Season 7 (2024-2025)
Dreams, Illusions, Bubbles, Shadows
Sunday, April 13, 6pm |Follen Church | suggested donation $15-25
755 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA
We will be performing music by Massachusetts composer Steve Snowden, Vermonter Mary Jane Leach, the late great Alvin Lucier, and of course, John Cage.
Audience Participation
Saturday, November 2, 7:30 pm | Bemis Hall |suggested donation $15-25
15 Bedford Road, Lincoln, MA
Pauline Oliveros – Heart Chant
Tom Johnson – Same or Different
Trevor Berens – Passage
Andrea Lieberherr-Douglass – Attention
Cornelius Cardew – The Great Learning, Paragraph 7
SLP is doing things a little bit differently for this fun and engaging program! The already hazy line between audience and performers will totally blur, as you make music alongside of us, investigate different ways of listening, make suggestions of the music you’d like to hear, and more. Come with a spirit of curiosity and playfulness!
House Concert – Fundraiser
Sunday, November 10, 5:00 pm
Private Home, Concord, MA
Frederic Rzewski – Les Moutons de Panurge
Alvin Lucier – Nothing is Real
Reena Esmail – Piano Trio, mvmt 1
Graciela Agudela – Meditaciones
Two of our patrons, Tom Tarpey and CC King are generously opening their beautiful home once again to Sonic Liberation Players for a fundraiser. Tickets must be reserved in advance as space is limited. Light snacks and refreshments will be served after the concert.
A Joy Forever
Sunday, April 13, 6 pm | Follen Church | suggested donation $15-25
755 Mass Ave, Lexington, MA
Friday, May 9, 7:30pm | First Church Cambridge | suggested donation $15-25
11 Garden St, Cambridge, MA
Reena Esmail – Piano Trio
Mary Jane Leach – Charbydis
John Cage – She is Asleep, movement 2
Steven Snowden – A Watched Pot
Morton Feldman – Four Instruments
Sonic Liberation Players presents the final program of our seventh season, “A Joy Forever”. The name of the concert is a reference to the Keats quote from Endymion, “A thing of beauty if a joy forever”. The music presented in this program is indeed, beautiful, and we all need joy in our lives, today, more than ever.
Season 6 (2023-2024)
Ecstatic Visions
Saturday, November 4, 7:00 pm | First Parish Watertown | $25
35 Church Street, Watertown, MA
Terry Riley – The Ecstasy
Diana Cemeryte – Silhouetten, Schatten, Vision
Reena Esmail – Trasveer
Niloufar Nourbakhsh – White Helmets, White as Death
Cecilia Livingston – Hyacinth
Our first official concert of the season features some thrilling works by not only veteran contemporary classical music composers but also several amazing newer composers to the scene.
House Concert – Fundraiser
Friday, December 1, 7:00 pm | $50 suggested donation
Private Home, Concord MA
We are starting our sixth full season with a house concert/fundraiser at a beautiful home overlooking the Sudbury River. We will be performing music by Reena Esmail, Anthony R. Green, Jordan Nobles, John Cage, Peter Garland, and more!
A Family Concert
February 4, 2024, 4:00 pm | Bemis Hall | $25
15 Bedford Road, Lincoln, MA
John Cage – Living Room Music
Trevor Berens – Duck and Kangaroo
Joshua Jade – An Unprepared Sonata for SLP on 2/4/24
Pauline Oliveros – Wind Horse
Tom Johnson – Narayana’s Cows
James Tenney – A Rose is a Rose is a Round
SLP is excited to be doing something new for us–an all ages concert! The music being performed will delight and amuse all, including world premieres by two SLP members.
20th Concert Celebration
D. Edward Davis – for philip von zweck
Morton Feldman – Viola in My Life 1
Angela Elizabeth Slater – Night Airs
James Romig – Pynes
Andrew Hannon – Still Tension
John Cage – Inlets
May 5, 2024, 7:00pm | Somerville Music Spaces | $25
1060 Broadway C101B, Somerville, MA
For our 20th concert, we are playing some of the most interesting and loveliest music we’ve ever programmed. We really don’t want to spoil any of the surprises we have in store for you, but we promise it will be an unforgettable night!
