On June 26th at 7:00pm PDT, Ninth Planet will present Tides, a livestream concert featuring six works performed by members of the Ninth Planet ensemble. Curated by new co-artistic director Jessie Nucho and composer Ursula Kwong-Brown, each piece explores our need for connection at a time when our lives are being shaped by forces beyond our control. Says Kwong-Brown, who will also be hosting the concert, “At this uncertain moment, when we seem to oscillate daily between cautious optimism and despair, we were drawn to music that embraced fluidity, maybe even chaos. This program features bold, boundary-pushing work that for us really gets at where we all are right now.”
Information about how to watch the concert can be found online at Ninth Planet’s website, ninthplanetmusic.org. The concert will stream free on YouTube Live, and can be watched on-demand after the original broadcast.
The program opens with the premiere of Unwinding IV (cello and electronics) by Kwong-Brown, the latest work in the composer’s ongoing series documenting her healing process from a traumatic brain injury caused by a bike accident.
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate’s 1994 piece, Inchokkillissa (guitar and percussion), which roughly translates to “loneliness,” is based on a Chocktaw church hymn entitled “Worth of the Soul.”
Inspired by Pauline Oliveros, Zohra (2018, violin and electronics) by British-Iranian composer Shiva Feshareki, grew out of a series of guided improvisations. The composer pressed the resulting violin recordings onto vinyl record “dub-plates,” which she then manipulated live with turntables, introducing elements of physicality and resonance.
Lila Meretzky’s All mute things speak today (2019, soprano and double bass) interprets a Yiddish poem by Anna Margolin, intricately structured with interlocking cycles of additive and subtractive rhythms.
The program also features the premiere of Yaz Lancaster’s trio "little song" for soprano, violin, and electric guitar - Ninth Planet's first commissioned work.
The concert concludes with the premiere of Danny Erdberg and Ursula Kwong-Brown’s Here Come the Warm Clouds, an homage to Brian Eno’s similarly titled song. Japanese video artist and live painter Akiko Nakayama has been commissioned to create a visual score for the piece in her signature style.