CCI//SAN ANTONIO
JUNE 3RD–9TH, 2024
Tuesday, June 4, 2024 – 8 PM
Ruby City Sculpture Garden, 150 Camp St.
This collaboration with Ruby City on June 4th at 8pm features the Texas premiere of Helix by composer NNUX and video artist Martha Maya and the premiere of an expanded version of Vicki Nguyen’s Ginger Flavored Bubblegum. NNUX and Martha Maya’s Helix simulates a spiral from pre-Hispanic to contemporary times, contemplating the cycles and inheritance in women's collective trauma, which has determined the ways we have been shaped as individuals through generations. Nguyen’s Ginger-Flavored Bubblegum addresses violence against Asian Americans, specifically the murders of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Christina Yi. Nguyen honors Cha’s text, aiming to "transcend from pain and suffering and focus on the beauty in the words of her poetry. Her repetitions, imagery, wordplay, and deconstruction of the French and English languages brought me so much joy.” Arrive early to visit the sculpture garden and hear soundscapes including music from our CCI workshop participants as you walk through.
Tuesday, June 6, 2024 – 7:30 PM
724 S. ALAMO STREET #2 (2nd floor)
Unheard-of teams up with San Antonio-based friends and collaborators, Agarita Chamber Players, in an eclectic concert of featuring a premiere from workshop guest and local sound artist Pamela Martinez along with Caroline Shaw’s Thousandth Orange, Jessica Meyer Getting Home (I must be…), and Juri Seo’s Lost Songs. Juri Seo’s Lost Songs for clarinet and string quartet captures the breaths and the songs of the now extinct Kauai ʻōʻō bird (Moho braccatus). Unheard-of premieres Joohyun Parc’s oundscontinuouso und scontinuousoundscontinuo us and a new work by Jared Davis written as part of the CCI Workshop.
Reservation link to be announced soon
Friday, June 7, 2024 – 7:30PM, The Cube at Blue Star Arts Complex
1518 S Alamo St, San Antonio, TX 78204 (Inside the old Say-Si building with free parking on site)
Unheard-of presents Rome Prize-winner Christopher Stark’s Fire Ecologies with video art by Zlatko Cosic as well as premieres from CCI participants Ancel Neeley and Hannah Cai Sobel. Fire Ecologies is a climate manifest that explores human impact on America’s ecosystems. The work takes audience members through seven scenes that range from “alien” landscapes to scenes with footage from the Gowanus itself. The first and last scenes, titled Terra Incognita, show earth becoming an alien planet, distant from nature. Scene two brings to life field recordings of water that is digitized, fragmented, and obliterated until fountains of harmony spill forth and glisten. Scene three is a meditation on the eternal resilience of Mother Nature. Scene four evokes a prophetic and burning firebird through an energetic dance as a harbinger of catastrophic climate destruction. Marche funèbre uses a field recording of a high-voltage power line in the Sierra Nevada is slowed down, revealing electric cycles in march-like rhythm; the rhythm of human progress and destruction.
Saturday, June 8, 2024 – 7:30PM
Mission San José, 6701 San Jose Drive, San Antonio, Texas, 78214
Unheard-of presents the in-person premiere of Reiko Füting’s act: ab-stain, from. Reiko’s work is based on the composition “Da pacem, domine” by Heinrich Schütz and hymn “O frommer Christ herzlich betracht” as set by Johann Hermann Schein, both written during the Thirty Years’ War. Reiko's title references a question by Hannah Arendt, 20th century political historian and philosopher known for her work exploring the nature of power and evil. The question which appears in the last movement, “Could the activity of thinking as such be among the conditions that make humans abstain from evil-doing?”. The ensemble also performs CCI premieres by Zachary Bell, Zachary Ritter, and Brandon Kaplan. Opening the concert, Fr. Dennis Schafer from the mission joins us to perform Homage a Manuel de Falla by Bela Kovacs and the "Romance" and “Fughetta" movements from Finzi's Five Bagatelles.
Saturday, June 9th, 2024, 7:30PM
Evergreen Garden Center, 922 W. Hildebrand Ave., San Antonio, Texas 78201
Join us for an interactive concert experience featuring an installation co-created by Unheard-of, our CCI participants, and special guest Pamela Martinez exploring San Antonio nature at Evergreen Garden Center, a community staple since 1997 featuring an original glass greenhouse built in 1940. The performance combines solo works, electronics, and group participation pieces featuring both the ensemble and participants. We also feature an interactive plant sound sculpture by Martinez.
CCI 2024 Workshop Composers:
Zachary Bell, Jared Davis, Ancel Neeley, Joohyun Parc, Brandon Kaplan, Zachary Ritter, Hannah Cai Sobel
OVERVIEW
Unheard-of//Ensemble is hosting the Collaborative Composition Initiative workshop (CCI//Sessions) in San Antonio, Texas in partnership with University of Texas – San Antonio and San Antonio College between June 3rd and 9th, 2024. This CCI, we will be presenting concerts across San Antonio again from Mission San Jose to coffee shops with concerts, installations, and creative workshops. The ensemble and eight composer participants will work closely with our composition faculty in the creation of new works to be recorded using Unheard-of’s cinema camera and audio setup. After the workshop, the ensemble and participants work together to develop album recordings. In addition, participants and the ensemble will collaborate developing group miniatures using sound samples and field recordings taken during the week in San Antonio.
In addition to our ensemble workshops, there will be a variety of workshop topics including instrumental writing for electroacoustic ensemble, working with digital electronics (streaming, live processing, and more), building large scale projects, and topics selected by our composition faculty. Composers receive four composition lessons with composition faculty and take part in ten lectures in addition to performances from invited guest artists throughout the week. We also feature local artists, poets, and guest lecturers throughout the workshop.
We are limiting the workshop to eight composer participants to write full ensemble works for Unheard-of to be workshopped and recorded throughout the week. Ford and Matheus will work with participants to edit and mix the tracks for release as part of CCI//Sessions, vol. 6.
Read a review of our last CCI from Classical Voice North America!
FACULTY
UNHEARD-OF
ETHAN WICKMAN, COMPOSITION
CHRISTOPHER STARK, COMPOSITION
MILES JEFFERSON FRIDAY, COMPOSITION
COST
$850 Tuition
Tuition covers private lessons, recording session of your piece with the ensemble, guest lectures, and a host of performances. It also covers select meals.
Scholarships are available based on need.
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$450 Single Room Housing + Breakfast and Select Meals
Accommodations are available and will be coordinated with participants by Unheard-of.
Housing is provided through UTSA.
Application Fee: $20 USD payable via Paypal to unheardofproject@gmail.com
MATERIALS NEEDED:
– Two work samples of chamber music/small ensemble composition. Video or audio and links to scores or other representation of work
– Resume, short artist bio, or link to website
ALBUM
Each participant will have a work featured on our CCI Sessions, vol. 6. Check out works of past participants below: