Ever Present Orchestra at Fringearts

Works by Alvin Lucier

Ars Nova Workshop and FringeArts are pleased to present the Philadelphia premiere of the Ever Present Orchestra, a 12-piece ensemble dedicated to performing the music of experimental music composer Alvin Lucier. The concert will also celebrate the publication of a new Lucier box set featuring four vinyl LPs, a CD, and a book with essays, interviews, scientific articles and archival photos, edited by EPO Artistic Director Bernhard Rietbrock.

The Ever Present Orchestra, based in Berlin and Zurich, was founded on the occasion of a festival celebrating American composer Alvin Lucier’s 85th birthday. The orchestra attempts to make Lucier’s beating-pattern-focused instrumental music approachable to a wide audience with its uncommon instrumentation of four electric guitars, three saxophones, four violins and a piano. Along with classical musicians, the EPO features prominent Lucier interpreters from other genres such as experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi....

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Works by Alvin Lucier

Ars Nova Workshop and FringeArts are pleased to present the Philadelphia premiere of the Ever Present Orchestra, a 12-piece ensemble dedicated to performing the music of experimental music composer Alvin Lucier. The concert will also celebrate the publication of a new Lucier box set featuring four vinyl LPs, a CD, and a book with essays, interviews, scientific articles and archival photos, edited by EPO Artistic Director Bernhard Rietbrock.

The Ever Present Orchestra, based in Berlin and Zurich, was founded on the occasion of a festival celebrating American composer Alvin Lucier’s 85th birthday. The orchestra attempts to make Lucier’s beating-pattern-focused instrumental music approachable to a wide audience with its uncommon instrumentation of four electric guitars, three saxophones, four violins and a piano. Along with classical musicians, the EPO features prominent Lucier interpreters from other genres such as experimental guitarist Oren Ambarchi.

The evening’s repertoire is highlighted by Double Cross-Hatch (2017), a new piece composed by Lucier specifically for the EPO. The line-up also includes: Criss-Cross (2013), a piece written for two guitars, and adaptations of existing works Hanover (2015), originally written for the Dartmouth College Jazz Band, Braid (2012), and Two Circles (2012).

Alvin Lucier is an American composer of experimental music and sound installations that explore acoustic phenomena and auditory perception. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Arts Union, which also included Robert Ashley, David Behrman, and Gordon Mumma. Much of his work is influenced by science and explores the physical properties of sound itself: resonance of spaces, phase interference between closely tuned pitches, and the transmission of sound through physical media.

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