Tell Me a Bedtime Story, ABRAXAS
Bay Area composer Brett Carson presents a new experimental multimedia chamber opera entitled "Tell Me a Bedtime Story, ABRAXAS" in world premiere performances at the Dresher Ensemble Studio on July 27-28. The piece will feature mezzo-soprano Melinda Becker and baritone Daniel Cilli, alongside New Music stalwarts Friction Quartet and multifaceted drummer Jordan Glenn. Video by Portland-based video artist Jayden Becker.
The abstract, dream-like narrative follows the central protagonist, "The Amphibian", through a series of vignettes exploring the double-life of amphibians as beings existing both on land and in the water. This is juxtaposed with an exploration of Christian and Gnostic mythologies, culminating in a revelation of the transcendent Gnostic deity Abraxas, a being beyond logic and duality. Carson's musical language narrating this excursion is highly eclectic - drawing on contemporary classical music, rock music, free improvisation, and experimental electronic music - and will be performed by some of the Bay Area's brightest stars in the realm of new music. Leading this ensemble are trailblazing vocalists Daniel Cilli and Melinda Martinez Becker, followed by the tireless new music aficionados the Friction Quartet and versatile drummer/percussionist Jordan Glenn. In addition to composing the music and libretto, Carson also serves as the director and production designer, and Portland-based artist Jayden Becker contributes an immersive video component.
“Tell Me a Bedtime Story, ABRAXAS” is a project of New Performance Traditions, and is made possible through generous support from the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.
Artist Bios:
Brett Carson is a composer, pianist, improviser, poet, and theater artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. 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 projects include the song cycle Mysterious Descent (2017) which was partially written in an invented language "Kôktimo", Just Visiting (X-Ray Vision) (2018), a post-apocalyptic chamber opera, and The Killing Jar (2021) a dystopian meditation on the COVID-19 pandemic. His recent project, The Secret Life of the Paramecium, is a theatrical song cycle navigating a series of 22 microbiological vignettes based on the Major Arcana of the Tarot. It premiered as part of the Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency to sold out audiences in September, 2022.
In addition to his compositional work, he enjoys a career as a pianist, keyboardist, and synthesist, having performed internationally in the realms of free improvisation, contemporary classical music, jazz, and rock. Performing venues and festivals include the Chicago Jazz Festival, Sons d'hiver, Roulette, the Barbican, the Kennedy Center, the Broad (LA), and SESC Pompeia (Brazil). He has worked with a wide variety of composers/performers including Bill Baird, Brian Baumbusch, Nicolas Collins, Sidney Corbett, Vinny Golia, 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 legendary jazz unit the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
https://www.brettcarsonmusic.com
Jayden Becker (they/them) is a trans and queer multi media visual artist, photographer, videographer, editor, and graphic designer based in Portland, Oregon. Their work primarily explores the dynamic interplay between moving images and the emotions they evoke. Through their video art, they delve into alternative perspectives, pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling.
Their creative process is a collaboration between their mind's eye and the subjects or themes they explore. With a focus on style, light, and color, they strive to evoke raw emotion and playfulness, capturing the authentic and creative essence that lies within all of us. Their videos aim to challenge conventional narratives, offering viewers a glimpse into the fluid and multifaceted nature of identity and expression.
https://www.jaydenbecker.com/
Performer Bios
Melinda Becker’s New Mexican and Jewish heritage has shaped her career as a performer of art song in Spanish, Ladino, Yiddish and a variety of other languages. As a soloist and chamber musician, she is recognized for her expressive interpretations of diverse repertoire, from mariachi to baroque, to new and experimental music.
Melinda’s collaborations with emerging new music composers and ensembles include projects with Nicolas Lell Benavides, Friction Quartet, Brian Baumbusch and the Lightbulb Ensemble, Emily Koh, the Musical Art Quintet, and as a soloist with the Classical Revolution Orchestra and the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra. She is dedicated to performing, championing, and the education of music by women and other underrepresented groups. She recently joined forces with Friction Quartet to record Canto Caló, an album of music by Nicolas Lell Benavides, on Innova Recordings.
Melinda earned her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Catherine Cook. Through Project Canción Española at the Escuela Superior de Canto in Madrid, and Música en Compostela in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, she studied Spanish chamber music and art song, as well as pursuing postgraduate studies at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg in France. Melinda teaches private vocal lessons in San Francisco.
https://www.melindabecker.com
Baritone Daniel Cilli has performed an array of new and standard works throughout the bay area and the United States. Daniel debuted in 2016 at the San Francisco Opera and has returned for multiple engagements. During 2023-24 season he performed regularly with Opera Parallèle in Vinkensport by David T. Little & Royce Vavrek, the premiere of Balls by Laura Karpman & Gail Collins, and Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears & Gregory Pierce; and with the SF Contemporary Music Players + Volti in the premiere of Richard Festinger's Cantata- Worlds Apart.
