Our Expanding Sound Universe

We are SO EXCITED about our upcoming events in 2023-24 and cannot wait to share some outrageous talent and extraordinary music with you! It will be our 29th year doing what we do and bringing it to you – and the best ever!!!

Our Expanding Sound Universe is the concept for our new cycle of live concerts, launching on Labor Day, Monday, September 4th with the great Paul Winter Consort. Seven superb ensembles – a total of 35 artists – will perform in a broad range of music periods, genres, and instrumental sonorities; spanning from ancient Asian folk music and the earliest roots of Western music in the medieval period, right up to the present moment with “fresh ink” contemporary compositions and in-the-moment jazz and new-age improvisations.  

The music encompasses Asian Folk, Western Classical, Global Roots, Jazz, Rock, and Electronic; and features the classical Asian instruments koto, erhu, shamisen, saenghwang; medieval instruments vielle, psaltery, wooden flute, Celtic harp; and electronic instruments theremin and Haken Continuum; as well as the wilderness voices of Wolf, Whale, and Wood Thrush (recorded). There will also be, of course, a complete array of typical Western instruments with bowed strings, plucked strings, winds, piano, a wide variety of percussion, as well as human voices.

top: Paul Winter, ARKAI, Rob Schwimmer
center: Alan Blackman Jazz, INTERWOVEN
bottom: Alexander String Quartet, Ensemble Scholastica

Embedded in the overarching theme of Our Expanding Sound Universe is another theme: Music in Service to a Cause. Environmental and climate concerns are central to Paul Winter’s This Glorious Earth and Alan Blackman’s Coastal Suite programs. Issues of race, diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to the missions of ensembles INTERWOVEN and ARKAI, both of whom are Asian and actively using their music as a tool for cultural diplomacy domestically and abroad.  Ensemble Scholastica has embraced feminism, making its mission to discover and promote overlooked women composers of the medieval period through scholarship and performance. Several of the ensembles will be in residence with us to perform a variety of community outreach events: concerts in a senior residence, performances and workshops in schools, pre-concert talks, and pop-up concerts in a public space.

Calendar at a Glance:

Paul Winter Consort: Labor Day, Monday, September 4 at 3:00 pm at Weatherwatch Farm

Alexander String Quartet: Sunday, October 15 at 3:00 pm at the Saranac Methodist Church

INTERWOVEN: Sunday, November 12 at 3:00 pm at the Saranac Methodist Church

ARKAI: Sunday, January 28 at 3:00 pm at the Saranac Fire Hall

Rob Schwimmer: Sunday, March 10 at 3:00 pm at the Saranac Methodist Church

Ensemble Scholastica: Sunday, April 14 at 3:00 pm at the Redford Church of the Assumption

Alan Blackman Jazz Quintet: Sunday, May 19 at 3:00 pm at the Saranac Methodist Church

Please visit our Calendar page for more information about the artists and ensembles on our 2023-24 concert season and how their music illustrates the concepts of Our Expanding Sound Universe and Music in Service to a Cause from their unique perspectives.

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