PORT TOWNSEND — Composer and pianist Wayne Horvitz will return to Port Townsend at 7 tonight to introduce two recently released projects: “The Wayne Horvitz Trio: The Snowghost Sessions” and “String Quartet No. 4, These Hills of Glory,” with clarinet soloist Beth Fleenor.
Tickets are $17 in advance through brownpaperticket.com and $20 at the door at Quimper Unitarian Fellowship, 2333 San Juan Ave.
Organizers said that this concert provides the North Olympic Peninsula community the rare opportunity to experience the work of a creative artist whose music blurs the traditional boundaries between classical chamber music and small-group improvised jazz.
Horvitz belongs to a small group of musicians who draw on classical and jazz elements as the occasion requires, organizers said.
And this concert brings those artistic border crossings to life in that it involves a classical string quartet, an improvising soloist and a jazz piano trio with the addition of electronics, samples and Horvitz’s signature compositions, they said.
In a nutshell, the concert displays the full range of Horvitz’s creative abilities: composer, pianist and electronic musician.
Although “The Snowghost Sessions” may look like a traditional jazz piano trio it is as much about sonic exploration as it is about swing.
“These Hills of Glory,” a composition in four movements, combines a classical string quartet with an improvising soloist.
Four of Seattle’s finest and in-demand string players will be joined by clarinetist Beth Fleenor, a long-time collaborator of Horvitz.
Horvitz has gone from being a key figure on the 1980s downtown New York music scene to catalyst for another fertile scene in Seattle over the past two decades, said the news release.
He has performed extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America.
He is the leader of the Gravitas Quartet, Sweeter Than the Day, Zony Mash, The Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble and was co-founder of the New York Composers Orchestra.
In past years, Horvitz has performed his “Some Places Are Forever Afternoon: 11 Places for Richard Hugo,” a musical suite based on 11 Richard Hugo poems, and “55: Music and Dance in Concrete,” a modular, site-specific work in collaboration with dancer/choreographer Yukio Suzuki at Fort Worden as part of the Centrum music series.