Some highlight projects elsewhere include: Pa Zegner in Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek (Pasadena Opera); Burton in Sharaku Unframed-premiere by Hiroya Miura (Left Coast Chamber Ensemble); Captain Ladoux in Mata Hari by Matt Marks and Paul Peers (West Edge Opera); the title role in Sweeney Todd; Cervantes/Quixote in Man of La Mancha, Javert in Les Miserables; and he has made special appearances with the wrestlers of Oakland’s Hoodslam. Daniel was a principal artist 2006-2010 at Opera San José where he performed 15 title and leading roles. He has also performed with Earplay Ensemble, ; West Bay, Livermore, Utah, Des Moines Metro, Utah Festival, Central City opera companies; the Houston Grand Opera Studio, the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals.
https://www.danielcilli.com/
Friction Quartet, lauded for performances described as "terribly beautiful" (San Francisco Classical Voice), "stunningly passionate" (Calgary Herald), and "exquisitely skilled" (ZealNYC), is dedicated to modernizing the chamber music experience and expanding the string quartet repertoire. Since forming in 2011, Friction has commissioned 47 works for string quartet and given world premiere performances of more than 100 works. Friction Quartet takes risks to enlarge the audience’s understanding of what a string quartet can be using arrangements of pop music, digital processing, percussion, amplification, movement, and additional media.
While Friction has garnered international attention as commissioners and interpreters of new music, they are also devoted to performing masterworks of the string quartet repertoire at the highest level. They won Second Prize in the 2016 Schoenfeld Competition, they were quarter-finalists in the 2015 Fischoff Competition and placed second at the 2015 Frances Walton Competition. Friction has held residencies at the New Music for Strings Festival in Denmark, Interlochen Arts Camp, Lunenburg Academy of Music in Nova Scotia, Napa Valley Performing Arts Center, Old First Concerts, San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, and was the first ensemble in residence at the Center for New Music.
Friction appears on recordings with National Sawdust Tracks, Innova Records, Albany Records, Pinna Records, and many independent releases. They released their full-length debut album, resolve, in 2018 through Bandcamp. Friction has appeared on radio stations such as NPR, KALW, KING-FM, and KUT, among others. Friction’s video of the second movement of First Quartet by John Adams was named the #2 video of the year in 2015 by Second Inversion. John Adams shared this video on his own homepage and called it “spectacular.” Their video for Andy Akiho’s In/ Exchange, featuring Friction and Akiho, was also chosen by Second Inversion for their Top 5 videos of 2016. The video was also featured on American Public Media’s Performance Today. No matter where their musical exploration takes them, they never lose sight of the string quartet’s essence– the timeless and endlessly nuanced interaction of four analog voices.
https://www.frictionquartet.com
Drummer/composer/improviser Jordan Glenn spent his formative years in Oregon and in 2006 relocated to the Bay Area where he received an MFA from Mills College. Since then he has been most closely associated with Fred Frith, William Winant, Zeena Parkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Ben Goldberg, John Schott, Lisa Mezzacappa, Karl Evangelista, Motoko Honda, Michael Coleman and the bands Jack O' The Clock, Kyle Bruckmann’s Degradient, and tUnE-yArDs. He has also worked with Rhys Chatham, Secret Chiefs 3, The Rova Sax Quartet, composer/bagpiper Matthew Welch. As a composer he has been commissioned to create scores for evening-length dance pieces by Sharp & Fine and Liss Fain Dance that have ranged from percussion trio to ensembles of strings and woodwinds. As a band leader he has composed and conducted the trio Wiener Kids, Mindless Thing (a collaboration with the late poet Jim Ryan) and the percussion heavy ensemble BEAK. Recent pursuits have included solo drum set performances and records as well as an ongoing collaboration between BEAK and instrument builder Sudhu Tewari.
http://jordanglennmusic.com
Tell Me a Bedtime Story, ABRAXAS, an experimental chamber opera by Brett Carson
Dates: Two performances, July 27 @ 8pm and July 28 @ 3pm, 2024
Location: Dresher Ensemble Studio, 2201 Poplar St, Oakland, 94607
Tickets: $20 General admission, available at abraxasopera.eventbrite.com
Composer website: www.brettcarsonmusic.com
Contact: Paul Dresher
(510) 593-9391
[email protected]
Bay Area composer Brett Carson presents a new experimental multimedia chamber opera entitled "Tell Me a Bedtime Story, ABRAXAS" in world premiere performances at the Dresher Ensemble Studio on July 27-28. The piece will feature mezzo-soprano Melinda Becker and baritone Daniel Cilli, alongside New Music stalwarts Friction Quartet and multifaceted drummer Jordan Glenn. Video by Portland-based video artist Jayden Becker.
