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Tag: music

  • Weighter Music Series

    Weighter Music Series

    For those of you out there in the local music scene, next Thursday, Feb. 27 is the launch of an interesting new Ithaca concert series with a bent toward the experimental. Weighter Music is excited to present the Weighter Music Series series in Ithaca with a solo performance from Weighter founder Nick Hennies. Weighter Music/Recordings is a record label founded in 2013 by percussionist and composer Nick Hennies and is focused on the release of unconventional musical compositions.

    Hennies, who very recently relocated to Ithaca from Austin, TX, has an active career as a solo artist as well as being a member of Meridian, a percussion trio with Greg Stuart and former Ithaca resident Tim Feeney. Through this new concert series venue Hennies aims to promote adventurous and artistic music outside of an academic environment. He hopes that this series will foster an open exploration of experimental music within his new community and attract both local and visiting musicians for guest performances.

    For the inagural program on Feb. 27th Hennies will perform two of his solo albums in full, Duets for Solo Snare Drum and Psalms. Duets for Solo Snare Drum opens the program, consisting of three pieces for the solo snare drum that are in “duet” with three different non-performative elements. One4, by John Cage, explores unconventional timbral possibilities of the snare drum while prominently using silence as a compositional tool. Snare Drum and FM Noise by Austrian composer Peter Ablinger pairs radio static with very soft, white-noise-like snare drum rolls. Hennies’ own piece, Cast and Work, a 23-minute continuous drum roll with sine waves, is a deeply meditative listening experience. Cast and Work will also feature guest performances by Ithaca musicians Annie Lewandowski (piano) and Chris Demetriou (percussion).

    The second half of the program is Hennies’ cycle of compositions called Psalms. Each of the five pieces are for a single percussion instrument (vibraphone, snare drum, woodblock, and triangle) and use long periods of rapid fire repetition to expose hidden depths and detail in what we normally think of as familiar sounds. Psalms is also notable in that includes Alvin Lucier’s classic piece for the solo triangle from 1987, Silver Streetcar for the Orchestra.

    The music event on Thursday, Feb. 27 will take place at 8 p.m. at the Community School of Music and Arts (330 E. State St.) in the 3rd floor performance space. Admission is on a sliding scale from $5-$10. The Weighter Music Series will continue on March 23rd with a performance by Chicago organ/electronics duo Coppice.

  • Porchfest

    Porchfest

    This Sunday  is the seventh annual Porchfest! If you have never been, Porchfest is an Ithaca music festival held on the porches of houses in downtown Fall Creek and Northside neighborhoods. This year music-goers can wander the neighborhood streets and hear over 100 bands playing on various porches. Maps are created to show what bands are playing, where, and when. According to the Porchfest website, music this year will range from classical to roots, rock to country to pop to reggae to punk rock, and from Appalachian to Brazilian to Irish to Swedish to Zimbabwean, and more.

    The thing I like about this festival is the community involvement and local flair. Fall Creek and Northside homeowners volunteer their porches – either to bands they know, bands they like, or even bands they know nothing about. Many of the bands are local, and it is fun when you stumble upon a porch with your normally staid co-worker playing drums for a rock band.

    The event is refreshingly simple and the only street vendors to be seen at this festival are two tasty food trucks at Thompson Park and the occasional lemonade stands manned by entrepreneurial grade-schoolers. Porchfest 2013 is sponsored by Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, a non-profit, community development corporation whose mission is to revitalize Ithaca’s neighborhoods, encourage stability and diversity, and to help people of modest incomes obtain affordable housing on a long-term basis. The event is free, though donations toward the cost of printing the maps is appreciated.

    Porchfest 2013 takes place this Sunday, Sept. 15th from 1:00pm – 5:00pm with an open jam session to follow at 5:30pm in Thompson Park.