NACUSA SF Showcase at C4NM

Last night the Center for New Music (C4NM) streamed the latest showcase of new works written by members of the Bay Area Chapter of the NACUSA (National Association of the Composers of the United States of America), usually referred to as NACUSA SF. The title of the program was Solo but Not Alone, since all of the works were written for a single performer. In order of appearance, those performers were percussionist Haruka Fujii, harpist Jennifer R. Ellis, pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi, violist Lucia Kobza, and clarinetist Rachel Condry. The program itself consisted of eleven works, each by a different composer.

I have to say that I tend to shy away from lengthy “showcase” presentations, since they tend to come across as “just one damn thing after another.” When a particular offering appeals to the attention, one has no time to reflect on it as the next offering begins. When one is displeased by an offering, regardless of its length, it feels like it is going on forever. Taking all factors into account, the experience offers little to the listener, with perhaps a bit more for the performer. The composer is likely to be frustrated by having to compete (and, yes, that is what it feels like on the audience side) with so many other offerings.

Looking back over the program listing, I realize that my strongest memory was a negative one. The harp solo “Tomorrow on Yesterday” by Greg A Steinke was at the top of the list in the “feels like it is going on forever” category. There was only so much attention I could devote to Ellis’ prodigious technical work required to do justice to the score, but one ought to expect more than technical display.

Composer Corliss Kimmel with Zeppelin, the first of the four cats portrayed in her Carnival of the Cats suite (screen shot from the video being discussed)

I suppose my most positive impression was of Corliss Kimmel’s four-movement suite for solo clarinet, Carnival of the Cats. However, I think that the cat photographs drew my attention more than the “sound effects” coming from Condry’s clarinet performance. Unless I am mistaken, our own cat, Daphne Arabella, slept through it all, leaving me to wonder if Richard Strauss would have done the same.