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Princeton Sound Kitchen: ~Nois
Saxophone Ensemble
date & time
Tue, Mar 7, 2023
8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
ticketing
Free, unticketed
- This event has passed.
Saxophone quartet ~Nois performs new works by Princeton University graduate student composers Francisco del Pino, Kennedy Taylor Dixon, Bobby Ge, Travis Laplante, Lucy McKnight, Christian Quiñones, and Nathan Schram.
Program
Bobby Ge To Speak As One
Lucy McKnight insides out
kennedy taylor dixon they can finally breathe
Christian Quiñones High Tide
Nathan Schram While Babies Sleep
Francisco del Pino Invisible
Travis Laplante Running in a Field of Flowers
Program Notes
Bobby Ge
To Speak As One
The more people I’ve spoken with, the more I have come to cherish moments of shared
understanding. For me, language often feels rather insufficient as a means of expressing
thought, like trying to portray a three-dimensional image on a flat surface. Understanding
someone’s words is a delicate process of reconstructing the ineffable depth and interiority of
their thoughts, and quite frequently, much is lost in translation.
These ideas provided the seed for To Speak As One. To me, the saxophone quartet as an
ensemble naturally contends with such questions of mutual understanding and
communication. It is conversational in scale; its instruments share much in common both
registrally and timbrally; virtually any technique that can be done on one instrument can be
done on any other. The result is a collection of instruments that very easily behaves as a
hyperinstrument, able to blend and move with uncommon unity.
Over the course of the piece, I sought to shift throughout between treating the quartet as a
singular entity versus four unique players. The resulting work scatters its lines across the
group, assigning disparate notes and rhythms to each musician as they discover the
composite together. Players enter and peel off constantly, and even in moments of stasis,
there is an element of confusion; it’s not always clear which instrument is playing which
sounds. Even with all its raucous sounds and lurching instability, though, To Speak As One is
intended to be an intimate piece, ultimately focusing on how a small ensemble—with all their
cuing, breathing, and eye contact—can discover ways to communicate nonverbally with one
another.
Lucy McKnight
insides out
kiss on my morning mouth
ice cream scoop my insides out
tingles and tangles, i’ve lost a bunch of time
you’re gone
i’m fine
kennedy taylor dixon
they can finally breathe
i. before
ii. after
they can finally breathe (2023) serves as a reminder to simply close your eyes, take a breath,
do a little dance, and remind yourself that everything will work itself out in time.
Christian Quiñones
High Tide
Conceptual ideas tend to be an integral part of the way I write music. Usually, I have a
conceptual framework before I start writing music, and this piece is a direct response to that,
or rather a much-needed departure from working on pieces with a heavier subject matter. For
the first time in years, I wrote this piece thinking about sensations.
I grew up near the beach and one of my favorite things to do as a kid was to submerge myself
and feel the power of the waves or how the tide changed over time. These memories go from
the extreme calmness of being underwater to the sensation of trying to swim against the
current, to the fear I felt at a time when I got caught up by a powerful series of waves and for
the first time I thought I might drown. All of these emotional and visceral memories seem to
have left a very tactile memory in me which still feels very present and all of them seemed to
have made their way into this piece.
INTERMISSION
Nathan Schram
While Babies Sleep
This piece came about while my family was asleep and a brief energetic thought entered my
mind. I jumped out of bed and quietly performed the piece as a voice memo on my phone.
The tremendous performers of ~Nois bring the sounds to life like gentle monsters on a
deserted island.
Francisco del Pino
Invisible
Francisco del Pino, electric guitar
Invisible was an Argentinian power trio formed by Luis Alberto Spinetta during the mid 70s
and is my favorite band from my home country. Spinetta was a genius and a poet and perhaps
the most uniquely Argentinian of our ‘rock’ notables, and his passing ten years ago still hurts
me today. This piece has no quotations, nor does it aspire to be an elegy, yet—I think—it
displays a sense of yearning, a longing for a glimpse of those we can no longer see.
I want to thank ~Nois for welcoming me within the group, and for their generous and sensitive
input which helped me work out the ultimate shape of the piece.
