SARAH HENNIES
“THOUGHT SECTORS”
STEVEN SCHICK and SARAH HENNIES, PERCUSSION
Sunday, January 19, 2025 | 8 PM
2220 Arts and Archives
2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057
2220 Arts and Archives
2220 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90057
“The interesting thing is that it’s not setting up the performer to fail,
but to create a setting in which the attempt at the task creates the artifacts
and phenomena that make the performed work alive.” - Sarah Hennies
but to create a setting in which the attempt at the task creates the artifacts
and phenomena that make the performed work alive.” - Sarah Hennies
TICKETS:
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PROGRAM:
Sarah HENNIES - SETTLE (2012) [12']
for two vibraphonists playing one vibraphone
Sarah HENNIES - THOUGHT SECTORS (2020) [58']
for percussion solo
PERFORMERS:
Sarah HENNIES, vibraphone
Steven SCHICK, percussion soloist
Sarah HENNIES - SETTLE (2012) [12']
for two vibraphonists playing one vibraphone
Sarah HENNIES - THOUGHT SECTORS (2020) [58']
for percussion solo
PERFORMERS:
Sarah HENNIES, vibraphone
Steven SCHICK, percussion soloist
DESCRIPTION:
THOUGHT SECTORS was somehow based on “divided consciousness,” a term coined by psychologist Ernest Hilgard that theorized the human brain is divided into distinct components rather than a single unified consciousness. He assigns two modes of consciousness to the brain - active and receptive - and the piece is based on these conditions, both separately and then simultaneously. I began this piece before the COVID-19 pandemic began in spring 2020 when I took a long break from composing. The amount of time that has passed since I first conceived of the piece coupled with a harrowing few years of early parenthood, a long distance job, and serious mental health issues mean that this piece is a particularly honed example of a mysterious, semi-rational approach to composition I have been exploring since 2018. What is this piece? How did I make artistic decisions? I truly don’t remember and perhaps this is analogous to the vast portions of our brains to which we have no direct access. - Sarah Hennies
ARTIST BIOS:
SARAH HENNIES:
Sarah Hennies (b. 1979, Louisville, KY) is a composer based in Upstate NY whose work is concerned with a variety of musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues including including queer & trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought. She is primarily a composer of acoustic ensemble music, but is also active in improvisation, film, and performance art. She presents her work internationally as both a composer and percussionist with notable performances at MoMA PS1 (NYC), Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Warsaw Autumn, Ruhrtriennale (Essen), Archipel Festival (Geneva), Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Time:Spans (NYC), and the Edition Festival (Stockholm). As a composer, she has received commissions across a wide array of performers and ensembles including Bearthoven, Bent Duo, Ensemble Dedalus, The Living Earth Show, Mivos String Quartet, Talea Ensemble, Nate Wooley, and Yarn/Wire.
Her ground breaking audio-visual work Contralto (2017) explores transfeminine identity through the elements of “voice feminization” therapy, featuring a cast of transgender women accompanied by a dense and varied musical score for string quartet and three percussionists. The work has been in high demand since its premiere, with numerous performances taking place around North America, Europe, and Australia and was one of four finalists for the 2019 Queer|Art Prize.
She is the recipient of a 2024 United States Artists Fellowship, a 2019 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, a 2016 fellowship in music/sound from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a participant in the 2024 Whitney Biennial. She has received additional support from the Fromm Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New Music USA, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Creative Work Fund.
As a scholar and performer she is engaged with ongoing research about the percussion music of Iannis Xenakis and a recording project to document music by the American percussionist and composer Michael Ranta. Sarah is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Bard College.
Her ground breaking audio-visual work Contralto (2017) explores transfeminine identity through the elements of “voice feminization” therapy, featuring a cast of transgender women accompanied by a dense and varied musical score for string quartet and three percussionists. The work has been in high demand since its premiere, with numerous performances taking place around North America, Europe, and Australia and was one of four finalists for the 2019 Queer|Art Prize.
She is the recipient of a 2024 United States Artists Fellowship, a 2019 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, a 2016 fellowship in music/sound from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and a participant in the 2024 Whitney Biennial. She has received additional support from the Fromm Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New Music USA, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Creative Work Fund.
As a scholar and performer she is engaged with ongoing research about the percussion music of Iannis Xenakis and a recording project to document music by the American percussionist and composer Michael Ranta. Sarah is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Bard College.
STEVEN SCHICK:
Percussionist, conductor, and author Steven Schick was born in Iowa and raised in a farming family. Hailed by Alex Ross in the New Yorker as, “one of our supreme living virtuosos, not just of percussion but of any instrument,” he has championed contemporary percussion music for more than fifty years. In 2014 Schick was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.
As conductor, Schick was Music Director of the La Jolla Symphony and Artistic Director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the Breckenridge Music Festival, and Co-Artistic Director with Claire Chase of the Banff Centre’s Summer Classical Music program. In 2020, he was awarded the Ditson Conductor’s Award, given by Columbia University, for his commitment to the performance of American music.
Schick’s publications include a book, “The Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams,” and numerous recordings including complete collections of the percussion music of Iannis Xenakis and the early percussion works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. His most recent project, “Weather Systems,” a multi-part retrospective of solo percussion music released on Islandia Music Records, was listed among the best recordings of 2023 by both The New York Times and The New Yorker.
In 2019, he and his wife Brenda began The Brenda and Steven Schick Commissions to foster new creative work that embraces qualities of optimism in themes dealing with community or the environment.
Steven Schick is Distinguished Professor of Music and the inaugural holder of the Reed Family Presidential Chair at the University of California, San Diego.
As conductor, Schick was Music Director of the La Jolla Symphony and Artistic Director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and the Breckenridge Music Festival, and Co-Artistic Director with Claire Chase of the Banff Centre’s Summer Classical Music program. In 2020, he was awarded the Ditson Conductor’s Award, given by Columbia University, for his commitment to the performance of American music.
Schick’s publications include a book, “The Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams,” and numerous recordings including complete collections of the percussion music of Iannis Xenakis and the early percussion works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. His most recent project, “Weather Systems,” a multi-part retrospective of solo percussion music released on Islandia Music Records, was listed among the best recordings of 2023 by both The New York Times and The New Yorker.
In 2019, he and his wife Brenda began The Brenda and Steven Schick Commissions to foster new creative work that embraces qualities of optimism in themes dealing with community or the environment.
Steven Schick is Distinguished Professor of Music and the inaugural holder of the Reed Family Presidential Chair at the University of California, San Diego.