March 2015

REENGINEERING VILLA AURORA

Villa Aurora Artist in Residence Steven Warwick / Heatsick will present a new work in progress that is being developed during his stay here. He will be joined by saxophonist and former Aurora fellow Ulrich Krieger (today member of the faculty at Calarts) to debut a special performance at the Villa Aurora.

Warwick will use the villa's pipe organ normally used for silent movies alongside Krieger on saxophone to perform a soundtrack for the Salon space, including mixed media and objects dispersed around the room as well as field recordings and video footage that he has recorded gathered during his time in the city to create an interlinking installation performance.

Special custom drinks will be served at the event, guests are encouraged to wear comfortable clothing and to bring along a cushion. You can look forward to a very special event!

T@MS and Eclectic Salon present: VARIED TRIO

Lou Harrison was not the first composer to write for violin, piano, & percussion trio, but in 1987 he did create it's most lasting and beloved work, theVaried Trio.

This program takes the Varied Trio as a point of departure and inspiration for the evening, featuring five new pieces. Takuma Itoh's Vanishing Act reimagines the role of the percussionist, eschewing pitch, with stunning effect, while Harrison disciple Bill Alves takes an opposite approach in his new work, building a custom set of tubes for the percussionist with 41 pitches to the octave. Brian Shepard embraces Lou's love of flair and the non-traditional with his raucous Last Tango on the Left, and Jason Heath carries on Harrison's exploration of extended techniques, featuring alchemical and illusionary interactions between live performers and electronic processes in his Kimiya for violin and piano. Dennis Aman builds a new microtonal percussion instrument for his Petaluma, based on a poem Lou Harrison wrote for his friend and kindred spirit, "Lines of Eleven and Eight on Harry Partch." The last line of the Lou's poem captures perfectly the essence of the final work on the program, Harrison's own Varied Trio: " it is our flesh that knows all these lovely ratios, as we know also blooms and loves and tunes and sunlight."

Three of Los Angeles' premiere chamber musicians--Yuri Inoo, Aron Kallay, and Shalini Vijayan--form the Varied Trio, a fearless chamber ensemble dedicated to the music of the here and now. Explorations in color, rhythm, and melody are born from the unique combination of violin, piano, and percussion. The trio's repertoire ranges from icons of the genre, such as Lou Harrison's Varied Trio, to new works created specifically for the group by the leading composers of today.