1st Sunday Music and Movement Jam

Programming category:

March 4, 2012 - 8:00pm - 10:00pm

Once a month the Umbrella Studio fills with a celebration of movement and music! A live soundscape is provided by a local musican. Bring your own instruments to join in after 10pm.

All dance levels and styles are welcome.

This month we have Stephen Katz! Stephen uses live looping electronics to generate dynamic orchestral textures, and has distinguished himself as a composer of tightly composed cello pieces that unfold loop-by-loop.

Lovers of the cello will find a whole new dimension to love in the music of Stephen Katz. He blends the emotional resonance and refinement of classical music with the roots of rhythm and improvisation. One fan said, "Your music seems to come from another world, but I'm so happy it found its way into mine. You are a gem." And a senior audience member said, "I thought I'd been everywhere, but this has taken me places I've never been before!"

If you've never heard Stephen's music, then you are in for an amazing treat. Far beyond what you might think of as "cello" music, it breaches the ethereal and moves into deep mystical experience. - Miles, The Warm Room

Faculty

Stephen Katz

Cellist and award-winning composer Stephen Katz has charted new territory for the rhythmic potential of the cello. The groundbreaking technique he calls Flying Pizzicato picks up where guitar playing leaves off, taking listeners into the realm of highly rhythmic, individual-note, strummed counterpoint. Translation: he composes and performs soulful, solo cello pieces that juggle two or three “voices”, resulting in music that simultaneously lays grooves, weaves tunes, and lifts spirits.

Stephen has premiered his cello compositions at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City, and performed internationally with the Paul Winter Consort, Rachael Sage, and the Essex String Quartet. Other artists include collaboration and performance with Susan Werner. He also uses live looping electronics to generate dynamic orchestral textures, and has distinguished himself as a composer of tightly composed solo cello pieces that unfold loop-by-loop in concert. Stephen is a veteran cello teacher, and has been a regular workshop presenter at the New Directions Cello Festival since it’s inception in 1995.

As an improviser and composer in the Dance world Stephen has collaborated and performed with Andrew Harwood, Chris Aiken, members of Pilobolus and Beverly Blossom dance companies, and has been a Visiting Artist at Amherst College (Massachusetts, USA). As a co-founder of the movement/theater company Seen & Heard with the late dancer and monologist BJ Goodwin, he literally danced with the cello while accompanying the dramas they played out on stage.

As a film composer, Stephen’s score for The Rich Have Their Own Photographers won the Jury Prize Gold Medal for Best Impact of Music in a Documentary at the 2007 Park City Film Music Festival. He also scored Two Square Miles, a film about Hudson, NY, which has been broadcast nationally on PBS/Independent Lens.

A native of San Francisco, Stephen received a Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He lives in Haydenville, Massachusetts with his wife Beth and son Olin.

http://stephenkatzmusic.com/

1st Sunday Music and Movement Jam

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