Composer Spotlight
Beth Fleenor
The Focusing Power of Form
Wed., Dec. 14 @ 7:30pm
Jack Straw Productions
4261 Roosevelt Way NE Seattle
map FREE
Composer Beth Fleenor offers thoughts, sounds, and a short performance expanding on her ongoing installation Mother May I, which features cross-stitched sound wave scores, as well as her developing etudes for Blindfolded Ensemble.
Exploring the power of focused intention, Fleenor has created a series of Movement Exercises for Blindfolded Ensemble that she uses as training pieces for unifying collective communication. In addition to performing and recording the works, she uses the blindfolded concept to develop ensemble awareness, as a means to move seamlessly through other forms of improvisation and composition. The blindfolded concept is currently being applied in training for performing the graphic notation of Mother May I's cross-stitched sound wave scores.
Both pieces are expansions of Fleenor's work, which revolves around committing to your individual voice and projecting that intent through the score or form you are working with.
Recorded works will include Seattle Jazz Composer Ensemble performances of Movement Exercise No. 1 for Blindfolded Ensemble, created through the Jack Straw Artist Support Program, as well as tracks from the Mother May I opening which featured Fleenor performing clarinet, voice & electronics with a seven-piece ensemble.
Since arriving in Seattle in 1998, clarinetist / vocal percussionist / composer Beth Fleenor has carved a place for herself as an energetic multi-instrumentalist and dynamic generative artist. Subscribing to the principle that "art is the discipline of being," Fleenor harbors a strong love for variety and all forms of sonic manipulation which has allowed her to move freely through genres including, but not limited to jazz, rock, classical, contemporary chamber, gypsy, metal, folk, punk, ambient, surf and noise. Her work has been heard in live music, recordings, theater, performance art, installations, modern dance, and film, appearing in concert halls, clubs, prisons, schools, theaters, streets and galleries.
She has worked with artists including Robin Holcomb, Denney Goodhew, Wayne Horvitz, Butch Morris, Matana Roberts, Jherek Bischoff, Mike Dillon, Jim Knapp, Amy Denio, Malcolm Goldstein, Joshual Kohl, Eyvind Kang, Jessica Lurie, Robin Lynn Smith, and Gino Yevdjevich/Kultur Shock, among many others. Currently she can found performing with Crystal Beth, Bling, Figeater, Owcharuk 5, Double Yoko, Tango Ahora!, Seattle Jazz Composers Ensemble, and projects of the Monktail Creative Concern.
Supporters
Jack Straw Productions gratefully acknowledges The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, City of Seattle’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, 4Culture King County Lodging Tax Fund, Washington State Arts Commission, National Endowment for the Arts, PONCHO, ArtsFund, Seattle Foundation, and individual contributors for their support of Jack Straw Artist Programs.