Wild Up Debuts At The Wallis With Future Folk 'Musical Happening'
By: A.A. Cristi Feb. 26, 2018
wild Up, under the direction of conductor Christopher Rountree, is an adventurous Los Angeles-based chamber orchestra committed to creating visceral, thought-provoking musical happenings. For its debut at The Wallis, wild Up: Future Folk explores music from ancient India, modern California, post-war New York, as well as American works rooted in folk ethos. wild Up: Future Folk takes place Saturday, March 17, 2018 at 7:30pm in the Bram Goldsmith Theater at The Wallis. Classical KUSC's Brian Lauritzen will talk to wild Up's Chris Rountree on the Bram Goldsmith Theater stage starting at 6:30pm.
"wild Up is having a remarkable influence on the classical music landscape, and I love the fact that this surprising and game-changing ensemble of musicians are based here in Los Angeles," said Paul Crewes, The Wallis' Artistic Director. "It would be impossible for me to not program them here at The Wallis."According to wild Up, Future Folk creates a communal concert of sound/noise/experience that celebrates old-world ways of living in the modern era. "Together we will explore the music from Ancient India, modern California, post-war New York, and from American composers that envision a future form of music rooted in folk ethos. As moderns, we stand on the shoulders of the ancients. Their music changes us. Compels us to make and unites us in being. In future folk, we become one." Program
ART JARVINEN: Endless Bummer
ROUNTREE/KALLMYER/CAREY: for La Monte Young
MOONDOG: My Tiny Butterfly
JARVINEN: Egyptian Two Step
Tom Johnson: Narayana's Cows
JULIUS EASTMAN: Stay On It
Meredith Monk: Panda Chant II
FREDERIC RZEWSKI: Attica
SCRIABIN: Mysterium wild Up orchestra includes Erin McKibben, flute; Brian Walsh, clarinets; Archie Carey, bassoon / amplified bassoon; Allen Fogle, horn; Jonah Levy, trumpet; Richard Valitutto, keyboard / elodica; Andrew Tholl, violin / guitar; Andrew McIntosh, viola; Derek Stein, cello; Stephen Pfeifer, bass; Jodie Landau, percussion / voice; Matt Cook, percussion; Derek Tywoniuk, percussion; Chris Kallmyer, guitar and Chris Rountree, artistic director / conductor. The running time for wild Up: Future Folk will be 90 minutes with no intermission. For the complete listing of all Winter @ The Wallis programs visit TheWallis.org/Music. About wild Up:
wild Up is a modern music collective; an adventurous chamber orchestra; a Los Angeles-based group of musicians committed to creating visceral, thought-provoking happenings. wild Up believes that music is a catalyst for shared experiences, and that a concert venue is a place to challenge, excite and ignite a community of listeners. wild Up has been called "Best in Classical Music 2015" and "...a raucous, grungy, irresistibly exuberant...fun-loving, exceptionally virtuosic family" by Zachary Woolfe of The New York Times, "Searing. Penetrating. And thrilling" by Fred Child of Performance Today and "Magnificent" by Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times. The group began in 2010 as a self-funded, grassroots project of wild Up 's Artistic Director and Conductor Christopher Rountree: after graduate school, Rountree returned to Los Angeles wanting to create an ensemble made up of young musicians, a group that would reject classical music's most outdated traditions and embrace unusual venues and programs that throw the classical repertoire into the context of pop culture, new music and performance art. The group's first few concerts at art studios and rock clubs around L.A. created a fervent fanbase of true believers. Then UCLA's Hammer Museum tapped wild Up as the museum's first ever Orchestra in Residence, and after dozens of concerts in the Hammer's halls, courtyards and galleries, the L.A. Times proclaimed the group "Best Classical Music of 2012." It was off to the races, as wild Up began working with musical and cultural institutions around the world. wild Up has been Group in Residence at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Education Ensemble in Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Ensemble in Residence with Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner at the Laguna Beach Music Festival. They played numerous programs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic including the Phil's Brooklyn Festival, Minimalist Jukebox Festival, Next on Grand Festival, and a twelve-hour festival of Los Angeles new music hosted by the LA Phil at Walt Disney Concert Hall called: noon to midnight. They started a multi-year education partnership with the Colburn School, taught Creativity and Consciousness at Bard's Longy School, led composition classes with the American Composers Forum and American Composers Orchestra, created a new opera workshop with The Industry, and founded and an ongoing intensive educational program with the LA Philharmonic in which ten young composers and a faculty of eight legendary composers meet to collaborate on new work. This year wild Up joins Bjork at FYF, they