On Friday, June 29th, chamber ensemble The Box is Empty will debut Hear No Noise - my new piece for chamber ensemble (flute, bass clarinet, viola, cello, bass), soprano and field recording at The Century Ballrom. The text comes from a collection of poems by 9th century Chinese hermit-monk Han Shan. Here's the text as translated by Red Pine:

Beneath high cliffs I live alone
swirling clouds swirl all day
inside my hut it might be dim
but in my mind  I hear no noise
I passed through a golden gate in a dream
my spirit returned when I crossed a stone bridge
I left behind what weighed me down
my dipper on a branch click clack

Hear No Noise begins with a field recording I made of the dawn chorus here in Seattle recently at a park. May is a really loud time of year for the birds as there are migratory birds drifting through, birds that are mating, and others that are establishing territory. So, there is a lush bed of sound that drifts up initially. The only bit of literal text painting, some drinking gourds will be rattled together at the beginning of the piece and at various places throughout. The rest of the work is slow moving canonical gestures of lush chords shifting gradually over time. The soprano dots the sonic landscape as the text rolls by, but while writing I tried to treat her part as a member of the ensemble, not as a soloist. It is my hope and intention that the piece drifts on effortlessly, though slowly, so that one's perception of time is distorted, and the work overall blending, coexisting, and responding to the field recording - drifting in and out of the sonic woodwork.

Within Chinese poems of this era there are often references and allusions to other poems. Occasionally these references serve as commentary, but more often they serve as a way to add color to the poet's ideas, credence to expression, and pay homage to the past while acknowledging that the moment and our very existence is in constant flux and motion. Hear No Noise - and much of my work - is very much in dialogue with these sentiments, and I hope that a scholar such as Han Shan would approve of my setting of his poem.

Details for the show can be found here, and a short excerpt can be heard below.

Seattle composer Nat Evans will be presenting an original, site and time-specific music event that fuses nature, music, community, and subjectivity of experience, which will take place at sunset on July 28th at Green Lake. Participants will download the music onto their iPods or other portable listening device ahead of time and arrive at the basketball courts on the east side of the lake by 8:40pm. Participants will then walk to the viewing locale, and at sunset the cue will be given to press play and participants will sit back and observe while listening.

The music for Blue Hour is a mix of new and pre-existing compositions that have been arranged to best compliment the changing of light during the hour after sunset, and is available to download from the composer’s website (natevansmusic.com). This is the third in a series of time-specific pieces Evans has written – his Sunset + Music event was presented across the country in 2011, as well as at a number of festivals.

To review...
1. Participants download the music onto their ipods. (Click here to download)
2. Show up to the basketball courts at Green Lake by 8:40pm.
3. Press play when instructed to at sunset!

About the composer
Seattle Composer Nat Evans writes concert music for various mixed chamber ensembles, distinctive electro-acoustic music, and site-specific music events that fuse nature, community and subjectivity of experience. His music is regularly presented across the United States and has also been performed in Europe, South America, Australia and China. Evans has received numerous commissions including the Seattle Percussion Collective, the Harrison Center for the Arts, ODEONQUARTET, Seattle Pacific University Men's Choir and Percussion Ensemble, Beta Test Ensemble, The Northwest School Chamber Orchestra, among others. His music has been featured on a number of radio stations in the United States, as well as BBC3, and in the 2011 Music Issue of The Believer. He studied music at Butler University with Michael Schelle and Frank Felice.

Below are a few photos from the May 29th debut performance of my new piece for men's choir and percussion ensemble, Cutting Word, at Seattle Pacific University. Cutting Word was performed again on June 1st, which is where the recording below comes from. Overall I feel really pleased with the performance - director Ken Pendergrass did an excellent job preparing the ensembles and shaping the conversations about performance decisions.

Just before my May 5th concert at The Chapel, the Seattle Times published a short preview that noted that I am, "clearly obsessed with bringing found natural sounds into the concert hall, " and two concerts at Seattle Pacific University this week featuring my new work Cutting Word would seem to back up this statement. Cutting Word - for men's choir and percussion ensemble  - is based around three haikus that I wrote:

