November 19, 2010
April 23, 2008
April 1, 2008
December 20, 2007
November 30, 2007
November 6, 2007
The Great Silence
November 19, 2010
About three months ago, I was walking down the halls of the music department of Sacramento State University. I don't remember what time it was, or what day it was, but the Sun had gone down and I was one of only a few people in the building. I heard this outrageous squealing and squawking coming from a room in the distance. It was intense to begin with. And then, it became more insistent and pseudo violent. This sound was eventually broken by one man belting out a very familiar tune popularly known to us as "I Been Workin' On The Railroad..." This was followed by another voice shouting back at the male singer in complete disagreement, but then, with laughter. Over this, the high, lyrical, whimsical sound of a flute carrying peacefully over the air. Hard to picture what exactly could be going on in this one room until percussionist Ben Prima comes around the corner with an almost devious, excited twinkle in his eye and says," Oh, hey man! Listen, I'll be right back. I've gotta go get the hydrogen tank caps out of my van. You wouldn't believe it. Seriously, I've got, like, 40 of these things!" And just as soon as he appeared, Ben disappears around the corner, off to rumble through his great big bag of sonic trickery.
You've just arrived at your first rehearsal for Citywater New Music Ensemble.
One of my favorite parts of the season's first rehearsal is the preamble, when you're approaching the rehearsal space and you're hearing the different sounds your ensemble members have been working on and working with over the summer hiatus. Before we take our big break, we get together to discuss what's coming at the beginning of the next season. We decide on some repertoire, we check out a few leads on interesting, fresh, new composers we'd like to try and get in touch with, and then we're off and running! "Where do you think we should play it?" "I know this guy in San Francisco..." "Has anyone considered the possibility of actually bringing in a real live TRAIN?!" You sit down, you tune up, and after a couple minutes of not being able to so much as play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star without bursting into laughter (ensemble playing can be a little difficult to get back into the first 10 minutes after taking a three month rehearsal break), you're just glad to be there in the first place. You're with your friends. You're playing interesting music. You're dreaming in living color. And it's the dream of most dreamers. Just a couple of days ago, Citywater was one of the last two acts to close out the Festival of New American Music. We were festival companions with some truly spectacular artists, including but not limited to The Ahn Trio, Jean Kopperrud, CMASH, and much, much more! So you spend your time catching glimpses of your colleagues making spectacular new sounds of their own, and for two weeks, the world around you becomes almost an entirely different place. You're infused with the excitement of music-making, and you take on the blood supply of the composers who write the notes and ideas that flow through your own body. Once it's all done, you pack up, pat your teammates on the back, and say "Well, guys... What's next?" Thankfully, a lot comes next!
I'm sure somebody will hit me upside the head if I'm wrong, but I believe Citywater is entering the third year of its existence. In that time, we've been blessed with the incredible excitement and support of the community around us, and through that love and support, we've been able to plant our feet in the ground and become an actual entity in the Sacramento Arts Community, battling for the forces of good (sorry guys... I grew up watching a lot of superhero cartoons, so the reference was unavoidable). Sometimes, when you stop and look at all the great things that are happening, you can't believe you've come this far. We've established our own concert series (The Furlough Friday Concert Series). We were the first performers to take the stage at the 2010 reopening of the historic Crocker Arts Museum. We've been invited back to the Festival of New American Music. We're getting phone calls and emails from people outside of our state who've heard of us from afar and want to work with us. You just can't believe how much good fortune seems to be coming your way. You think back to what good deed you could've possibly done however long ago to make something like this happen and you just end up thanking God that you did it. And you keep doing more good deeds. You keep loving what you do and all the people around you who have stayed so supportive. You keep finding and performing great music that engages you and bringing it to audiences who lovingly keep showing up. You stay open to all the possibilities. And you always, always keep dreaming big. The results have been phenomenal so far, and we're so excited for all the things that are to come. I'm writing this blog after the spectacular turnout we had at FeNAM and on the eve of some big, big news we're going to be sharing with the public soon...
"Well, how do we do it? How sghould we tell people?" is the question I asked.
"How do you feel about writing blogs again for the website?" Ben says.
"I think that's a great idea."
"Yeah, you haven't done one in a while," he points out.
"Gosh, you're right. That's really true, isn't it? How long's it been again?"
And then Ben smiles and says, "Two years..."
So we're back and writing blogs! We're currently hard at work on updating some of the information on our site. We've got new pictures coming soon. A few new videos are in the works. And, of course, the blogs are back and in full effect. So keep checking back with us, because you don't want to miss the announcements and all the cool new things Citywater has got lined up for everybody. And along the way, I'll try to get better at writing these blogs again. I'm a bit rusty. Consider the great silence broken!
