Fandrich Piano Studio
chamber improvisations for the masses....and the eclipse...
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
DOUBLE YOKO HOUSE PARTY
12/20/10
Fandrich Piano Studio
chamber improvisations for the masses....and the eclipse...
Fandrich Piano Studio
chamber improvisations for the masses....and the eclipse...
MUSIC FOR BLINDFOLDED ENSEMBLE
12/16/10
MCMC Composers Vol. 2
Chapel Performance Space
Musicians featured:
Samantha Boshnack - trumpet
Michele Khazak - voice
BF - clarinet
Michael Owcharuk - piano
Paul Kemmish (PK) - bass
Adam Kozie - drums
(photos by Cat Stulik)
Movement Exercise No. 1
http://monktail.com/mp3/2010.12.16/2010.12.16_15_fleenor.mp3
Movement Exercise No. 2
http://monktail.com/mp3/2010.12.16/2010.12.16_16_fleenor.mp3
MCMC Composers Vol. 2
Chapel Performance Space
Musicians featured:
Samantha Boshnack - trumpet
Michele Khazak - voice
BF - clarinet
Michael Owcharuk - piano
Paul Kemmish (PK) - bass
Adam Kozie - drums
(photos by Cat Stulik)
Movement Exercise No. 1
http://monktail.com/mp3/2010.12.16/2010.12.16_15_fleenor.mp3
Movement Exercise No. 2
http://monktail.com/mp3/2010.12.16/2010.12.16_16_fleenor.mp3
THE BLINDFOLDED PIECES
Rehearsals:
Movement Exercise No. 1 for Blindfolded Ensemble
Movement Exercise No. 2 for Blindfolded Ensemble
I have started a series of compositions called Movement Exercises for Blindfolded Ensemble. (The first one came over the summer in preparation for a concert in July 2010)
The core of the work is about unifying collective energy and moving it throughout an ensemble in real time - building the ability to communicate with each other without overt signaling.....namely, being able to make collective group/musical decisions based solely on energy conduction. Yes, being able to communicate with each other using only sound and energy.
This is something that naturally happens when improvising with a group, but I wanted to try to find a way to practice, and heighten a few particular principles....
There's this magical thing that happens when you're really connecting musically, or when you play with people you connect with personally - you can feel internal/external things moving in the ensemble - the energy. Like if things are building and a soloist is about to break through to be featured, you can feel it happening - or about to happen - the build up. Another example is when everyone collectively feels than an improvisation is done and over and they let it end. Other more subtle motions are happening all the time - like when the band crescendos together, no one is specifically directing this to happen, the composition just asks to move there and the musicians follow suit. There are millions of examples.
The Blindfolded Pieces are set up to provide a form to practice moving energy throughout an ensemble.
By restricting sight, our other senses are heightened and we learn to focus on our connection to each other in new ways. We feel each other and hear each other in new ways. The physicality of the sound is magnified and we begin to communicate more clearly with our intention/energy.
Here's some crappy images of the scores from my phone. (I will scan them and post eventually, once there are more in the collection)
Exercise No. 1
Exercise No. 2
Movement Exercise No. 1 for Blindfolded Ensemble
Movement Exercise No. 2 for Blindfolded Ensemble
I have started a series of compositions called Movement Exercises for Blindfolded Ensemble. (The first one came over the summer in preparation for a concert in July 2010)
The core of the work is about unifying collective energy and moving it throughout an ensemble in real time - building the ability to communicate with each other without overt signaling.....namely, being able to make collective group/musical decisions based solely on energy conduction. Yes, being able to communicate with each other using only sound and energy.
This is something that naturally happens when improvising with a group, but I wanted to try to find a way to practice, and heighten a few particular principles....
There's this magical thing that happens when you're really connecting musically, or when you play with people you connect with personally - you can feel internal/external things moving in the ensemble - the energy. Like if things are building and a soloist is about to break through to be featured, you can feel it happening - or about to happen - the build up. Another example is when everyone collectively feels than an improvisation is done and over and they let it end. Other more subtle motions are happening all the time - like when the band crescendos together, no one is specifically directing this to happen, the composition just asks to move there and the musicians follow suit. There are millions of examples.
The Blindfolded Pieces are set up to provide a form to practice moving energy throughout an ensemble.
By restricting sight, our other senses are heightened and we learn to focus on our connection to each other in new ways. We feel each other and hear each other in new ways. The physicality of the sound is magnified and we begin to communicate more clearly with our intention/energy.
