03/06 @ 8:00pm - till by turning + folds ensemble

Till by Turning is the collective effort of Amy Cimini, Erica Dicker, Emily ManzoSarah Biber, and Katherine Young.

Working as performers, educators, improvisers, scholars, composers, and song-writers — Till by Turning performs new chamber music by established and emerging artists and develops creative educational programs.

“There’s an old Shaker dance number, written in 1848 by Elder Joseph Brackett, that likely serves as inspiration for…Till by Turning. It’s called “Simple Gifts,” and what it describes is a kind of serendipitous joy in movement through time and space: “When true simplicity is gain’d / To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d / To turn, turn will be our delight / Till by turning, turning we come round right.”

The group belongs to a new generation of adventurous musicians bringing contemporary music to clubland….the players dip into the modern canon…and give breath to new works by their peers.” – Steve Dollar, Time Out Chicago

The members of Till by Turning met while studying instrumental performance at Oberlin Conservatory. Inspired in part by a unique instrumentation (violin, viola, cello, bassoon, and piano), our first concert was a program of Sofia Gubaidulina’s music.

Since then, we have commissioned and premiered music by Jessica Pavone, Aaron Siegel, Sabrina Schroeder, Alex Ness, and Katherine Young. Our repertoire also includes pieces by Morton Feldman, Olivier Messiaen, Harold Meltzer, James Tenney, and Christian Wolff. Our dedication to challenging and experimental new music goes hand in hand with our commitment to educational programs.

Jason Brogan (director), Michael Hanf (performance), Nathan Koci (horn), David Linaburg (electric guitar), Dave Ruder (clarinet) and Sam Sfirri (piano)

“A fold is always folded within a fold, like a cavern in a cavern. The unit of matter, the smallest element of the labyrinth, is the fold, not the point which is never a part, but a simple extremity of the line.” (4)

“[E]very contour is blurred to give definition to the formal powers of the raw material, which rise to the surface and are put forward as so many detours and supplementary folds.” (17)

Gilles Deleuze, The Fold

folds ensemble:
experimental music and performance

Jason Brogan, electric guitar (director)
Kieran Daly, laptop/activities
Sam Sfirri, piano/melodica