Travis Laplante
Running in a Field of Flowers
A note of inspiration:
When I was a young child I have a vivid memory of running through a field with a sense of
complete joy and freedom. It was as if each flower and blade of grass was singing to me and I
could hear a beautiful song that existed inside the air.
When I remember this experience I don’t desire to go back to my youth, or even romanticize
an innocence that I no longer carry. I simply remember a time in my life when I was
consciously more connected to the Earth through listening, before the human-centric
conditionings of this life set in. It is part of my life’s work to repair this connection inside of
myself. I hope that the sounds inside Running Through a Field of Flowers communicates at
least a sliver of this essential and once passionate love affair between humanity and the Earth,
despite the relationship’s current decimation.
The musical structure of Running in a Field of Flowers is symbolic of a journey taken deeper
and deeper into ourselves, to a place where we can hear both the earth’s cry and the love
without end that is all around and inside us and cannot be destroyed, only forgotten.
A huge thank you to ~Nois saxophone quartet for their generosity to this composition. I have
composed three previous albums of saxophone quartet music and this is my first experience
not also performing in the ensemble. This has been an exceedingly vulnerable
experience. Thankfully, I’ve been filled with happiness to hear the music come alive without
my presence in the ensemble. This is largely due to ~Nois’s ability to play and listen beyond
the notes into a deeper level of communication between each other and the audience. This
experience gives me tremendous hope for the future.
About
Francisco del Pino is a Buenos Aires-born composer and guitarist. Drawing influence from
both classical and vernacular traditions, his music revolves around process and pattern and is
usually characterized by an extensive use of counterpoint. Francisco’s debut album Decir, a
song cycle on texts by Argentinian poet Victoria Cóccaro described as “stunning”
(Bandcamp Daily), was released on New Amsterdam Records in 2021. He is currently a PhD
candidate in Music Composition at Princeton University as a Mark Nelson Fellow.
Kennedy Taylor Dixon is a violist, composer, and scholar currently residing in Trenton, New
Jersey. Dixon has been described as a “vibrant musical voice,” often writing for herself and
collaborators in her musical community. Some highlights of her career to date include a
collaborative commission from the Boston Children’s Chorus and Castle of our Skins, an
upcoming residency at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT, a premiere of her piece
here I stand at Electronic Music Midwest 2022, a presentation of her Master’s Thesis
discussing Wadada Leo Smith’s String Quartet No.3 at the International Alliance for Women
in Music 2022 Conference, performance by Jack Quartet, and a commission from Laura Lenz
in 2021. Dixon was selected as a performance fellow at Nief-Norf in 2019 and again in 2020,
participated as a composition fellow at New Music on the Point in 2021, and attended Bang
On a Can as a performance fellow for their 2022 festival. Before starting her PhD this past fall
at Princeton University, Dixon received a MA in Music Composition in addition to her dual
undergraduate degrees in Viola Performance and Music Composition from Western Michigan
University.
Bobby Ge is a Chinese-American composer and avid collaborator who seeks to create vivid
emotional journeys that navigate boundaries between genre and medium. He has created
multimedia projects with the Space Telescope Science Institute, painters collective
Art10Baltimore, the Scattered Players Theater Company, and the Smithsonian Environmental
Research Center. Winner of the 2022 Barlow Prize, Ge has been programmed by groups
including the Minnesota Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, the Albany Symphony’s
‘Dogs of Desire,’ the Harbin Symphony Orchestra, Interlochen Arts Academy, Atlanta
Symphony Youth Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra, Seattle Symphony
Youth Orchestra, Music from Copland House, the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, the Bergamot
Quartet, the Boss Street Brass Band, and Mind on Fire. He is currently pursuing his PhD at
Princeton University as a Naumberg Fellow, and holds degrees from UC Berkeley and the
Peabody Conservatory.
