Story Water

Story Water is a contemporary violin and viola duo dedicated to the exploration and performance of new and experimental works. Cassia Streb, viola, and Madeline Falcone, violin, are both versatile performers of contemporary music in Los Angeles. The ensemble actively cultivates creative relationships with local composers and artists, and develops innovative presentations of new music in unconventional spaces.  In addition to performing, Story Water is committed to educating students about creative music-making with an emphasis on experimental techniques, improvisation, and non-traditional notation.

Guthrie and Streb

In 2004 I met cellist April Guthrie at CalArts and within that year we started a contemporary viola and cello duo.

Unknown.jpeg

Guthrie & Streb is a Los Angeles based music ensemble committed to the performance of new and experimental works by living composers and the cross-pollination of art disciplines through collaboration. Since 2005, cellist April Guthrie and violist Cassia Streb have commissioned over 50 works for their string duo. The ensemble has worked with James Tenney, Wadada Leo Smith, Georges Aperghis, Vinny Golia, Michael Pisaro as well as many other composers. In addition to working with established artists, Guthrie & Streb commission emerging composers who are passionate about the collaborative process of creating new music.

Guthrie & Streb believes that contemporary music needs to be presented in new ways and as such is committed to the composition and realization of new works. Our events are programmed to create a cohesive show where the listener is invited to hear the pieces as a complete album with a universal musical arc alongside the smaller musical gestures. The ensemble is dedicated to creating a musical community where musicians, in all of their capacities; performance, composition, improvisation and electronics etc, encourage one another to innovate and help them realize their ideas.

Guthrie & Streb recently completed a collaboration with filmmaker Madison Brookshire and sound artist Michael Pisaro. Their project, Transparent Cities, was presented through a residency at the Hammer Museum. The Hammer Museum’s Artist Residency Program was initiated with funding from the Nimoy Foundation and is supported through a significant grant from the James Irvine Foundation.

prev / next

 

Southland Ensemble

The Southland Ensemble, formed in 2013, is a recent addition to the experimental music community and has thus far committed itself to presenting a series of portrait concerts. Each concert is carefully programmed to reflect a specific creative period in a given composer's career so that the audience is offered the opportunity to delve deeper into the work. It is in this way that the Southland Ensembles seeks to bring experimental music to a more diverse audience. Since its formation, the ensemble has presented works by  Christian Wolff, Alvin Lucier, Pauline Oliveros, Robert Ashley and James Tenney. The ensemble seeks to broaden its focus to include composers outside of the United States in subsequent seasons. 

The Southland Ensemble consists of eight core members who possess a vast amount of experience within the experimental tradition, particularly in the interpretation of graphic notation and text scores.  The collective is flexible in size and often collaborates with guests as the music requires. Each member of the group is proficient on a least one or more traditional Western instruments though they deviate from this as the scores dictate, sometimes playing stones or spoken word. The Southland Ensemble seeks to collectively share their experiences through the mediums of interactive concerts, workshops and lectures.

Rattle Rattle Chamber Orchestra

This is a chamber ensemble created to back singer/songwriter Dorian Wood. Dorian is a formidable songwriter and performer. He has a huge range when it comes to his voice and one of the best parts of being in this band is getting to hear Dorian perform live from one of the best seats in the house. 

Here are some videos from various separate performances with Dorian Wood and the Rattle Rattle Orchestra. 

Performance at Grand Performances in downtown LA on August 5th, 2017. Dorian performed covers by Soeur Sourire or the Singing Nun. Arrangements by Danni Graziani