All the latest

Since my last post, B’shnorkestra Global Concertos has been making great progress and gathering much momentum.  We had our first ensemble rehearsal on Sunday and worked through all five brand new concertos!  All this week we did sectionals (string, rhythm and horn) to try to be as prepared and tight as possible for rehearsals with the soloists which begin this weekend.  It feels so exciting and gratifying to finally be playing this music after months of solitary work on it.  I love the creative process of writing – but what really makes me happy is actually collaborating with the great musical minds in my ensemble and the new experience of working with these soloists.  I continue to learn more ways to best communicate my ideas to musicians whether they are classically trained string players, jazz horn players or an Indian vocalist – everyone approaches the music differently.  During the writing process, I felt nervous as to whether or not I could accomplish what I set out to do.  However after the first round of rehearsals and more meetings with soloists – I feel more confidant that we will be able to collectively create something very special.  In these compositions, I tried to both lean on each player’s strengths and also push them out of there comfort zone.  By doing that my hope is that we can all meet in a middle ground – and it will be a place that none of us have ever been before.  
Today I met with the incredible Christos Govetas who plays clarinet and brings so much to the Seattle music community both as a musician and in the many events featuring Greek, Turkish and Balkan music that he and his wife Ruth Hunter coordinate.  He played for me the modes and scales he had figured out over different sections of the piece - and they sounded amazing!  It added such a different flavor to the composition - I am very excited for his concerto. 

Here is a little more information on Christos:
Christos Govetas is a multi-instrumentalist who brings his voice and earthy clarinet style from his homeland in Eastern Macedonia. After moving to this country in his teens, Christos discovered his love of traditional music and went on to learn regional music from all over Greece, Turkey, the Balkans and the North African Arab world. In addition to the clarinet, Christos plays the zourná, bouzouki and outi, bringing his 30 years of performing experience to the mix. Christos is a beloved teacher at many music and dance workshops and has performed and toured extensively in the US, Canada, Europe and Greece. In addition to leading Dromeno, Christos also plays with Pasatempo Rebetika, and also plays laouto and sings regional Greek music with Ziyiá. Christos is the 1999 recipient of the prestigious Northwest Folklife Fellowship Award honoring his cultural contribution to the Greek-American and Folk dance communities. Christos is also a member of Bill Frisell’s  Grammy nominated The Intercontinentals.

Video about Global Concertos

Learn more about the project in this video.  Thanks to Beth Fleenor and the Frank Agency for creating this!

B'shnorkestra Premieres Global Concertos in May 2015!

Saturday, May 9, 2015 – 8pm
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
104 17th Avenue South, Seattle
$5-15 suggested donation / All Ages
Buy Tickets: http://globalconcertos.brownpapertickets.com
Open dress rehearsal with Q & A: May 8 – 8pm

Composer Samantha Boshnack and her B’shnorkestra (a 14-piece alternative chamber orchestra) premiere Global Concertos: an evening of new music featuring an international tour de force of soloists.

Boshnack has written five new works, each showcasing a guest soloist’s instrument and tradition: Thione Diop – West African talking drum, Christos Govetas – Greek clarinet, Srivani Jade – North Indian vocals, Julio Jauregui – Latin American piano and Thomas Marriott – American jazz trumpet. In Global Concertos each artist brings their individual voice to the B’shnorkestra to create a new “all world” sound.

Global Concertos was made possible, in part by funding from New Music USA, 4Culture and Seattle Office of Arts and Culture.

> learn more about Global Concertos and the featured soloists

Concert on Thursday and Recording in Indonesia

It's has been a little while, I wanted to let you know what's been happening with the record and alert you to a special show I have on Thursday.  

On Thursday, December 13th, the Sam Boshnack Quintet will be giving a concert at The Frye Art Museum. This is part of an exhibit happening there right now called Mw [Moment Magnitude] - "an ambitious cross-platform project of visual art, performance, production, rehearsal, specially commissioned artworks, music, dance, literary events, design, and arts engagement programs showcasing exceptional artistic practice in Seattle." I am so excited and honored to be a part of it  The Frye Art Museum performance will feature eight original works for the Quintet featuring myself (trumpets), with Beth Fleenor (clarinets/voice), Dawn Clement (keyboard), Isaac Castillo (bass), and Max Wood (drums). There is also going to be an amazing light exhibit illuminating the show by Lillenthal/Zamora.  Also on display are graphic musical scores of Eyvind Kang, a sound installation by Robb Kunz in the reflecting pool from which will emanate the music of Jherek Bischoff, and much more.

