Switch Ensemble Residency March 27-29, 2022

[Switch~ Ensemble]

A new music ensemble for the 21st century

The Center for 21st Century Music is excited to announce a residency by Switch~ Ensemble from March 27-29, during which they will workshop new works by UB student composers and perform in concert at (UPDATED) 7:30 pm on March 29, 2022. For more details and to purchase tickets ($10), click here. Follow on Facebook here.

Concert (Updated Program):

Heather Stebbins, Among Arrows (2021)

*David Felder, A Garland (for Bruce) (2012)

Santiago Diez Fischer, perpetual green switch (2022)

Anna-Louise Walton, Crossing (2022)

Forbes Graham, Inflection: Beacon Hill/Roxbury

 

*UB professor

About Switch~

A new music ensemble for the 21st Century, the [Switch~ Ensemble] is dedicated to the creation of new works for chamber ensemble: we bring bold new acoustic, electroacoustic, and multimedia projects to life. At the core of each performance is our commitment to the total integration of technology and live musicians. We strive for compelling artistry achieved through the seamless creation, production, and execution of new music, and believe that working directly with composers—in a medium where the score is a point of departure rather than a finish line—allows for new and thrilling musical possibilities.

[Switch~] contributes to the future of the genre by strongly advocating for and commissioning the music of a new generation of emerging young composers. We have enjoyed fruitful collaborations with both emerging and established composers, with commissions and premieres of works by composers including Anna-Louise Walton, Alican Çamci, Igor Santos, Katherine Young, Stefano Gervasoni, Stefan Prins, Wojtek Blecharz, Anthony Vine, Rand Steiger, Philippe Leroux, Timothy McCormack, Tonia Ko, James Bean, Matt Sargent, Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri, Esaias Järnegard, Sivan Eldar, Julio Zúñiga, Zeynep Toraman, Alexander Schubert, Adrien Trybucki, Elvira Garifzyanova, Santiago Diez-Fischer, Lisa Streich, Anthony Pateras, and many others.

Recent engagements include performances and residencies at Cornell, Bard College, University of Chicago, Ithaca College, Buffalo State, UC Berkeley,  the VIPA Festival (Spain), Eastman School of Music, and Avaloch Farms Music Institute, as well as concerts at the Image/Sound Festival, San Francisco Center for New Music, MATA Interval Series, NYCEMF, Vanguard New Music Series at Kent State University, the Queens New Music Festival, the CD release of Christopher Chandler’s Smoke and Mirrors on the SEAMUS label, and more.

Student Works

Lihuen Sirvent

Thomas Little, Signed Distance Field - Flute, clarinet (doubling bass), saxophone (alto + tenor), violin, violoncello, percussion, piano (doubling celesta)

Computer graphics use the “signed distance field” (or “signed distance function”) to efficiently render 2D images in 3D space, and blur said images at increasing distances. In a musical adaptation of this function, the “image” is a central E Major triad, and the function uses various musical “yardsticks”—including the circle of fifths, the harmonic series, and distance in quarter-tones―to determine seven discrete levels of “blurriness,” indicated by dynamic level. Signed Distance Field moves through a warped, funhouse-mirror version of tonality as it navigates and juxtaposes these dynamically-determined pitch fields to bring various sonorities into and out of focus.

Brian Caswell

James PA Falzone

Matias Homar

Jonathan Rainous, Homeward - Flute, clarinet, saxophone (soprano + baritone), violin, violoncello, percussion, piano.

A fusion of non-classical styles using classically-enabled musical form and recombinant musical techniques to evoke a half-remembered roadtrip playlist.