January 12, 2012
8PM at Roulette, in Downtown Brooklyn!
509 Atlantic Ave (corner of Atlantic and 3rd Ave)
A night of engaging performances from The Canadian saxophone quartet Quasar and New York violinist/composer Jason Kao Hwang. Canada’s Quasar saxophone quartet makes their New York debut, performing two works by Canadian composers Jean-François Laporte (who custom-built unique woodwind instruments for Quasar’s performance) and Luc Marcel, along with Iannis Xenakis’ Xas, and Within Moments, by New York’s tireless and innovative violinist/composer Jason Kao Hwang. Hwang’s own group Local Lingo (w/ Sang Won Park, William Parker, Thomas Buckner, & Joe McPhee) presents Voices of Our Own, featuring the poetry of Lester Afflick, Fay Chiang, Steve Dalachinsky, Patricia Spears Jones and Yuko Otomo.
Ardent devotees of the music of our time, the Quasar saxophone quartet (Marie-Chantal Leclair, artistic director, soprano saxophone; Mathieu Leclair, alto saxophone; André Leroux, tenor saxophone; Jean-Marc Bouchard, baritone saxophone) is dedicated to premiering and promoting contemporary music that is multi-dimensionally conceived. Celebrated for its energy, audacity and exceptional technical ability, Quasar explores different aspects of artistic creation from instrumental music to live electronics, from improvisation to instrumental theatre. The quartet reserved pride of place for a number of Canadian composers, with whom it has formed solid partnerships. At the same time, Quasar constantly seeks out new works on the international scene. The quartet has played throughout Canada and has also toured in several European countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Spain, France, Estonia, and Lituania.
Jason Kao Hwang (composer, violin/ viola) has created works ranging from jazz, classical, “new” and world music. Stories Before Within (2008, Innova) featuring his jazz quartet EDGE, was chosen as one of the Top Ten CDs of 2008 by Coda Magazine. Mr. Hwang’s chamber opera, The Floating Box, A Story in Chinatown (New World Records), presented by the Asia Society in 2001, was named one of the “Top Ten Opera Recordings of 2005” by Opera News. Commitment, The Complete Recordings, 1981-1983, from a collective quartet that was Mr. Hwang’s first band, was voted as “2010 Reissued Recording of the Year” by All About Jazz / New York. His octet Burning Bridge, commissioned by Chamber Music America / New Jazz Works, recently premiered at the Chicago World Music Festival.Mr. Hwang has also received support from US Artists International, the American Music Center, Meet the Composer/New Residencies, the National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and others. Spontaneous River, Mr. Hwang’s orchestra of string improvisers, performed in Vision Festival XIV and will release the recording of Symphony of Souls in early 2011. As violinist, Mr. Hwang has worked with Reggie Workman, William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Vladamir Tarasov, Henry Threadgill and many others.
