This Weekend: Performing at the Seventh Stanine Festival

A solo set at Rhizome in Washington, DC

If you are in the DC area, I will be performing a solo set of pieces from Words and Silences this Saturday (6/10/2023 at 2:45pm) as part of the Seventh Stanine Festival at Rhizome. You can learn more and see the lineup for the festival here:

The Seventh Stanine Festival is put on by the folks behind “Essential Tremors,” a Baltimore-based NPR podcast/program that asks musicians to share three songs/pieces of music that were most influential on their career.

I love this podcast. It is such a great opportunity to look into the minds of musicians to understand how they think and feel, and how they developed their personal style. To my mind, It’s a far more interesting and generative exercise than naming a few desert-island disks. The most recent episode with William Parker is an excellent example: Parker’s storytelling reveals a whirlwind of connections and influences about his own family and formative years, and we are lucky to listen in. Other episodes that I’m fond of include: Susan Alcorn, Steve Reich, Mimi Parker (of Low), Hanif Abdurraqib (from Columbus, Ohio!), Kali Malone, and Vijay Iyer.

Essential Tremors also interviewed me for a future episode of the podcast, where I talk about Igor Stravinsky’ Les Noces, Frederic Rzewski’s Coming Together, and ballad singer Addie Graham (I’ll be sure to let you know when that comes out). In the meantime, you can listen to an excerpt below, which was made for NPR’s “Here and Now” program (my NPR debut!):

If you are able to, I hope you can come out to the festival this Saturday. I’m looking forward to listening to live music and performing in such a lovely and supportive environment.

Happy listening,

Brian