Yours,
Chase,
violinist with Citywater New Music Ensemble
The End Of One Road, The Beginning Of Another
April 23, 2008
Hey everybody!
This is Chase writing, at the end of Citywater New Music Ensemble's freshman year, and what a spectacular thrill ride it's been. It's a great feeling to step away from a concert and feel like ultimately it was a success. Of course there are those little things that freak you out while you're up on stage. A missed note here or there. A tiny little squeak that leaves you wondering just where the hell it came from. A slight fluctuation in tempo that you didn't see coming. But at the end of it, the audience is clapping really loudly, and they seem happy with what you just did. Then, you relax a little bit, because if they're happy, you're happy.
Speaking only for myself, there have been a couple of really unforgettable moments for me during this season. Inevitably, one of them is playing the music of Steven Mackey, looking up during the performance, and realizing that he's standing right in front of you, conducting the piece. Words can describe how terrifyingly awesome that is. The other is meeting people after the concerts. You're usually getting hurried off the stage by some stage manager who just wants to hurry up and get home, but in the small moments when you're not packing up your instrument, or helping to schlep whatever five thousandth piece of percussion equipment that was used in the performance, it's been nice to meet the audience and talk with them afterwards. Some of them familiar faces from past performances, even. One of them is a composer we'll probably work with in the near future. And somebody else came up to me and told me that they've enjoyed reading my blogs.
My very special thanks to them.
Obviously, there's too many wonderful moments that's happened over the 2007/2008 Season to list, but that's what I'll be taking with me now that we're finished and looking forward to a nice, big, fat summer break. There'll probably be some meetings about rep and concert dates we have booked for 2009 which we'll have up on our website, built by the wonderful Ryan Bruner, but we'll announce those when all the plans have firmed up a bit. And to those few people who've been reading these blogs every now and again, I leave here with my promise to you about keeping this thing updated with the most fresh information, and all the inside juicy gossip.... of which there usually is none. But nevertheless! If you like to read, I'll continue to write. There'll be a lot to write about once we start up again this Fall. There's stuff that I want to tell you, but can't tell you, because it'll ruin the surprises. So I guess you'll just have to trust me when I say that next year is going to be really good.
Here's to the end of one road, and to the beginning of another.
Yours,
Chase, violinist with Citywater New Music Ensemble
Gone Quiet
April 1, 2008
Hey everybody!
Chase, here. Wow, I haven’t written in this thing in a really long time, huh? I’m sorry about that, truly. But before you start hating me, just know that a lot of really great stuff has been going on. Too much, actually, to write an entire blog about it, but I’ll give you a couple things so you can get the jist.
The end of Februrary and the beginning of March, we started rehearsing with composer Steven Mackey for the concert he’s presenting as part of his semester-long guest residency at UC Berkeley. What an experience that’s been. Most of you probably know by now that the piece that brought our group together was Steven Mackey’s "Microconcerto" with man-about-town Ben Prima. Which meant that we had to do a lot of guessing about what Steve wanted and the things he needed us to convey. It seems like we pulled it off pretty successfully, but man do things change once the composer’s in the room. He’s such a force to be reckoned with. A really cool guy, he sits back in his chair, listening, not making harsh judgements.... or, at least we hope the judgments aren’t too harsh, but you know, one can only hope.... and you can see that the music is really flowing through his mind. He knows every single sweep and detail of his pieces. He loves and pays careful attention to the detail in every note. And let’s go a step further to say that if you’re having trouble with something technically, he knows exactly how you’re supposed to play it on your instrument. Yeah. Try wrapping your head around that. You’d better come to your rehearsals with him prepared. But the thing I’ve really come to love about working with him is his terrific sense of humor, and that gives you a huge insight into some of his brilliant musical ideas. Getting to know the man in whatever little way we’ve gotten to know him has been great. Now we’re just hoping we can pull this concert off in the Bay Area this Friday without embarrassing ourselves, and most importantly, without embarrassing him. I think we’ll be in good shape, though. We’ve had some small speedbumps along the way, and I had a brief battle with some unfortunate illness that caused me to miss some rehearsals, but I’m slowly on my way to returning to normal, and the music is sounding great!
So, some might say we’d "gone quiet" for a little bit, but that was only so we could work our asses off to ensure that we had a brief clue as to what we were doing. We’d gone quiet, but we’re returning to you now with a mighty lion’s roar to announce that the time is upon you!
Citywater plays the music of Steven Mackey:
including Indigenous Instruments, No Two Breaths, Microconcerto featuring Ben Prima, and Heavy Light featuring the man himself, Steven Mackey on electric guitar.
