Cold Blue Music presents
Daniel Lentz: An Evening of Premieres
August 6 (Sat.), 8:00 p.m.
SPF:a Gallery, 8906 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232
(www.spfagallery.com/modaa.html)
$20 admission
Keyboardists Andrew Drannon and Brad Ellis will perform the premieres of three stunning new solo piano and multi-keyboard works—Dorchester Tropes, Seas of Ionia, and 51 Nocturnes—by quintessential West Coast composer Daniel Lentz. Closing the program will be a performance of one of Lentz’s classic works for voices and wineglasses, You Can’t See the Forest…Music, performed by J.B. Smith, and Richard Dunlap, and the composer.
This event marks the first Los Angeles concert devoted solely to Lentz’s works in quite a few years. Also, it coincides with SPF:a Gallery’s showing of “Illuminated Manuscripts,” an exhibit of Lentz’s sculpture—works that “freeze” music in time.
Daniel Lentz’s music has been commissioned and performed by noted ensembles and soloists around the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Zeitgeist, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. A prolific composer whose work is often characterized by intricate musical processes, a bit of theater, and an interest in the human voice, he is the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including five grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Video presentations of his work have been seen on Alive from Off Center (PBS), the Preview Pavilion at Expo 86 in Vancouver, NHK-TV in Japan, NOS-TV in Holland, BBC-TV in the UK, West German Television, Czech Television, and many local stations in the US and abroad. Recordings of his music have been released on the Cold Blue, New Albion, Angel/EMI, Fontec, Aoede, Les Disques du Crépuscule, Gyroscope/Caroline, Icon, Materiali Sonori, and ABC labels. (Lentz’s website: www.daniellentzmusic.com )
“When it comes to attempts at musical seduction, Daniel Lentz’s music is way out in front.” —Kyle Gann, Village Voice
“Lentz’s music inhabits what he terms a musical ‘state of becoming,’ where both new and reappearing musical and textual fragments are fused through complex layering processes. However, the real basis of his seductive music may be the dreamy impressionism of Debussy and the lyrical voice and keyboard interaction of Schubert's lieder.”
— John Schaefer, WNYC, New Sounds
The performers:
Andrew Drannon is a Memphis-based pianist and composer who currently is recording an album of Lentz’s most recent keyboard music, including Seas of Ionia, Dorchester Tropes, and 51 Nocturnes for the Cold Blue label. Drannon performs regularly as a soloist and as a member of the University of Memphis Contemporary Chamber Players.
Brad Ellis is an L.A.-based pianist and composer. He studied piano with Johanna Harris, and his performing career includes both concert performances and studio recording. For more than 25 years he has played keyboards for the Daniel Lentz Group, and he can be heard on Lentz’s recordings on the Cold Blue, Angel/EMI, and New Albion labels. As featured soloist, he performed the world premiere of Lentz’s An American in Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Ellis also has worked as a keyboard programmer and orchestral conductor and arranger for film and television composers Michael Hoenig, J. Peter Robinson, Joseph Vitarelli, Paul Buckmaster, Snuffy Walden, Jack Nitzsche, and others.
J. B. Smith is an internationally recognized percussionist, composer, conductor, and educator who has performed and recorded with Steve Reich, Daniel Lentz, George Crumb, Chinary Ung, Sal Martirano, Chou Wen-chung, Lou Harrison, Morton Subotnick, Mary Ellen Childs, She-e Wu, Arthur Weisberg, John Bergamo, Michael Colgrass, Liam Teague, Brad Dutz, Anthony Braxton, and many other musicians. He was principal percussionist with Ensemble 21 and principal percussionist with the Daniel Lentz Group in performances at the Interlink Festival (Los Angeles), the Bang on a Can Festival (New York), and the Visual Music Festival of Lanzarote (Canary Islands). Smith has recorded for the Koch, Summit, Centaur, Rhizome Sketch, Fontec, Leo, Canyon Records, and Whole>Sum labels.
Richard Dunlap is an intermedia artist who has been creating and performing visual/sound works throughout the US and Europe since the early 1970s. He has participated in two New Music America festivals and the PULSE II and FLUXUS exhibitions in Santa Barbara. He has written music for film, video, and dance and been an active jazz performer since the 1950s. He has received numerous grants and awards for his work.
This concert is presented by the SPF:a Gallery and the Cold Blue Music (www..coldbluemusic.com) record label. For more information, contact Jim Fox, Cold Blue's director, at 310-821-9197 or jim@coldbluemusic.com.