The abstract, dream-like narrative follows the central protagonist, "The Amphibian", through a series of vignettes exploring the double-life of amphibians as beings existing both on land and in the water. This is juxtaposed with an exploration of Christian and Gnostic mythologies, culminating in a revelation of the transcendent Gnostic deity Abraxas, a being beyond logic and duality. Carson's musical language narrating this excursion is highly eclectic - drawing on contemporary classical music, rock music, free improvisation, and experimental electronic music - and will be performed by some of the Bay Area's brightest stars in the realm of new music. Leading this ensemble are trailblazing vocalists Daniel Cilli and Melinda Martinez Becker, followed by the tireless new music aficionados the Friction Quartet and versatile drummer/percussionist Jordan Glenn. In addition to composing the music and libretto, Carson also serves as the director and production designer, and Portland-based artist Jayden Becker contributes an immersive video component.
“Tell Me a Bedtime Story, ABRAXAS” is a project of New Performance Traditions, and is made possible through generous support from the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.
Artist Bios:
Brett Carson is a composer, pianist, improviser, poet, and theater artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. 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 projects include the song cycle Mysterious Descent (2017) which was partially written in an invented language "Kôktimo", Just Visiting (X-Ray Vision) (2018), a post-apocalyptic chamber opera, and The Killing Jar (2021) a dystopian meditation on the COVID-19 pandemic. His recent project, The Secret Life of the Paramecium, is a theatrical song cycle navigating a series of 22 microbiological vignettes based on the Major Arcana of the Tarot. It premiered as part of the Dresher Ensemble Artist Residency to sold out audiences in September, 2022.
In addition to his compositional work, he enjoys a career as a pianist, keyboardist, and synthesist, having performed internationally in the realms of free improvisation, contemporary classical music, jazz, and rock. Performing venues and festivals include the Chicago Jazz Festival, Sons d'hiver, Roulette, the Barbican, the Kennedy Center, the Broad (LA), and SESC Pompeia (Brazil). He has worked with a wide variety of composers/performers including Bill Baird, Brian Baumbusch, Nicolas Collins, Sidney Corbett, Vinny Golia, 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 legendary jazz unit the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
https://www.brettcarsonmusic.com
Jayden Becker (they/them) is a trans and queer multi media visual artist, photographer, videographer, editor, and graphic designer based in Portland, Oregon. Their work primarily explores the dynamic interplay between moving images and the emotions they evoke. Through their video art, they delve into alternative perspectives, pushing the boundaries of visual storytelling.
Their creative process is a collaboration between their mind's eye and the subjects or themes they explore. With a focus on style, light, and color, they strive to evoke raw emotion and playfulness, capturing the authentic and creative essence that lies within all of us. Their videos aim to challenge conventional narratives, offering viewers a glimpse into the fluid and multifaceted nature of identity and expression.
https://www.jaydenbecker.com/
Performer Bios
Melinda Becker’s New Mexican and Jewish heritage has shaped her career as a performer of art song in Spanish, Ladino, Yiddish and a variety of other languages. As a soloist and chamber musician, she is recognized for her expressive interpretations of diverse repertoire, from mariachi to baroque, to new and experimental music.
Melinda’s collaborations with emerging new music composers and ensembles include projects with Nicolas Lell Benavides, Friction Quartet, Brian Baumbusch and the Lightbulb Ensemble, Emily Koh, the Musical Art Quintet, and as a soloist with the Classical Revolution Orchestra and the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra. She is dedicated to performing, championing, and the education of music by women and other underrepresented groups. She recently joined forces with Friction Quartet to record Canto Caló, an album of music by Nicolas Lell Benavides, on Innova Recordings.
Melinda earned her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Catherine Cook. Through Project Canción Española at the Escuela Superior de Canto in Madrid, and Música en Compostela in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, she studied Spanish chamber music and art song, as well as pursuing postgraduate studies at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg in France. Melinda teaches private vocal lessons in San Francisco.
https://www.melindabecker.com
Baritone Daniel Cilli has performed an array of new and standard works throughout the bay area and the United States. Daniel debuted in 2016 at the San Francisco Opera and has returned for multiple engagements. During 2023-24 season he performed regularly with Opera Parallèle in Vinkensport by David T. Little & Royce Vavrek, the premiere of Balls by Laura Karpman & Gail Collins, and Fellow Travelers by Gregory Spears & Gregory Pierce; and with the SF Contemporary Music Players + Volti in the premiere of Richard Festinger's Cantata- Worlds Apart.
