2019-2020 Collaborators
MICHAEL GORDON
© Peter Serling
Over the past 30 years, Michael Gordon has produced a strikingly diverse body of work, ranging from large-scale pieces for high-energy ensembles and major orchestral commissions to works conceived specifically for the recording studio and kaleidoscopic works for groups of identical instruments.
Transcending categorization, his music represents the collision of mysterious introspection and brutal directness.
This season, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players with Roomful of Teeth and Splinter Reeds premiere the concert-length In a Strange Land, the Strings of Autumn festival in Prague feature Gordon as composer-in-residence and perform Timber plus all of Gordon's string quartets, the percussion/piano/bass trio Bearthoven premieres a new work, and The Crossing Choir with cellist Maya Beiser premiere Gordon's autobiographical A Travel Guide to Nicaragua at Carnegie Hall, about his childhood growing up in Central America.
Gordon’s recent works include a new chamber version of his opera Acquanetta, commissioned/premiered by Beth Morrison's Prototype Festival in NYC; "8" commissioned by the Amsterdam Cello Octet, the latest addition to Gordon’s concert-length music for multiples; Big Space, commissioned and presented by the BBC Proms; a concert-length work for choir, Anonymous Man, commissioned/premiered by The Crossing, and three new works for orchestra — Natural History, written for the 100th Anniversary of the United States' National Parks and premiered at Crater Lake in Oregon; Observations on Air, a concerto for bassoon for soloist Peter Whelan, commissioned by The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; and The Unchanging Sea, a piano concerto for Tomoko Mukaiyama with a new film by Bill Morrison commissioned/premiered by the Seattle Symphony and the Rotterdam Symphony. Gordon and Morrison's other collaborations include the Decasia, Dystopia, Gothamand El Sol Caliente.
Gordon's discography includes The Unchanging Sea, Clouded Yellow, Sonatra, Natural History, Timber Remixed, Dystopia, Rushes, Timber, Weather, Light is Calling, Decasia, (purgatorio) POPOPERA, Van Gogh, Trance, and Big Noise from Nicaragua. He is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's legendary music collective Bang on a Can. His music is published by Red Poppy Music (ASCAP) and is distributed worldwide by G. Schirmer, Inc.
SHELLEY WASHINGTON
Peter Yankowsky, Photographer
With an eclectic palette that draws elements from jazz, rock, American folk and other contemporary musical spaces, Washington (b. 1991) seeks to tell memorable sonic stories that comment on current and past social narratives, both personal and observed. Her music has been described as "slightly wild, slightly mysterious” while having the ability to "powerfully [tell] stories" (Peter Alexander).
Shelley is a 2018 recipient of the Jerome Fund for New Music Award and will write a new work for the trio Bearthoven for their upcoming season. In the early fall of 2017, she embarked on her first tour with the Schiele String Quartet to Savannah, Georgia, where her string quartets MIDDLEGROUND and SAY were performed throughout the city. She was also able to work with the students of the Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music program on her string quartet, MIDDLEGROUND, in 2017. Her relentless baritone saxophone duo, BIG Talk, recorded by herself and saxophonist Dr. José Cabán, was recently released by Brooklyn-based label, People | Places | Records. This was her first widely distributed work available on multiple streaming platforms. Her piece, The Farthest, for choir and chamber ensemble was commissioned by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus for their “Silent Voices” series and premiered in April of 2018. Shelley is also an active performer, and performs regularly as a vocalist and solo saxophonist, primarily wielding the baritone saxophone. She has performed and recorded with ensembles throughout Kansas City, Des Moines, Brooklyn and New York City- anything from Baroque to Screamo. She is also a founding member of the composer collective, Kinds of Kings, which celebrated their debut concert in Tampa, Florida in partnership with Terroir New Music and the Bake n' Babes in March of 2018.
Washington holds degrees from Truman State University; a Bachelor of Arts in Music focusing on saxophone, and a Master of Arts in Education. She completed the Master of Music in Theory and Composition from NYU Steinhardt in 2017, where she studied with Dr. Joseph Church, Julia Wolfe, and Caroline Shaw. As an educator, she has taught with the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers program, and also taught budding composers in the Young Composers and Improvisers Workshop. Shelley was the Artistic Director for the Noel Pointer Foundation, located in Brooklyn, NY. Washington now resides in Princeton, New Jersey, and began studies towards the PhD in Music Composition at Princeton University in the Fall of 2018. Shelley is a founding member of the composer collective, Kinds of Kings.