Brett Carson John Schott + CECILIA ENGELHART + ELLEN WEBB
John Schott's project with dancer ELLEN WEBB and vocalist CECILIA ENGELHART. "It’s improv-y, but with structures and some compositions too. It’s intimate."
Pianist and composer
Brett Carson plays a set of piano music spanning the 1920’s to the present. The program begins with two of the most significant compositions of Anton Webern: the short and sweet
Kinderstück (1924), which is the first work he composed using the twelve-tone method, and the
Variations for piano, Op. 27 (1936) a piece that had a significant impact on the composers of the Darmstadt school in the 50s. Also featured is Nicole Mitchell’s
Interdimensional Interplay (2016) for live piano with prerecorded flute and with video, which presents a kind of virtual duet between the soloist and Mitchell’s flute. Finally, there are two premieres: Bay Area composer and drummer Jason Levis’s
composition portrait of explanations, or not (2023 Revision) is presented in a new revision for improvising pianist, and
Brett Carson presents a new piece for piano and Gameboy.
P R O G R A M
Anton Webern – Kinderstück (1924)
Anton Webern – Variations for piano, Op. 27 (1936)
I. Sehr mäßig
II. Sehr schnell
III. Ruhig fließend
Jason Levis – portrait of explanations, or not, for improvising pianist (2023) [Premiere]
Nicole Mitchell – Interdimensional Interplay, for solo piano and prerecorded flute (2016)
Brett Carson – New piece in two movements, for piano and Gameboy (2023) [Premiere]
Brett Carson is a composer, pianist, improviser, poet, and theater artist based in Oakland. His compositional work, which has been described as "fascinatingly intense" (Stephen Smoliar, SF Classical Voice), explores the juxtaposition of a gleefully chaotic plurality of musical approaches. This is combined with a penchant for surreal world-building and an exploration of the bizarre and uncanny, along with a commitment to writing for the voice and the stage. Notable compositional projects include his song cycle “Mysterious Descent”, a one-act play “Mary's Dilemma, or That Sinking Feeling”, and an experimental chamber opera “Just Visiting (X-Ray Vision)”. His latest song cycle, “The Secret Life of the Paramecium”, premiered in the Bay Area as part of the Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency to sold out audiences in September, 2022.
In addition to his compositional work, he is active as a pianist, keyboardist, and synthesist, performing internationally in the realms of free improvisation, contemporary classical music, jazz, and rock. Performance venues and festivals include the Chicago Jazz Festival, Sons d'hiver, Roulette, the Barbican, the Kennedy Center, the Broad (LA), the Yerba Buena Arts Center, Auditorium Parco della Musica (Rome), and SESC Pompeia (São Paulo). He has worked closely with a wide variety of composers/performers including Bill Baird, Brian Baumbusch, Nicolas Collins, George Lewis, Nicole Mitchell, Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Noertker, Zeena Parkins, Rent Romus, and William Winant. From 2019-20, he performed as the pianist for the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
Cost: $10-$25 sliding scale