a shot of Trevor, who did us a solid by getting these arrangements done in a week...

...and helped us with the tech for our digital piano. Above and beyond as always!

Obligatory selfie with choir, Sugar trying to give face!

Sitzprobe, Sterling Overshown conducting

We were too shy to ask for a pic with Ms. Badu, so we got this one with her and Pyer Moss founder/designer Kirby Jean-Raymond

For our listening pleasure. @pyermoss #NYFW pic.twitter.com/ZuxBHNfAVF
— Robin Givhan (@RobinGivhan) February 13, 2016

Designer Kay Unger came! We were so excited to see her. Kay is an inspiration and Kirby of Pyer Moss used to work for her. Also pictured with us are Dario Calmese, the brains behind the show concept, and Sterling Overshown.

All photos after Erykah Badu + Kirby Jean-Raymond were taken by Trevor Gureckis.

A musician, artist, composer, and scent artist walk into a bar...

Yesterday we had our first Mysterium Novum team meeting of 2016. Mysterium Novum is a project we've been working on since 2014. Our clarinetist, Isabel Kim, has been intrigued with synesthesia for quite some time and came up with this concept after discovering composer Alexander Scriabin’s unrealized piece Mysterium. It was to be an elaborate week-long synesthetic performance/experience combining music, dance, visual art, light projections, and scent. Using Scriabin’s project as a point of inspiration, we’ll be creating our own version of it, with music by composer Paul Haas, an installation by Anne Patterson, scent by Atelier de Geste, and interactive tech by Joel Mellin. And we’ll be performing, of course!

We started with our walk-through at White Box on the Lower East Side, where we asked a million questions about power sources, sound, chairs, and where the bathroom was because some of us needed to go. After getting a sense of the space we were all inspired and still had so many more ideas to explore, so Anne suggested we sit down and grab lunch. Isabel (an all-knowing maven of what’s cool) walked us over to Café Henrie. This place is “just fucking delightful and an Instagrammer’s paradise” according to Sugar. Well, she’s not wrong. We’d also like to add that the food was healthy and really delicious.

Mysterium Novum is one of the most challenging projects we’ve had to produce thus far. The biggest thing before this was Potential Energies, which presented its own set of challenges (primarily getting ten musicians and dancers in a room, and working in a long process with a large group of people). Funding is always a challenge, but with Mysterium Novum the major hurdle, to our surprise, was securing a presenter. It was surprising because we had funding secured, and a couple of them spoke to us over the course of several months, even talking possible dates, with the answer concluding in a “no.”

So in true NCP-style we’re making it happen ourselves. It’s going to take place in June so stay tuned for our announcement in the coming months. You might hear trumpets. Or hear trumpets and see blue at the same time! In the meantime, scroll for more photos and stay updated by signing up for our newsletter.

*Beau Rhee of Atelier de Geste, Kina Park, Anne Patterson, Paul Haas, Isabel Kim, & Sugar Vendil*