Wayward Music Series: Forest Fest (Night 1)
$15 in advance or at the door
- Bonnie Whiting, percussion
- Lesley Mok, percussion
- Leah Bowden, percussion
- UW Percussion Ensemble
- Andrew Drury, percussion
- James Falzone, clarinet
FOREST FEST brings a NYC/San Diego-based, collective percussion quintet, The Forest (Gustavo Aguilar, Leah Bowden, Andrew Drury, Lesley Mok, and Michael Wimberly) to Seattle for two nights of sonic exploration with percussionist Bonnie Whiting, clarinetist James Falzone, and the UW Percussion Ensemble. Using drums as wind instruments, dustpans played with violin bows, and inspiration from Ed Blackwell, M’Boom, Contemporary New Music, Asian percussion traditions, and more, FOREST FEST challenges 21st-century musicians and listeners to find new pathways to a habitable future in a forest of possibilities.
March 31 Program:
Trio (Bonnie Whiting, Lesley Mok, Leah Bowden)
UW Percussion Ensemble
Solo (Andrew Drury)
Duo (Bonnie Whiting, James Falzone)
Presented by Continuum Culture & Arts, FOREST FEST was instigated by Seattle native Andrew Drury in collaboration with Bonnie Whiting and James Falzone. Since moving from Seattle to New York in 1998 Drury has been called "one of most innovative and bold drummers on the modern music scene" (All About Jazz), and "a phenomenon to watch perform as his playing often transforms the instrument itself" (Free Jazz Blog). Both nights utilize timpani, mallet instruments, gongs, drum sets, concert bass drum, hand drums, piano, small percussion instruments, and found objects.
This event is made possible with the support of Continuum Culture & Arts, a non-profit organization, and Jazz Road, a national initiative of South Arts, which is funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This event is also supported by the University of Washington Music Department, Cornish College, and Common Tone Arts.
About Wayward Music Series
Each month, Nonsequitur and a community of like-minded organizations and artists present 10 concerts of adventurous and experimental music in the gorgeous Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center: contemporary/post-classical composition, free improvisation and the outer limits of jazz, electronic/electroacoustic music, new instruments, phonography, sound art, and other innovative musics.
https://www.waywardmusic.org/About Bonnie Whiting, percussion
Bonnie Whiting (she/her) performs, improvises, and composes new music for percussion. Exploring intersections of storytelling and experimental music, her work is often cross-disciplinary, integrating text, music, movement, and technology. Her debut album, featuring a solo-simultaneous realization of John Cage's 45' for a speaker and 27’10.554 for a percussionist was released by Mode Records in 2017, and her second album, Perishable Structures, launched on the New Focus Recordings label in 2020. Whiting is a core member of the Seattle Modern Orchestra and she has performed with the country’s leading new music groups: Ensemble Dal Niente, International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, and red fish blue fish percussion group. Bonnie uses Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets, and she is Chair of Percussion Studies and the Ruth Sutton Waters Associate Professor of Music at the University of Washington.
http://www.bonniewhitingpercussion.comAbout Lesley Mok, percussion
About Leah Bowden, percussion
About UW Percussion Ensemble
The University of Washington Percussion Ensemble is comprised of graduate and undergraduate percussionists, and it is open to music majors, music minors, and other members of the UW community. This group performs a wide range of music, encompassing world premieres, group improvisation, and historic works for percussion ensemble. The UWPE has performed at the Northwest Percussion Festival, and at outreach events in the Seattle area, such as an interactive performance for Tent City 3 residents, on the Wayward Series, and at the 2017 NUMUS Northwest Festival.
https://music.washington.edu/ensembles/percussion-ensembleAbout Andrew Drury, percussion
About James Falzone, clarinet
Clarinetist, penny whistle player, composer, and improviser James Falzone is an acclaimed member of the international jazz and creative music scenes, a veteran contemporary music lecturer and clinician, and an award-winning composer who has been commissioned by chamber ensembles, dance companies, choirs, and symphony orchestras around the globe. He leads his own ensembles Allos Musica, Elaía Ensemble, Renga Ensemble, and the duo Wayfaring with Chicago bassist/vocalist Katie Ernst, and has released a series of critically acclaimed recordings on Allos Documents, the label he founded in 2000. James performs throughout North America and Europe, appears regularly on Downbeat magazine's Critics' and Readers’ Polls, and was nominated as the Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. He has been profiled in the New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, New Music Box, and Point of Departure, among many other publications. Also a respected educator and scholar, James is the Dean of Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. He is a Backun clarinet artist and plays penny whistles made by Chris Abell.
http://allosmusica.org/about-james/