Category Archives: Announcements

QCA Grant Awarded

Announcements, , , , ,

QCA logoI’m pleased to learn I’ve just been awarded an Individual Artist grant from the Queens Council on the Arts for my new 2013 project New Sounds of East and West.  This project will further my work in fusing elements of certain East Asian musical traditions with those of modern Jazz and Western orchestral composition, using as a vehicle my 17-piece Jazz ensemble, Project Hansori.  Its performance component will take place in Queens later in 2013, and I’ll make more details public in future announcements.  This is the second such
Community Arts Fund grant I’ve received from the QCA, aside from being selected for their Individual Artist Initiative a few years back, so I must acknowledge a lot of support the council has given me over the years.  New Sounds is funded by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Greater New York Arts Development Fund.

Tomorrow: Catch Project Hansori’s return to stage @ LTS Fest (Reminder)

Announcements

New Yorkers — a reminder that tomorrow at 2pm is Project Hansori’s extraordinary return to the stage in our never-before collaboration of Taiko drumming and Jazz big band at the Locating the Sacred festival, produced by the Asian American Arts Alliance.  I can promise that you will have never seen or heard anything like this, and won’t want to miss this rare opportunity.  Details below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9/16/12: PROJECT HANSORI WITH SOH DAIKO @ LTS FESTIVAL
Sunday September 16, 2012 at 2pm
New York Buddhist Church
331-332 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10025

Check out the event page on the LTS website, and join the Facebook event page here.

September 12-23, 2012 | NYC
Featured Festival Event
THE TEMPLE OF MEMORIES

The New York Buddhist Church on the Upper East Side is the setting for a new and lively collaboration exploring death, remembrance, and deliverance in different traditions and the ties that exist amongst them. Resident Japanese Taiko (drum) ensemble Soh Daiko (meaning “peace, harmony, working together” in Japanese), the first Taiko ensemble established on the East Coast, welcomes Jeff Fairbanks’ Project Hansori (meaning “one sound” in Korean), the acclaimed 18-member Asian-influenced jazz ensemble.

In a two-part program culminating in a shared performance, Soh Daiko and Project Hansori will use the various rooms of the Church to create an all-immersive sonic environment in which the Church is highlighted in its role as a site of memorialization. Featured work will include Soh Daiko’s Nanaori which was composed for the 9/11 Memorial and inspired by the colors and fabrics seen at Shinto shrines and by the chanting of Buddhist priests. It wishes for peace, calm, and harmony. Featured work will also include segments of Project Hansori’s Mulberry Street, a musical work inspired by Fairbanks’ many experiences performing in multicultural Buddhist funerals in Manhattan Chinatown.

Presented by the New York Buddhist Church.

Sanjo for Violin done

Announcements, ,

My latest commission, Sanjo for Violin, is done.  It will be premiered early this Spring (date TBA) at Stony Brook University in Long Island, NY by its commissioner, violinist JongEun Lee.  I was excited to compose this piece for solo violin with piano accompaniment, both because it took me further in a contemporary classical direction (this instrumentation is a first for me), and gave me another outlet for using Korean traditional forms.  I was recommended because of my previous work with Korean music and my formal Jazz background.  This piece, however, forced me to dig deeper than I had before into really learning about Korean music traditions — a task which I was happy to do since it’s already a life-long pursuit of mine.

Ms. Lee asked me to write something based on the famous Korean song Arirang, but done in a contemporary context, using my own style, and theoretically weighty enough to analyze for a doctoral lecture.  Here’s what I came up with: three movements each feature their own traditional song (a Geomungo Sanjo, a Haegeum Sanjo, and Kangwando Arirang), with all three being set in a unique pentatonic scale (there are many variations beyond the black keys of the piano!).  I derived contemporary Western/Jazz harmonies from each song’s scale.  I also weaved the widely-known Arirang into each movement, often in disguise, until it appears more directly in the final section.  I also used the violin to occasionally mimic the geomungo (plucked zither) and haegeum (vertical fiddle) during their respective movements.  In the outer movements the piano and sometimes the violin use rhythms common to the janggu (two-sided drum).  The overall structure of three movements, each increasing in tempo, plus the piece’s function as an instrumental solo feature, both serve to fit this piece into the definition of the Korean musical form called Sanjo (hence the title).

For any Long Islanders (or particularly rabid Jeff Fairbanks or JongEun Lee fans) reading this, I’ll share the date of the performance/lecture when it’s announced.  Looking forward to it!

Tea Lounge 9/6/10 Wrap-up

Announcements

Tea Lounge Wrap-up

The JFJO concert at the Tea Lounge was a blast on Monday night.  The band sounded outstanding, even with limited rehearsal time, some different personnel for this gig, and a couple folks basically sight-reading this difficult music.  Brooklyn saxophonist (and freelance photographer, it turns out) Bob Curtis came out and took a bunch of photos of us in action, which I’ll post when I get them.  Incidentally, he also won the free CD pre-order when his name was drawn from among the email list signees — congrats, Bob!

We also got 16 new email addresses to add to our growing mailing list.  Thanks to Ryan Pate for collecting them.  Nice to also see quite a few returning fans.

9/19 gig canceled

BTW, although it was announced in the last newsletter, I didn’t get a chance to blog about the fact that our 9/19 performance has been canceled.  Actually the entire event, the Gospel Jazz Festival at NY Presbyterian Church, was canceled (or hopefully postponed for a later date).

JF