eighth blackbird

eighth blackbird

Shifted during Flight
Friday, March 8, 2013 . 8PM
eighth blackbird
eighth blackbird photo by Luke Ratray
Principal People: 

Flutes Tim Munro

Clarinets Michael J. Maccaferri

Violin & Viola Yvonne Lam

Cello Nicholas Photinos

Percussion Matthew Duvall

Piano Lisa Kaplan

Event Attributes

Presented By

Presented By: 
Estimated Length: 
90 minutes including intermission
Program Notes: 

The Chicago-based sextet eighth blackbird combines the finesse of a string quartet with the energy of a rock band and the boldness of a storefront theatre company.

In their concert at the Center, this audacious band of musicians will perform Steve Reich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet, with students from the UMD School of Music forming a second sextet.

This tour of eighth blackbird is made possible by a grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

WAMU 88.5 is the official media sponsor of this performance.

eighth blackbird most recently appeared at the Center with Rinde Eckert and Steve Mackey in Slide (2009-2010).

Review by The Washington Post

Beginning with a section from Derek Bermel’s pulsating “Tied Shifts,” the evening bounded and never looked back.

[…] It was Steve Reich’s Pulitzer-winning “Double Sextet” that brought the full house to its feet. Written for Eighth Blackbird, the hard-driving, densely woven music proved an effective cap to the evening as six University of Maryland students joined the pros on stage in an edge-of-the-seat performance.

[…] Judging from the passionate response, perhaps attitudes are shifting too. When new music sounds this good, who needs Mozart and Brahms?

– TOM HUIZENGA, The Washington Post, Sunday, March 10, 2013

Preview by The Gazette

Friday’s concert will feature three works that it commissioned, including “Double Sextet,” written by American minimalist composer Steve Reich, who won the Pulitzer Prize for music for the piece in 2009.

About 20 minutes long, the three-movement work is played by two identical sextets. The six musicians in eighth blackbird will perform with six graduate student musicians from the University of Maryland School of Music...“The 12 musicians will play without a conductor,” [says eighth blackbird flutist Tim Munro]. “It demands a lot of rhythmic accuracy.”

– VIRGINIA TERHUNE, The Gazette, Monday, March 4, 2013