dead possum in road
face already eaten by
a flock of ravens

parallel jet streams
coming together at dusk
pink clouds to the east

a thousand mushrooms
covered in a soft cold mist
quivering in the wind

The concept of a 'cutting word' comes from haiku practice - the cutting word being the word that links two juxtaposing ideas together. So, within my new piece Cutting Word there are haikus that are sung (except movement two, which is simply an expression of the second haiku above), there is the slightly unusual combination of men's choir and percussion ensemble, and the choir and percussionists alike are required to play natural objects at different times. Since the singers are sitting out the second movement, they become a shifting series of textures by waving branches in the air, and the percussionists will each play a tray of natural objects that they are instructed to manipulate in order to create the sound of someone moving through the woods. All in all after sitting in on the rehearsals last week I'm feeling really excited about the debut this week - and you can hear it twice - May 29th and June 1st. Detailed information about the performances is below...between the performances, continuing to write this big site-specific piece for 100 Acres, and preparing a talk on some experiences in Zen that I'm giving on Sunday, it should be a very full week.

May 29th - Debut of Cutting Word, for Men's Choir and Percussion Ensemble at Seattle Pacific University - 7:30pm, Bach Theater (on campus of SPU), Seattle.

June 1st - Performance of Cutting Word  Men's Choir and Percussion Ensemble at Seattle Pacific University - 7:30pm, 1st Free Methodist Church (on campus of SPU), Seattle.

    After a couple weeks of settling back into normal life in Seattle, I've finally begun to unpack the myriad of experiences I had in New York in April doing all three of my time-specific pieces, including the sunrise event in Fort Greene, and my new piece, Blue Hour, which I also presented as guest composer on a concert in Hartford. The Blue Hour event's attendance was hampered by rain earlier in the day, but the event itself was still a success as evinced by the interactions exhibited and community that sprung up as a result. After the event people were sharing slices of pizza and chatting readily with total strangers, and some people talked and connected at a nearby bar for hours after that. One of the attendees, Kyle Lynch, wrote a review for The Glass, which you can read here.

    Towards the end of my trip I headed to Hartford to be the guest composer on Scott Comanzo's Private Works Music Festival. We did Blue Hour out on a large grassy mall in the center of the University of Hartford's campus, and it was interesting to observe people's inclinations in regards to how to particpate. With fair weather prevailing and an expansive and calm campus setting, after the cue to press play was issued participants drifted away to take things in on their own or in small groups - some laying down, others circumambulating the field, and still others twitching nervously and pulling out hunks of grass.
    The Blue Hour events were wonderful on the east coast, and I was able to connect with a lot of people whom I rarely see or have only ever interacted with on the internet, but  now it's time to get ready for a few Blue Hour events back home on the west coast. I'll be announcing the details about these events in the coming months.

    I'm really excited to share some news about a new site-specific work that has been commissioned by 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park in Indianapolis. This new work is called Hungry Ghosts, and will debut on September 20th - full details can be found here.  Throughout Asia there are various festivals that are based around the idea of deceased ancestors coming to visit the human realm from the hungry ghost realm. Offerings to ancestors are given in the form of food, and at the end of the festival lanterns are lit and set out en mass on a body of water, often carrying an inscription of the ancestor’s name and well wishes. Hungry Ghosts is an interpretation and dialogue with this tradition as a result of my own interaction with Chinese and Japanese culture through Zen practice.
    A dozen or so musicians will be in boats a bit before sunset and will play a new piece that reflects and responds to the grounds of the sculpture park, as well as my own ancestors. As the music goes on for 45 minutes or so, the audience will be able to walk around the lake to hear the music as it changes from different angles. The different sections of the music will be triggered by myself from within a boat via different natural sounds such as Conch shells, rocks, and branches, and the music itself will be divided into different sections based on abstracted ideas or sentiments my own ancestors - musical, familial and otherwise. Composer Michael Schelle has graciously agreed to provide some well-rehearsed players from Butler University's great New Music ensemble - the  JCFA Composer's Orchestra.
    As darkness approaches, people in attendance will then be invited to light a lantern and send it out onto the water as the music is ending. The 100 or so lanterns are being designed and realized by artist Erin Elyse Burns - and as you can see from the photos she took during a test run here in Seattle (above), the lanterns release at the end of the event will be quite spectacular! Imagine those lanterns times 20! Besides the square ones seen above - which the audience will be invited to help make before the event - Burns will also construct a couple dozen lanterns that will be more elaborate that reflect the nature of ancestors, family, and the cultures that this event is derived from.
    It is the aim of this event - and much of my work - to allow people who would not ordinarily enter into the concert hall to interact with music in new ways and to reflect on their familiar surroundings with fresh perspectives. And, in particular with this one I hope that Hungry Ghosts will encourage attention to the moment and to the immediacy of our lives through reflection on their connection to the past.
   

