Nik Bärtsch and RONIN: Full Band Workshop

Posted on February 21, 2024 by scadmin

Internationally-acclaimed Swiss pianist Nik Bärtsch & his Zen Funk quartet Ronin

present a full-band Masterclass entitled

“Polymetric Band Organism: Blending, Moving, Togetherness”

Sunday March 31, 2024 / 11am – 4pm PST

@ the legendary London Bridge Studio

RSVP: Steve Ball workshop@steveball.com

INFO: www.tinyorchestralmoments.com/NB


SEATTLE, WA – March 31, 2024 – You are invited to join a Masterclass for listeners and musicians, all are welcome, no musical experience or ability is required.

The workshop is a participatory experience demonstrating how Nik and his band work together to craft their distinctive sound grounded in polymeter and precision. Ronin music consistently follows the same aesthetic vision under various instrumental guises: creating the maximum effect by minimal means, a principle that has guided their decades of work with Ritual Groove Music.

The workshop complements the band’s Saturday March 30th show at the Triple Door in Seattle. The masterclass aspires to be an enlightening experience for all attendees, offering a deeper understanding of the band’s music and their unique approach to composition, improvisation and performance.

The workshop fee is $150 / or $99 for students, and we have a few scholarships available from our generous sponsors, Seattle Circle, the Seattle Composers Alliance, and Tiny Orchestral Moments.

Space is limited, so please reserve early.

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Saturday Guitar Circle – Open Workshops

Posted on September 26, 2023 by steveball

The Seattle Guitar Circle is excited to announce that we will be hosting monthly Guitar Circle workshops, beginning September 30th. These are open to anyone with an interest in playing and listening with other guitarists and musicians, presented within the context of the Guitar Craft and Guitar Circle body of work.

We’ll be meeting at the Phinney Community Center from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm in Room 7 in the main blue building.

Phinney Community Center
6532 Phinney Ave N
Seattle, WA 98103

Chairs are available, but if you have a comfortable stool that you like to use, please feel free to bring it along. Some light movement will be involved, so comfortable dress is encouraged as well.

We will be passing the hat to cover the rental of the space, but thanks to sponsorship by the Seattle Circle NFP, any financial contributions will be entirely voluntary, though appreciated.

Here are the dates for this fall:

September 30th
October 28th
November 18th
December 16th

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Seattle Guitar Circle: July Workshop

Posted on June 28, 2023 by scadmin

The ‘Simple Songs‘ team within the Seattle Guitar Circle is hosting a weeklong workshop from July 2-6th including a live performance challenge on the evening of Wed July 5th at the Chapel in Seattle.

Repertoire included compositions by Charles Ives, Chick Corea, Merredith Monk, Hanai Rani, John Coltrane, Leo Brouwer, Erik Satie – and well as new and classic pieces by longtime group members Curt Golden, Steve Ball, Jaxie Binder, Greg Meredith.

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Musically Inclusive Improvisation Calisthenics

Posted on May 14, 2023 by scadmin

A new 9-week series of Musically Inclusive Improvisation Calisthenics is underway now, May 4th – June 29th, every Thursday evening from 8:30pm to 10:00pm PST. Most meetings will happen chez Steve Ball in Redmond WA, however, we will also be venturing out to host meetings all over the Seattle area throughout the series. Please email steveball at steveball dot com if you’d like to attend, be added to the MIIC mailing list or learn more.

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Sunday Simple Songs: Spring 2023

Posted on May 14, 2023 by scadmin

Continuing in spring of 2023, a small group from the Seattle Circle community is meeting on Sunday mornings (sitting 9:30, coffee 10:00, guitar circle work 10:30 – noon. Our focus is on presenting, arranging and learning ‘simple songs’ brought in by participants: new covers and (especially) new originals, sections and experiments. Circulations, Improvisation seeds – and even SGC classic repertoire. Please email admin@seattlecircle.org if you wish to participate or learn more.

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Sunday Simple Songs: Fall 2022

Posted on October 23, 2022 by scadmin

Beginning fall 2022, a small group from the Seattle Circle community is meeting on Sunday mornings to focus on arranging and learning ‘simple songs.’ Please email admin@seattlecircle.org if you wish to participate or learn more.

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Tiny Orchestral Moments: Performance at Kirkland Performance Center

Posted on August 17, 2019 by scadmin

YOU are invited to a once-in-a-lifetime Tiny Orchestral Moments Performance

Wednesday August 28th 2019 @ Kirkland Performance Center (get Tickets here)

Tiny Orchestral Moments performs collaborative repertoire for layered guitars, voices, violins, winds, percussion and drums — including structured improvisation that sounds composed, and composed collaboration that sounds improvised. The show unfolds in 360-degrees as 28+ Master musicians move in and around the audience. Immersive surround-sound is complemented by ambient video and an orchestra of precise guitarists drawn from top veterans of legendary Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists, including the California Guitar Trio and Electric Gauchos. This orchestra of guitars is joined by prog legend Julie Slick (Adrian Belew/EchoTest) and Seattle music legends Beth Fleenor and Amy Denio. TOM also features a dizzying array of masterful guests including LA-based violinist Nora Germain, New Zealand-based guitarist Nigel Gavin, Philadelphia-based pianist Aileen Bunch.