Season 5 (2022-2023)
Rothko Chapel
Saturday, November 5 2022, 7:30 pm | Church of the Covenant | $10 – $35
67 Newbury St., Boston, MA
Anthony R. Green – Lighter Motives for flute, violin, vibes, piano
W.A. Mozart – Misericordias Domini, K. 222 for Chorus and Orchestra
Jocelyn Hagen – Ophelia (a capella)
Dominick DiOrio – All is for chorus, viola, piano, & mezzo soprano
Abbie Betinis – Cedit, Hyems for chorus with flute solo
Morton Feldman – Rothko Chapel for chorus with viola, percussion, and celesta
In a first for SLP, we are collaborating with Chorus Pro Musica to present this concert featuring Morton Feldman’s Rothko Chapel, together with choral works by Abbie Betinis, Dominick DiOrio, and Jocelyn Hagen.
Parable
Saturday, April 1, 2023, 7:30 pm | Bemis Hall
15 Bedford Road, Lincoln, MA
Alvin Lucier – Love Song
John Cage – Litany for the Whale
Marti Epstein – See, Even Night
John Luther Adams – Red Arc/Blue Veil
Sonic Liberation Players finish their current concert season with an absolute feast for the ears. The music presented includes: Boston composer Marti Epstein’s “See, Even Night” (with guest clarinetist, Yhasmin Valenzuela-Blanchard), John Luther Adams’ “Red Arc/Blue Veil” for percussion and piano, John Cage’s “Litany for the Whale” (with guest vocalist, Maya Bloom), and Alvin Lucier’s “Love Song” for two violinists.
Season 4a (2019-2020)
House Concert – Fundraiser
September 14, 2019, 5pm | $20-40 suggested donation
Private home in Concord, MA
Mahdis Golzar Kashani – And the Moses Drowned
Christian Wolff – I Like to Think of Harriet Tubman
James Tenney – Harmonium #5
Cecilia Livingston – Flay
Lou Harrison – Varied Trio
Morton Feldman – Voice, Violin, Piano
Jo Kondo – Aquarelle
Sonic Liberation Players is being hosted for a lovely evening of music and conversation. This stunning and intimate performance space in this lovely home overlooks the Sudbury River. All proceeds will go toward SLP to offset the costs of running our season.
Program
Origins
November 3, 2019, 6:30pm | Bemis Hall | $15
15 Bedford Road, Lincoln, MA
“John Cage taught me that everything is worth listening to, and Morton Feldman taught me how to listen”–Trevor Berens (founder of SLP)
John Cage – Aria
John Cage – Child of Tree
John Cage – Five
Morton Feldman – Durations 1
Morton Feldman – Vertical Thoughts 2
Stephen “Lucky” Mosko – Rais Murad
James Tenney – Diaphonic Toccata
Trevor Berens – Cella Duru (rev. 2019)
This program brings together three rarely-performed pieces by John Cage (including two solos that have to be heard live to be believed) and Feldman (two of his mind-expanding mid-career works), along with music by Trevor’s composition teachers at CalArts–James Tenney and Stephen “Lucky” Mosko. Also on the program is a revision of Trevor’s “Cella Duru”, for varied sextet.