This Friday, April 4th, 8:00pm
UC Berkeley, Hertz Hall
Free Admission
And if you stick around, I’m pleased to announce to any and all Mackey-philes out there, and any Marimolin fans, that we’ll have a nice little surprise for you at the end. I’ve really enjoyed working on this stuff with everybody and I think it’s safe to speak for all of us when I say that we really hope to see each and every one of you there. We’d love to play some of this wild, raw, incredible music for you. It’ll take you by surprise, and it’s very possible that you won’t know what to do with yourself. Or maybe it’s too dangerous for me to hype it up like that. Nevertheless, come see and listen to the music for yourself. In any event, it’d be great to talk about it with you afterwards.
See you there!
All my best,
Chase
Indigenous Instruments
December 20, 2007
Hey all!
This is Chase writing again, and we're just a couple weeks away from the end of 2007. It's been a fantastic and phenomenal year for all of us in Citywater, personally and individually as well as within the group. The holiday season approaches and we're about to qo guiet for a couple of weeks just to lay back and enjoy ourselves before the frenzied work of practicing new repertoire begins. A couple of days ago, the entire group got together to take new photos, this time including our fascinating, hot-shot clarinetist Milun Doskovic. This is the stuff that'll get sent out to Berkeley, San Francisco, and the general Bay Area for press and publicity regarding the upcoming Steven Mackey concert. Afterwards, we all went out to a nearby Pub. Now, I believe that if you take the time to read these things, you're 100% deserving of reading about EVERY SINGLE STEP in our group process. You should get to read the dirt and the dish, and you should get to know all the little things that make us click. So without further hesitation, I present to you what incredible things happened to us at the bar that night-- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! And we wouldn't have had it any other way. It's always nice just being able to shoot the breeze before you launch into business and start talking about scheduling and music and whatnot. I think Milun and myself had a brief discussion about the lack of single women in bars these days, and then, not too long after that, we immediately jumped into talking about future rep.
Just yesterday, I met with Tim (hot-shot cellist) and Ben (hot-shot percussionist) to get some of my music and to talk about scheduling. Suddenly, this became a very real thing. I mean, it's always real once you talk about it and a concert date gets set in stone, but seriously, once you have those pages in your hand, the music starts to taunt you. Yeah, that's right. You don't know a damn thing about me, and further more, you don't know how long it's gonna take for you to figure out how I work. And I don't give up my secrets easily, son. So you do whatever you think it is you have to do, and we'll see just how charitable I feel like being with your sanity. Then you go away, not wanting to start trouble, and make a battleplan for the best course of action on how to start working on the damn thing. But despite my individual hesitation and fear, my excitement overrides all. One of the Mackey compositions we're delving into is called Indigenous Instruments, and it's exciting. You always hear people talking about this piece when they reference the composer, and now, we're playing it. It's weird to think about sometimes. It'll be even more weird to start if none of us have any idea how to approach it. That's why we've scheduled what Tim calls a "Crash And Burn" rehearsal in mid-January which should give us a proper amount of perspective on how each of us is going to need to practice the piece. Fun, fun, fun!
Well, I don't really know what else to write about, and I fear that if I keep going any longer, I'll start to ramble and make-up stories along the way. Like "Citywater Saves Santa Claus" and our adventures to the North Pole or something. I'll spare you guys the pain, and I'll spare myself the embarrassment. Until we meet again, or until the next blog.
All the best,
Chase
The Next Big Thing
Hello everyone!
This is Chase writing. I've been gone for a minute, but now I'm back. And isn't that last sentence a lyric from some sort of song? God, I'm already almost sorry that I wrote it because I know it's going to turn out to be from something that I either hate, or I'm too embarrassed to admit I enjoy. Anyhow, it's been a little while since I've written on this thing, and in the off chance that any Citywater fanatics-- future ones or otherwise-- love to read these things, well, then I'm all too happy to oblige.
Things have settled down for us a little bit just in time for the holiday season. We're off visiting family, catching up to loved ones, shopping for friends and family, and enjoy each other's company socially, outside of rehearsal. It's a nice time, but none of us are fooled. We all know that the busy times are just weeks around the corner, so it's nice to use the holiday season to send e-mails back and forth to composers whose works we'll be performing and to kind of get into a mental space that's ripe for good reheasing early in the year. We like to spend that time practicing, making sure we understand our part, and figuring out how we're going to make things happen. (NOTE: For any pianists out there, know that this is especially true for Jen Reason, our pianist. Most of our pieces involve her doing some sort of crazy-ass extended technique that the rest of us have never even heard of, so she spends a lot of her time face-down into the piano, scratching her head and occassionally, cursing out the composers.) Also, we listen to as many recordings (if any) as possible so we can get an idea of how somebody might've done things before us.
