DSO KICKS OFF FRESH DETROIT SOUNDS @ THE MAX WITH LOCAL MUSICIANS
Patrons purchasing tickets to all four fall festival concerts receive free voucher to upcoming Mix @ The Max concert of their choosing
DETROIT, (August 28, 2014) – The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) will present Fresh Detroit Sounds @ The Max this fall, a unique collection of concerts spotlighting new music performed by local artists. Three out of four artists performing September through October are based in Detroit.
Fresh Detroit Sounds @ The Max launches with Strange Beautiful Music VII featuring New Music Detroit, a contemporary music collective comprised of young, highly accomplished area musicians. The music marathon will present sounds ranging from contemporary chamber music and European folk to experimental electronics and noise improvisation in the Music Box on Saturday, September 13 from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. My Brightest Diamondbrings Detroit native Shara Worden, who will celebrate the release of her newest album This Is My Hand, in the Music Box on Friday, September 19 at 8 p.m. Electronic artist and Detroit native Shigeto brings his beat-driven, richly textured sound design to the stage for Mix @ the Max on Thursday, October 23 at 10 p.m.
Chicago-based Fifth House Ensemble returns to Detroit for Mix @ The Max on Saturday, September 27 at 9 p.m., presenting a multi-media narrative chamber music collaboration featuring work of Chicago graphic novelist Ezra Claytan Daniels for Black Violet, Act II: The Great Exodus of the Tamed. This concert marks the return of Fifth House Ensemble to Detroit following their performance of Black Violet, Act I: The Leagues of Despair during the 2012-2013 season. This year’s concert coincides with the DLECTRICITY festival, a two-night blitz of temporary outdoor art installations using light as a medium in Midtown.
Tickets are available to each concert, ranging from $10 to $25. Patrons purchasing tickets to all four concerts will receive a free voucher to attend an upcoming Mix @ The Max event of their choosing this season. More ticket pricing details for each event are below.
Coming from a previous season with tremendous growth, the @ The Max series ended with a sold out Mix @ The Max featuring Ben Sollee. With his cello playing that incorporates new techniques to create distinctive mix of folk, bluegrass, jazz and R&B, Sollee and percussionist Jordon Ellis presented a unique evening of raw live music. Adding Detroit’s finest food trucks to the mix and an after party at Great Lakes Brewing Company, the season ended on a high note.
The final speakers series event of the season, ASSEMBLE @ The Max, also sold out with Transit and the Equitable City featuring former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia Enrique Peñalosa with a panel of stakeholders in Detroit’s sustainability and mobility discussing the effects of the M-1 Rail and other forms of mobilization on the city.
Strange Beautiful Music VII featuring New Music Detroit
New Music Detroit brings their seventh annual music marathon, Strange Beautiful Music, to The Max on Saturday, September 13 from 4 p.m.to 10 p.m. in the Music Box. The avant-garde production features experimental and far-reaching sounds ranging from contemporary chamber music and European folk to experimental electronics and noise improvisation. New Music Detroit performs works by Louis Andriessen, Bill Ryan and John Luther Adams. Special guest appearances include a world premiere by Todd Reynolds, and locally-based Frank Pahl and Shara Worden in David Lang’s recent work, “Death Speaks.”
This year’s Kresge Artist Fellow, New Music Detroit – a contemporary music collective comprised of young, highly accomplished area musicians, including several members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra – is dedicated to performing dynamic works from the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
New Music Detroit offers a “pay what you want” general admission ticket option with a minimum donation of $10 for one ticket, ranging up to $100.They feel that price should not be a barrier to participation in artistic experiences that bring life and culture to the city and the people in it. Patron support helps make these events possible.