Sam Boshnack Quintet
Frye Art Museum (part of Mw [Moment Magnitude])
704 Terry Avenue Seattle, Washington 98104
Thursday, December 13th
free, all ages
early concert - 5:30-6:30 pm
Frye event link - http://fryemuseum.org/event/4712/ Facebook event link - https://www.facebook.com/events/398625820169670/

Okay, now for record updates.  One of the 8 songs we recorded at Bear Creek was a piece I wrote for the singer Megan O'Donoghue Williams.  The words of the piece were from a traditional Javanese poem called Pangkur.  Megan moved to Surakarta on the island of Java in Indonesia before I had the chance to record her vocals.  She is currently living over there and has a very successful career singing in Wayang (shadow puppet) performances all over Java.  So on November 13th I flew to Indonesia to record Megan. I wanted to learn more about Indonesia and its music, and it felt special for myself and the piece to record her actually in Java.   I also wanted to bring more Indonesian musicians and instruments into the piece and I did - Sri Joko Raharjo who played rebab (a gamelan two-stringed instrument) and gender (a gamelan pitched percussion instrument).  Peni Candra Rini (an incredible vocalist and composer) coached Megan with pronunciation and interpretation help.  The night before we went into the studio Megan threw a party and we had a rehearsal for the piece.  New ideas were brought in for the improvisation section by the four of us and it was very excited to brainstorm about it.  Lots of other people were there from the community listening.  The next day we laid down the tracks and I'm happy to say the whole thing was a great success.  On Friday, December 21st I will begin mixing the record, I will let you know how that goes.  Can't wait for you all to hear it!

Samantha

P.S. - Two close friends and musicians came with me, and I'm so glad they did - Valerie Holt and Anne Mathews.  We also had many non-recording adventures traveling around Java and Bali - it was a blast.

Earshot Festival on Tuesday! Record updates.

Hello everyone,

I know it has been an awful long time since I last wrote.  Things have been rolling over here in B'shnorkestra land.  First and foremost, if you live in Seattle, you can come see us perform on this coming Tuesday (October 23rd) as part of the Earshot Jazz Festival.  It's an honor to be included in the line-up.  We have been working on a new composition I wrote and touching up the material we recorded. Band sounds great and it's always a real joy to play music with these people.  Neil Welch does an opening set on solo saxophone and he's quite phenomenal.  For more information check outwww.bshnorkestra.com.  

Yesterday Adam, Greg and I went into the studio for some percussion and french horn overdubs.  They went incredibly well.  We did this at Evan Schiller's studio.  Evan owns a studio called zulusound and has recorded such artists as Eyvind Kang, Timothy Young, Jessica Lurie, Bill Frisell, Sadhappy and Mike Patton.  

In November I am traveling to Indonesia to record Megan O Seniwati for the record.  One of the pieces I wrote for her to sing on, and then she moved to Indonesia before I could record it.  I decided to take this opportunity to make the trip over there as it has always been a place I wanted to see.  I hope to record other Indonesian musicians onto the track as well and do some performing with Megan and two friends/colleague musicians who are coming with me - Anne Mathews and Valerie Holt.  

We then plan to mix the record over Christmas break.  This may mean I push the release date a little bit (April) so that I have time to send it out to record labels and try to get distribution for it beforehand.  

Thanks for your support, and hope to see you Tuesday!!

Samantha 

Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute in LA

Currently taking part in the esteemed Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, and blogging about it daily...


“I really had no idea what to expect going into this intensive.  I knew that it was probably going to feel crazy to be surrounded by so many other composers.  And it was – crazy in a really inspiring way.  To be around so many who are trying to create something new and putting their whole lives into their vision; in a world that can sometimes feel like it doesn’t care much about innovation or sophistication in music.  As I looked around and interacted with the peers and faculty throughout the day, I could see the hunger in everyone’s eyes to soak up as much as they could from this experience.  I could sense that it was refreshing to all of us to be surrounded by others working in such a tough field, a kind of comfort in numbers.  Even though we were from different parts of the country (and some had or do live abroad) we all had so much shared experience and so much to talk about….”

> read full post
> visit Sound Advice by the American Composers Orchestra

WE MADE IT - THANK YOU!!

A special thanks to everyone who contributed to the B’shnorkestra Kickstarter Campaign!! Your support ensured these fantastic musicians got paid for doing their job. Everyone put so much into this music – the recording process was really wonderful.
More news and updates coming very soon…stay tuned, and THANK YOU!

