A/Tonal: The Fall Experience
Free
- Carrie RavenStem, clarinet
- Jessica L. Dorman, piano
- Jon Silpayamanant, cello
Vincent D'Indy — Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op. 29
Svante Henryson — Suite Off Pist
Jeremy Beck — Summer, Uptown
Helen Walker — Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano
Join us at the newly opened Highview Arts Center as we share our Opening Season performance in Kentucky! Works include Louisville composer Jeremy Beck's Summer, Uptown, filled with jazz and Latin energy, and the second live performance of Helen Walker's Trio. Donations welcome, refreshments available.
About A/Tonal Ensemble
A/Tonal was founded by musicians who are deeply passionate about playing music of the past and present. The ensemble has made its mark commissioning and recording music by local composers in its founding city, Louisville. Its debut album, Starting Point, features the music of local composers Daniel Gilliam and the ensemble’s composer-in-residence, Erich Stem. It will soon add local composers Jeremy Beck and Frederick Speck to the list of recordings on an upcoming release of commissioned works by clarinetist Carrie RavenStem. Noted as an ensemble that is "breaking new ground" (Insider Louisville), A/Tonal has also performed music by 30 living composers from around the world, including notable composers Mason Bates, Michael Torke, Jennifer Higdon, Missy Mazzoli, and Grawenmeyer award-winning composers Joel Bons and Sebastian Currier.
Since its inception, A/Tonal has been featured as artists on the "Kentucky Center Presents" series, 21c Museum Hotel's "Dress Up, Speak Up" exhibition, and the University of Louisville's New Music Festival. In 2016, A/tonal recorded Erich Stem’s arrangement of NPR’s Morning Edition theme, which was subsequently aired on WYPR in Baltimore. The ensemble continued its unique collaborative partnership with 21c's exhibit, Labor & Materials as part of WUOL's newly-formed New Lens series. A/Tonal was a newly-featured ensemble at the nationally-known Speed Art Museum during the 2019-20 season. A/Tonal is currently working with the Louisville Orchestra and their newly-developed Creators Corps to showcase the chamber works of their composers-in-residence throughout the city.
As part of its educational mission, A/Tonal has performed and held residencies with the University of Louisville School of Music, The Kentucky Center Governor's School for the Arts, and Indiana University Southeast. A/tonal collaborated with students in the performances of their works at its most recent residency with the University of Louisville. In addition to its founding members, Carrie RavenStem (clarinet) and Jessica Dorman (piano), A/Tonal has collaborated with many local artists and regularly performs with Jon Silpayamanant (cello), Chad Sloan (baritone), Tanner Leonardo (percussion), Robert Simonds (violin), Paola Manrique-Land (violin), Kaelah McMonigle (flute), Sheri Davino (flute), and Charlotte Roth (flute).
http://www.atonalensemble.com/About Carrie RavenStem, clarinet
Carrie RavenStem is the clarinetist and co-founder of contemporary chamber ensemble A/Tonal and clarinet duo La HERmandad. Her mission includes introducing audiences to living composers, commissioning new works, and creating an inviting space for others to experience contemporary music.
Carrie recently commissioned 4 local Louisville composers to write new pieces for her and A/Tonal, works by composers Daniel Gilliam, Frederick Speck, Jeremy Beck, and Erich Stem. These works premiered at the Kentucky Center for the Arts in May of 2018. A fifth work, Perceptions of Strife, was written for her by Peter Felice and premiered in 2011. It was performed at ICA's ClarinetFest 2019 in Knoxville, Tennessee. She and A/Tonal had the distinct honor of performing her commission by Daniel Gilliam for American novelist and poet Wendell Berry, whose text was used in the work The Porch over the River. Her solo commission, Firefly, received its world premiere in April 2022 with Indiana University Southeast Concert Band. The work, commissioned by Indiana University Southeast Concert Band, and composed by Erich Stem, brings a new addition to the E-flat clarinet and concert band repertoire.
The La HERmandad clarinet duo with Backun Artist Adria Sutherland made their virtual debut in Spring of 2021 at the International Clarinet Association’s Clariedoscope Virtual Festival. At the 2022 International Clarinet Association Clarinetfest in Lake Tahoe, La HERmandad presented the world premiere of The Mountain, commissioned by the duo and composed by Jenni Brandon, which is based on the poem My Help is in the Mountain by Nancy Wood.
Carrie is currently on faculty at Indiana University Southeast, and teaches in Shelby County schools as well as Jefferson County schools. She has performed with several orchestras and ensembles including the Louisville Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Louisville Chamber Winds, Sacred Winds, the Louisville Ballet and the Kentucky Opera. Carrie recently performed at the world's first virtual woodwind festival, WoodWindFest 2020, as a guest artist of Silverstein Works. She is a Backun Performing Artist and performs on Backun clarinets, a Silverstein Artist and performs on the Hexa Clarinet Ligature – Gen. 5, and her reed of choice is Légère.
When she's not practicing, Carrie is the mom to a blended family of 4 kids, 3 cats, 2 hedgehogs, and the wife of 1 composer. Her secret hobby is crocheting, she’s the Den Mom for her little guy's Cub Scout pack, and she makes killer omelets.
http://carrieravenstem.com/About Jessica L. Dorman, piano
A native of Calera, Alabama, Jessica Litwiniec Dorman is an Adjunct Piano and Voice Instructor at Indiana University Southeast and maintains a private teaching studio at her home in Louisville. As well as being a staff accompanist at the University of Louisville, Jessica is an active freelancer in the Louisville area. She has also served as staff accompanist for local NATS competitions and the International Horn Competition of America (2011 & 2013). Jessica has played for numerous musical theater productions at local high schools and local community theater groups (including the Jewish Community Center, Acting Against Cancer, and TheatreWorks of Southern Indiana), as well as with the Broadway Across America Series both here in Louisville and in Birmingham, AL. She has also frequently serves as musical director for musicals at local high schools as well as for the Jeffersonville River Pops series; Jessica has also conducted musicals for local high schools and the Jeffersonville River Pops series. Jessica has also played with the Louisville Orchestra and Orchestra Enigmatic, and is a core member of A/Tonal ensemble.
Jessica is the current Secretary of the Kentucky Music Teachers Association (KMTA), having also served as 2nd Vice President of KMTA (2012-2014), and Secretary of the Greater Louisville MTA (2010-2012). In 2017, Jessica received the Distinguished Service Award from KMTA.
Jessica holds a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Alabama where she studied piano with Amanda Penick. She also holds a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Samford University. While at Samford, Jessica studied piano with Dr. Betty Sue Shepherd, and studied organ and harpsichord with Dr. H.E. Tibbs. She has participated in Masterclasses with such artists as Ann Schein, Claude Franck, and Leon Fleisher, and has received coaching from John Perry and Yakov Kasman, among others.
Jessica studied voice with Daniel Weeks, and regularly sings throughout the area. She has premiered works by Chris Kincaid; while she is primarily a pianist for A/Tonal ensemble, she has also sung in performance with A/Tonal.
Jessica's students regularly participate in local festivals and competitions; her students have been winners, representatives, and honorable mentions in the Bluegrass Voice and MTNA Composition competitions, as well as the National Piano Guild Composition contest.
https://jessicaldorman.com/About Jon Silpayamanant, cello
Born in Udon Thani, Thailand Jon Silpayamanant is an intercultural multi-instrumentalist, composer, researcher, and music educator based in the greater Louisville and Kentuckiana area. As a biracial Thai American with musical families on both sides of the world, he has been navigating musical code switching and bimusicality for much of his life and uses that experience to inform his understanding of how music ecosystems interact, hybridize, and create systems of exclusion.
A versatile musician, Jon has toured and performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician. Performances have included appearances with Grammy Award winners Yo-Yo Ma, Ray Price, Hazzan Mike Stein, and Bobby Flores. He has also appeared with late Miles Davis' tabla player, Badal Roy and his Jazz combo as well as a number of world music, chamber ensembles, and multi-media music projects.
A dancer’s musician, Silpayamanant regularly collaborates in performance with ballet dancers, modern dancers, and dancers from many traditional ethnic and classical dance traditions from many parts of the world. Recent collaborations include compositions and live performances with Louisville based Kasari Dance, Choreographer/Ballet Dancer Ashley Thursby Kern, and Nashville based Blue Moves Modern Dance Company. Silpayamanant has been a regular performer for composer Robin Cox's HOURGLASS, an immersive music, video, and movement experience designed for contact improvisation which is facilitated by choreographer/dancer Stephanie Nugent. His current dance related projects include arrangements and transcriptions for world music group Sulh of dance music from Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and India for collaborations with Raqs Maqom, the Crescent Moon Dance Company, BharataNatyam dancer, Shringarmani Phane Jayanthi Sen, as well as touring with the Louisville Ballet in performance lectures of "Plain Jane" with choreography by Lucas Jervies and music by cellist Tristan Parr.
Silpayamanant's compositions and sound art has been featured in the UK on Channel 4 as part of Objective Productions programming; at the Vilnius Art Academy in Lithuania; on Açık Radyo in Istanbul; at Culture Fix in New York City, as well as several venues and radio stations throughout the US. His recent commissions include several scores for Louisville based Spanish Language Theater troupe Teatro Tercera Llamada and music for live-to-projection films and multi-media projects with interactive video and music project Camera Lucida. Past commissions include electro-acoustic compositions for the touring Diverse Universe Performance Festival Nordic-Baltic Tour in Estonia and Finland for dancer, Christine Olson; a score for several productions of "A Klingon Christmas Carol" (Chicago, Cincinnati, Washington D.C.); and a score for Chicago based Commedia Beauregard Theatre's of "Bard Fiction."
An active educator, Silpayamanant is currently an Adjunct Lecturer in Cello, Arts Institute Cello instructor, and a Summer String Clinic coach at Indiana University Southeast. He frequently lectures and gives presentations on the arts; performing career opportunities; and workshops and clinics in improvisation and world music styles at colleges, high schools, and other music organizations and festivals. Silpayamanant regularly leads sectionals and coachings in schools throughout the greater Louisville metropolitan area and has been the staff sectional coach with the Floyd County Youth Symphony since 2007. He was formerly a string specialist teaching cello classes at Virginia Chance Elementary School and Music Instructor at Gymboree Play & Music.
Born in Udon Thani, Thailand, Silpayamanant started playing the cello at the age of six after his family moved to New Albany. He attended DePauw University School of Music and graduated with a degree in cello performance and studied composition with Dr. David Ott. While at DePauw he was a two time winner of the DePauw Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition and served the last two years as teaching assistant to Eric Edberg. Silpayamanant has attended cello master classes with Janos Starker, Fritz Maag, Eleonore Schoenfeld, Stephen Kates, Janet Anthony, and Owen Carmen, and has participated in chamber music master classes with Gary Karr, the Borromeo String Quartet, and the American String Quartet.
http://www.silpayamanant.com