Travis Laplante is a saxophonist, composer, improviser, and qigong practitioner. Laplante
leads the acclaimed saxophone quartet Battle Trance, as well as Subtle Degrees, his duo with
drummer Gerald Cleaver. Recently, Laplante has composed long-form works for new music
ensembles the JACK Quartet and Yarn/Wire while performing alongside them. Laplante is
also known for his raw solo saxophone concerts and being a member of the avant-garde
quartet Little Women. He has performed and/or recorded with ICE, Tyshawn Sorey, Caroline
Shaw, Ches Smith, Peter Evans, So Percussion, Ingrid Laubrock, Mary Halvorson, Buke and
Gase, and Darius Jones. Laplante has toured his music extensively and has appeared at many
international festivals such as Moers, Jazz Jantar, Saalfelden, Jazz em Agosto, Earshot,
Hopscotch, and the NYC Winter JazzFest. As a composer, Laplante has been commissioned
by the Lucerne Festival, JACK Quartet, Roulette, Yarn/Wire, Yellow Barn Music Festival,
MATA festival, and The Jerome Foundation.
Lucy McKnight prefers to write a bio in first person. So hi, hello, I’m Lucy! I work with colors,
textures, and sounds to create environments where I and others can explore intense emotions
and ways of surviving them. My expressive tools include paint, fabric, ceramics, tinfoil,
magnets, strings, pots, pipes, wood, my cello, my body and voice, and my friends’ bodies and
voices. I am interested in touch, connection, movement, and using sound to build mutually
cathartic experiences. I love to swim in natural bodies of water, with particular affinity for the
Pacific Ocean off the coast of my hometown, Los Angeles. Currently, my three deeply
affectionate cats and I live in my wildly colorful home in Trenton, New Jersey.
Founded in 2016, ~Nois (pronounced “noise”) has become one of the premier ensembles in
the United States by combining contemporary chamber music and improvisation to connect
with audiences in unique concert experiences. Heralded as “fiendishly good” (Chicago
Tribune) and known for their “supremely sensitive balance and control” (Chicago Classical
Review), ~Nois has been awarded top prizes at prestigious chamber music competitions
including the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the M-Prize International
Arts Competition. Since their founding, ~Nois has presented over 100 performances in 22
states. In addition to their regular concert season in Chicago, ~Nois has performed on festivals
and series such as Big Ears, LONG PLAY, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and the
University of Chicago Presents Series. In addition, ~Nois is in demand as a guest artist and
lecturer at universities across the nation having held residencies and given performances at
over 35 institutions including University of Southern California, the University of Colorado –
Boulder, the Manhattan School of Music, and Princeton University. During the 2022 – 2023
season, ~Nois has been appointed as an Entrepreneurial Musical Artist in Residence at
Michigan State University alongside Imani Winds and Damien Sneed. Dedicated to expanding
and redefining the saxophone quartet repertoire, ~Nois has premiered over 60 works
including compositions by Gaudeamus Prize winners Kelley Sheehan and Annika Socolofsky
as well as 2018 Guggenheim Fellow Tonia Ko. ~Nois’ recent commission, I Tell You Me by
Annika Socolofksy was called “grotesquely gorgeous” by the Chicago Tribune and the
premiere performance was included in their list of “Chicago’s Top 10 moments in classical
music, opera, and jazz that defined 2021”. ~Nois is Hunter Bockes, János Csontos, Jordan
Lulloff, and Julian Velasco. For more information, please visit
www.noissaxophone.com
Christian Quiñones is a Puerto Rican composer who explores personal and vulnerable stories
through the lens of cultural identity. From sampling to auto-tune, and to body percussion,
Christian is interested in interacting with existing music to create intertextual narratives.
Recently Christian was commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony, selected as a
composer in residence at the Copland House, and as a fellow for the St. Louis Symphony
Orchestra Workshop, Cabrillo Festival, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. In 2020 he
was selected for the Earshot Underwood Orchestra Readings where he worked with the
American Composers Orchestra. He has received commissions from Dogs of Desire, Transient
Canvas, the icarus Quartet, the Bergamot String Quartet, and the Victory Players where
Christian was the 2018-2019 composer in residence. Christian graduated from the
Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico (B.M.) and the University of Illinois (M.M), where he
was the recipient of the Graduate College Master’s Fellowship. Currently, Christian is a Ph.D.
President’s fellow at Princeton University.
