The following video features choreography to Conduit from Eighth Blackbird’s album Hand Eye. With choreography by Jennifer Backhaus and performed by Ellen Akashi, Tawny Chapman, Amie Lee Kilgore, McKell Lemon, Katie Natwick, Kaitlin Regan, Chihiro Sano, Megan Seagren, Samantha Waugh, Amanda Kay White, this is an excerpt from the premiere of “One Continuous Line” at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, Irvine, CA.

Credits:

Choreography by Jennifer Backhaus
Premiere: Irvine Barclay Theatre, Irvine, CA
Music: Conduit I, II, III by Robert Honstein; South Catalina by Christopher Cerrone, Performed by Eighth Blackbird
Lighting Design: Michael Korsch
Costume Design: Rachael Lorenzetti
Running Time: 20 minutes

Performed by Ellen Akashi, Tawny Chapman, Amie Lee Kilgore, McKell Lemon, Katie Natwick, Kaitlin Regan, Chihiro Sano, Megan Seagren, Samantha Waugh, Amanda Kay White

Jennifer Backhaus’ latest work for the company features an all-female cast of 10 dancers. Expressing a strong sense of unity and celebration of women, it lyrically reveals their strength, determination and ability to move forward.

Known for her quick and clever choreography, Backhausdance’s founder and artistic director explores themes of continuity, flow and perpetual motion. Taking its cue from life, the work follows a non-linear line of momentum where one movement leads to another and ricochets, bouncing back and forth and creating radiant vivacity.

Performance footage and interviews surrounding the world premiere of my percussion concerto ‘Juvenalia’, premiered in March 2019 by Colin Currie with the Albany Symphony Orchestra and Music Director David Alan Miller.

Audio and Video by Four/Ten Media
http://fourtenmedia.net

The premiere performance of Juvenalia for solo percussion and orchestra will be broadcast on WMHT Sunday, March 31st at 6pm. Link and concert info below:

Online radio broadcast: http://www.wmht.org/radio/classical/listen-live/

Albany Symphony Orchestra: Concert 6. Recorded on March 9, 2019, the program features the return to the area of percussionist Colin Currie in the World Premiere of Robert Honstein’s Percussion Concerto, plus Ravel’s Bolero and works by Paul Hindemith and Morton Gould. Recorded at the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York.

Orchestra (2.pic.(afl).2+ca.2+bcl.2+cbn/4.3.3.1/timp/pf/str) and Solo Percussion

In Ancient Rome, Juvenalia were coming of age festivals featuring games, theater and ritual celebrations. Ironically, these events were noted for the childish behavior of their participants, youth and elders alike. Accounts from the time suggest wild, debaucherous display was not only encouraged but required. Anyone not acting sufficiently irreverent risked expulsion or worse.

In my concerto, Juvenalia, I seized on this idea of youthful carousing. At the same time, I considered the linguistically similar notion of juvenilia. Sometimes disowned, often discarded, these early works are at best a footnote to otherwise noteworthy catalogs. Yet these raw, unpolished efforts contain portentous kernels: seemingly insignificant ideas that may grow in surprising, beautiful ways. Looking back at my own early compositional efforts, I’m convinced there are connections between my youthful creations and the music I write today. As I grow older, I listen to these first attempts and think perhaps there’s more to discover. Maybe these capricious, unrefined pieces hold secrets yet to be revealed.

Tapping into both the wild energy of Juvenalia and the elusive premonitions of juvenilia, the concerto begins with music reminiscent of my high school garage band. Playing a modified drum kit, the soloist careens through a series of loud, bombastic episodes, overflowing with youthful energy and wild abandon. The second movement takes a step back. Moving from kit to vibraphone, the soloist leads the orchestra on a slow and spacious soliloquy. Lyrical and contemplative, the music evokes a restrained, classical sensibility. Finally, the third movement revisits the frenzied exuberance of the opening, but now with even greater urgency. A reckless, unrelenting momentum pushes the music forward as the soloist unleashes a torrent of sixteenth notes in a furious drive to the finish.

Commissioned by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University for Colin Currie and the Albany Symphony.

Premiered Saturday, March 9, 2019, the Palace Theater, Albany, NY by Colin Currie and the Albany Symphony Orchestra, David Alan Miller, Director.

Excited to finally share the video for An Economy of Means with the incredible Doug Perkins! Produced and filmed by Evan Chapman and Four/Ten Media.

Album trailer for An Economy of Means. Coming your way 5.18.18. New Focus Recordings. Pre-order here!

Super excited to announce my new album ‘An Economy of Means’. Featuring Doug Perkins and Karl Larson playing two large, ambitious solo works written just for them. Out May, 18, 2018 on New Focus Recordings with beautiful album design by Laura Grey, photography by Adam DeTour, and liner notes by Timo Andres. Release shows in Boston, Chicago, and NYC. Stay tuned!

PRE-ORDER from bandcamp now, click here!