Kate Nordstrum, LM series curator, introducing the 15.16 series to friends of the series
By Patrick Marschke
As patrons and celebrators of the new, we are always excited to share our own recent additions and upcoming happenings here at Liquid Music. It has been exciting and eventful summer and as it comes to a close we thought now would be a great time to look back at what we have accomplished so far and forward to our new season.
New Season New Website
Most notably we have this new dedicated web space, beautifully designed by David Lewis and Charlie Christenson, both friends and advisory board members of LM. Here followers of the series can browse events, purchase tickets, check out some videos, and learn more about LM artists and the series itself.
The series has expanded to 9 shows crammed with world premieres, new collaborations, some new faces and some old friends. A stunning 15.16 brochure designed by Andrew Jerabek can be found here in its digital iteration and may be arriving in a mailbox near you. If you prefer moving pictures we also just posted our season trailer, skillfully crafted by McNally Smith College of Music's Justin Staggs.
Along with our new web site comes the Liquid Music Blog (welcome), a place for us to discover and share novel and provocative ideas about the vast and vibrant world of contemporary music: tracking projects, interviewing artists, and creating a dialogue. With the blog also comes our first ‘Virtual Residency’ with Twin Cities based Poliça and Berlin based s t a r g a z e.The two ensembles are working together over the course of the year to create a unique musical collaboration for the fall of 2016. Liquid Music will allow audiences the unprecedented opportunity to enter into the artists’ creative process and experience the tremendous amount of work that goes into bringing a project to the stage. Nate Matson of Spaces fame will be collecting video throughout.
New Partners New Places
The Film Society of Minneapolis/St. Paul has joined as a partner and visual commissioner for the multi-media work Holographic by composer Daniel Wohl, whose album (1/29/16 tentative release date on New Amsterdam Records) was commissioned by Liquid Music, MASS MoCA, Baryshnikov Arts Center and the Indianapolis Museum of Art and will be presented at each institution Jan-Feb 2016. In addition, the Givens Foundation for African American Literature will be co-presenting and co-commissioning new works by Jace Clayton and Ted Hearne for Saul Williams and Mivos Quartet: No One Ever Does in celebration of National Poetry Month. We can’t wait to see how these new partnerships will flourish in coming seasons.
Amongst familiar venues like Aria, Fitzgerald Theater, The Walker’s William and Nadine McGuire Theater, and the Ordway Concert Hall (though it still has that ‘new concert hall' smell) are some new spaces like Bedlam Lowertown, the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio, and the James J. Hill Reference Library–all landmarks off the Twin Cities that we hope to invigorate with the new sounds of our 15.16 Liquid Music artists.
New People
The illustrious Kate Nordstrum has established quite the following for herself. After a sold out 14.15 season it should be no surprise that Kate has enlisted the help of three interns in addition to the administrative/operational assistance she receives from the world class SPCO team (with a notable call out to production manager Mary Phelps). Karla Brom returns after joining Liquid Music at the beginning of the 14.15 season. Lauren McNee, a native Minnesotan, returns from Chicago after finishing her master’s program at Northwestern University to begin pursuing a doctorate at the University of Minnesota, and will be writing and interviewing artists frequently for the LM blog. Patrick Marschke (aka me) mostly tries to do what Kate tells him to do.
Some of the Same
With all the new comes a reminder of what hasn’t changed here at Liquid Music. We know we can count on bold and brave audiences searching for challenging and inspiring new works–and there will always be fresh music, musicians, composers, artists and creatives to discover. We are also fortunate enough to have the stunning and unwavering vision of Kate Nordstrum to help guide us through the vast and riveting world of contemporary music.
Let us know what you are most looking forward to this season, artists we should be checking out, and any questions you might have below!