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Posts Tagged ‘Jordan Nelson’

Interview: Jordan Nelson on New Music’s New Home

A little over a week ago I got an event invitation on Facebook for something called “Mama Fish & The Sun” at a warehouse space in east Hollywood/Los Feliz. I saw that my friends Maggie Hasspacher and Laura Kramer were on the program, so thought it was worth checking out. Well guess what? We’ve got a new concert series, LA, and it sounds like it’s going to be a rad one. Composer Jordan Nelson, who’s running the show, had time to answer a few questions below. The inaugural concert is tonight. Details are here.

Perhaps I’m out of the loop, but this is the first time I’ve heard of New Music’s New Home. Is this a new series? And what prompted you to start it?

This is indeed a brand new series!  The idea has been in the works, though, for a couple of years:  The series has grown out of the fact that I’ve been coming into contact with a number of really interesting, uniquely-minded and ambitious musicians and composers who share a desire to find new ways of interacting with their audience, be it by finding and/or creating a new kind of venue or, even more, a different style of ‘concert’.  The underlying and recurring theme, though, was that there is the really exciting set of performers and creators who want a new outlet for their work.

New Music’s New Home seeks to go one step further—the intention is to not only cultivate these new and different performance opportunities, but, also, with each NMNH, to expand the range of venues and types of performance events in which new music is heard.  Therefore, the series will be especially focused on premiering and prompting new projects, which we will then install in, well, really any ‘venue’ that our imagination can get behind.

On the website and poster (which is great, by the way) for this Friday’s show, you’ve got some details about the pieces by Laura Kramer and Sarah Gibson, but nothing about your own. What will we be hearing from you?

The concert this Friday, ‘Mama Fish & The Sun’, is going to feature two pieces of mine, both of which will be performed by guitarist extraodinaire Jack Cimo.  I wrote a set of pieces for solo classical guitar for Jack in 2008 entitled ‘Sun Songs’.   As part of his set on Friday night, Jack is going to play the third of the three pieces, ‘The Vapor As It Flew In Fleeces Tinged With Violet’.  Additionally, Jack is going to be be joined by the fantastic soprano Angie Engelbart in order to perform ‘Around the Throne the Thunder Rolls’.  The piece is actually the most recent of my pieces for guitar, and therefore it seems fitting to pair it with my first piece for the instrument, ‘Sun Songs’.

NMNH purports to produce events that are designed to take advantage of their unique venue and audience. How will this concert be taking advantage of the space at Yeaheavy?

We have a really wonderful opportunity present with our collaboration with and installation at Yeaheavy, and ‘Mama Fish & The Sun’ is definitely going take advantage of it!  One of the most exciting aspects of the collaboration is that, currently, the walls of the venue are showcasing a number of works by a quartet of really interesting and playful visual artists.  The paintings and illustrations, I think, will offer an interesting counterpart to the music, adding to the audience’s experience.  Furthermore, as the event will include downtime in which everyone can converse, move around the space, as well as get a refill from our wine and beer bar, I think the artwork will provide a fun conversation piece.

‘Mama Fish & The Sun’ is the culmination of a collaborative approach to the conception of the ‘performance’.  Conceived together with Yeaheavy, ‘Mama Sun…’ has taken into account the lighting, the seating, the staging, and the costuming.  Our hope and intent is that the event will augment the music and the performances with an additional layer of concept and theme.  Ultimately, though, we’re just excited to explore the sum of our ideas and creativity!

It’s cool to see a series focused on collaboration. What else do you have in store, or in mind, for us in the future?

Excellent question.  At this point, there are two NMNH events in the works, both tentatively slated for 2013.  The first will be centered around a single instrument: the piano, which will be absent from ‘Mama Fish…’.  The concert will feature works for solo piano, small chamber ensembles that include piano, and also some electroacoustic music for piano, including a collaboration between myself and composer/pianist Sarah Gibson.

Additionally, there is a second NMNH in the works which will be primarily about electronic music.  The event has already begun conscripting a variety of styles of music-by-computer, including a music-concrete-style, abstract sound installation to a turn-on-the-strobe-light, dance-electronica set; a wide range!

Anything else you’d like to add?

Well, if anyone would like more information on the event, please feel free to email New Music’s New Home at newmusicsnewhome@gmail.com.  Also, more information on Yeaheavy can be found at their website, www.yeaheavy.com.  Finally, you can find more details about ‘Mama Fish & The Sun’ by clicking the ‘Mama Fish…’ poster on the homepage of my own website, www.jordannelsonmusic.com.

Thanks so much for the interest in New Music’s New Home!  Looking forward to seeing you at ‘Mama Fish.…’

Thanks, see you tonight!