Music at Washington St. was a series of experimental and improvised music featuring musicians from around New England as well as visiting musicians from around the world. The series was started in 2012 by Morgan Evans-Weiler and Michael Rosenstein and was later co-curated by Michael Rosenstein and Jesse Kenas Collins. The series ended in April 2023 and is no longer active.
A performance of two pieces by John Cage, "Seven2" and "Variations III"
Steve Norton has assembled an ensemble to peform John Cage’s “Seven2,” one of Cage’s late Numbers pieces scored for bass flute, bass clarinet, bass trombone, unspecified percussion, cello and contrabass. In the scores for the number pieces, Cage used time bracketed short fragments to create parts which emerge in and out of silence and the overall tapestry of the ensemble. The ensemble will include Deirdre Viau (bass flute), Tom Plsek (trombone), Val Thompson ('cello), Jane Wang (contrabass), Daniel Levin & Kevin Dacey (percussion) and Steve Norton (bass clarinet).
Also on the bill will be a performance of Cage’s Variations III dedicated to Lou Cohen who arranged performances of Cage’s Variations pieces for a number of years. The score consists 42 transparencies with a circle on each, dropped on a sheet of paper. The result derives the number of actions and the number of variables that characterize an action. While some factors should be planned in advance, the performers should "leave room for unforeseen eventualities"; and that "any other activities are going on at the same time" as the work is performed. The ensemble will include Michael Rosenstein, Howard Marin, Morgan Evans-Weiler, Jesse Kenas-Collins, Chris Johnson, Steve Norton, Walter Wright, Joe Burgio, Seamus Williams, Deirdre Viau, Tom Plsek, Jane Wang, and Lou Bunk.
