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An Unusual Quintet - with a Grammy
Akropolis will perform at Howland Cultural Center
After meeting at the University of Michigan, five classically trained musicians formed an unusual ensemble and called themselves the Akropolis Reed Quintet. They will perform on Sunday (Nov. 2) at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon as part of the Howland Chamber Music Circle series.
Founded in 2009, Akropolis is one of the country's first reed quintets. As the group's star began rising, the clarinetist and saxophonist married and it became a nonprofit to apply for grants and expand educational outreach. Earlier this year, Akropolis won a Grammy for best instrumental composition, singling out the song "Strands."
Written by pianist and collaborator Pascal La Beouf, the song fuses jazz and classical. Drummer Christian Euman is all smiles in a video made during the recording session.
The title is apt because the reed instruments reel off call-and-response passages during the beginning and end, weaving the snippets together. During an interlude, the piano drifts off to dreamland before the players build back into a heavy progressive rock-style tsunami of sound that pulls the plug abruptly.
Most wind quintets include flute and French horn, along with oboe, clarinet and bassoon. The repertoire for this grouping stretches to the late 18th century. Akropolis is different because, in addition to two instruments with long jazz pedigrees (sax and clarinet), it includes an oboe, bassoon and bass clarinet, which adds heft at the low end.
Clarinet player Kari Landry credits the 40-year-old Calefax Reed Quintet from the Netherlands for creating the format and nurturing it through commissions and rearrangements of existing works.
"They're our mentors," says Landry. "We're trying to expand the wind-based color palette and classical music in any way we can."
Except for jazzy touches in George Gershwin's symphonic composition "An American in Paris" (arranged by Raaf Hekkema of Calefax), other selections being performed on Sunday will skew toward classical with world influences.
"These few specks of time," by Oswald Huynh (born 1997), presents a "flashy opening that then pulls from his Vietnamese heritage, working in a folk song with stunning compositional technique," says Landry.
The quintet will also perform "A Soulful Nexus," by Derrick Skye (born 1982), who is "coming up on some fame, uses the Persian classical scale system and adds percussive, fun elements," she says.
The group's website is awash in pink, "a visual representation of how we stand out," says Landry. "We use that colorful joy and energy to show that we're not about presenting scary, esoteric or off-putting new music."
Akropolis has commissioned more than 200 works. Its members are in their mid-30s, and Landry foresees a bright future for the configuration.
"There are now hundreds of us - it's a big network," she says. "Other people are creating more music because it's a niche within chamber music, but we hope that in 100 years this instrumentation becomes commonplace, like the string quartet."
The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. The concert begins at 4 p.m. For tickets, which are $35 ($10 for students 25 and younger), see howlandmusic.org/tickets. There is pay-what-you-wish pricing.
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By Highlands CurrentAkropolis will perform at Howland Cultural Center
After meeting at the University of Michigan, five classically trained musicians formed an unusual ensemble and called themselves the Akropolis Reed Quintet. They will perform on Sunday (Nov. 2) at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon as part of the Howland Chamber Music Circle series.
Founded in 2009, Akropolis is one of the country's first reed quintets. As the group's star began rising, the clarinetist and saxophonist married and it became a nonprofit to apply for grants and expand educational outreach. Earlier this year, Akropolis won a Grammy for best instrumental composition, singling out the song "Strands."
Written by pianist and collaborator Pascal La Beouf, the song fuses jazz and classical. Drummer Christian Euman is all smiles in a video made during the recording session.
The title is apt because the reed instruments reel off call-and-response passages during the beginning and end, weaving the snippets together. During an interlude, the piano drifts off to dreamland before the players build back into a heavy progressive rock-style tsunami of sound that pulls the plug abruptly.
Most wind quintets include flute and French horn, along with oboe, clarinet and bassoon. The repertoire for this grouping stretches to the late 18th century. Akropolis is different because, in addition to two instruments with long jazz pedigrees (sax and clarinet), it includes an oboe, bassoon and bass clarinet, which adds heft at the low end.
Clarinet player Kari Landry credits the 40-year-old Calefax Reed Quintet from the Netherlands for creating the format and nurturing it through commissions and rearrangements of existing works.
"They're our mentors," says Landry. "We're trying to expand the wind-based color palette and classical music in any way we can."
Except for jazzy touches in George Gershwin's symphonic composition "An American in Paris" (arranged by Raaf Hekkema of Calefax), other selections being performed on Sunday will skew toward classical with world influences.
"These few specks of time," by Oswald Huynh (born 1997), presents a "flashy opening that then pulls from his Vietnamese heritage, working in a folk song with stunning compositional technique," says Landry.
The quintet will also perform "A Soulful Nexus," by Derrick Skye (born 1982), who is "coming up on some fame, uses the Persian classical scale system and adds percussive, fun elements," she says.
The group's website is awash in pink, "a visual representation of how we stand out," says Landry. "We use that colorful joy and energy to show that we're not about presenting scary, esoteric or off-putting new music."
Akropolis has commissioned more than 200 works. Its members are in their mid-30s, and Landry foresees a bright future for the configuration.
"There are now hundreds of us - it's a big network," she says. "Other people are creating more music because it's a niche within chamber music, but we hope that in 100 years this instrumentation becomes commonplace, like the string quartet."
The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. The concert begins at 4 p.m. For tickets, which are $35 ($10 for students 25 and younger), see howlandmusic.org/tickets. There is pay-what-you-wish pricing.