Photo by Daniel Sheehan

Wayne Horvitz’s new major chamber-music work, These Hills of Glory, is composed for string quartet and improvising soloist. Tonight the piece is performed by Carla Kihlstedt (violin) and the Odeonquartet, a world-renowned chamber group featuring Seattle Symphony musicians. Featured in the performance are pianist Cristina Valdes, flutist Paul Taub, and Seattle Symphony clarinetist, Laura DeLuca. Featured soloist Carla Kihlstedt has played the violin for near her entire life, and it has been the primary vehicle in her growth as a musician. Beginning primarily in classical music, she has become a singer, composer, and improviser, and a member of several long-term projects, including 2 Foot Yard, Tin Hat, and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Surrounding These Hills of Glory are such vital topics as incorporating improvisation into structured composition, the intersection of experimental-, popular-, and concert-music aesthetics and techniques, and where improvisation ends and composition begins.

This project has been made possible by the NEA as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius.