Composer Spotlight
Steve Scribner
The Nature (of) Sound in the ‘StormSound’ Cycle
Wed., Feb. 9 @ 7:30pm
Jack Straw Productions
4261 Roosevelt Way NE Seattle
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Composer Steve Scribner will explore the use of field recordings and (non)random elements in his recent cycle of "StormSound" pieces. He will talk about how it seems neither possible nor desirable to actually create randomness in art; some of his influences; the philosophical / religious underpinnings of the "StormSound" pieces; and compositional techniques he has used in them: graphic scores and guided improvisation, phasing and "phase canons," "time stratification," and performance based on moment-to-moment decisions regarding aesthetics of individual sounds.
S(teven) Eric Scribner was born in Seattle, and studied piano while in elementary school and composition with Lockrem Johnson while in middle school, receiving two awards from composition contests during this time. Some of his earliest pieces were performed by soloists and chamber ensembles while he was in college at Seattle Pacific University and the University of Washington. In the 1980’s, he taught English in Japan; during this time his pieces “SoundScrolls I” (arranged for shakuhachi and piano) and “Strange Repeating Bird” received their premiers in the Fukushima Ongakudo concert hall, causing something of a stir among the audience. Living in California in the 1990’s, he played with an “avant-folk” group called Dawn Treader and worked on three large-scale experimental music projects, “From the Oceans; From the Stars”, “Music from Thousand Oaks” (pieces for folk instruments, piano, and electronics), and the continuation of the “SoundScrolls” pieces (some recorded at Mills College with Peter Valsamis, percussion, Tom Nunn, homemade instruments, and Ginny Landgraf, wind instruments). He returned to the Seattle area in 1999 and received his Masters Degree in education from Seattle Pacific University. Recent compositions have been mostly for the fourth large-scale project, the “StormSound” cycle. Presently, he teaches high school in the Edmonds and Shoreline districts, and lives in Lynnwood with his wife Arleen.
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.