Seattle composer Nat Evans will be presenting an original, site and time-specific music event that fuses nature, music, community, and subjectivity of experience, which will take place just before sunrise on April 25th at Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn. Participants will download the music onto their iPods or other portable listening device ahead of time and arrive at the park entrance at the corner of Washington Park and Dekalb Ave by 5:45am. Participants will then walk into the park together, and 10 minutes before sunrise the cue will be given to press play and participants will sit back and observe while listening.

The music for this Sunrise + Music event was written to best compliment the changing of light during this pivotal moment, and is available to download from the composer’s website (natevansmusic.com). This was the first in a series of time-specific pieces Evans has written – his pieces for sunset and twilight (blue hour) will be presented in Brooklyn in the days surrounding the sunrise event - go to natevansmusic.com for details.

To review...
1. Participants download the music onto their ipods.
2. Show up at the entrance of Fort Greene Park at the corner of Washington Park and Dekalb Ave by 5:45am.
3. Press play when instructed to 10 minutes before sunrise!

_Experimental ensemble thingNY is thrilled to showcase some very talented out-of-town acts for the third installment of its Seven Immediacies Series, at Brooklyn venue Vaudeville Park. This music series is thingNY's first official foray into curating a series as a group. Each installment of the series will pair local and visiting emerging classical and experimental artists with a new work, difficult to program because of its extreme length or unusual ensemble. This month's program will begin outdoors with Nat Evans' Sunset + Music Event, and followed by the transatlantic Mujô Quartet and new works by composers and performers from both coasts: Doug Laustsen, Nat Evans, John P. Hastings, Rick Parker and Chris Kallmyer.

To participate in Evans' Sunset + Music event, audience members should download the music onto their portable music devices from his website and be at the venue by 7:20pm. Participants will then walk to Cooper Park to to press play and sit back and observe while listening.

For more information on the series or the artists, contact Paul Pinto, artistic director at [email protected] or 201-410-9107.

On May 5th composer Nat Evans will present a program of recent West Coast music by Evans, Christopher Roberts, and Jim Fox that explores the aesthetics of nature and place.

Composer-performer Christopher Roberts will play Last Cicada Singing, his serene, entrancing suite of four pieces for solo qin, the zither-like traditional Chinese poet-scholar’s instrument, which he mastered while living in Taiwan. Recently released on the Cold Blue label, Last Cicada Singing is very unusual music—often mimicking nature’s sounds, as is the tradition with qin music, yet seeming at times Feldmanesque, at times almost delta-blues-like, too.

Nat Evans will present Still Life with Transmigration, a new work that delves into the very essence of place and sound by coupling field recordings, conch shells, and other natural objects with the sounds of three live trombones.

Penned in the winter of 2011–12, Jim Fox’s The pleasure of being lost is a suite of five short piano pieces/meditations designed to be performed with or without a “tape” backdrop. This performance, its premiere in solo form, and will be played by new-music-champion pianist Cristina Valdes.

The event will take place on May 5th at 8:00pm at the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N, 4th Floor, Seattle, WA; in Wallingford. Suggested donation $5-15.

    This Thursday (3/22/12) is the debut of a new piece for choreographer Catherine Cabeen at Velocity Dance here in Seattle by my myself and Ross Simonini. Ross and I have been working together under the moniker 'Nat and Roos' since 2006 doing scores for dance, a film score, and currently we're working on music that we'll release as an album and use for sound installations in galleries in the coming year.
    Ross lives in New York, but came out here last fall a couple days before his tour got under way with NewVillager. With a basic framework of ideas we spent two days recording ideas we had been discussing, improvisations, wandering the neighborhood collecting sounds and wondering what the hell we were doing sometimes but making new sounds anyway. We sent a whole heap of sounds off to Catherine Cabeen to get an idea of what she felt might fit her vision for the piece she was working on. After that, Ross did an initial assemblage of sounds and added some tweaked sounds, then I went in and added additional layers of percussion, a five-part falsetto choir, and some conch shell. We passed the track back and forth and kept checking in with Catherine until we felt like it was done, but only knew for certain when I went to a rehearsal a couple weeks ago and observed the incredible clarity and detail with which Catherine had perceived the music and the quartet that she had choreographed in response. It's an honor to be able to collaborate with both Ross and Catherine, and I highly recommend coming out to one of the shows this weekend. For more information on the shows at Velocity Dance click here, and to hear the music we wrote for the dance, see below.