April 11, 2024, TRANZAC, Toronto
Sponsored by The Music Gallery
Music by Arnold Dreyblatt
Arnold Dreyblatt: Excited Strings Instrument
Amahl Arulanandam: Cello
Laura C. Bates: Violin
Brandon Miguel Valdivia: Percussion
Second generation minimalist composer Arnold Dreyblatt returns to Toronto for the first time in over 15 years for a collaboration with local musicians forming an Orchestra of Excited Strings.
Dreyblatt (compositions, upright bass), will work with cellist Amahl Arulanandam (Thin Edge New Music Collective, VC2), violinist Laura C. Bates (Völur), and percussionist Brandon Valdivia (Mas Aya, Not The Wind, Not The Flag) to present his transcendental and ecstatic music for “Orchestra of Excited Strings”. A maverick of contemporary composition with one foot in the media art world, Dreyblatt’s unique tuning systems and performance techniques flow from minimalist roots but draw a kinship with avant-rock tendencies.
The musicians worked with Dreyblatt in realizing his compositions in a workshop period before joining him on the stage at Transac.
Curated by Tad Michalak
Dreyblatt was invited by the Serralves Foundation Museum to work with Portuguese musicians for a concert on March 3, 2016 in a concert series curated by Pedro Rocha. During a three day workshop process, Dreyblatt created three pieces with the musicians. The concert was related to the exhibition "The Sonnabend Collection" at the museum.
Guest musicians: Gonçalo Almeida, Jorge Queijo, José Valente and Sérgio Carolino.
"Arnold Dreyblatt is a Berlin based American composer and visual artist. At the Serralves auditorium, Dreyblatt will present solo pieces as well as compositions for ensemble played by a group of guest Portuguese musicians." - Program Notes
While artist and composer in residence at MIT in 2014-2015, Dreyblatt formed an ad-hoc ensemble together with composer / performer Evan Zyporyn together with young musicians from the Berkeley College of Music in Boston.
Arnold Dreyblatt Ensemble, Rinaldi Theater Space, Massachussetts Institute of Technology, March 13, 2015
Arnold Dreyblatt, Modified Bass
Evan Ziporyn, Clarinets
Randy Pingrey, Trombone
Ezra Weller, Trumpet
Ryan Meyer, Percussion
Nicholas Joliat, Tuned Sine Waves
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Arnold Dreyblatt was Composer in Residence in the Classic Avant series at The Music Gallery in Toronto in 2007. John Gzowski organized a workshop with local musicians to work with Dreyblatt in developing a music performance.
Workshop and concert participants: Anne Bourne, Rob Clutton, Nick Fraser, John Gzowski, Kathleen Kajioko, Scott Thomson
Workshop: Thursday May 3 - 4, 2007
Concert: Saturday May 5, 2007 (part of Over the Top Festival)
“Flow Chart” from the final concert appeared on “Choice” (Choose Records, Berlin) in 2012.
"Music for String Orchestra"
Dreyblatt was invited by the Prime Foundation in Groningen for a three-day workshop with a small string orchestra which resulted in a composition which was included in a program of the festival "Other Tuning". The first section utilizes the entire ensemble sustaining in just intonation, progressing slowly through the first eleven odd overtones, in each step contrasted with the added inclusion of the fundamental. In the second section a quartet performs in a bowing technique which mirrors the timbre of the struck excited string basses. A recorded section of the work was included on the CD: "The Sound of One String" on Table of the Elements in 1998.
