March 14, 2006

The exuberant modern chamber ensemble California EAR Unit performs at UCSB Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall

Summary Facts:

• California EAR Unit
• The six-member group, hailed for its adventurous musicality, is one of the long-time leaders of the West Coast new music scene
• Presented as part of UCSB 4th Annual Primavera Festival
• Saturday, April 22 / 8 pm
• UCSB Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall
• General public: $30 / UCSB students: $10
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535

The six-member California EAR Unit, an exuberant chamber ensemble dedicated to the creation, performance and promotion of new music, will perform on Saturday, April 22 at 8 pm in UCSB Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall. The group, acclaimed worldwide for its adventurous musicality, will play electronic and acoustic instruments and the evening will feature video and text as well. For eighteen seasons EAR Unit was the Ensemble-in-Residence in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and is currently in residence at CalArts for performances at REDCAT at Disney Hall. The Los Angeles Times calls the group “mysterious, physical, sensuous, ecstatic.”

California EAR Unit’s exciting program for the Santa Barbara concert includes new works by composers Morton Subotnik, Eve Belgarian, Shaun Naidoo, Anne Le Baron, and EAR Unit’s own Amy Knoles. The performance will conclude with the group’s acclaimed version of “James Sellars’ accurately titled ‘Go,’ a densely textured ten minute non-stop vertigo trip” (Albuquerque Journal).

Founded in March 1981, the EAR Unit has brought unparalleled versatility, virtuosity and dedication to its performances and is recognized today as one of America’s finest contemporary chamber ensembles. For its contributions to the field of contemporary American music, the ensemble has recently garnered awards from the LA Weekly (Best Classical Series 1999 and 2003) and the 1999 “Letter of Distinction” from the American Music Center.

Attending an EAR Unit concert means experiencing a fresh, exuberant approach to music making that includes violins and pianos one minute, harmonicas and amplified plants the next. The EAR Unit’s repertoire of over 500 compositions ranges from the most demanding works for the concert hall to collaborations with major artists in other fields to create original multi-media works. The EAR Unit combines “classic” instrumentation of flute, clarinet, keyboards, percussion, violin and cello with an “anything goes” approach including voices, panpipes, handcuffs, playing Bach on the cello with a carrot (Cage’s Theater Piece), theatrics and the latest interactive electronic media.

The Unit has performed at major venues all over the world including Tanglewood, Paris, the Kennedy Center, Cologne, New York, Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Amsterdam and Reykjavik. The ensemble has been featured in documentaries for the BBC and Japanese television and many of its concerts have been broadcast by National Public Radio, WGBH’s Art of the States Program, WDR (Germany), BRT (Belgium) and DR (Danish Radio).

The EAR Unit has recorded for Nonesuch, Crystal, New Albion, New World, Tzadik, O.O. Discs, CRI/Emergency Music and Cambria labels and has the distinction of being one of the first contemporary music groups to be featured on a CD-ROM, Morton Subotnick’s All My Hummingbirds have Alibis on the Voyager label. New Albion has released a collection of pre-eminent Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s works, featuring Zilver which was also written and commissioned by the Unit in conjunction with the EAR Unit’s tour of England for the Contemporary Music Network. Bridge Records has issued Morton Feldman’s four hour long trio for Philip Guston (called Best Classical CD of 1997 by CDNow). Recent recordings include Go on the Echograph label and Settings, music by Mel Powell on New World.

California EAR Unit personnel are Dorothy Stone, flute, Phil O’ Connor, clarinet, Robin Lorentz, violin, Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick, cello, Amy Knoles, percussion and Vicki Ray, piano.

Concert-goers are invited to arrive at 7 pm for a pre-performance demonstration of EAR Unit’s electronic techniques and to stay after the performance for a Meet-the-Artists discussion.

This event is presented as part of Primavera: a festival of contemporary arts and digital media that runs on the UCSB campus April 17–22. The festival will feature evening performances by UCSB’s Ensemble for Contemporary Music, featuring works by composer Anne LeBaron, and the UCSB Dance Company, an evening of new electroacoustic works from the CREATE studios, featuring guest composer Martino Traversa, a week-long exhibit of new multi-media works in the College of Creative Studies Gallery, and nine master classes and workshops given by LeBaron, Traversa and the California EAR Unit. For more information: (805) 893-7001 or www.ccs.ucsb.edu/primavera.

California EAR Unit is co-presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and the UCSB Department of Music and sponsored by KCSB 91.9 FM. The group’s residency is sponsored by the Visiting Artists Program of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UCSB. Tickets are $30 for the general public and $10 for UCSB students who must show valid ID at ticket purchase and the evening of the show. Ticket prices are subject to convenience fees. Tickets are on sale now and can also be purchased at the door, if still available.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.