by Coril Prochnow
This Friday evening, the Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT) presents a double bill of multiple performance disciplines, with River Song Quintet in a collaboration with Ohio poet David Baker, and the animator/performing artist Miwa Matreyek enacting her signature solo piece, This World Made Itself.
River Song Quintet is an LA-based chamber jazz ensemble whose music merges the worlds of classical chamber music, art song, jazz & improvised music, and folk music. The group recently released its debut album, Monarchs, with the title track featuring Baker’s poem, Monarchs Landing and Flying, set to music by RSQ’s guitarist, Gregory Uhlmann. The haunting piece inspired Uhlmann to write an entire song cycle based on Baker’s poetry, which the quintet performed in Chicago and in Ohio, with the poet reading his own work. Three of Uhlmann’s compositions will be performed on Friday evening: a semi-improvised interplay of guitar and spoken word; a six-movement art song setting of the poetry of Baker; and a reading of Scavenger Loop, Baker’s eco-poetic Midwestern elegy, with a score performed by the quintet.
Miwa Matreyek first appeared as a double bill with RSQ in their Ohio concert, enthralling the group with her unique and fantastical theatrical presentation, where she uses animations as silhouettes with which she interacts onstage in a dreamlike combination of cinema and physical performance. Compelling and surreally beautiful, her work has been performed all over the country including at Lincoln Center and MOMA, and at animation/film festivals, museums, universities and conferences worldwide.
River Song Quintet / David Baker / Miwa Matreyek at REDCAT
Friday, October 28, 8:30pm
Tickets
$25 General Public
$20 REDCat members and CalArts students
Call the box office at (213) 237-2800 to purchase
Originally published in Next 7 — Vocal events thru 11/3/16
