IonSound composer warns audience about zombies

The IonSound Project performance on Saturday night featured an investigation of the triangular… The IonSound Project performance on Saturday night featured an investigation of the triangular cosmos and a public service announcement warning of the imminent threat of zombies, in addition to a presentation on the interworkings of Kafka.

The investigations came in the form of music created by Christian Kriegeskotte, Gracie Sutherland and Nathan Currier for their final of three concerts in the 2010-11 season.

The project is a small collaboration of young musicians who attempt to provide the community with concerts showcasing innovative genres of music. Officially appointed in 2008 as the ensemble-in-residence of the music department at Pitt, the collective has since presented more than 80 works from modern composers.

The three composers selected this time each had a theme throughout their works.

The group playing these compositions is comprised of six members: flutist Peggy Yoo, clarinet and bass clarinet player Kathleen Costello, violinist Laura Motchalov, cellist Elisa Kohanski, pianist/vocalist Rob Frankenberry and percussionist Eliseo Rael.

When the lights went up on stage at 8:05 p.m. in the Bellefield Auditorium, about 40 people were in attendance, mostly adult members of the community. In addition to hearing the music of promised composers, concert attendees witnessed the presentation of Pitt’s Graduate Student Composer Audience Choice Award to its 2011 recipient, Jeremy Woodruff.

The featured composers produced their pieces specifically for the IonSound Project to perform in its seasonal concert series.

“The format is a little bit unusual,” Frankenberry said as he introduced the first piece. Frankenberry served as the makeshift narrator of the concert.

Woodruff’s piece, titled “First Element,” was inspired by Indian folk music and featured clips of that style of music throughout its movements. The song consisted soley of piano and flute. Frankenberry and Yoo performed mostly solo features throughout the song, only playing together when the Indian folk clips played in the background.

After the first piece ended, the other four members of the project entered the stage, and Frankenberry took the mic to introduce the first featured composer — Kriegeskotte, a Carnegie Mellon graduate. The piece Kriegeskotte created for the IonSound Project is called “Triangulum,” in reference to the small constellation in the Northern sky named for its triangular shape.

“I have this notion that the universe is held by music,” Kriegeskotte said. “So this is a series that has no narrative content.”

The work is intended to “remove the listener from the relative security of the inner Universe to the cold outer edge of the visible cosmos,” Kriegeskotte wrote in his notes provided in the event’s program.

After the performance of “Triangulum,” Frankenberry called Duquesne graduate Gracie Sutherland, the second feature composer, to the stage to introduce her piece “Overture to a Zombie Apocalypse.” Sutherland is new to the composing world, but at 23 she has already produced several musical pieces. In her introduction, she called her three-movement work a sort of public service announcement explaining the potential dangers of a zombie takeover.

“You should really be afraid of zombies,” Sutherland said in introducing her piece.

Like a zombie-comedy, the tone of the songs went from low tones that sounded very dark to upbeat, lighter rhythms.

“I focus on rhythm and chromatic harmony,” she said.

The final composer, Juilliard graduate Nathan Currier, presented a musically complex narrative piece that parodied Bach’s “Coffee Cantata.” The story he tells is one of a young girl reading Kafka and her disapproving father’s reaction.

The piece contained 12 different movements, alternating between dramatic readings and music. Currier, who was not present for the performance, provided a detailed explanation of his story in the program. The piece became a theatrical performance as Frankenberry added dramatic vocals and facial expressions.

“It’s pretty dense,” said audience member Elliot Beck, in his first year of a performance residency fellowship at Carnegie Mellon. “It was a piece that you needed focus and understanding of the writing. You couldn’t just get an impression from one listening.”

The concert also featured two guest artists, viola player Jonathan Moser, a Pittsburgh freelancer, and pianist Jack Kurutz, a recitalist and chamber musician.

The ending of the piece brought all of the musicians together and concluded with a triumphant tone, having been through constellations, zombie attacks and a parody of Kafka.

More information on the IonSound Project can be found ionsound.org or on the IonSound Facebook page.