Ecstacy/Enstasy
February 22, 8pm | New School of Music | $15
25 Lowell Street, Cambridge, MA
Mary Jane Leach – Bach’s Set
Bunita Marcus – Lecture for Jo Kondo
Nicholas Chase – Zuowang
Arvo Part – Spiegel im Spiegel
Nicole Murphy – Parched Paddock
D. Edward Davis – when we try to pick out anything by itself we find it hitched to everything else in the universe
Season 4b (2021-2022)
(Re)opening
Sunday, May 1, 2022, 3:30pm | First Parish of Sudbury | Free & open to the public
327 Concord Road, Sudbury, MA
Jordan Nobles – On a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam
Pauline Oliveros – Buffalo Jam
Tom Albert – A Maze (with Grace)
Lera Auerbach – Selected Preludes for Violin and Piano
Lou Harrison – Ariadne
Reena Esmail – Nadiya
Trevor Berens – Drumlin Sunset
SLP is producing its first concert since the lockdown of 2022! We are thrilled to be performing open scored pieces by Pauline Oliveros, Thomas Albert, and Jordan Nobles–meditations on the fragile nature of this planet, on grace, and on making music with one another once again. We will also have be performing music by Lou Harrison, Lera Auerbach, Reena Esmail, and our very own Trevor Berens.
Season 3 (2018-2019)
Within my Garden, rides a Bird…
November 17, 2018, 8pm | Third Life Studio, Somerville, MA | $15
33 Union Square, Somerville, MA
November 18, 2018, 7:30pm | Bemis Hall, Lincoln, MA | $15
15 Bedford Road, Lincoln, MA
Sean Harold – Nachtlied
John Luther Adams – Canticle of the Birds
John Cage – Ryoanji
Somei Satoh – Birds in Warped Time II
Ian Wilson – Dreamgarden
Last season, SLP performed two world premieres, including a commission, a U.S. premiere, and five Boston premieres. In this first concert of our third season, we present two more Boston premieres, “Nachtlied” and “Dreamgarden”. The exquisite selections in this concert is inspired in equal parts by gardens, birds, and music.
Pour ceux qui ont survécu ce sort…
February 8, 2019, 8pm | Third Life Studio | $15
33 Union Square, Somerville, MA
André Cormier – À quatre folioles (world premiere)
“À quatre folioles” is French for “four-leafed,” in this instance its implies, clover. The piece recognizes a historical correspondence between Brook Watson and Andrew Brown, in which Watson describes the return of the Acadians after the deportation, and their story of perseverance.
Why Patterns?
May 10, 2019, 8pm | Third Life Studio | $15
33 Union Square, Somerville, MA
Silvia Rosani – Die Elbe
Gilbert Galindo – Echoes of the Divine
Ceclia Livingston – Flay
Tianyi Wang – Dark Blessing
Morton Feldman – Why Patterns?
Sonic Liberation Players finish their third season with an eclectic program. The first half of the concert are pieces by composers who entered SLP’s Call for Scores last season. Two pieces about women and their ongoing struggles–one, “Die Elbe”, about a woman in a traditional Hungarian family struggling to find her voice, and the other,”Flay”, about a woman in ancient Greece who was murdered by a mob due to her intelligence and political influence–are particularly relevant in the light of the #metoo movement. We will also be performing Boston composer Tianyi Wang’s “Dark Blessing” and New York composer Gilbert Galindo’s “Echoes of the Divine”.
The second half of the concert is Feldman’s stunning and haunting half-hour piece “Why Patterns?” for flute(s), glockenspiel, and piano. Inspired by his interest in the patterns found in rugs, he treats the three instruments as individual colors, each written very precisely, but with a degree of imprecision that occurs when they are presented simultaneously. The result is an always-undulating texture in which the ear is drawn back and forth between the individual lines and the resultant weave.
Season 2 (2017-2018)
All Together Now
November 19, 2017, 5:30pm | First Parish Watertown | $12
35 Church St., Watertown, MA
Christian Wolff – I Like to Think of Harriet Tubman
William Roper – Poem for Emmett Till
Jonathan Russ – Koch-aine
Frederic Rzewski – The Fall of Empire (selections)
Mary Jane Leach – He Got Dictators
Daniel Felsenfeld – Presidential Address
John Cage – Apartment House, 1776
This program is a musical response to the current political atmosphere of this country. Music about the influence of money in politics (“Koch-aine”), socio-political breakdown (“He Got Dictators” and “The Fall of Empire”), violent racism (“Poem for Emmett Till”), and inconceivable misogyny (“Presidential Address”) reflect our feelings of anger, confusion, and despair. John Cage’s joyous anarchistic “Apartment House, 1776”, a celebration of diversity and inclusion and Wolff’s “I Like to Think of Harriet Tubman”, a song of fierce determination to persist against odds, bookend the concert.
