SPCO Liquid Music series announces second season

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Son Lux, Serengeti, Sufjan Stevens (Images courtesy of the artists)

Liquid Music, the new music series curated by Kate Nordstrum for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, reveals its entire second season this morning.

The 2013-2014 season, which includes some events already announced as part of the Walker Performing Arts season, contains a broad range of new work, international stars, and local performers in performances of pieces which spread from straight ahead contemporary classical to multi-media collaborations. Full details are at the SPCO website, but here's a synopsis:

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Liquid Music 2013-14: Full schedule of events

ZOLA JESUS

New arrangements by Stephen Prutsman featuring Steven Copes, Ruggero Allifranchini, Maiya Papach, and cellist TBA

IAN DING AND ASHLEY BATHGATE

Percussion and cello duo featuring a world premiere by Ted Hearne and regional premieres by Nick Didkovsky, Osvaldo Golijov, Andy Akiho and Annie Gosfield

Sunday, Sept 22 at 7pm

Amsterdam Bar & Hall

JHEREK BISCHOFF: Composed

Featuring guest vocalists Sondre Lerche, Ólöf Arnalds and Channy Leaneagh alongside a chamber ensemble of Twin Cities instrumentalists, Deerhoof drummer Greg Saunier, and more to be announced. Co-presented with the Walker Art Center, in collaboration with Minnesota Public Radio

Friday, October 18 at 8pm Fitzgerald Theater

ENSEMBLE DAL NIENTE

Co-presented with the American Composers Forum

Tuesday, November 5 at 7:30pm

Music Room at SPCO Center

Contemporary chamber music and synched video combine in a world premiere work by Minnesota composer Noah Keesecker. Ensemble Dal Niente's program also includes music by Rebecca Saunders, John Cage, Ashley Fure, Stefan Prins, and Enno Poppe.

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER AND TIM HECKER

Co-presented with the Walker Art Center

Saturday, November 16 at 8pm

William and Nadine McGuire Theater, Walker Art Center

Two leading international electronic experimentalists share an aurally adventurous evening of light and shadow that dips deep into drone, ambient, distortion and beyond.

HILARY HAHN AND HAUSCHKA: Silfra

Co-presented with The Schubert Club Mix

Sunday, January 12 at 7pm

Aria

With a flawless technique and a knack for razor-sharp performance, the prodigiously talented American violinist Hilary Hahn is known for her probing interpretations, technical brilliance and commitment to new music. Hauschka is the alias of classically-trained German pianist composer Volker Bertelmann, whose work as Hauschka is based upon a playful exploration of the 'prepared' piano. Like Hahn, Hauschka is no stranger to collaboration, whether with formal outfits or acclaimed bands like Calexico and múm.

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OLGA BELL: Origin/Outcome

With Tom Vek and Angel Deradoorian

Visual design by Alejandro Crawford

Co-presented with the Walker Art Center and American Composers Forum

Thursday, Feb 13 at 8pm

William and Nadine McGuire Theater, Walker Art Center

From ancient folk traditions to modern club music, Origin/Outcome is a celebration of the hot-blooded human vernacular - the music to which we dance, eat, grieve and revel - by Olga Bell (left) and collaborators Tom Vek and Angel Deradoorian. With a

range as wide as working with Dawn Upshaw and Das Racist indicates, composer/performer Bell (Dirty Projectors) unfolds a two-part evening of compelling new sounds that features a chamber ensemble composed of Twin Cities- and Brooklyn-based musicians and dazzling projections by video artist Alejandro Crawford (MGMT). The evening opens with the world premiere of Bell's nine-movement song

cycle Krai, a richly imagined sonic love letter to her Russian homeland. The night also contains the debut of Nothankyou, Bell's cross-Atlantic partnership with British musician Tom Vek Respected vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Angel Deradoorian (former Dirty

Projectors) contributes throughout.

S/S/S: Jim Hodges Retrospective music experience

New music by the collaborative trio of Serengeti, Son Lux and Sufjan Stevens, inspired by the work of visual artist Jim Hodges

Co-commissioned with the Walker Art Center

February 14-May 11, 2014

Walker Art Center galleries

Inspired by the work of contemporary visual artist Jim Hodges, the trio will release its sophomore recording in conjunction with the first comprehensive survey of Hodges' work in the U.S., opening at the Walker Art Center February 2014.

TIMO ANDRES: Work Songs

Featuring Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Stevens and Nathan Koci

March 21 & 22 at 8pm

Music Room at SPCO Center

Inspired by old fashioned American parlor songs, composer and pianist Timo Andres has crafted his own multi-movement set of "work songs" set to texts about professions, jobs, and labor. Andres makes his Twin Cities debut with this new song cycle specifically created for fellow rising-star composers and multi-instrumentalists Gabriel Kahane, Ted Hearne, Becca Stevens and Nathan Koci.

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Timo Andres (Image courtesy Liquid Music)

DANIEL BJARNASON AND NADIA SIROTA

Featuring concert centerpiece Sleep Variations by Bjarnason for Sirota and chamber ensemble Tuesday, May 6 at 7:30pm

Amsterdam Bar and Hall

ETHEL: Documerica

New work by commissioned composers Mary Ellen Childs, Ulysses Owens Jr., Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate and James Kimo Williams

Directed by Steve Cosson

Projection design by Deborah Johnson

Co-presented with The Schubert Club Mix and American Composers Forum

Tuesday, June 3 at 7:30pm

Aria

"A meditation on America's relationship to our land--and to today's environmental and social issues--the multimedia work Documerica melds multiple-screen video projections with music by some of today's top composers, performed with electrifying virtuosity by alternative string quartet ETHEL. Created in collaboration with projections designer Deborah Johnson (Sufjan Stevens' BQE) and directed by Steve Cosson, Documerica juxtaposes manipulated vintage 1970s visuals with the music of now. Inspired by and showcasing evocative imagery from Project Documerica, a 1970s photographic archive commissioned by the Environmental Protection Agency, the program explores this compelling snapshot of a tumultuous era.