Here's some crappy images of the scores from my phone. (I will scan them and post eventually, once there are more in the collection)
Exercise No. 1
Exercise No. 2
MORE TRUTH
Fear and insecurity make humans do shitty things. It can be quite ugly, and if you look closely it is at the root of most of our issues both individually and internationally. And by the way, if you're not fulfilled by yourself then you aren't truly fulfilled - it's called seeking false validation. ♥
WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL FOUR LETTER WORD
To think that LOVE doesn't change everyday, every single second, is a disservice to its capacity, resilience, and nature.
It cannot be truly defined, confined OR destroyed.
and like my great friend often says - it's a verb.
Love freely and openly and it will multiply and magify.
The world needs this more than anything else.
Please - LOVE.
Open your heart.
It cannot be truly defined, confined OR destroyed.
and like my great friend often says - it's a verb.
Love freely and openly and it will multiply and magify.
The world needs this more than anything else.
Please - LOVE.
Open your heart.
MUSIC FOR THE HUTCH
Music by Kelly Wyse for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
(BF clarinet improvisation at the opening)
(BF clarinet improvisation at the opening)
Monday, December 20, 2010
A NOTE FROM FRANK
On behalf of all of the artists and organizations affiliated with the Frank Agency, THANKS SO MUCH for your support!
For the last six years we have worked diligently to assist in the clarification, articulation, and amplification of as many artistic efforts as possible. Concerts, tours, large scale productions, multimedia works, installations, encounters, festivals, the list goes on and on...and we couldn't have done it without you.
It is our belief that an emphasis on creativity in a culture gives rise to creative solutions to social problems, and in particular, in these difficult times, it is imperative that humans have opportunities to engage with the arts....to engage in aesthetic experiences.
We need opportunities to express, deepen, purge, release and grow...to learn, collaborate, rehabilitate, and innovate...to communicate...to cultivate...to commiserate...to expand.
We need opportunities to connect, and to see and honor our relationship to the world - and we need to have opportunities to understand and embrace ourselves....opportunities to have new ideas.
So the way we see it - the arts are necessary to our existence - the arts are necessary for our survival.
Thanks for continuing to support live music & performance work - and here's to another year!
Cheers,
Frank
For the last six years we have worked diligently to assist in the clarification, articulation, and amplification of as many artistic efforts as possible. Concerts, tours, large scale productions, multimedia works, installations, encounters, festivals, the list goes on and on...and we couldn't have done it without you.
It is our belief that an emphasis on creativity in a culture gives rise to creative solutions to social problems, and in particular, in these difficult times, it is imperative that humans have opportunities to engage with the arts....to engage in aesthetic experiences.
We need opportunities to express, deepen, purge, release and grow...to learn, collaborate, rehabilitate, and innovate...to communicate...to cultivate...to commiserate...to expand.
We need opportunities to connect, and to see and honor our relationship to the world - and we need to have opportunities to understand and embrace ourselves....opportunities to have new ideas.
So the way we see it - the arts are necessary to our existence - the arts are necessary for our survival.
Thanks for continuing to support live music & performance work - and here's to another year!
Cheers,
Frank
FOR YOU 9
In all honesty, I think I might have drowned in myself and my sorrows this year if my mother hadn't been standing by me - helping to keep my head out from being under the water too long. Never before have I felt so much support. It's big things like helping with the rent when the student loan company hijacked my entire savings, or listening to me talk endlessly about my dreams for projects that make little sense to her, and little things like sending me shampoo and toilet paper, which she's been doing EVERY MONTH FOR THE LAST YEAR.
My mother has stood firmly by me ever since my decision to move to Seattle and pursue a life as an artist in 1998. Everything changed for us in 1998.
But what she has done this past year, as I've returned to a life of freelancing that is dedicated to my priority - MUSIC - has been unimaginable....and I cry in awe and thankfulness for her support almost daily.
Making jewelry and monkey cards doesn't begin to say or do enough, but it's what I have to give.
Never underestimate the power of a person's belief in something. And never underestimate the power of being believed in.
My mother has stood firmly by me ever since my decision to move to Seattle and pursue a life as an artist in 1998. Everything changed for us in 1998.
But what she has done this past year, as I've returned to a life of freelancing that is dedicated to my priority - MUSIC - has been unimaginable....and I cry in awe and thankfulness for her support almost daily.
Making jewelry and monkey cards doesn't begin to say or do enough, but it's what I have to give.