B'shnorkestra Launches Kickstarter Campaign

> VISIT KICKSTARTER / WATCH THE VIDEO

> DONATE 




THE TIME HAS COME!! Our Kickstarter campaign has been launched!

After the successful debut concerts last fall, I felt the next step was to professionally record the B’shnorkestra and the 8 new works premiered.

This month we are regrouping for a rehearsal and recording intensive. We will be recording this music at Bear Creek Studios, an amazing studio with a diverse track record from everything to Blond Redhead to Bill Frisell to Eric Clapton to Ginger Baker.  We are doing intensive rehearsals so that we can record live at the studio (with maybe a few overdubs) to preserve the crucial groove and spontaneity of live performance. After the recording session we will be playing a concert at Royal Room (in Seattle).

Kickstarter funds will be used to pay the musicians for their time.  These are some amazing professional musicians – Joshua Kohl (conductor), Jherek Bischoff, Alex Guy, Brianna Atwell, Lalo Bello, Greg Campbell, Tim Carey, Chris Credit, Adam Kozie, Daniel Mullikin, Maria Scherer Wilson, Tobi Stone, Alina To with guest artists Paris Hurley and Maeg O’Donogue-Williams-Sukarwanto.

These musicians play with a variety of musicians and ensembles including; the Degenerate Art Ensemble, Jim Knapp and Eyvind Kang’s Scrape, Reptet, Seattle Modern Orchestra,  Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra, Picoso, Jovino Santos-Neto Trio, Seattle Rock Orchestra, Wayne Horvitz, Macklemore, the Passenger String Quartet, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Bill Smith, and Stuart Dempster.

I’ve compiled a great list of rewards for funding this project.  You can think of it as a pre-order for the record and concert, or as an oppurtunity to acquire some items that are only available here.  Whatever you do, know that you will be supporting incredible musicians on a quest to record new and original music – we can’t do this without you!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

The night before quintet

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged.  Felt like getting at it again.  Tomorrow I have a debut show of my own quintet at The Royal Room.  We did one 3 song show before with a different pianist, but this time it's a full 8-tunes show.  After B'shnorkestra, I realized that nothing makes me happier than writing music and bringing people together to play it.  I decided that I wanted to start a smaller group with piano, because piano would let me do things compositionally that I could not with Reptet or B'shnorkestra.  And so it has, I think the music came out differently.  I did get the same exhilarating rush that I did for B'shnorkestra by writing a lot of music all at once.  Same nerves on presenting something under my own name.  It's been a blast working with these other four musicians.  We laugh a lot and have a few antics planned for the show.  Since I am so awful with titles I decided to compose another suite.  This one is dedicated to Mount Saint Helens, because she blew up 31 years ago on this date.  Also two songs dedicated to the insane amount of online Scrabble games I play with my dad.
As soon as this show is over tomorrow I will be prepping very hard for a 7 day B'shnorkestra intensive which involves long rehearsals, 3 days recording at Bear Creek Studio, and a show at the Royal Room.  But I can't quite think about that until at least Saturday.

Afterthoughts

Just for the heck of it, I think I'll blog tonight.  I am in a B'shnorkestra state of mind.  I'm very excited because on Saturday I will be mixing the recording from the shows with Jherek Bischoff.  I can't wait.  I love the mixing process; balancing all of the voices just right so that the chords resonate.  We are not going to do a super polished mix, just enough so that it sounds good and we can put it with the video.  I got a video of the first song from Brianna Atwell and it looks great.  She edited together 3 different cameras. 
To be honest, not a day goes by that I don't miss this project.  It's so funny how nervy you can be leading up to something, but I look back on it all as such a great time in my life.  I loved the excitement of it, working with those musicians, and the exhiliration­ ­ I felt being able to write that much.  Now I am back at the drawing boards, trying to figure out how to do it again.   I still feel like I would like to record those 8 pieces in a studio and then have another show in which I generate all new music.  Raising the money is such a huge hurdle; I'm sure I'll jump it, it just takes time and patience.  I can't let it overwhelm me, but sometimes it does.
I feel like I have been in a bit of a holding pattern because I keep leaving town.  I am either preparing to leave or recovering.  On Sunday I am going to Portugal, Poland, and Spain with Publish The Quest. In Poland, we are opening for Nneka.  I saw her perform in Zimbabwe and was blown away by her.  Her lyrics come from a really deep and honest and strong place.  I really admire that and think its so rare to hear.
When I get back from this trip I will throw myself back into it all again.  Video and audio will go up, grants will be written, etc.  Just thought I'd write a little nostalgic blog before I go.       