I know that Cathie was on here not too long ago, writing about our upcoming concert at UC Berkeley: The Music of Steven Mackey. That's incredibly exciting for all of us, and we just now set our program for the concert. Once again, Ben Prima will be taking on the mighty Micro-Concerto, which is quickly becoming a staple for us. And there'll be three other pieces on the program, one of which is called "Heavy Light." The rest of the gang will be performing that with our special guest, none other than the man himself, Steven Mackey. Unfortunately, that piece doesn't involve yours truly. A tragedy, I know. Be sure to write your local Congressman. But it's going to be an incredible concert, and I certainly hope that a lot of you will be able to make it. They'll have to correct me if I'm wrong, but if any of you are "Marimolin" fans, there may even be a special surprise sometime during the performance. I don't know, we'll have to wait and see. Or should I say I'll have to wait and see if I can work it out somehow.
So we're on to the next big thing. The group will be taking some new publicity photos at the end of this year and startin' up the rehearsal grind once again. There'll be a couple of outreach concerts, and maybe something at the Mondavi Center. It's going to be great. We're having the time of our lives. We think you'll have the time of yours, too!
All the best,
Chase
Begin Game
November 20, 2007
Hey everybody!
This is Chase writing, and we're smack dab in the middle of the fantastic Festival of New American Music that takes place in Northern California. Citywater just had a successful debut with the festival, and I don't think we could've asked for anything better. It turns out that all of the excruciating 7AM rehearsals we had paid off, big time. I'm actually a little bit surprised that I'm awake right now, and writing this at 2:00 in the morning. In about six hours, the group and myself will pack our stuff and head up to Sierra College and play an outreach concert as part of the festival. Very exciting stuff! A lot of memories will be made for us after this, ones I don't think we'll be likely to forget anytime soon.
Here's one of them:
We had just finished playing a concert with Pauline Oliveros on one of her pieces she devised called "One Hundred Meeting Places", but Sunday was quickly looming over the horizon, and we still needed to rehearse. Luckily for us, we were able to get the hall from 10:00PM to about 12:00AM and get some last minute detail work in. And then, a surprise guest showed up and listened to one of our runthroughs. The guest was noneother than the world class marimbist and New Music Queen, Nancy Zeltsman, also a guest artist on the Festival lineup. That was an exciting moment for all of us, even though we were trying to maintain our composure and at least a slight sense of professionalism. She was even gracious enough to attend our concert on Sunday, and what fun that was!
Well, there's lots more stories to tell, and I'll certainly get around to a few of them, but like I said, there's still a concert to play in the morning. So for now, I'm signing off, and sending out all the wonderful thanks to the people of Sacramento who've been so wonderful and supportive. We've got some more tricks to pull out of our sleeve, so stay tuned-- literally-- because this game is just gettin' started.
All the best,
Chase
Behind The Scenes
November 6, 2007
Hey everybody!
This is Chase writing. Now, you might see me listed on this site as "Charles," but don't let it fool you. That's just something my parents like to see on music programs. Anybody who knows me calls me Chase, and especially if you're a friend, and if you ever get the chance to make it out to one of our concerts and you visit us backstage, then that certainly makes you a friend of mine.
It feels like it wasn't too long ago when the murmurs about putting this group together actually started. It was Ben Prima's mighty solo recital and we took on a piece by Steve Mackey, and after we were finished, we all gathered backstage (minus poor Ben who still had one more piece to go.... I think it had something to do with getting drunk on stage). Somehow, that's when it clicked to us. We could actually make it as a functional group. We could potentially turn this chance, one-time meeting into a full fledged thing. And if you have the privelege to work with the people I get to work with, you'll know that once somebody drops an exciting thought like that, then get ready, 'cause you're off to the races. We had some time off during the summer and exchanged phone calls every now and again, followed by a couple of e-mails. Then we started meeting.
"Hey guys, I heard this really cool piece that I've been thinking about...."
That came from Ben.
One thing led to another and we started talking about schedules. Now, if you're a musician, and even if you're not, then you know that coordinating a time where more than four people can meet on a project can turn into pure, unadulterated hell. Getting the schedule together was a bit of a blur, but all of a sudden, we started the rehearsal process. Then, people started catching on to us, and we got a performance date. Then, we got another performing date, and some members in the groups got another date after that. This quickly snowballed into an official thing. So, it's hard to think that what's coming up for this newly-born group during the 2007-2008 season began with somebody suggesting backstage at a concert that we should all stick together. I'm certainly glad that we did, and I have a sneaking suspicion that you will be too. Now, I'm not going to give anything away, but there are some big plans in the works for us, so keep your eyes and ears open. It'll be an exciting time and we hope to take you some places you never thought you'd be able to go. And from time to time-- this is one of my favorite things-- we'll be checking back with the web site and writing about the journey the whole way through. I expect you'll be hearing some stories in no time.
All the best,
Chase