Never underestimate the power of a person's belief in something. And never underestimate the power of being believed in.
FOR YOU 8
for my grandmother - a repair of her favorite earrings...and a bunny thrown in for good measure
Saturday, December 18, 2010
SCORES
working on the blindfolded pieces...hopefully eventually there will be a book of movement exercises for blindfolded ensemble, today there are 2 with a third in the works.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
KULE KULE
Jherek Bischoff arrangement of the Konono no. 1 song Kule Kule
(when the video gets pasted into the blog the right side is cut off...there is a bass clarinet there, along with the Jherek)
(when the video gets pasted into the blog the right side is cut off...there is a bass clarinet there, along with the Jherek)
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
TEATRO DE LA PSYCHOMACHIA
This is an incredibly special space and it was an honor to perform "Frozen Hummingbirds" with Vanessa Skantze (butoh) there for the second time.
KULTUR SHOCK TROOPS
P-Honey (aka: Paris Hurley) whipped us into shape for a featured moment on the new KS recording Ministry of Kultur - a stomp chorus for the new revolution!
YOU HAVE TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING
Just voting and not changing your daily life is not addressing our issues...
Think about a doughnut-
you hold it in your hand and say "this is bad for me and its going to negatively impact my body......."
But even though you have voiced that opinion, even though you have that knowledge, if you put it in your mouth it will still impact you - it doesn't lose its effect just because you acknowledged that it was going to have that effect.
The only way to avoid the negative consequences is to put down the doughnut - which is particularly hard since instant gratification tastes so good...
SO PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS
If you have complaints about what is happening to our collective body, our national body, our international body - think about where you're spending your money. If you don't want negative consequences then step away from the corporations that are behind the issues and put your money towards something you support.
a change in funding = change in reality
It's easy to criticize - it's hard to really DO something.
MAKE A CHOICE
Think about a doughnut-
you hold it in your hand and say "this is bad for me and its going to negatively impact my body......."
But even though you have voiced that opinion, even though you have that knowledge, if you put it in your mouth it will still impact you - it doesn't lose its effect just because you acknowledged that it was going to have that effect.
The only way to avoid the negative consequences is to put down the doughnut - which is particularly hard since instant gratification tastes so good...
SO PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS
If you have complaints about what is happening to our collective body, our national body, our international body - think about where you're spending your money. If you don't want negative consequences then step away from the corporations that are behind the issues and put your money towards something you support.
a change in funding = change in reality
It's easy to criticize - it's hard to really DO something.
MAKE A CHOICE
ECONOMY
What about the economy of humanity - the economy of the soul.
Whose out there fighting to push through initiatives on behalf of that?
Whose out there fighting to push through initiatives on behalf of that?
UNITY = SURVIVAL
There's something gravely wrong with a world that doesn't recognize and honor its unity.
stop and look - all this fighting, chatter, and money money money, where does it lead to? Is there a destination?
We have to acknowledge our necessary connection to each other, and our necessary connection to our planet.
It is very simple. This is what survival is about.
stop and look - all this fighting, chatter, and money money money, where does it lead to? Is there a destination?
We have to acknowledge our necessary connection to each other, and our necessary connection to our planet.
It is very simple. This is what survival is about.
OWCHARUK 5 MEMORIES
NYC September 2010 - with special guest Elsa Nilsson (flute)
Bar 4 - Brooklyn
Kobzar CD Release April 2010
Tula's - Seattle
Rehearsal April 2010
Bar 4 - Brooklyn
Kobzar CD Release April 2010
Tula's - Seattle
OWCHARUK 5 from the archiver on Vimeo.
Rehearsal April 2010
BF/FRANK BRAIN STATION
processes processing experiences
processes processing experiences
....a guided tour of the BF/Frank Brain Station....
processes processing experiences
....a guided tour of the BF/Frank Brain Station....
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
THE NEWS TODAY
AESTHETIC vs. ANESTHETIC
AESTHETIC
–adjective
pertaining to, involving, or concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality
ANESTHETIC
–adjective
pertaining to or causing physical insensibility
(collaboration is the stuff of growth)
AESTHETIC
–adjective
pertaining to, involving, or concerned with pure emotion and sensation as opposed to pure intellectuality
ANESTHETIC
–adjective
pertaining to or causing physical insensibility
(collaboration is the stuff of growth)
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
REMINDER
keep your mind open and you will be filled with new ideas
keep your heart open and you will be filled with love
keep your heart open and you will be filled with love
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