$15 Cover @ the Door / Start 8pm / Doors 7:30pm / Seated Show
The Creative Music Series Presents
A special contemporary evening of Experimental & New Music:
Alternative solo guitar (microtonal), following sax/guitar improvisations
Featuring:
From Denver, Colorado
2nd set
NEIL HAVERSTICK
Composer, Author and Custom Guitars of alternative tunings: 19, 31, 34, 36-tone, including fretless, beyond western music’s 12-tone way.
PLUS
1st set
Boston’s Umbrella Pine
Magdalena Abrego and Allison Berick
Exploring improvisation and composition with guitar, saxophone, clarinet, vocals and electronics
Neil Haverstick
“Haverstick nor Catler is just dabbling; they put microtones to more savvy uses than a lot of classical composers.” - Village Voice
“…musician, critics and listeners see Haverstick as either a masterful contributor of new music or an abrasive and irritating noise that won’t go away.” - Westword
"Formidable fretboard chops and an affinity for the blues." – International Musician
“Bold and daring, Haverstick ventures into distant aural galaxies.” - Guitar Player
Neil Haverstick was born on September 22, 1951, in St. Louis, Missouri, and started playing guitar in 1965, being highly moved by the music of the Beatles, Yardbirds, Cream, and the general musical atmosphere of the 1960’s. Haverstick is a guitarist, composer, author, and instructor… here’s a few essentials for you press folks…
As a guitarist, the Denver Post called him “one of the most sought after session players in town.” Haverstick has performed zillions of gigs, such as playing and recording with the Colorado Symphony, including appearances with Judy Collins, Bernadette Peters, Diahann Carroll, Tommy Tune, Ferrante and Teicher, and Bill Conti. He has also played in orchestras backing such artists as Bob Hope, Dinah Shore, Hal Linden, Charley Pride, Glen Campbell and others. With his own bands, he has opened shows for B.B.King, Steve Miller, and King Sunny Ade; he has also backed up blues greats Jim Schwall and Joe Houston. As a freelance guitarist he has played blues, jazz, classical, country, flamenco, and folk, as well as plays (Man of La Mancha, Grease, Always Patsy Cline, The Last Five Years, and A Dream Play, performed at the Cleveland Playhouse, with noted director Pavel Dobrusky) and many private functions. He has also appeared on numerous CD projects by Denver artists.
As a composer, Haverstick won Guitar Player magazine’s 1992 Ultimate Guitar Competition (Experimental Division) with a 19 tone piece, “Spider Chimes.” He also won the 1996 arts Innovation Award in Denver for another 19 tone song, “Jimmy and Joe,” and the 1999 Composition Fellowship from the Colorado Council on the Arts. He has 10 CD’s of original music available featuring music in the 19, 34 and 36 tone systems, as well as fretless guitar and Oud. His Microstock festival is in its 11th year, and he has performed at concerts in New York, Los Angeles, El Paso, Albuquerque, Muncie, Bellingham, Boston, Prague, Freiburg, Germany and Den Haag, the Netherlands. His composition “Mysteries” was published in 2007 by Christine Paquelet Edition Arts (www.paqueleteditions.com). Guitar Player mag said of his compositions, “Bold and daring, Haverstick ventures into distant aural galaxies”.
As an author, Haverstick has written for Guitar Player, Downbeat, Vintage Guitar and Cadence magazines, and has written three music theory books. “The Form of No Forms” was praised by the late studio guitarist Tommy Tedesco, who called it “A great book. I am still learning with Neil.” Jazz giant Joe Pass said, “I feel this book offers a new insight into not only playing the guitar, but music and how to understand it. A real book.” Neil’s most recent book, “Harmonics & Spirals, The Code of Music,” is an introduction to the mysteries of the Harmonic Series, the source of all musical intervals.
As an instructor, Haverstick has taught hundreds of students, both privately and at Swallow Hill Music in Denver. He has been a guest speaker at Metro State College, The University of Colorado and The University of Denver. In October 2005, he taught a seminar on microtonal tunings at Berklee College of Music.
Umbrella Pine
Founded in 2013, Umbrella Pine members Magdalena Abrego and Allison Burik “explore possibilities within improvisation and composition” with a unique instrumentation including guitar, saxophone, clarinet, vocals and electronics.
Magdalena Abrego
Magdalena Abrego is a Cambridge-based guitarist. Utilizing the languages of free jazz and experimental rock, Magdalena’s music confronts issues of musical tradition through genre-bending improvisation. Her most recent release is Seven, an album of nine duo compositions written for combinations of alto saxophones, bass clarinet, voice, electric guitar, and electronics. Magdalena maintains an active performance schedule spanning North America and Europe.
In 2018, Magdalena was awarded an Entrepreneurial Musicianship Grant from the New England Conservatory to found INPUT/OUTPUT, a magazine dedicated to supporting women and non-binary artists working in avant-garde, experimental, and improvised music communities in the United States. Issue no. Then, in 2019, Magdalena was awarded a second EM grant from NEC to expand the platform to a podcast series, INPUT/OUTPUT: In Conversation. It features in-depth interviews with women and non-binary individuals working in avant-garde, experimental, and improvised music communities in the U.S.
Allison Berik
Kansas City native Allison Burik is a saxophonist and composer based in Boston. During her time in Kansas City she performed as a featured artist at venues such as the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts, Take Five Coffee+Bar, and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Burik attended Berklee College of Music and received her Bachelors Degree in Performance in 2016. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Contemporary Improvisation at the New England Conservatory while maintaining an active career as a performer. She seeks to explore differing worlds of sonic possibilities through her many projects. Burik has released a solo EP, “Some Days Like This,” (2019) a quartet album, “Mythos,” (2016) and will be releasing a duo album fall of 2019 with guitarist Magdalena Abrego. Their duo goes by the name Umbrella Pine and since 2013 the two have been steadily cultivating their sound through original compositions and improvisation. Burik has been on tour with a number of bands, including Jonah Francese's Thinkin' Big Band, which actively plays in venues across New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Burik went on tour in South Korea with the Dabin Ryu Quintet in July 2019. Over the years Allison has studied with notable musicians including George Garzone, Joe Morris, Ingrid Laubrock, Ran Blake, Carla Kilhstedt, Anthony Coleman, Frank Tiberi, Bobby Watson, Jaleel Shaw, Shannon LeClaire, and Tia Fuller. In August 2017, she attended the Banff Jazz and Creative Music Workshop in Alberta Canada, under the curation of Vijay Iyer. There, she participated in ensembles led by internationally known musicians including Tyshawn Sorey, Imani Uzuri, Matthew Stevens, and Jeremy Pelt.
umbrellapine.bandcamp.com/album/seven
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This program is supported in part by a grant from Cambridge Arts, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.