Time Capsule

We’re excited to present “Continuity” for piano and tape by German composer Eva-Maria Houben. The piece combines calm piano tones with recordings of the Greek Sea. “High Lonesome Suicide” by Andrew Stoltz, composed for 2 celli and cassette tapes, is based on two separate tape sources: a text recording of unknown origin shared through a network of fellow musicians and a 20+ -year old improvisation by a college friend/mentor. “Roads of Arcola,” by Travis Weller, is scored for violin, viola, cello, flute, prepared piano, and marimba. Recorded recollections of the composer’s grandmother in response to recently unearthed family photos from her childhood in the late 20s and early 30s will accompany the music. Brent Fariss will be premiering a work for piano and environmental recordings of cicadas and 2 detuned pianos.

Eva-Maria Houben (born 1955) studied Music Education at Folkwang-Musikhochschule Essen and the organ with Gisbert Schneider. Since 1993, Professor Houben has been lecturing at Dortmund University’s “Institut fuer Musik und Musikwissenschaft”, with both music theory and contemporary music as her focus. She has published many books concerning contemporary music, contemporary composers and traditional music, listened to with ‘new ears’. Eva-Maria Houben has been performing works for the organ for more than 30 years. As she is related to the “wandelweiser-group” of composers, her compositions are published by “edition wandelweiser”, Haan. Her list of compositions up to now includes works for the organ, piano, clarinet, trombone, violoncello and other solo instruments, works for voice and piano, for wind and chamber ensembles, for orchestra and for voice and orchestra, works for choir (www.wandelweiser.de).

New Music Co-op is a community of composers and performers from the Austin area dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding of new music. Since 2001, NMC has presented almost 50 concerts featuring close to 200 new works, many of them premieres. Notable New Music Co-op concerts have included two collaborations with Ellen Fullman and her Long String Instrument, the first complete US performance of Cornelius Cardew’s seven-hour epic, The Great Learning, a commission of a program-length work by Berlin-based composer Arnold Dreyblatt, a realization of John Cage’s Song Books, music for the extinct instruments of Luigi Russolo, Pauline Oliveros’ Four Meditations for Orchestra (with the composer in attendance), and a three-day series of the works of the New York School. The Co-op was named “Outstanding Classical Ensemble” for 2011-2012 by the Austin Critics’ Table. The New Music Co-op is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and all donations to the group are tax-deductible. This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.