Briggan Krauss photo by Sarah Manning

Friday, December 16, 8pm
Chapel Performance Space (4649 Sunnyside Ave N)
Suggested donation $5-15
Presented by Nonsequitur

Saxophonist/ guitarist/ composer Briggan Krauss premieres his new project, CLAP, at the Chapel Performance Space on Friday, December 16, as part of Nonsequitur’s Wayward Music Series. The quartet is Krauss on alto saxophone and electric guitar, Wayne Horvitz on keys, Beth Fleenor on clarinet and electronics, and Greg Campbell on percussion.

This project is an important milestone to Krauss, he says, as it formally brings his guitar playing and saxophone playing into the same musical context, and explores how these two instruments can coalesce and share the same orbit.

“I have always been primarily a saxophonist but my music took a dramatic turn about five years ago when I became obsessed with playing the guitar,” he says. “Studying the guitar has changed the way I think about music in so many ways. It has allowed me to experience being a beginner at something again and to gain new perspectives on making music on an instrument that is in many ways completely opposite from the one I’ve dedicated my whole life to playing.”

Taking up a completely new and different instrument, he continues, “is like planting a new seed…. It has brought me forward on so many musical fronts and I am truly inspired and passionate about continuing to see where this journey leads.”

The work’s title, “CLAP” originally came to Krauss as an acronym for “Clear, Loud as An order with Pauses,” which, he says, is how first responders are trained to address others in an emergency.

“This form of communicating can help cut through panic by bringing people back to the present and allowing them to take action,” he says. “Simply clapping your hands can also be a way of bringing yourself to the present moment at a time when you might otherwise be overwhelmed by the chaos of everyday life.”

–Ed., courtesy of Briggan Krauss