Sound Ensemble 2025 Sound Bursts in Color concerts
Sound Bursts in Color #2 – a multi-media chamber music concert and young composer showcase
May 16, 2025, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Seattle, Epiphany Parish 1805 38th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
Tickets: Pay-what-you-wish ($30 suggested donation)
Free parking on the premises

Experience the vivid, exciting music-making of The Sound Ensemble, this time featuring cross-genre collaboration with visual artist Rachael Fasano and also the three winners of our 1st International Young Composers Competition. After receiving and listening to 157 pieces from 26 countries, three young composers stood out as having bold ideas, expressive sensibilities, and mastery of compositional technique. We’re proud to introduce Sean MacCarthy-Grant, Calvin Rice, and Adi Shapiro to the music world!

Sean MacCarthy-Grant’s “BOGGART” (2024) is a raucous, groove-filled display of technical virtuosity for an ensemble of “low instruments,” dedicated to “the monster in my closet.” Inspired by a childlike fear of the dark, the piece begins with a lugubrious, dark timbre, eventually growing into a spirited, twisted quality representative of a
nightmarish chase. By the end of the piece, the music grows more optimistic and
dance-like, representing the scared child facing their fear and dancing with the
monster from their dreams. The piece ends with a dramatic flourish from a Mayan
Jaguar Whistle, an instrument indigenous to Mesoamerica meant to replicate the
sound of a scream. “BOGGART” was premiered in June 2024 by the American Modern Ensemble in Saratoga Springs, NY as part of the Mostly Modern Festival.

Calvin Rice describes his piece in this way: “My piece, Dreams of Light, describes two different ideas of what light can be. The first idea is actual light beams, which morph and change as the piece progresses. I used spacious harmonies and gleaming textures to achieve the desired effect. The second idea is about dreaming of light in the world. My harmonic choices sometimes have a mystical, darker quality to represent that the description of light is not reality. Thus, the piece has a sense of longing for
light, hidden deep within.”

The concert will also feature the work of local composers Rachael Fasano, whose piece RAW: Reflection on the War of Art brings together her life as a visual artist and a composer; the score is a striking combination of traditional notation on a staff with digital paintings as part of the musical information. The players will be interpreting the textures, lines, and shapes into musical sounds, with a minimal bit of musical notation to guide the journey. The score itself will be projected on a screen for the audience to experience.

Also on the program are Can you stop the time? (no) by Nicky Sohn, in which the composer offers that “Time is the question, the answer, and the method of life.” In the piece, Clocks for Seeing by Anthony Cheung, we ponder time again: “For me the noise of Time is not sad: I love bells, clocks, watches – and I recall that at first photographic implements were related to techniques of cabinetmaking and the machinery of precision: cameras, in short, were clocks for seeing, and perhaps in me someone very old still hears in the photographic mechanism the living sound of the wood.” The piece “meridian is composed by Leilehua Lanzilotti, who is a Kanaka Maoli composer, multimedia artist, curator, and scholar. And finally, a performance of Not Yet by Chloe Liuyan Liu, in which she explores the need for and limitation of empathy, inspired by the Oscar Wilde quote: “Empathy is essentially a matter of imagination.”

The Sound Ensemble is a flexible chamber orchestra of professional musicians and composers who present the brand new music of historically underrepresented composers. We are in our 9th Season and have premiered more than 30 new works.

Press Release
Sound Bursts in Color #1 – a multi-media chamber music concert
Jan 19, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Seattle, 3200 Airport Wy S Building 12, Seattle, WA 98134, USA
Tickets: Pay-what-you-wish ($30 suggested donation)
Free parking on the premises

Experience the vivid, exciting music-making of The Sound Ensemble while immersed in a rich visual experience of paintings, sculpture, live coding, and electronics. You’ll be entranced by the stunning Hengst Studio in the Old Rainier Building (yes, the one with the Big “R” on the top, next to I-5!). With 60-foot ceilings, plush furniture and velvet pillows, walls adorned with the oil paintings of Jeff Hengst, and an offering of wine, cocktails, and snacks, your senses will be filled with splendor.

The concert will feature the works of two local composers: Rachael Fasano and Cameron MacNair. Rachael Fasano’s RAW: Reflection on the War of Art brings together her life as a visual artist and a composer; the score is a striking combination of traditional notation on a staff with digital paintings as part of the musical information. The players will be interpreting the textures, lines, and shapes into musical sounds, with a minimal bit of musical notation to guide the journey. The score itself will be projected on a screen for the audience to experience.

Cameron MacNair’s Roots Through the Marrow is a world premiere that we are proud to present. MacNair is a celebrated electronic ambient music artist, with albums under his name as well as the name Carbon in Prose available on Spotify, Bandcamp, and other platforms. This piece combines electronics with traditional notation for the musicians, with the extraordinary addition of visual synthesis, performed by B. Alcalá Roth: this is a live abstract video created in response to the musical sounds of the piece.

Also on the program are Can you stop the time? (no) by Nicky Sohn, in which the composer offers that “Time is the question, the answer, and the method of life.” In the piece, Clocks for Seeing by Anthony Cheung, we ponder time again: “For me the noise of Time is not sad: I love bells, clocks, watches – and I recall that at first photographic implements were related to techniques of cabinetmaking and the machinery of precision: cameras, in short, were clocks for seeing, and perhaps in me someone very old still hears in the photographic mechanism the living sound of the wood.” The piece “meridian is composed by Leilehua Lanzilotti, who is a Kanaka Maoli composer, multimedia artist, curator, and scholar. And finally, a performance of Not Yet by Chloe Liuyan Liu, in which she explores the need for and limitation of empathy, inspired by the Oscar Wilde quote: “Empathy is essentially a matter of imagination.”

The Sound Ensemble is a flexible chamber orchestra of professional musicians and composers who present the brand new music of historically underrepresented composers. We are in our 9th Season and have premiered more than 30 new works.