KcEMA Concert Features electroacustico, 10/2

KcEMA opens its Fourth Season with electro<>acústico, a concert featuring clarinetist Mauricio Salguero.  Salguero, an old friend of KcEMA, has interacted considerably with their members in the past years. Electro<>acústico is the result of that collaboration.

Mauricio Salguero will present world premieres of pieces written specifically for him by composers Rodolfo Acosta, Andrew Cole, Jason Bolte and Eric Honour plus pieces by Jorge Sosa and Mark Snyder. The program combines a cutting edge mix of video, electronic sounds and high tech with the emotional intensity and technical dexterity of Mauricio's playing. Guest artist Rebecca Ashe will join Mauricio on flute performing Asha Srinivasan´s Bapu; an exciting piece based on Indian traditional music.

The four premieres performed by Mauricio, each blending virtuosic clarinet playing with electronics, were inspired by distinctly different sources.  Eric Honour's Quirks explores the composer's own creative quirks: an abiding love of groove and popular music, as well as a on?again, off?again romance with post?minimalist developmental techniques, and something of an infatuation with granular processing.  Rodolfo Acosto's La Espiral Mística (The Mystic Spiral) is a re?reading of the composer's earlier clarinet solo entitled "... de nuevo seremos uno en esta Tierra solrespirante" which quotes the Chorus Mysticus by J.W. von Goethe.  Andrew Cole's Rushing Toward the Singularity is inspired by cyberpunk and the idea of life after the technical singularity, a point at which technological acceleration creates a paradigm shift in our existence, resulting in Artificial Intelligence, human augmentation, and, ultimately, a virtual human existence.  And Jason Bolte's With My Eyes Shut continues the composer's exploration of musical materials derived from the sounds of his daughter's toys. After presenting this recital in Kansas City, Mauricio and composer Christopher Biggs will take it on tour to Universities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Missouri.

Mauricio Salguero plays clarinet and saxophone and teaches at the UMKC Community Academy. His  musical interests span diverse genres, including contemporary, classical and Latin music. Critics have praised him as having "conviction and impressive technique." Mauricio was one of the winners of the  Artist Presentation Society Auditions?2010, and will be performing as part their 2010?11 concert series.  His honors include a 2010 Inspiration Grant from the KCArts fund and the First Prize in the National  Contest of Musical Composition from the Institute of Culture and Tourism City of Bogotá, Colombia. He  was recently featured in the recorded release of Stephen Yip's "Gorintou" on the album Mosaic (Capstone Records, 2010).
 
Rebecca Ashe is a freelance musician and appears across the country as a performer, lecturer, and masterclass clinician. A new music performer and collaborator, she has partnered with several composers and has performed at several festivals, including SPARK, SEAMUS and the Electroacoustic Juke Joint. In 2007, Dr. Ashe collaborated with three composers, Christopher Biggs, Ryan Oldham, and  Jorge Sosa to premiere three new pieces for flute. A recording project for the pieces is underway, with a release expected in 2010.
 
The Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) was founded in 2007 to encourage and develop understanding and appreciation of electronic music and to create an expansive sense of community for electronic musicians and other artists in the Kansas City Area. KcEMA organizes concerts of electronic music and collaborative projects with generative and performing artists. KcEMA provides a forum for electronic musicians and artists in other media to collaborate, exchange ideas, and grow as an interactive, supportive community.  www.kcema.net
Urban Culture Project is an initiative of the Charlotte Street Foundation, an organization dedicated to making Kansas City a place where artists and art thrive. Urban Culture Project creates new opportunities for artists of all disciplines and contributes to urban revitalization by transforming spaces in downtown Kansas City into new venues for multi?disciplinary contemporary arts programming. For more information, visit www.charlottestreet.org.