Post-B'shnorkestra come down

Wow.  Here I am post premieres.  These shows were unlike anything I could have imagined.

Thursday's show came after three days of rehearsals and I was feeling so good.  We had a good turnout and a super enthusiastic crowd.  The focus and energy on stage was incredible.  I felt like we really nailed the music better than I could have ever imagined.  I mean, we had never performed these 8 songs together before, something had to go wrong right?  But, no.  These musicians gave it their all and the show went off without a hitch.  I find out after the show that the one hitch that happened was a computer glitch.  A glitch which meant that the show did not get recorded.  This lives up to the musician lore out there which says that the best shows do not get recorded.  I was dissapointed but I was on such a high from the show that it didn't get me down.  I counted my lucky stars that I had the foresight to schedule two shows in order to get a recording instead of one. 

Saturday's show came after a day off.  It was really exciting to see and hear very positive responses from audience members from Thursday.  But for some reason, it made me more nervous.  I can't explain it.  I learned that a debut show feels really different than the second show.  Expectation makes things different.
And then, the craziest thing happened.  I was in the green room 15 minutes before the show was supposed to start and had my horn on my arm.  I reached to take down a plastic chair to sit on and bumped my horn.  Background info on me; I'm a klutz.  I bang my horn into things all of the time.  Luckily I play an instrument that is tough and I have never had any problems because of it.  This night, however was different.  All of the sudden the third valve wouldn't move anymore.  I still can't figure out how it happened.  Everyone rushed around, grabbing trumpet players from the audience and calling others.  One trumpet player showed up with an extra student horn that he had, and Chris Credit ran to my house to get my flugelhorn.  I also had a student in the audience who had her horn.  We had to start the show about 35 minutes late and I had to play the show on a student horn plus my flugelhorn.  We all tried to see the good in this.  It did bring the band together in a very special way and I have to say it knocked the nerves right out of me.  I did feel sad however not to have been able to play my horn and have my sound.  I also felt guilty for having made the audience wait.
The band played great once again, there were incredible moments and the music went off very well.  There were some little mistakes, but the energy was fierce.  We had an even larger crowd than on Thursday.  So many musicians came to both shows, I have never felt so supported by the Seattle music scene.  But beyond musicians there was a diverse audience from young to old. 
Since the shows I have been trying to process and determine the next step.  Leading up to this, I really didn't know what this would lead to.  I feel very strongly now that I need to record these 8 songs in a studio and get the best recording possible.  I also know that the band will play again.  I am working on booking gigs at schools in conjunction with another gig to make it work financially. 
I am really incredibly grateful to have had such a great premiere experience.  The feeling I had on stage was unlike anything I had felt before, and I loved it.  I had spent so much time leading up these shows imagining worse case scenarios; I wouldn't have the music written in time, we wouldn't get enough rehearsals, we wouldn't learn the music well enough to pull it off, only four people would show up, and so on and so forth.  It's crazy that the two things that went wrong were both things that I never could have imagined. 
I am so thankful to so many people who made this show possible - my great circle of family and friends who supported me through it all, the musicians, Beth Fleenor, Oliva Taguinod, Arie Pytel, Francisca Garcia, Mell Dettmer, Paurl Walsh, Erica Langley, Charles Atwell, Brianna Atwell, Brad Hebert, and Kirk Nordenstrom.   

Opening Night!

Here we go.  Its been a crazy whirlwind of days leading up to today, but I am feeling ready.  Rehearsals on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday have left the band sounding amazingly good.  These are pictures from dress rehearsal.  Check out these two videos with footage from the very first rehearsal as well as interviews with Beth (Thanks Beth, Brad Hebert, and Kirk Nordenstrom for making this happen):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYDtThD60pE&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oWokSkZaQI

Jazz Now episode 51

Check out this nice shout out from Seattle's jazz podcast.
http://jazznowseattle.com/jazz-now-seattle-episode-51/

KBCS tonight!

I am going to be on KBCS tonight on Flotation Device from 10-10:45 PST. I will be playing recordings of compositions of mine from Reptet albums as well as B'shnorkestra and talking about the shows on Thursday and Saturday. Tune in - http://kbcs.fm/site/PageServer.

