October 20, 2021
EPISODE DESCRIPTION:
Laura Barger from Yarn/Wire joins the Soundweavers team to chat about what it really means to proceed without a plan, auditioning and integrating new members, and the usefulness of the recording process for musicians. We discuss their collaborative project Be Holding with the poet Ross Gay, composer Tyshawn Sorey, and director Brooke O'Harra, and the first- to twelfth-grade students of Girard College. Laura shares about the ensemble's web series Feedback, in which they focus on the process of making new music. And, we speak about the Yarn/Wire International Institute, a tuition-free program serving both performers and composers.
Laura Barger from Yarn/Wire joins the Soundweavers team to chat about what it really means to proceed without a plan, auditioning and integrating new members, and the usefulness of the recording process for musicians. We discuss their collaborative project Be Holding with the poet Ross Gay, composer Tyshawn Sorey, and director Brooke O'Harra, and the first- to twelfth-grade students of Girard College. Laura shares about the ensemble's web series Feedback, in which they focus on the process of making new music. And, we speak about the Yarn/Wire International Institute, a tuition-free program serving both performers and composers.
ABOUT:
Yarn/Wire is a New York-based percussion and piano quartet (Sae Hashimoto and Russell Greenberg, percussion; Laura Barger and Ning Yu, pianos) dedicated to the promotion of creative, experimental new music. Pianist Julia Den Boer will join as guest artist for the 2021-2022 season. Described by The Brooklyn Rail as “fascinating and exciting, with playing that is precise and full of purpose,” the ensemble is admired globally for the energy and precision it brings to performances of today’s most adventurous compositions. Founded in 2005, the ensemble seeks to expand the representation of composers so that it might begin to better reflect our communities and experience new creative potential.
Yarn/Wire appears internationally at prominent festivals and venues including the Lincoln Center Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall, Rainy Days Festival (Luxembourg), Ultima Festival (Norway), Transit Festival (Belgium), Dublin SoundLab, Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Contempuls Festival (Prague), Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York’s Miller Theatre at Columbia University, River-to-River Festival, La MaMa Theatre, Festival of New American Music, and London’s Barbican Centre. Their numerous commissions include works from composers such as Enno Poppe, Michael Gordon, George Lewis, Ann Cleare, Peter Evans, Alex Mincek, Thomas Meadowcroft, Misato Mochizuki, Sam Pluta, Tyondai Braxton, and Kate Soper. The ensemble enjoys collaborations with genre-bending artists such as Tristan Perich, Ben Vida, Mark Fell, and Sufjan Stevens.
Through the Yarn/Wire International Institute and Festival and other educational residencies and outreach programs, Yarn/Wire works to promote not only the present but also the future of new music in the United States. Their ongoing commissioning series, Yarn/Wire/Currents, serves as an incubator for new experimental music.
LISTEN & LEARN:
Full Episode on Anchor
Transcript