Full Lineup:
4 PM – Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble
Bill Ryan, director
5 PM
IANNIS XENAKIS Xas – Donald Sinta Sax Quartet
IANNIS XENAKIS Okho – Jonathan Smith and Chris Sies, percussion
CLEM FORTUNA Original compositions – Clem Fortuna, microtonal piano
6 PM – New Music Detroit
BILL RYAN Works from “Toward Daybreak”
Blurred
Sparkle
Rapid Assembly
Original Compositions – Miles Brown Quartet
7 PM – New Music Detroit
FRANK PAHL 3+4 (World Premiere)
JOHN LUTHER ADAMS The Light Within
EVAN ZIPORYN Typical Music
8 PM – Todd Reynolds, violin
Original Compositions and Improvisation
9 PM – New Music Detroit
LOUIS ANDRIESSEN Hout – with Derek Johnson, guitar
JOHN ZORN Trilogy (World Premiere) – with Miles Brown, bass
DAVID LANG Death Speaks (Detroit Premiere) – with Shara Worden, vocalsand Derek Johnson, guitar
New Music Detroit Core Ensemble
Erik Rönmark, saxophone
Ian Ding, percussion
Gina Dibello, violin
Una O’Riordan, cello
Shannon Orme, clarinets
Vicky Chow, piano
My Brightest Diamond
My Brightest Diamond comes to The Max on Friday, September 19 at 8 p.m. in the Music Box, bringing special guests to celebrate with a release party for her newest album This Is My Hand. General admission tickets are $18 in advance or $20 at the door. Performing under the experimental-pop moniker My Brightest Diamond, Shara Worden has an artistry that seems to transcend music itself. Where worlds are colliding, there is a Shara; a zeitgeist for a growing movement of experimental musicians eager to bend the borders of artistry and genre. On stage the Detroit native evokes as much Martha Graham as Edith Piaf, leaving audiences thunderstruck with her mystical voice and mythic storytelling.
Mix @ The Max: Black Violet featuring Fifth House Ensemble
Chicago-based Fifth House Ensemble is thrilled to present Detroit audiences with a long-awaited performance of Black Violet, Act II: The Great Exodus of the Tamed. This landmark collaboration with Chicago graphic novelist Ezra Claytan Daniels comes to The Max on Saturday, September 27 at 9 p.m. Be there at 8 p.m.to mix, mingle, eat and drink. Tickets are $15 in advance or $25 at the door.
The multi-media narrative chamber music collaboration is centered during the last outbreak of the plague in London, the gripping performance melds vivid imagery and riveting narrative with music of the highest caliber as graphic novel slides illustrate the story.
Fifth House Ensemble has pioneered the art of narrative chamber music performance. Through unprecedented artistic collaborations, it creates multi-media experiences that depict, inspire, and respond to stories from around the world, intertwining dramatic narrative with chamber music of all genres.
Mix @ The Max featuring Shigeto
Electronic artist and Detroit native Shigeto brings his beat-driven, richly textured sound design, along with a live ensemble of special guests, to the stage for Mix @ The Max on Thursday, October 23 at 10 p.m. Be there at 9 p.m. to mix, mingle, eat and drink. Tickets are $15 in advance or $25 at the door.
For the first time ever, Shegeto’s performance will involve live instrumentation of his compositions versus his live sampling and drum solo sets. Cool shades of ambient music, stuttering early IDM, dubstep sub-bass and jazz melodicism color Detroit artist Shigeto’s palette. Beat-driven but given to richly textured sound design, rhythmically fractured but melodically sumptuous, Shigeto’s music is a bridge between the past and present, bringing the artist face to face with a creative legacy that spans decades.
About The DSO
Hailed by The New York Times as “cutting edge,” the internationally acclaimed Detroit Symphony Orchestra, is known for trailblazing performances, visionary maestros, collaborations with the world’s foremost musical artists, and an unwavering commitment to Detroit. Esteemed conductor Leonard Slatkin, called “America’s Music Director” by the Los Angeles Times, became the 12th Music Director of the DSO during the 2008-09. Acclaimed conductor, arranger, and trumpeter Jeff Tyzik serves as Principal Pops Conductor while celebrated trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard holds the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Jazz Creative Director Chair. The DSO’s performance schedule includes Classical, Pops, Jazz, Young People’s, Neighborhood concerts, and collaborations with chart-topping musicians from Smokey Robinson to Kid Rock. A commitment to broadcast innovation began in 1922 when the DSO became the first orchestra in the world to present a radio broadcast and continues today with the free Live from Orchestra Hall webcast series. Making its home at historic Orchestra Hall within the Max M. Fisher Music Center, one of America’s most acoustically perfect concert halls, the DSO actively pursues a mission to impact and serve the community through music. For more information visit dso.org or download the free DSO to Go mobile app.