Nathan Schram is a member of the Attacca Quartet and the Founder & Executive Director of
Musicambia, an organization that develops music education programs in prisons throughout
the United States. Albums of his original music have been released on New Amsterdam and
Better Company Records. He has a wife and daughter and adores living in Princeton.
More from Princeton Sound Kitchen
Musicians
Julian Velasco, soprano saxophone, ~Nois
Hunter Bockes, alto saxophone, ~Nois
Jordan Lulloff, tenor saxophone, ~Nois
János Csontos, baritone saxophone, ~Nois
Francisco del Pino, electric guitar
Program Notes
Bobby Ge
To Speak As One
The more people I’ve spoken with, the more I have come to cherish moments of shared
understanding. For me, language often feels rather insufficient as a means of expressing
thought, like trying to portray a three-dimensional image on a flat surface. Understanding
someone’s words is a delicate process of reconstructing the ineffable depth and interiority of
their thoughts, and quite frequently, much is lost in translation.
These ideas provided the seed for To Speak As One. To me, the saxophone quartet as an
ensemble naturally contends with such questions of mutual understanding and
communication. It is conversational in scale; its instruments share much in common both
registrally and timbrally; virtually any technique that can be done on one instrument can be
done on any other. The result is a collection of instruments that very easily behaves as a
hyperinstrument, able to blend and move with uncommon unity.
Over the course of the piece, I sought to shift throughout between treating the quartet as a
singular entity versus four unique players. The resulting work scatters its lines across the
group, assigning disparate notes and rhythms to each musician as they discover the
composite together. Players enter and peel off constantly, and even in moments of stasis,
there is an element of confusion; it’s not always clear which instrument is playing which
sounds. Even with all its raucous sounds and lurching instability, though, To Speak As One is
intended to be an intimate piece, ultimately focusing on how a small ensemble—with all their
cuing, breathing, and eye contact—can discover ways to communicate nonverbally with one
another.
Lucy McKnight
insides out
kiss on my morning mouth
ice cream scoop my insides out
tingles and tangles, i’ve lost a bunch of time
you’re gone
i’m fine
kennedy taylor dixon
they can finally breathe
i. before
ii. after
they can finally breathe (2023) serves as a reminder to simply close your eyes, take a breath,
do a little dance, and remind yourself that everything will work itself out in time.
Christian Quiñones
High Tide
Conceptual ideas tend to be an integral part of the way I write music. Usually, I have a
conceptual framework before I start writing music, and this piece is a direct response to that,
or rather a much-needed departure from working on pieces with a heavier subject matter. For
the first time in years, I wrote this piece thinking about sensations.
I grew up near the beach and one of my favorite things to do as a kid was to submerge myself
and feel the power of the waves or how the tide changed over time. These memories go from
the extreme calmness of being underwater to the sensation of trying to swim against the
current, to the fear I felt at a time when I got caught up by a powerful series of waves and for
the first time I thought I might drown. All of these emotional and visceral memories seem to
have left a very tactile memory in me which still feels very present and all of them seemed to
have made their way into this piece.
INTERMISSION
Nathan Schram
While Babies Sleep
This piece came about while my family was asleep and a brief energetic thought entered my
mind. I jumped out of bed and quietly performed the piece as a voice memo on my phone.
The tremendous performers of ~Nois bring the sounds to life like gentle monsters on a
deserted island.
Francisco del Pino
Invisible
Francisco del Pino, electric guitar
Invisible was an Argentinian power trio formed by Luis Alberto Spinetta during the mid 70s
and is my favorite band from my home country. Spinetta was a genius and a poet and perhaps
the most uniquely Argentinian of our ‘rock’ notables, and his passing ten years ago still hurts
me today. This piece has no quotations, nor does it aspire to be an elegy, yet—I think—it
displays a sense of yearning, a longing for a glimpse of those we can no longer see.
I want to thank ~Nois for welcoming me within the group, and for their generous and sensitive
input which helped me work out the ultimate shape of the piece.
Travis Laplante
Running in a Field of Flowers
A note of inspiration:
When I was a young child I have a vivid memory of running through a field with a sense of
complete joy and freedom. It was as if each flower and blade of grass was singing to me and I
could hear a beautiful song that existed inside the air.
