Eighth blackbird
Encyclopedia
eighth blackbird is a Grammy Award
-winning contemporary music sextet
based in Chicago
. The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens
' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
. The name is deliberately spelled in lower case.
The members of eighth blackbird hold degrees in music performance from Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
, the Juilliard School
, and Northwestern University
. Current players in the group include Yvonne Lam, violin/viola; Nicholas Photinos, cello; Tim Munro, flutes; Michael Maccaferri, clarinets; Lisa Kaplan, piano; and Matthew Duvall, percussion. Four of the group's six members are founding members; Munro replaced the ensemble's original flautist, Molly Barth, in 2006, and Lam replaced violinist and violist Matt Albert in 2011.
eighth blackbird holds Ensemble-in-Residence positions at the University of Richmond
in Richmond, Virginia
(since 2003) and The University of Chicago (since 2000). Additionally, the group has led short-term residencies at the Curtis Institute, Colburn School
, University of Michigan
, Oberlin College
, Southern Methodist University
, and Rice University
. An ongoing relationship with Chicago's Cedille Records has produced five recordings, including strange imaginary animals (2006), winner of two 2008 Grammy Awards, including the award for Best Chamber Music Performance. eighth blackbird's most recent CD, which was released in September of 2011, is entitled Lonely Motel: Music from Slide, and features excerpts from the 2009 music and theater work Slide, a collaboration between eighth blackbird, composer Steve Mackey, and singer, actor, and librettist Rinde Eckert.
Since its founding in 1996, eighth blackbird has been active in commissioning new works from composers such as Steve Reich
, George Perle
, Frederic Rzewski
, Joseph Schwantner
, Paul Moravec
, and Stephen Hartke
, as well as works from Jennifer Higdon
, Derek Bermel
, Nico Muhly
, Daniel Kellogg
, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
, and the Minimum Security Composers Collective. The group received the first BMI/Boudleaux-Bryant Fund Commission and the 2007 American Music Center Trailblazer Award and has received grants from BMI, Meet the Composer, the Greenwall Foundation, and Chamber Music America.
In June 2009, eighth blackbird served as Music Director
of the Ojai Music Festival
in Southern California
. In February 2011, eighth blackbird curated the Tune-In Music Festival at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City
. The group devised a program which centered around Igor Stravinsky
's controversial statement that music was, "essentially powerless to express anything at all," and culminated in the indoor premier of John Luther Adams
' monumental percussion work Inuksuit. Demonstrating its flair for combining musical and theatrical elements in its performances, eighth blackbird has also created an original cabaret-opera style staging of Arnold Schoenberg
's seminal work Pierrot Lunaire
, which the group performs entirely from memory.
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning contemporary music sextet
Sextet
A sextet is a formation containing exactly six members. It is commonly associated with vocal or musical instrument groups, but can be applied to any situation where six similar or related objects are considered a single unit....
based in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens
Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as a lawyer for the Hartford insurance company in Connecticut.His best-known poems include "Anecdote of the Jar",...
' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
"Thirteen Ways Of Looking At A Blackbird" is a poem from Wallace Stevens' first book of poetry, Harmonium. It consists of thirteen short, separate poems, all of which mention blackbirds in some way. Although inspired by haiku, none of the segments is actually haiku...
. The name is deliberately spelled in lower case.
The members of eighth blackbird hold degrees in music performance from Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
The University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music is the performing arts college of the University of Cincinnati and is one of the nation's leading music conservatories. In its most recent rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked Cincinnati sixth nationally among university programs...
, the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
, and Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
. Current players in the group include Yvonne Lam, violin/viola; Nicholas Photinos, cello; Tim Munro, flutes; Michael Maccaferri, clarinets; Lisa Kaplan, piano; and Matthew Duvall, percussion. Four of the group's six members are founding members; Munro replaced the ensemble's original flautist, Molly Barth, in 2006, and Lam replaced violinist and violist Matt Albert in 2011.
eighth blackbird holds Ensemble-in-Residence positions at the University of Richmond
University of Richmond
The University of Richmond is a selective, private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The University of Richmond is a primarily undergraduate, residential university with approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate...
in Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
(since 2003) and The University of Chicago (since 2000). Additionally, the group has led short-term residencies at the Curtis Institute, Colburn School
Colburn School
The Colburn School is a music, dance, and drama school located in downtown Los Angeles adjacent to the Museum of Contemporary Art and across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall...
