Founder's Day: Piece Offerings – Focused Encounters with Recent Works by Reynolds & Soper

• Eric Huebner, piano
• Jacob Sundstrom, electronics

Accept our "Piece Offerings," and experience a novel hybrid of performance and discussion as dynamic composers Roger Reynolds and Kate Soper discuss their music and collaborations with performers on recent works.

In the spirit of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge’s intrepid support of new music, the Library of Congress is pleased to celebrate the birthday of the founder of its historic concert series with a twist on the usual format.

This year's Founder’s Day concert features an inaugural set of "Piece Offerings: Focused Encounters with Recent Works," where audiences will hear a single work or portion of a work, followed by an onstage discussion with its creators. Composers Roger Reynolds and Kate Soper will be joined by pianist Eric Huebner, computer musician Jacob Sundstrom and the Wet Ink Ensemble for this novel experience, with a special start time of 7pm.

There will be no pre-concert talk, as conversations with the artists will be part of the concert experience.

About Wet Ink Ensemble

The Wet Ink Ensemble is a collective of composers, performers, and improvisers dedicated to adventurous music-making. Named "The Best Classical Music Ensemble of 2018" by The New York Times, Wet Ink's work is rooted in an ethos of innovation through collaboration, extending from the music and the unique performance practice developed in the "band" atmosphere of Wet Ink's core ensemble of composer-performers, to projects with a broad range of renowned creators, from Evan Parker to George Lewis to Peter Ablinger, and committed performances of music by young and underrepresented composers, from today’s most promising emerging voices to the next generation of artists.

Hailed for "sublimely exploratory" (The Chicago Reader) and "dense, wild, yet artfully controlled" (The New York Times) performances and "uncompromisingly original music by its members, and unflagging belief in the power of collaboration" (The New Yorker), Wet Ink has been presenting concerts of new music at the highest level in New York City and around the world for over 20 years. Wet Ink's programming celebrates the nexus of composition, improvisation and interpretation, from early collaborations with Christian Wolff and ZS to pioneering portrait concerts of Peter Ablinger, Mathias Spahlinger, Anthony Braxton, and the AACM composers, work with renowned creative musicians such as Ingrid Laubrock, Peter Evans, Darius Jones, and Katherine Young, and long-term collaborative projects with Wet Ink's four acclaimed composer-members (Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels). In May 2020, the ensemble launched Wet Ink Archive, an online journal of adventurous music featuring writings and recordings by a wide range of artists (please visit at archive.wetink.org).

Wet Ink has been in residence at institutions including Duke University, EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center), Columbia University, the Royal Academy of Music (UK), and The Walden School, among many others, and has been featured on numerous recordings. Highlights include Katharina Rosenberger’s TEXTUREN, which was awarded a German Record Critics Prize, and solo records by Alex Mincek (Torrent), Kate Soper (IPSA DIXIT), Sam Pluta (Broken Symmetries), Eric Wubbels (Duos with Piano, Book 1), and Josh Modney (Engage), all of which were celebrated on various "Best of" lists by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bandcamp Daily, Sequenza 21, and The Nation. Wet Ink has released four acclaimed solo albums (Wet Ink Ensemble; Relay; Wet Ink: 20, which features the Wet Ink Large Ensemble; and Glossolalia/Lines on Black).

Wet Ink is co-directed by an octet of world class composers, improvisers, and interpreters that collaborate in band-like fashion, writing, improvising, preparing, and touring pieces together over long stretches of time. These directors are Erin Lesser (flutes), Alex Mincek (saxophone), Ian Antonio (percussion), Eric Wubbels (piano), Josh Modney (violin), Mariel Roberts (cello), Kate Soper (voice), and Sam Pluta (electronics). The Wet Ink Large Ensemble is a group of extraordinary New York City musicians that come together to play the world's most exciting and innovative music. Learn more at www.wetink.org.

About Concerts From the Library of Congress

https://loc.gov/concerts/

About Eric Huebner, piano

Pianist Eric Huebner has drawn worldwide acclaim for his performances of new and traditional music since making his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 17. In January 2012, he was appointed pianist of the New York Philharmonic and currently holds the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Piano Chair. He has been featured in orchestral works by Lindberg, Stravinsky, Ives, Milhaud, Carter and R. Strauss among others and regularly appears in chamber music performances with musicians from the Philharmonic at New York City's Merkin Hall and elsewhere. In March 2016, he was featured in recital as part of the New York Philharmonic's "Messiaen Week" - a series of concerts featuring the work of the late French composer. Huebner has collaborated with the conductor David Robertson in performances of György Ligeti’s Piano Concerto, Olivier Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques and on the American premiere with percussionist Colin Currie of Elliott Carter's Two Controversies and a Conversation for piano, percussion and chamber ensemble. Recent solo recitals have featured the piano études of the late Hungarian composer György Ligeti and include appearances on the St. Louis Symphony's Pulitzer Arts Foundation Gallery series, at Bowling Green State University and the University of Michigan. From 2001 through 2012, Huebner was a member of Antares, a quartet comprised of clarinet, violin, cello and piano. First prize winners of the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Antares appeared regularly in major chamber music venues throughout the United States and worked closely with many composers on the commissioning of new works for its combination.

About Jacob Sundstrom, electronics

https://www.jacobsundstrom.com/