Red Desert Ensemble Plays Summit County Community Gardens
Don’t miss the experimental music ensemble, Red Desert, as they host an outdoor concert and covid19 benefit in the Summit Community Gardens. In order to properly social distance, tickets will be limited to 45 people, so it's best to act fast and reserve yours now: https://www.summitcommunitygardens.org/calendar/music-in-the-garden
Red Desert Ensemble will play live on September 10th at 5:30pm in an avant-garde concert featuring clarinet, percussion, and pieces for audience participation on percussion throughout the garden.
Katie Porter, clarinetist, explains, "Any donations for our performance go to the garden's covid19 effort, where they provide fresh food and garden vegetables to local families in need. It's a great project, and I hope our audience will donate, bring their own picnic or order a pizza and listen to some surreal experimental and electronic music!”
Davanza’s is catering a variety of family size pizzas to snack on and benefit the Garden Bounty Project. Due to covid19 and an increasing number of families in need, the Garden Bounty Project aims to donate more than 1,500 pounds of organic produce to fight hunger in Summit County this season.
Katie Porter continues, “Red Desert plays mainly experimental music and works by composers of our time. I play clarinet and Devin Maxwell is a composer and percussionist. We just had a year-long artist residency at Westminster College, playing super avant-garde pieces written for us by Carolyn Chen, Michael Pisaro, Lucie Vitkova, and morr, alongside works by John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Stockhausen, recording our debut album CHOROCHRONOS to be released on the NYC label Infrequent Seams, and working with students on music entrepreneurship, music technology and building community through new music.”
How wonderful that Red Desert is now bringing its talent to Park City. Katie Porter writes, “I'm excited to play this hyper-local show here where we live, outside at the Summit Community Garden.” She’s played shows everywhere, with venues ranging from concert halls to garages to sculpture gardens. But to be playing at home is especially meaningful. She explains, “I like to pair up music with performance location. For this show itself at the Summit Community Garden on Sept 10 I will premiere a new work for clarinet and electronics by Devin Maxwell, I'll also play a solo piece written for our residency by composer Teodora Stepancic, and Devin will play pieces for percussion by Iannis Xenakis and Tim Parkinson. We're also going to play some incredible electronic music by Eliane Radigue and Maggie Payne. The audience will be invited to perform with us on a giant crescendo-decrescendo for percussion, in a piece called Having Never Written a Note for Percussion by James Tenney and we will have cymbals, drums, gongs, and more set up all around the garden for everyone to play.” And of course, one set of drumsticks per person will be provided.
Most importantly, Red Desert has planned an event that can be enjoyed and experienced by each audience member differently. Some will listen intently, others will take a Soundwalk, and still, others will take a try at percussion themselves. Even as this pandemic restricts live performance, there are silver linings: this music will be accessible to all, safe to all, and exciting for the Summit County community.