Hear! Calls! Everywhere!
Feb 10, 2018, 8pm | Third Life Studio | $15
33 Union Square, Somerville, MA
Lou Harrison – Varied Trio
Bob Clendenen – Dirt Roads
Nicole Murphy – Parched Paddock
Morton Feldman – Viola in my Life 3
Mel Powell – Levertov Breviary
Paolo Tortiglione – Five Music
Nickos Harizanos – Iho
The Sonic Liberation Players received submissions from 5 continents, over 40 countries, and over 400 composers. Out of over 2000 individual pieces received, SLP chose 10 to be included in this season: three of those pieces will be performed tonight by composers from different countries: Nicole Murphy (Australia), Paolo Tortiglione (Italy), and Nickos Harizanos (Greece). Lou Harrison’s exquisite “Varied Trio” for percussion (including tuned riced bowls), violin, and piano, Feldman’s austere “Viola in my Life 3”, and L.A. composer Bob Clendenen’s work for cello and percussion “Dirt Roads” rounds out the concert.
For All Love Lost
May 12, 2018, 8pm | Third Life Studio, Somerville, MA | $15
33 Union Square, Somerville, MA
Peter Garland – Penasco Blanco
Mahdis Golzar Kashani – And the Moses Drowned
Jo Kondo – Aquarelle
John Luther Adams – Among Red Mountains
John Cage – Four
Joshua Jandreau – For all love lost and spirit gained
The final concert of our second season features a new work, “For all love lost and spirit gained”, written especially for SLP by Boston composer, Joshua Jandreau. Also included on the program are piano/percussion duos by Peter Garland and Jo Kondo, John Cage’s sparkling string quartet, “Four”, John Luther Adams’ first piece for solo piano, “Among Red Mountains”, and finally, “And the Moses Drowned”, a haunting reflection on the toll of war on children by Iranian composer Mahdis Golzar Kashani.
Season 1 (2016-2017)
Oh, Valencia
October 15, 2016, 8pm | First Parish of Watertown | $10
35 Church St, Watertown, MA
Art Jarvinen – Isoluminaries (1995)
Stephen “Lucky” Mosko – Rais Murad (1978)
James Tenney – Harmonium #5 (1978)
James Tenney – Weave (a Meditation)
Morton Subotnick – Then Now and Forever (2008)
Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello
Feb 3, 2017, 8pm | Third Life Studio | $12
33 Union Square, Somerville, MA
Morton Feldman – Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello (1987)
Maximal Effect 1.0
April 27, 2017, 7:30pm | Recital Hall, Dept. of Performing Arts
UMass Boston, 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA
Alvin Lucier – Broken Line (2006)
John Cage – Four
James Tenney – Harmonium #5 (1978)
Tom Johnson – Narayana’s Cows (1989)
Morton Feldman Voice, Violin, Piano (1976)
Julius Eastman – Stay on It (1973)
Maximal Effect 2.0
May 6, 2017, 8pm | Third Life Studio | $10
33 Union Square, Somerville, MA
Alvin Lucier – Broken Line (2006)
Tom Johnson – Narayana’s Cows (1989)
Julius Eastman – Stay on It (1973)
Nicholas Chase – Sutram (2016, new version 2017)
Pauline Oliveros – Wind Horse (1989)
Preview Concert
Introducing the Sonic Liberation Players
March 19, 2016, 6pm | Lilypad | $10
1353 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA
Jonathan Marmor — Prester John: Mythical Christian King of India**
Giacinto Scelsi — Krishna e Radha
Trevor Berens — Cella Duru**
Morton Feldman Voice, Violin, Piano (1976)
Kaija Saariaho – Cendres
John Cage – Five
Nicholas Chase – Sutram**
** World premiere, written for Sonic Liberation Players
Sonic Liberation Players 