Rehearsals in full swing

We have been B'shnorking a whole lot over here on Capitol Hill.  Me and these 11 awesome musicians have been working really hard on the new pieces.  I must say its a lot of music, but we are getting it.  It's been a mix of detailed work on composed parts combined with jamming on sections to get the grooves worked out.  It's really coming together quite nicely.  Not to mention there is a really nice vibe in the rehearsals because on top of being great musicians these are all nice people that are fun to spend time with.  My chronic hiccup squawk showed up at rehearsal yesterday to crack up cellist Maria.
Tomorrow we have our first rehearsal with Lalo, I'm really looking forward to adding him to the mix and having three percussionists on three tunes.   
When not in rehearsal, I have been spending many hours listening to these rehearsals and practicing my parts and conducting.  It's pretty exciting, although I wish I could stop getting quite so excited so that I could sleep at night. 

Poster by Arie Pytel!!!

Drawn by hand and created especially for the premiere...

Tickets on sale!!!

< click to purchase >

Workin out the details...

(Professor Shnack & Sergeant Fleenor make B'shnorkestra arrangements at the lovely B&O...a Chick Influenza favorite...)

Posicore and beyond....

Another late night here.  It's crazy, but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.  The music is almost all written.  I just have one more piece to finish.  The next rehearsal is on Friday.  I am very excited because my good friend and very talented vocalist Maeg O'Donoghue-Williams-Sukarwanto is joining us for this rehearsal.  I wrote her a piece based off of an Indonesian poem she recited for me. 

I realize that my blogs up until now may be coming across kind of posicore.  Posicore is a word friends and I have made up to describe people who are overly positive, in a not-very-connected-to-the-real-world kind of way.  Beyond the excitement and exhilaration, there have been some frustrations.  I have spent a lot of time wondering why it is that most people do not care if new works of music are being created at all.  How many people actually go out to hear music that is adventurous or pushing boundaries?  I would say its an extremely small fraction of the population.  In so many ways music has no right to be a business, it's more spiritual than that.  Because it is so commercialized, the people that are presenting music or people on the radio try to guess what people will like and play to the lowest common denominator.  Of course there is great music being made that is doing well, but it is incredibly hard right now to push through to the masses if your music is hard to describe or makes an audience think.
It is also interesting that even amongst those of us who are trying to get more avant-garde music to the people, we can't even support each other.  I received my copy of the Earshot Jazz magazine (Seattle's jazz publication) this month, only to find out that they did not do any coverage of the event at all.  And this was not for a lack of trying.

I have been working very closely with good friend and fabulous clarinetist/publicist Beth Fleenor to get the word out on the shows.  She is why I am doing this blog and she built the website.  Her company, The Frank Agency, has been doing the publicity.  It has been a lot of fun to brainstorm with her and work on all of this.  Even though I wish music was less connected to business, it is still my profession.  I do also enjoy the business details (publicity, booking, grantwriting) and think it is important.  Right now there is no way around tending to these details if you are serious about trying to make your own music.       
I do spend a lot of time worrying and working to try to get the word out about the shows.  I will continue to do so.  I really want as many people there as possible.    But ultimately I have to take my strength from writing the music and playing it with the band.  Otherwise, all of the other stuff could truly discourage me.

First rehearsal and more

Alright, I'm back.
Sunday morning was the first rehearsal of The B'shnorkestra ensemble for the September gigs.  The day before it I threw a b-day barbecue for my good friend (and violinist) Paris Hurley.  About half-way through this barbecue my nerves kicked in.  Sometimes I think my brain is incredibly evil.  It will imagine every worst scenario out there and kick my body into panic mode.  But the party was a blast and I managed to get some sleep that night.
The rehearsal started with everyone introducing themselves.  Not everyone knew each other.  But soon after that I was thrilled to see each section working together on the parts, figuring it all out.  We worked section by section.  A lot of the work was things I needed to figure out.  Conducting with one hand and playing with the other is not the easiest thing to do, but luckily the trumpet can play that way.  As cheesy as this sounds, music really does feel like a jigsaw puzzle to me.  I spend a lot of time making the pieces and putting them in their general spots and then as a band we put these pieces together.  I was completely thrilled that by the end of the rehearsal we had run two pieces from head to toe.  I had hoped to get to three, but I also knew that that was probably overly ambitious.  There was a great feeling in the room at the end, and I was so happy to have created that in some way.  I left feeling completely exhausted with a pounding head ache but also relieved that it worked (take that brain!).
I went from there to Mt. Saint Helens with my boyfriend, Chris Credit (and saxophonist) to relax and enjoy some really breathtaking scenery.  That part of WA is pretty wild.  Volcanos create some beautifully devastating landscape.  We did some awesome hikes and I sang the remaining two songs I have to finish over and over in my head hoping to get some inspiration out there.
I am now back and ready to power through to the end.  I listened to the recordings from the rehearsal and was happy to hear that it still sounded good even after a break.