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Weekly Workshops: Musically Inclusive Improvisation Calisthenics

Posted on November 28, 2018 by scadmin

Acoustic musicians in the Seattle and East Side area are invited to participate in a continuing series of weekly, 90-minute “Musically Inclusive Improvisation Calisthenics” sessions designed to increase our collective musical energy.

Like yoga, this is a guided process that stretches hands, ears and hearts in a warm and safe setting.

This work accommodates all levels in an inclusive, engaging, musical work-out. The only pre-requisite is a commitment to presence, play, listening, learning, and willingness to find and work at your own edge.

Who: Absolute beginners all the way to experienced guitarists, string players, wind, percussion, voices, all acoustic instruments, even portable electric instruments are welcome.

Listeners are also welcome to offer presence, listening, meditation and / or goodwill.

Why this work?

1. to cultivate personal presence, developing focus and stamina,
2. to unleash creativity via group practice,
3. to develop and strengthen personal discipline,
4. to expand listening skills, and
5. to invite Music into our lives in a practical way.

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Here is a MeetUp group to make it easier to track attendance and logistics from week to week:

https://www.meetup.com/Musically-Inclusive-Improvisation-Calisthenics/
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Tiny Orchestral Moments: Documentary

Posted on November 27, 2018 by scadmin

Seattle Circle has been sponsoring the international Tiny Orchestral Moments project since its beginning in January 2016.

Over the past three years, the Seattle Circle-sponsored TOM project has hosted four week-long annual workshops,

  1. TOM I: Residential Writing / Performance / Recording Retreat August 2016
  2. TOM II:  Residential Writing / Performance / Recording Retreat August 2017
  3. TOM Spin-Off: TROOT Recording Retreat, October 2017
  4. TOM III: Residential Writing / Performance / Recording Retreat August 2018

six Weekend Workshops,

  1. Seattle Guitar Work Weekend 1, Theme: Sustainable Work, June 2017
  2. Seattle Guitar Work Weekend 2, Theme: Orchestral Management, Sept 2017
  3. Seattle Guitar Work Weekend 3, Theme: Avast Improvisation Exploration, Feb 2018
  4. Seattle Guitar Work Weekend 4, Theme: Bass Camp, Feb 2018
  5. Seattle Guitar Work Weekend 5, Theme: RChain Performance Prep, Feb 2018
  6. Seattle Guitar Work Weekend 6, Theme: SeaProg Performance Prep, June 2018

and over 120 weekly Musically Inclusive Improvisation Calisthenics workshops in Seattle.

During the last few workshops, a local documentary director, Louise Amandes has been filming the TOM story, and we are working with her to raise funds to complete, release and distribute her film about this international team of musicians working in the Seattle are to bring new music – and a new way of collaborating — into the local community.

TOM Workshops are based upon two fundamental principles:

  1. Inclusion – we work and collaborate with beginners, practicing musicians and masters
  2. Continuous Improvisation – a necessary skill based in listening, harmonization, and flexibility required for transforming how we work, play and live together in harmony within a diverse, complex, global culture.
  3. Invitation to Collaboration – we invite masters from outside the Seattle area to come cross-pollinate across geographies, genres, gender and generations.

To learn more about this project and the documentary under development, check out the following video:

Special Guests for Recent Workshops

Seattle Guitar Work Weekend Special Guests

Residential Workshops Special Guests

TOM I

  • Petra Haden (Los Angeles, singer / violin player, daughter of Charlie Haden)
  • Patrick Grant (NYC composer / pianist / guitarist, found of Strange Music Day)

TOM II

  • Janet Feder (Denver-based composer / prepared guitarist)
  • Martin de Aguirre (Madrid-based guitarists / producer / composer)

TOM III

  • Beth Fleenor (Seattle legend, clarinet / voie)
  • Alex Anthony Faide (Buenos Aires-based guitarist)

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New: Parsing the Circle Video

Posted on July 6, 2018 by scadmin

This video represents a moment in time. It is part of an ongoing exploration by the guitarists of Seattle Circle. Working with “circulation” techniques developed over a period of more than 30 years, they use the geometry of the circle to reveal the nature and qualities of numbers within a harmonic context.

In this video the guitarists are looking into the particular qualities of seven. Each player has an assigned note within the C Harmonic Minor scale. Moving through the scale/circle in seconds, thirds, fourths, and so on, something of the nature of seven is revealed.

Using software developed by Travis Metcalf, they are able to demonstrate the geometry of these relationships in a graphic way. Part of the aim of this project is to find ways to integrate this technology into live performance.

 

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