Chartreuse, the all-female, all-contemporary string trio, presents a program that breaks out of the trio repertoire (and instrumentation!). With commissions and premieres from New York to Oslo, Myra Hinrichs (violin), Carrie Frey (viola), and Helen Newby (cello) have been expanding the trio repertoire for the past three years. At the Firehouse Space, they will literally expand their ensemble, welcoming three frequent collaborators: Zachary Good, an active clarinetist in Chicago’s new music scene and founding member of ensemble Mocrep, bassoonist Benjamin Roidl-Ward, and flutist Hannah Hammel, both of Oberlin’s new music collective Semble N and Contemporary Music Ensemble.
The PLUS part of the program reimagines two large chamber works, by David Bird and the abovementioned Katherine Young. Young, whose music has been described by the New York Times as “raw, wailing, coloristic, “ has expanded the scope of her piece, graveled crumbled strewn, for this ensemble. Combining notated music with a video score, the performance will merge a concert piece and an installation. The idea for the piece began with the transformation of a parking lot next to Young’s building into a grocery store and shopping complex, and the visual and sound environment she inhabited during the construction process. New York-based composer David Bird’s pluck.divide.cut derives its name from the ancient word for harvest. The piece contemplates the reaping of over half a million horseshoe crabs each year for the compound LAL, derived from their blue blood and used to test every intravenous drug and medical device for approval by the FDA. On the MINUS end, the trio will mix it up with the guest musicians, performing duos by Peter Kramer and Olga Neuwirth. And to feature the core of the group, two recently commissioned trios: Spokes-Unspoken by Ryan Pratt, with Ryan himself on live electronics, and as a family of civilian ghosts phase-shifts through the fog lights by Kurt Isaacson, a series of brief movements featuring each of the individual instruments, to be performed in the dark.
Myra Hinrichs: Violin
Carrie Frey: Viola
Helen Newby: Cello
Hannah Hammel: Flute
Zachary Good: Clarinet
Ben Roidl-Ward: Bassoon