When I remember this experience I don’t desire to go back to my youth, or even romanticize
an innocence that I no longer carry. I simply remember a time in my life when I was
consciously more connected to the Earth through listening, before the human-centric
conditionings of this life set in. It is part of my life’s work to repair this connection inside of
myself. I hope that the sounds inside Running Through a Field of Flowers communicates at
least a sliver of this essential and once passionate love affair between humanity and the Earth,
despite the relationship’s current decimation.
The musical structure of Running in a Field of Flowers is symbolic of a journey taken deeper
and deeper into ourselves, to a place where we can hear both the earth’s cry and the love
without end that is all around and inside us and cannot be destroyed, only forgotten.
A huge thank you to ~Nois saxophone quartet for their generosity to this composition. I have
composed three previous albums of saxophone quartet music and this is my first experience
not also performing in the ensemble. This has been an exceedingly vulnerable
experience. Thankfully, I’ve been filled with happiness to hear the music come alive without
my presence in the ensemble. This is largely due to ~Nois’s ability to play and listen beyond
the notes into a deeper level of communication between each other and the audience. This
experience gives me tremendous hope for the future.
About
Francisco del Pino is a Buenos Aires-born composer and guitarist. Drawing influence from
both classical and vernacular traditions, his music revolves around process and pattern and is
usually characterized by an extensive use of counterpoint. Francisco’s debut album Decir, a
song cycle on texts by Argentinian poet Victoria Cóccaro described as “stunning”
(Bandcamp Daily), was released on New Amsterdam Records in 2021. He is currently a PhD
candidate in Music Composition at Princeton University as a Mark Nelson Fellow.
Kennedy Taylor Dixon is a violist, composer, and scholar currently residing in Trenton, New
Jersey. Dixon has been described as a “vibrant musical voice,” often writing for herself and
collaborators in her musical community. Some highlights of her career to date include a
collaborative commission from the Boston Children’s Chorus and Castle of our Skins, an
upcoming residency at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT, a premiere of her piece
here I stand at Electronic Music Midwest 2022, a presentation of her Master’s Thesis
discussing Wadada Leo Smith’s String Quartet No.3 at the International Alliance for Women
in Music 2022 Conference, performance by Jack Quartet, and a commission from Laura Lenz
in 2021. Dixon was selected as a performance fellow at Nief-Norf in 2019 and again in 2020,
participated as a composition fellow at New Music on the Point in 2021, and attended Bang
On a Can as a performance fellow for their 2022 festival. Before starting her PhD this past fall
at Princeton University, Dixon received a MA in Music Composition in addition to her dual
undergraduate degrees in Viola Performance and Music Composition from Western Michigan
University.
Bobby Ge is a Chinese-American composer and avid collaborator who seeks to create vivid
emotional journeys that navigate boundaries between genre and medium. He has created
multimedia projects with the Space Telescope Science Institute, painters collective
Art10Baltimore, the Scattered Players Theater Company, and the Smithsonian Environmental
Research Center. Winner of the 2022 Barlow Prize, Ge has been programmed by groups
including the Minnesota Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, the Albany Symphony’s
‘Dogs of Desire,’ the Harbin Symphony Orchestra, Interlochen Arts Academy, Atlanta
Symphony Youth Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Youth Orchestra, Seattle Symphony
Youth Orchestra, Music from Copland House, the Pacific Chamber Orchestra, the Bergamot
Quartet, the Boss Street Brass Band, and Mind on Fire. He is currently pursuing his PhD at
Princeton University as a Naumberg Fellow, and holds degrees from UC Berkeley and the
Peabody Conservatory.
