The
Clarinet Monster Series
$10-$15 sliding scale admission for all events
The Clarinet Monster Series initiates BETH CUSTER's role as curator and Composer in Residence at The LAB. Beth is a founding member of the Club Foot Orchestra, Trance Mission, Eighty Mile Beach, Clarinet Thing, Dona Luz 30 Besos, and now leads the Beth Custer Ensemble. She writes music for film, television, dance, theater, museum installations, and the concert stage. Her residency is part of Meet the Composer's New Residencies program and is hosted by The LAB in collaboration with Lise Swenson's TILT and the Joe Goode Performance Group. Funding for New Residencies was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and other generous supporters.
Beth Custer
Clarinet
Thing
Wednesday, February 12, 8 PM
Clarinet Thing returns after a seven-year hiatus. Much hailed
in the Bay Area's underground jazz scene, Clarinet Thing is a quintet
of the Bay Area's finest clarinetists that play original music and arrangements
of jazz classics including works by Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, John
Carter, and Bobby Bradford, as well as original compositions by its members.
Don't miss this very rare performance!
Clarinet Thing is: Sheldon Brown (Omar Sosa, Club Foot Orchestra,
Klezmorim), Ralph Carney (Tom Waits, Devo, B52's, Jonathan Richman), Beth
Custer (Club Foot Orchestra, Trance Mission, Eighty Mile Beach), Ben Goldberg
(New Klezmer Trio, Junk Genius, Brainchild), and Peter Joshef (Earplay,
Paul Dresher, Empyrean Ensemble).
Beth Custer and Miya Masaoka
Wednesday, February 19, 8 PM
Beth Custer and Miya Masaoka tear it up on electric clarinet and koto
improvisations, delivering a psychedelic whirlwind of backbeats and screeches
to calm soundscapes and melodic riffs and raffs. Miya Masakoa is known
as an innovative koto musician, composer and improviser who has recontextualized
the koto, working with the physiological response of plants, human brains,
and insects.
Beth Custer and Miya Masaoka
Workshop and Improvisational Performance
Friday, February 21
Free Workshop: 5-7 PM
Performance: 8 PM
Beth Custer and Miya Masaoka invite all clarinet, koto, gu-zeng, dulcimer,
and zither players to join in a workshop and performance. Players will
be organized into playing short improvised pieces by Custer and Masaoka
while having fun!
Beth Custer and Fred Frith
Wednesday, February 26, 8 PM
Beth Custer and Fred Frith perform duo improvisations. Fred Frith, composer,
improviser and multi-instrumentalist, has situated himself for more than
thirty years in the area where rock music and new music meet. Co-founder
of the British underground band Henry Cow (1968-78), he moved to New York
in the late seventies and came into contact with many of the musicians
with whom he’s since been associated, including John Zorn, Ikue
Mori, Tom Cora, Zeena Parkins, and Bob Ostertag. He is currently Professor
of Composition at Mills College in Oakland.
Beth
Custer and Fred Frith
Workshop and Improvisational Performance
Friday, February 28
Free Workshop: 5-7 PM
Performance: 8 PM
Beth Custer and Fred Frith invite all clarinetists and guitarists to participate
in a workshop performance of game pieces. Custer and Frith will organize
players into playing short improvised pieces.