It’s not often that college students get to perform on stage with an award-winning sextet, but the members of Rowan University’s Wind Ensemble are getting that opportunity.  They will be performing with Eighth Blackbird, a four-time Grammy winner for Best Small Ensemble/Chamber Music Performance, on Friday, April 29, 2022 at 8:00 pm in Rowan’s Pfleeger Concert Hall.

The evening will include performances of contemporary works by Pauline Oliveros, Andy Akiho, Julia Wolfe, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and Viet Cuong - including “Vital Sines,” a piece that made its debut on April 9th in a performance of Eighth Blackbird with the United States Naval Band. 

Performing contemporary works is the mission behind Eighth Blackbird, a dynamic, contemporary ensemble that has redefined the chamber music genre into something completely different.  The ensemble began in 1996 as a group of six Oberlin Conservatory of Music students and is still led by founding members Lisa Kaplan (Executive Director) and Matthew Duvall (Artistic Director).  From the very beginning, championing new works was the emphasis.

“Looking back, I’m not sure why it’s something we had the foresight to do,” said Matthew Duvall. “Early on when we sometimes talked to presenters they would say, ‘This is really great. We want to present some music on our series that is modern and cutting-edge, but, for our audience, can you play one thing that’s more traditional like a Brahms trio or something?’”

Duvall said the ensemble would decline such offers. He explained that while they love traditional classical music, they were concerned about the amount of rehearsal time that would be needed for a piece that was not going to be part of their standard repertoire. More importantly, Eighth Blackbird saw potential confusion in mostly performing new works with the occasional composition from the traditional canon.  The members were in agreement that performing new works was the ensemble’s brand.

“We declined some of those gigs, which was a very hard decision in the beginning,” added Duvall.  “But, in hindsight, I’m very glad we held our position on that.”

Over the decades, Eighth Blackbird has commissioned and premiered hundreds of works by established and emerging composers, including Steve Reich’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Double Sextet and works by Andy Akiho, Bryce Dessner, Michael Gordon, Jennifer Higdon, Amy Beth Kirsten, David Lang, David T. Little, Nico Muhly, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Julia Wolfe, and Pamela Z.

Performing new works was a major part of Eighth Blackbird’s identity, but touring and performing the new works around the country made them unique.

When asked to describe what makes a piece modern contemporary classical music, Duvall laughs. “It’s more confusing now than it’s ever been! For us, we define classical chamber music as an unconducted ensemble. We play primarily composed music, meaning that it is not improvised.  For the most part, our art is prescribed - it’s written down in advance and we are interpreters of those compositions.  But it’s getting rougher and rougher to distinguish between classical music and other forms.”

Debbie Shapiro is the Director of Community Engagement and Presenting for the College of Performing Arts at Rowan University. She curates the Marie Rader Presenting Series at Rowan University, which closes out its season with Eighth Blackbird.

“We’ve been working with them from before the pandemic to now,” explained Shapiro. “The way presenting works is you start a conversation and usually a year later the artists appear on your stage.  Because of the disruption of the pandemic, we started this relationship more than a year ago and were able to have some virtual engagement with them.”

In November 2020, Eighth Blackbird had two virtual engagements with Rowan University. They listened to some of the Rowan students play in the form of a public Master Class and Eighth Blackbird musicians gave feedback to the students.  They also Zoomed in from their home studio in Chicago to present a lecture demonstration and answer questions from the audience.

 Shapiro believes the mission of Eighth Blackbird is incredibly important.  “We know that orchestras around the country are grappling with how their audiences are aging,” she noted.  “What does that mean for the next couple of decades? How do we maintain relevancy and connection with younger generations? We know that we’ve got creatives, artists, and musicians in every generation, but how do we keep them connected to these classical art forms? I think the key is working with living composers; new ways of building on fundamentals of working with these types of instruments; and within the context of understanding, listening, and appreciating music of this format while making it new and relevant today.”

And on April 29th, Rowan students will be performing new works alongside Eighth Blackbird. It’s something both parties are looking forward to.

“Collaborating with a Wind Ensemble or a band is very new to us,” admitted Duvall.  “It’s something I wish we had started doing many years ago… We’re thrilled to be out on the road playing again and we’re thrilled to come and play for the Wind Ensemble.  For us, the focus is really on the students in the Wind Ensemble.  We feel like we’re playing for them in the first half.”

“The initial request was for us to come and do a concert and include the Wind Ensemble in the concert,” continued Duvall.  “But when you come in and are on stage with a bunch of students, there are opportunities and potential to do more interesting things.  So we proposed a second half with the students rather than just one piece.  There are three pieces we will be playing with the students.  In essence, we are their collaborators for the second half. When people see the second half and what kind of creative and interesting things they’ve decided to do, it’s going to be very rewarding.”

Rowan University invites each touring artist to go beyond performances and build some sort of residency / outreach / engagement activities, but few go as far as Eighth Blackbird has gone.

“Here we are in Spring 2022 and Eighth Blackbird will finally be coming to Glassboro,” said Shapiro.  “They’re going to work with some Rowan students over the course of a day or two.  They’re going to be working on some pieces to perform with our Wind Ensemble. One piece, in particular, is brand new.  It was commissioned by a world-renowned composer, Viet Cuong, and was commissioned by the United States Navy Band to be performed with Eighth Blackbird.  They just premiered it with the Navy Band and our students are going to play the parts that the Navy Band played.  It’s very special for everybody involved.”

Eighth Blackbird performs at Rowan University (Pfleeger Concert Hall) in Glassboro, New Jersey on Friday, April 29, 2022 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are available for purchase online. General admission tickets are $20 with $15 tickets available for seniors (60+), Rowan alumni or employees, non-Rowan students, military members, and those 12 and under.

The Program:

Eighth Blackbird

Andy Akiho: erase (2011)

Viet Cuong: Electric Aroma (2017)

Jonathan Bailey Holland: The Clarity of Cold Air (2013)

Julia Wolfe: Singing in the Dead of Night (2010)

Intermission

Eighth Blackbird w/ Rowan University Wind Ensemble

Pauline Oliveros: Tuning Meditation (1974)

Viet Cuong: Vital Sines (2021)

Andy Akiho: Karakurenai (2013)

TOP PHOTOS: Eighth Blackbird performs at University Club of Chicago. Photos by Aaron Sepsey