Search - Hans Sturm :: FIREFLIGHT

Fireflight's exciting debut features pieces that will attract listeners of world music, new vocal music, modern jazz, and avant-garde improvisation. The eight movement work Sun Suite mixes the brilliant color of the plucked Japanese koto and bass koto with the rich tones of the double bass, exotic African percussion instruments, and virtuosic singing into a wildly creative suite depicting a solar day with interaction between the traditional use of ancient instruments and contemporary musical settings. Smoke is miniature one-movement jazz opera for soprano, tenor saxophone, piano, bass, and drums. An escapist fantasy, Smoke tells a story from the point of view of a nineteenth century woman seeking to escape the oppressive male-dominated, smoke-filled living room, only to find herself suddenly transported into a late twentieth-century jazz club. The music and poetry of Fire, inspired by the high-energy works of artists such as Roscoe Mitchell and Cecil Taylor,! is an abstract portrayal of the inside of an inferno. Fire features dramatic improvisations for bass clarinet and piano. Fireflight is: Mimmi Fulmer, soprano (University of Wisconsin) Elizabeth Falconer, koto and bass koto Les Thimmig, tenor saxophone and bass clarinet (University of Wisconsin) Michael Kocour, piano (Northwestern University) Dane Richeson, percussion (Lawrence Conservatory) Hans Sturm, double bass and composer (Ball State University)