Stave Sessions, presented by Celebrity Series of Boston: Produced by Celebrity Series of Boston, Stave Sessions is a new music series that presents the next generation of contemporary artists to Boston audiences

Stave Sessions, presented by Celebrity Series of Boston
Produced by Celebrity Series of Boston, Stave Sessions is a new music series that presents the next generation of contemporary artists to Boston audiences. The week-long festival – now in its second season – takes place at 160 Mass Ave, a unique, intimate venue located on the Berklee College of Music campus. Performances run from March 13-19, 2015 (there is no performance on March 14), and tickets are on sale to the public starting November 9, 2015. Information and tickets are available at stavesessions.org.

Stave Sessions showcases young, emerging artists who represent diverse and innovative approaches, integrating their musical training into contemporary fusions and genre-bending styles. Stave Sessions aims to close the gap between audience and performer by awakening the creative spirit throughout this new musical series, in performances that defy standard categorizations.

Ticket prices will be accessible at $35 for stage-level cabaret seating and $20 for balcony standing room (Tickets for March 13 performance: $20). Doors open at 7:45pm and shows start at 8:30pm. The bar will be open throughout the evening.

For 77 years, the Celebrity Series has been an important force for advancing artistic disciplines through the development of emerging artists. Stave Sessions supports the careers of innovative, young contemporary musicians who will go on to perform in major venues in Boston as their careers develop and grow.  In 2015, the inaugural Stave Sessions featured acclaimed performances by Roomful of Teeth, cellist Ben Sollee and the Becca Stevens Band, Brooklyn Rider, Gabriel Kahane, Banda Magda and Chorobop, and Third Coast Percussion.

For further information and tickets: celebrityseries.org/stavesessions.

160 Mass Ave (venue)
The performance space is located at 160 Mass Ave, Berklee’s newest campus building, completed in spring 2014. Located on the second and third floors of the multi-use high-rise building, the Stave Sessions venue includes floor-to-ceiling glass windows that offer concertgoers an urban backdrop with views of the city, and an upscale cabaret vibe.

Performances:

Berklee College of Music Night: 3 Sudacas and Mixcla
Sunday, March 13, 8:30pm
($10 student tickets available for this performance at the door and at Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Ave., Boston)

3 Sudacas is a trio formed by Marianella Rojas from Venezuela (voice and percussion), Eduardo Mercuri from Brazil (guitar), and Esther Rojas from Colombia (bass). The trio creates a fusion of traditional music from their native countries with jazz harmony and pop elements that give a subtle and fresh sound. The members met at Berklee College of Music 2 years ago and they have been playing together since then.

Mixcla is led by composer/pianist/singer Zahili Gonzalez Zamora and features Gerson Esteban Lazo Quiroga on bass and Takafumi Nikaido on percussion. Mixcla is a play on words and a play on sounds from the mountains of Chile the traditions of Japan and the fires of Cuba. Mixcla achieves a truly unique Latin jazz experience.

Sybarite5, Outliers
Tuesday, March 15, 8:30pm
(Doors open 7:45pm, show at 8:30pm)

SYBARITE5 is the first string quintet ever selected as a winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition.  Comprised of Sami Merdinian and Sarah Whitney, violins; Angela Pickett, viola; Laura Metcalf, cello; and Louis Levitt, bass, Sybarite5 has taken audiences by storm all across the US, forever changing the perception of chamber music performance. Sybarite5 is always on the lookout for new tunes and composers that speak with a unique and relevant voice. Outliers is a program with works written by “our favorite composers mixed with music from the friends we’ve made traveling the world performing the music we love.” Sybarite5 plays the music of their friends Shawn Conley, Jessica Meyer, Michael Gilbertson and pairs with the group’s favorite works of Armenian folk music, Piazzolla, Pete Seger, Elgar, and Radiohead.