, University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University
Southern Methodist University is a private university in Dallas, Texas, United States. Founded in 1911 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, SMU operates campuses in Dallas, Plano, and Taos, New Mexico. SMU is owned by the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church...
, and Rice University
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
. An ongoing relationship with Chicago's Cedille Records has produced five recordings, including strange imaginary animals (2006), winner of two 2008 Grammy Awards, including the award for Best Chamber Music Performance. eighth blackbird's most recent CD, which was released in September of 2011, is entitled Lonely Motel: Music from Slide, and features excerpts from the 2009 music and theater work Slide, a collaboration between eighth blackbird, composer Steve Mackey, and singer, actor, and librettist Rinde Eckert.
Since its founding in 1996, eighth blackbird has been active in commissioning new works from composers such as Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, George Perle
George Perle
George Perle was a composer and music theorist. He was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. Perle was an alumnus of DePaul University...
, Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
, Joseph Schwantner
Joseph Schwantner
Joseph C. Schwantner is a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer and educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize....
, Paul Moravec
Paul Moravec
Paul Moravec is an American composer and a University Professor at Adelphi University on Long Island, New York...
, and Stephen Hartke
Stephen Hartke
Stephen Paul Hartke is an American composer. He grew up in Manhattan, where his first piano teacher was Mary Miley, and has lived in California since the 1980s...
, as well as works from Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon
Jennifer Higdon is an American composer of classical music. Higdon has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto.-Biography:Higdon was born in Brooklyn,...
, Derek Bermel
Derek Bermel
Derek Bermel is an American composer, clarinetist and conductor whose music blends various facets of world music, funk and jazz with largely classical performing forces and musical vocabulary...
, Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly
Nico Muhly is a contemporary classical music composer, who has worked and recorded with classical and pop/rock musicians. He currently lives in the Lower East Side section of Manhattan in New York City.-Early years:...
, Daniel Kellogg
Daniel Kellogg
Daniel Kellogg is an American composer.Kellogg is currently Assistant Professor of Music at the College of Music of the University of Colorado at Boulder, teaching music composition, counterpoint and orchestration.-Life:...
, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez is a Latin-American composer and teacher. He currently resides near Rochester, New York....
, and the Minimum Security Composers Collective. The group received the first BMI/Boudleaux-Bryant Fund Commission and the 2007 American Music Center Trailblazer Award and has received grants from BMI, Meet the Composer, the Greenwall Foundation, and Chamber Music America.
In June 2009, eighth blackbird served as Music Director
Ojai Music Festival: Music Directors
This is a complete list of Music Directors of the Ojai Music Festival, shown both alphabetically and chronologically- A-E :*John Adams: 1993*Pierre-Laurent Aimard: 2007*Leif Ove Andsnes: 2012*Emanuel Ax: 1997*George Benjamin: 2010...
of the Ojai Music Festival
Ojai Music Festival
The Ojai Music Festival is an annual classical music festival in the United States. Held in Ojai, California for four days every June, the festival presents music, symposia, and educational programs emphasizing adventurous, eclectic, and challenging music, principally by contemporary composers...
in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. In February 2011, eighth blackbird curated the Tune-In Music Festival at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The group devised a program which centered around Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's controversial statement that music was, "essentially powerless to express anything at all," and culminated in the indoor premier of John Luther Adams
John Luther Adams
John Luther Adams is a composer whose music is inspired by nature, especially the landscapes of Alaska where he has lived since 1978.-Biography:...
' monumental percussion work Inuksuit. Demonstrating its flair for combining musical and theatrical elements in its performances, eighth blackbird has also created an original cabaret-opera style staging of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's seminal work Pierrot Lunaire
Pierrot Lunaire
Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds 'Pierrot lunaire' , commonly known simply as Pierrot Lunaire, Op. 21 , is a melodrama by Arnold Schoenberg...
, which the group performs entirely from memory.