| Summary: |
“I could say that this concert presents many musical aesthetics, from the dronal truth of Indian raga, to the contemplative monody of Hildegard von Bingen, to the polyphonic complexities of Baroque music, to the juicy harmonic decadence of the late Romantics, to the blood infusion of be-bop, to the poesy of rap, to the tight-rope edge of free ensemble improvisation. But I won’t. I can’t, because these aspects don’t present themselves to me as individual items to be assembled into a quilt. They appear to me, to many of my musical colleagues, and to many artists of our generation, simply as the language we speak, our narrative musical tongue. Be prepared to hear a musical language that is simultaneously ancient and modern, simple and complex, composed and spontaneous.” W.A. Mathieu
Numina Center for Spirituality & the Arts and the
Sonoma State University School of Performing Arts present a special, full-length concert spotlighting the music of pianist, composer, and author William Allaudin Mathieu and the spectacular acoustics of Sonoma County’s new Green Music Center. As the evening unfolds, listeners will be presented with a unique opportunity to experience how new music, flowing from ancient times and diverse traditions, speaks to modern sensibilities.
Featuring:
TRIO EPHEMEROS
New song settings of ancient verses by Rumi, Hafiz, and Hildegard von Bingen
Devi Mathieu, mezzo soprano
Shira Kammen, strings
Allaudin Mathieu, composition, piano
Listen:
This Marriage.mp3 (5.82 MB)
Unmarked Boxes.mp3 (5.64 MB)
A Chickpea.mp3 (6.85 MB)
and
THE BLOOM TRIO
Free and structured improvisations on a stage filled with drums, gongs, bells, marimba, and piano
George Marsh and Jennifer Wilsey, percussion
Allaudin Mathieu, piano
Listen:
Air Tonic.mp3 (7.07 MB)
Motific Piece.mp3 (6.26 MB)
Knocking From The Inside.mp3 (7.07 MB)
|
| More Information: |
 William Allaudin Mathieu—pianist, composer, author, and teacher—is one of the most influential musicians of his generation. He began recording solo piano albums in 1980. He has composed a large variety of chamber pieces, choral works, and song cycles, and has written four books on music: The Listening Book, The Musical Life, Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Experience, and Bridge of Waves: What Music Is and How Listening to It Changes the World.
Allaudin was a disciple of North Indian vocalist Pandit Pran Nath for 25 years. He studied with composers William Russo and Easley Blackwood, and collaborated with Nubian master musician Hamza El Din. In the 1960s, he spent several years as an arranger and composer for Stan Kenton and Duke Ellington Orchestras, and was the musical director for the Second City Theater in Chicago (which he helped found) and for the Committee Theater in San Francisco. In the 1970s, he served on the faculties of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Mills College. In 1969 he founded the Sufi Choir, which he directed until 1982.
Allaudin now devotes himself to practice, performance, recording, composition, teaching, and writing from his home near Sebastopol, California. www.coldmountainmusic.com
 Multi-instrumentalist Shira Kammen has spent well over half her life exploring the worlds of early and traditional music. A member for many years of Ensemble Alcatraz, Project Ars Nova, and Medieval Strings, she has also worked with Sequentia, Hesperion XX, the Boston Camerata, Kitka, the Oregon, California, and San Francisco Shakespeare Festivals, and is the founder of Class V Music, an ensemble dedicated to performance on river rafting trips. She has performed and taught in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Israel, Morocco, Latvia, Russia and Japan, and on the Colorado, Rogue and Klamath Rivers.
Shira happily collaborated with singer/storyteller John Fleagle for 15 years, and performs now with several groups: a medieval ensemble, Fortune's Wheel; the new music group, Ephemeros; and an eclectic ethnic band, Panacea. She collaborates with storyteller/harpist Patrick Ball, medieval music expert Margriet Tindemans, and many theatrical and dance productions.
She has played on several television and movie soundtracks, including "O," a modern high-school setting of Othello, and "The Nativity Story." Some of her original music can be heard in an independent film about fans of J.R.R. Tolkien. The strangest place Shira has played is in the elephant pit of the Jerusalem Zoo. She hopes to spend more time playing music of all kinds in the wilderness and has recently taken courses in Taiko drumming and voiceover acting. www.shirakammen.com
 Devi Mathieu sings early and contemporary music in the U.S. and Europe. She coaches singers of early music and guides timid singers— and those who have been led to believe they can’t sing—in finding their true voice. She regularly collaborates with composer and pianist Allaudin Mathieu and string virtuoso and singer Shira Kammen. The three often collaborate to form Trio Ephemeros. Devi and Shira co-direct Vox Flora and Vox Terrae, vocal ensembles that have presented several programs of medieval music under the auspices of Numina Center for Spirituality and the Arts, including the Music of Hildegard von Bingen, Music for the Black Madonna, Music from the Time of St. Francis, and The Soul’s Flame: Music from Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Devi has a special devotion for the music of Hildegard von Bingen. Since 1996, she has been teaching Hildegard’s music in the medieval oral tradition. She guides retreats and regular Monday evening gatherings that give singers of all levels the opportunity to sing Hildegard’s music as contemplative practice. These evenings—Through the Ear to the Heart—are held at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Santa Rosa, California, sponsored by Numina Center, www.numinacenter.org.
 George Marsh (b. 1941) is a San Francisco based drum set and percussion artist, composer, and teacher, currently with the David Grisman Quintet. He is the author of the highly acclaimed instruction book Inner Drumming, which deals with energy flow inside the body. Listening with all four limbs is at the essence of his approach to playing the drumset.
George can be heard on many CDs, including those with John Abercrombie, Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros, Allaudin Mathieu, David Grisman, Jerry Garcia, Denny Zeitlin, Maria Muldaur, and Noam Lemish. Rick Van Horn of Modern Drummer magazine says "Marsh is, in himself, one of the most versatile percussion sections in jazz." George teaches drumming and rhythm theory at Sonoma State University and at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He also teaches at his private studio in Santa Rosa, California. www.innerdrumming.com
 Jennifer Wilsey performs, composes and teaches music with a focus on improvisation, polyrhythm, and Deep Listening® practices. Her dynamic performance approach melds extended techniques, preparations, and live electronic processing for percussion, piano, voice, and found objects.
In addition to being active as a concert percussionist, Jennifer has performed with diverse artists and ensembles including Timeless Pulse (with Pauline Oliveros, Thomas Buckner, George Marsh, and David Wessel), The Good Sound Band (Loren Rush, Janis Mattox and others), Petr Kotik and the SEM Ensemble, Anna Halprin, Stuart Dempster, and William Winant. Jennifer’s recent recordings include: Timeless Pulse Live at CNMAT, 2002 (Deep Listening); Timeless Pulse Quintet (Mutable, 2007); Timeless Pulse Trio (2x vinyl LP on Taiga Records, 2010); and The Bloom (Cold Mountain Music, 2011).
As an educator, Jennifer teaches percussion, percussion pedagogy, and directs the Improvisation/Percussion Ensemble at Sonoma State University. She also maintains a private studio offering creative music lessons for children and adults in Santa Rosa, California.
Jennifer is currently enrolled in the MFA program in Performance and Literature with Improvisation Specialization at Mills College, where she serves as coordinator of the Musicianship program.
|
