As readers of Kyle Gann's blog will have gathered, I am in Seattle this weekend, co-curating a festival entitled Icebreaker IV. It's presented by the Seattle Chamber Players, in collaboration with On the Boards and the Seattle Art Museum.
There have been two concerts so far: one devoted to composers aged forty and under (Alexandra Gardner, Anna Clyne, Mason Bates, Judd Greenstein, Max Giteck Duykers, Nico Muhly, and William Brittelle) and the other devoted to American postminimalist/postclassical composers of an older generation (Janice Giteck, Elodie Lauten, John Luther Adams, William Duckworth, Eve Beglarian, and the Gannster). The composers have also given short seminars, demonstrating their works and techniques. A particular thrill was hearing a live recording of Adams's mesmerizing orchestral piece Dark Waves. This afternoon brings a marathon Morton Feldman concert at the Seattle Art Museum, in the vicinity of works by the great postwar abstract painters who inspired the composer: Rothko, Kline, Pollock, and others. Before coming to Seattle, I was attending, in a strictly non-professional capacity, the Slamdance Festival in Park City, Utah. I'm happy to say that my brilliant husband, Jonathan Lisecki, won the Spirit of Slamdance Award for his first film, Woman in Burka. The prize for best narrative feature went to The New Year Parade, a first-rate family drama set against the backdrop of Philadelphia's Mummers Parade.
