August 24, 2024
7:30pm MDT
Leon Gallery, Denver, CO
$20 Tickets

Interesting sounds in interesting spaces.

The Playground and Leon Gallery present an annual evening of experimental and improvised electronic music created and performed by Playground Ensemble composers including David Farrell, Stacey Fahrion, Conrad Kehn, Loretta Notareschi, and Ryan Fiegl. Works will feature interactive electronics, manipulated voice, guitar, and a piece for Lumatone (Google it!).

Doors open at 7pm.

See also: video footage from last year’s Unchambered performance.

Program

smear by David Farrell

smear is a noisy work for solo electronics, programmed in Ableton Live and Max/MSP and controlled via tablet. Various beats and patterns are manipulated in time throughout the work; the results are sometimes harmonious but more often cacophonous.

How All's to One Thing Wrought! by Loretta Notareschi

“How All’s to One Thing Wrought! is an improvisational piece played on a virtual instrument I designed for laptop and MIDI controller using the software Max. The title, drawn from the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem “On a Piece of Music,” refers to my wonder at what Unitarian Universalists refer to as the ‘interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.’ The piece presents this notion of oneness or interrelationship through its reliance on one sample (of a low C played on a cello), explored electronically in many different forms.” — LKN

Brutalist Metamorphosis by Ryan Fiegl

Brutalist Metamorphosis is based on the movement in architecture from the middle of the 20th Century that leaves structural elements exposed. This piece uses sound elements that are manipulated to create a sense of physical texture. Over time these sounds shift and metamorphose into something new. 

Cryptic Digital Diaries by Conrad Kehn

Cryptic Digital Diary is a narrative work using the live human voice, that is equal parts found audio objects, spoken word, a church choir, a pagan street preacher, a fetus, and robots.

Ghost Dance by Stacy Fahrion

Ghost Dance (6 min.) was written by Stacy Fahrion in 2023 for Lumatone in 11-limit just intonation, and is on their upcoming Alien Dreamscapes album. The Lumatone is an isomorphic keyboard with 280 hexagonal keys that can be programmed with any tuning and color scheme you like. The tuning Stacy created for this piece uses whole-number ratios up to the 11th harmonic, and contains 31 (beautifully unequal) divisions per octave. Since the performer can play the lower 7-limit minor 3rd, the higher 5-limit minor 3rd, or the neutral 11-limit 3rd, this opens up a universe of possibilities when it comes to creating melodies and harmonies. Ghost Dance begins with dyads that show some of these unique possibilities, transitions to a section featuring a 4:7 polyrhythm, and ends with a polymetric section with some ideas inspired by Carnatic rhythm. In the most rhythmically complex section of the piece the right hand is grouped in sevens whereas the left hand is grouped in sixes, leading to a section where one note is subtracted from each grouping on each repetition of the phrase. 

Composers Bios

Stacy Fahrion

Stacy Fahrion (she/they) is a composer, pianist, Lumatonian, and educator who encourages everyone to compose. Stacy’s piano music, including books such as Polyrhythms for Pianists, Lullabies for Arachnophobes, and These Are Odd Times, is published by Piano Pronto Publishing. 

Most of Stacy's recent work is in tunings that she created. Their music is often inspired by Carnatic rhythm, and by studying ragas with Michael Harrison. Stacy recently created a series of YouTube tutorials on improvisation and polyrhythms for pianists, and is releasing Alien Dreamscapes, an album of piano and Lumatone pieces in just intonation, this year. Stacy can be found on the Interwebs as Whimsically Macabre Music.

David Farrell

David E. Farrell (b. 1982) is a composer based in Denver, CO. David’s music has been performed by ensembles across the United States, including the Perrysburg Symphony Orchestra, North/South Chamber Orchestra, The Playground Ensemble, the Sam Houston State University Percussion Group, the University of Iowa Center for New Music Ensemble, and the University of Illinois Chamber Orchestra as winner of the University of Illinois Orchestra Composition Competition. His works have been featured at the SCI National Conference, The Electroacoustic Barn Dance, DomeFest West, The Playground Ensemble’s Colorado Composers Concert, Sam Houston State University Contemporary Music Festival, the Midwest Composers Symposium, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chamber Music Institute, and the University of Cincinnati’s Music07 Festival. His music can also be heard on Meerenai Shim’s album The Art of Noise, The Playground Ensemble’s 8-Bit X-Mas, and Patricia Surman’s New American, Vol. 1.

David studied at the University of Illinois and at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he earned a D.M. in Composition. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Metropolitan State University of Denver and a longtime part of The Playground Ensemble.

Ryan Fiegl

Ryan Fiegl is a guitarist, composer, arranger, and educator from and currently based in Denver. 

His music is rooted in immersive sound design to create environments and affects that are often intense and abrasive with contrasting sparse minimalistic textures and sublime soundscapes. Current work explores disquieting themes paired with audiovisuals that invite the listener/viewer to interpret their own narrative from imagery and sound.

Ryan is an active member of The Playground Ensemble as a composer, performer, and an educator. He is a collaborator with the immersive theater and dance collective Control Group Productions, regularly works with longtime friend and mentor William Hill, and has played in a number of rock and jazz centric groups in Denver.

Ryan currently serves as faculty at The University of Denver, Regis University, and The Community College of Denver and was formally educated at Metro State University and The University of Denver in guitar performance and composition.

Conrad Kehn

Conrad Kehn is a composer, performer, educator, and an arts administrator. He is the founding Director of The Playground Ensemble.

An award-winning composer, Conrad’s output includes traditional and contemporary chamber music, experimental and multi-media works, and popular music.

As a vocalist, Conrad specializes in electronic music, improvisation, and contemporary chamber music. He gigs regularly with a quasi-improvised Ableton set that combines digitally manipulated live vocals and found content from older media formats. He participates regularly in low latency networked music performances, a process allowing performers in different locations to make music as if they are in the same room.

More info can be found at: conradkehn.com

Loretta Notareschi

Called a “bright wom[a]n with big ideas” (Souls in Action), Colorado-based composer Loretta K. Notareschi (b. 1977) seeks to create “compassion” (303 Magazine) and connection through her “powerful” (The Denver Post) and “deeply personal” (5280 Magazine) music. Whether writing for string quartet or symphony orchestra, church congregations or classical ukulele, she seeks to “connec[t] with the audience” (303 Magazine) and move listeners with music of meaning. Born in Canton, Ohio and raised in Stillwater, Oklahoma, Notareschi is a professor of music at Regis University and a summer faculty member of The Walden School Creative Musicians Retreat. She holds a PhD in music composition from the University of California at Berkeley. Her music has been performed around the United States, in Europe, South America, and Australia.