Travis Laplante is a saxophonist, composer, improviser, and qigong practitioner. Laplante
leads the acclaimed saxophone quartet Battle Trance, as well as Subtle Degrees, his duo with
drummer Gerald Cleaver. Recently, Laplante has composed long-form works for new music
ensembles the JACK Quartet and Yarn/Wire while performing alongside them. Laplante is
also known for his raw solo saxophone concerts and being a member of the avant-garde
quartet Little Women. He has performed and/or recorded with ICE, Tyshawn Sorey, Caroline
Shaw, Ches Smith, Peter Evans, So Percussion, Ingrid Laubrock, Mary Halvorson, Buke and
Gase, and Darius Jones. Laplante has toured his music extensively and has appeared at many
international festivals such as Moers, Jazz Jantar, Saalfelden, Jazz em Agosto, Earshot,
Hopscotch, and the NYC Winter JazzFest. As a composer, Laplante has been commissioned
by the Lucerne Festival, JACK Quartet, Roulette, Yarn/Wire, Yellow Barn Music Festival,
MATA festival, and The Jerome Foundation.
Lucy McKnight prefers to write a bio in first person. So hi, hello, I’m Lucy! I work with colors,
textures, and sounds to create environments where I and others can explore intense emotions
and ways of surviving them. My expressive tools include paint, fabric, ceramics, tinfoil,
magnets, strings, pots, pipes, wood, my cello, my body and voice, and my friends’ bodies and
voices. I am interested in touch, connection, movement, and using sound to build mutually
cathartic experiences. I love to swim in natural bodies of water, with particular affinity for the
Pacific Ocean off the coast of my hometown, Los Angeles. Currently, my three deeply
affectionate cats and I live in my wildly colorful home in Trenton, New Jersey.
Founded in 2016, ~Nois (pronounced “noise”) has become one of the premier ensembles in
the United States by combining contemporary chamber music and improvisation to connect
with audiences in unique concert experiences. Heralded as “fiendishly good” (Chicago
Tribune) and known for their “supremely sensitive balance and control” (Chicago Classical
Review), ~Nois has been awarded top prizes at prestigious chamber music competitions
including the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the M-Prize International
Arts Competition. Since their founding, ~Nois has presented over 100 performances in 22
states. In addition to their regular concert season in Chicago, ~Nois has performed on festivals
and series such as Big Ears, LONG PLAY, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and the
University of Chicago Presents Series. In addition, ~Nois is in demand as a guest artist and
lecturer at universities across the nation having held residencies and given performances at
over 35 institutions including University of Southern California, the University of Colorado –
Boulder, the Manhattan School of Music, and Princeton University. During the 2022 – 2023
season, ~Nois has been appointed as an Entrepreneurial Musical Artist in Residence at
Michigan State University alongside Imani Winds and Damien Sneed. Dedicated to expanding
and redefining the saxophone quartet repertoire, ~Nois has premiered over 60 works
including compositions by Gaudeamus Prize winners Kelley Sheehan and Annika Socolofsky
as well as 2018 Guggenheim Fellow Tonia Ko. ~Nois’ recent commission, I Tell You Me by
Annika Socolofksy was called “grotesquely gorgeous” by the Chicago Tribune and the
premiere performance was included in their list of “Chicago’s Top 10 moments in classical
music, opera, and jazz that defined 2021”. ~Nois is Hunter Bockes, János Csontos, Jordan
Lulloff, and Julian Velasco. For more information, please visit
www.noissaxophone.com
Christian Quiñones is a Puerto Rican composer who explores personal and vulnerable stories
through the lens of cultural identity. From sampling to auto-tune, and to body percussion,
Christian is interested in interacting with existing music to create intertextual narratives.
Recently Christian was commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony, selected as a
composer in residence at the Copland House, and as a fellow for the St. Louis Symphony
Orchestra Workshop, Cabrillo Festival, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. In 2020 he
was selected for the Earshot Underwood Orchestra Readings where he worked with the
American Composers Orchestra. He has received commissions from Dogs of Desire, Transient
Canvas, the icarus Quartet, the Bergamot String Quartet, and the Victory Players where
Christian was the 2018-2019 composer in residence. Christian graduated from the
Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico (B.M.) and the University of Illinois (M.M), where he
was the recipient of the Graduate College Master’s Fellowship. Currently, Christian is a Ph.D.
President’s fellow at Princeton University.
Nathan Schram is a member of the Attacca Quartet and the Founder & Executive Director of
Musicambia, an organization that develops music education programs in prisons throughout
the United States. Albums of his original music have been released on New Amsterdam and
Better Company Records. He has a wife and daughter and adores living in Princeton.