Some highlight projects elsewhere include: Pa Zegner in Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek (Pasadena Opera); Burton in Sharaku Unframed-premiere by Hiroya Miura (Left Coast Chamber Ensemble); Captain Ladoux in Mata Hari by Matt Marks and Paul Peers (West Edge Opera); the title role in Sweeney Todd; Cervantes/Quixote in Man of La Mancha, Javert in Les Miserables; and he has made special appearances with the wrestlers of Oakland’s Hoodslam. Daniel was a principal artist 2006-2010 at Opera San José where he performed 15 title and leading roles. He has also performed with Earplay Ensemble, ; West Bay, Livermore, Utah, Des Moines Metro, Utah Festival, Central City opera companies; the Houston Grand Opera Studio, the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals.
https://www.danielcilli.com/
Friction Quartet, lauded for performances described as "terribly beautiful" (San Francisco Classical Voice), "stunningly passionate" (Calgary Herald), and "exquisitely skilled" (ZealNYC), is dedicated to modernizing the chamber music experience and expanding the string quartet repertoire. Since forming in 2011, Friction has commissioned 47 works for string quartet and given world premiere performances of more than 100 works. Friction Quartet takes risks to enlarge the audience’s understanding of what a string quartet can be using arrangements of pop music, digital processing, percussion, amplification, movement, and additional media.
While Friction has garnered international attention as commissioners and interpreters of new music, they are also devoted to performing masterworks of the string quartet repertoire at the highest level. They won Second Prize in the 2016 Schoenfeld Competition, they were quarter-finalists in the 2015 Fischoff Competition and placed second at the 2015 Frances Walton Competition. Friction has held residencies at the New Music for Strings Festival in Denmark, Interlochen Arts Camp, Lunenburg Academy of Music in Nova Scotia, Napa Valley Performing Arts Center, Old First Concerts, San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, and was the first ensemble in residence at the Center for New Music.
Friction appears on recordings with National Sawdust Tracks, Innova Records, Albany Records, Pinna Records, and many independent releases. They released their full-length debut album, resolve, in 2018 through Bandcamp. Friction has appeared on radio stations such as NPR, KALW, KING-FM, and KUT, among others. Friction’s video of the second movement of First Quartet by John Adams was named the #2 video of the year in 2015 by Second Inversion. John Adams shared this video on his own homepage and called it “spectacular.” Their video for Andy Akiho’s In/ Exchange, featuring Friction and Akiho, was also chosen by Second Inversion for their Top 5 videos of 2016. The video was also featured on American Public Media’s Performance Today. No matter where their musical exploration takes them, they never lose sight of the string quartet’s essence– the timeless and endlessly nuanced interaction of four analog voices.
https://www.frictionquartet.com
Drummer/composer/improviser Jordan Glenn spent his formative years in Oregon and in 2006 relocated to the Bay Area where he received an MFA from Mills College. Since then he has been most closely associated with Fred Frith, William Winant, Zeena Parkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Ben Goldberg, John Schott, Lisa Mezzacappa, Karl Evangelista, Motoko Honda, Michael Coleman and the bands Jack O' The Clock, Kyle Bruckmann’s Degradient, and tUnE-yArDs. He has also worked with Rhys Chatham, Secret Chiefs 3, The Rova Sax Quartet, composer/bagpiper Matthew Welch. As a composer he has been commissioned to create scores for evening-length dance pieces by Sharp & Fine and Liss Fain Dance that have ranged from percussion trio to ensembles of strings and woodwinds. As a band leader he has composed and conducted the trio Wiener Kids, Mindless Thing (a collaboration with the late poet Jim Ryan) and the percussion heavy ensemble BEAK. Recent pursuits have included solo drum set performances and records as well as an ongoing collaboration between BEAK and instrument builder Sudhu Tewari.
http://jordanglennmusic.com
Tell Me a Bedtime Story, ABRAXAS, an experimental chamber opera by Brett Carson
Dates: Two performances, July 27 @ 8pm and July 28 @ 3pm, 2024
Location: Dresher Ensemble Studio, 2201 Poplar St, Oakland, 94607
Tickets: $20 General admission, available at abraxasopera.eventbrite.com
Composer website: www.brettcarsonmusic.com
Contact: Paul Dresher
(510) 593-9391
[email protected]