tour the U.S. with two new programs: Future Folk and We the People, with stops in Colorado, Montana, Indiana, New York, Maryland, Virginia and Los Angeles; they headline the LA Phil's second noon to midnight festival with a premiere from Scott Walker; continue the National Composers Intensive with Andrew Norman and the LA Phil; reimagine "In C" and premiere an epic new work of Ellen Reid with the LA Master Chorale; and premiere more than a dozen new works. In the past few seasons, wild Up premiered dozens of new pieces in shows on both coasts including David Lang's "anatomy theater" at LA Opera. They threw a Bach-BQ; helped to resurrect works of Graham, Barber, and Chavez with the Martha Graham Dance Company; yelled with the ghost of Whitney Houston; made an album with Pulitzer finalist Chris Cerrone; flew tumbleweeds to New York; created an evening length program with Ted Hearne; pounded on eight bass drums on the street outside Walt Disney Concert Hall; met three fire marshals; headlined the Carlsbad Music Festival; taught classes on farm sounds, spatial music and John Cage for a thousand middle schoolers; played solo shows at The Getty, celebrated John Adams 70th birthday with a show called "Adams, punk rock and player piano music" at VPAC . While the group is part of the fabric of classical music in L.A., wild Up also embraces indie music collaborations. The group has an album on Bedroom Community Records with Bjork's choir Graduale Nobili, vocalist Jodie Landau, and producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, recorded in Reykjavik,Iceland; premiere they premiered a new opera with Julia Holter; played with composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone and rock band San Fermin under a tyrannosaurus rex at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles; premiered and recorded an opera by Lewis Pesacov of afrobeat band Fool's Gold about the end of the Mayan Calendar; they performed Mica Levi of Micachu and the Shapes' score of the Scarlett Johansson film Under the Skin at the Regent Theater, performed Jon Brion's score to Punch Drunk Love with Joanna Newsom at the ACE Hotel, premiered an orchestral work of Scott Walker at Walt Disney Concert Hall, and played FYF 2017 with Bjork. wild Up has been featured at numerous West Coast cultural spaces including the Music Academy of the West, Santa Barbara Arts and Lectures, the Broad Stage, Valley Performing Arts Center, Zipper Hall at the Colburn School, REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Beyond Baroque, the Armory Center for the Arts, Santa Ana Sites and Echo Park's Jensen Rec Center. Their recordings of Shostakovich, Rzewski, Messiaen, and Los Angeles composers have been featured on KUSC, WNYC, Q2, KPFK, Alex Ross's blog The Rest Is Noise and American Public Media's Performance Today, among many others.
About the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts:
Since opening its doors in October 2013, The Wallis has produced or presented more than 250 dance, theatre, opera, classical music and family programs to an ever-expanding audience. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Paul Crewes and Managing Director Rachel Fine, The Wallis brings audiences world-class theater, dance and music, performed by many of the world's most talented and sought-after artists. Featuring eclectic programming that mirrors the diverse landscape of Los Angeles and its notability as the entertainment capital of the world, The Wallis offers original and revered works from across the U.S. and around the globe. The mission of The Wallis is to create, present and celebrate unique performing arts events and educational programs that reflect the rich cultural diversity of our community. Nominated for 47 Ovation Awards, four L.A. Drama Critic's Circle Awards and the recipient of six architectural awards, The Wallis is a breathtaking 70,000-square-foot venue that celebrates the classic and the modern and was designed by Zoltan E. Pali, FAIA of Studio Pali Fekete architects. The building features the restored, original 1933 Beverly Hills Post Office (on the National Register of Historic Places) that serves as the theater's dramatic yet welcoming lobby, and houses the 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theater, GRoW at The Wallis: A Space for Arts Education (a gift of Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family and the Annenberg Foundation) and the contemporary 500-seat, state-of-the-art Bram Goldsmith Theater. Together, these structures embrace the city's history and its future, creating a performing arts destination for L.A.-area visitors and residents alike. The Official Sponsors of The Wallis' 2017/18 Season include: Delta Air Lines (Official Airline Sponsor), Montage Beverly Hills (Preferred Hotel) and Mercedes-Benz of Beverly Hills (Official Automotive Sponsor).
For more information about The Wallis, please visit: TheWallis.org. Like The Wallis on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
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