Kneebody + Daedelus = Kneedelus
Wednesday, March 16, 8:30pm
(Doors open 7:45pm, show at 8:30pm)

Kneebody’s sound is explosive rock energy paralleled with high-level nuanced chamber ensemble playing, with highly wrought compositions that are balanced with adventurous no-holds-barred improvising. All “sounds-like” references can be set aside; this band has created a genre and style all its own. Kneebody, keyboardist Adam Benjamin, trumpeter Shane Endsley, electric bassist Kaveh Rastegar, drummer Nate Wood, and saxophonist Ben Wendel, have consistently earned critical praise. As a Los Angeles Times reviewer noted of one of their typically fierce gigs, “It’s probably safe to assume at this point that no other band working today can offer what Kneebody delivered.” While Daedelus (Alfred Darlington) has also been widely lauded for his vast number of albums, EPs, and remixes (most recently for Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder label), it’s what he brings in bold strokes to live improvisational settings like this collaboration where he especially shines.

My Brightest Diamond
Thursday, March 17, 8:30pm
(Doors open 7:45pm, show at 8:30pm)

Singer-songwriter Shara Worden’s multi-faceted career as My Brightest Diamond, which began with an acclaimed independent rock record, has reflected her journey into the world of performing arts.  She can front a rock band, sing Górecki’s Third Symphony, lead a marching band processional down the streets of the Sundance film festival and perform in a baroque opera of their own composing all in a month’s time. An Arkansas native, Worden came from a musical family of traveling evangelists. She went on to study operatic voice and then classical composition after a move to New York City. Shara began working as My Brightest Diamond in 2006, following a protean period in the band AwRY, and joining Sufjan Stevens’ Illinoisemakers live ensemble. Asthmatic Kitty Records released her debut album, Bring Me The Workhorse in 2006, A Thousand Sharks’ Teeth in 2008, 2011’s All Things Will Unwind, featuring yMusic, and This is My Hand in 2014.

Sam Amidon and Glenn Kotche
Friday, March 18, 8:30pm
(Doors open 7:45pm, show at 8:30pm)

Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/artist Sam Amidon began playing fiddle at the age of three. Raised by musician parents on a steady diet of Irish and Appalachian folk in Brattleboro, Vermont, Amidon spent much of his teens performing and recording traditional dance and avant-folk music with his parents, as well as his own group, Assembly. He added banjo and guitar to his repertoire after relocating to New York City, where he began collaborating with longtime friend Thomas Bartlett (Doveman), as well as a host of other groups like Tall Firs, The Swell Season, Stares and Bill Frisell.

Since 2001, Kotche has been the rhythmic anchor in the rock band Wilco. His work with the group spans the breakthrough Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and the Grammy-winning A Ghost Is Born. He has appeared on over 80 recordings and has also written music for classical and post-classical ensembles like Kronos Quartet, the Silk Road Ensemble, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Sō Percussion, and eighth blackbird. Starting with 2002’s Introducing, Kotche’s solo work traces an arc of creative growth and vitality that reflects this wide swath of influences. Mobile, released on Nonesuch Records in 2006, implied the travel-oriented theme of its title, ranging wide with vibraphone, kalimba, hammered dulcimer and crotales; Pitchfork found it “…as rooted around high-brow concepts as it is in rhythmic dynamicity and melodic bemusement.”

Sō Percussion with Buke and Gase
Saturday, March 19, 8:30pm
(Doors open 7:45pm, show at 8:30pm)

With its innovative multi-genre original productions, sensational interpretations of modern classics, and “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam,” (The New Yorker), Sō Percussion has redefined the scope of the modern percussion ensemble. Their repertoire ranges from core 20th century works by Cage and Steve Reich, to commissioning and advocating works by contemporary composers such as David Lang and Steve Mackey, to distinctively modern collaborations with artists who work outside the classical concert hall, including Shara Worden, electronic duo Matmos, Dan Deacon, Bobby Previte, jam band kings Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Glenn Kotche, and The National’s Bryce Dessner, among many others. Recent and upcoming dates include performances at Bonnaroo, Carnegie Hall, at Walt Disney Hall with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil, and at the Barbican in London.

Buke and Gase are a Brooklyn-based duo, Arone Dyer on the “buke” (a self-modified six-string baritone ukulele) and Aron Sanchez on the “gase” (a guitar-bass hybrid of his own creation). Both of them play double duty mobilizing a small army of foot percussion. These instruments are then filtered through various pedals, amplifiers and other homemade inventions to create a surprisingly complex sound. Arone’s super melodic vocal lines weave through the beautiful yet sometimes unwieldy musical matter, balancing light and dark, calamity and control.