Ensemble Son and Either/Or Ensemble

The students are back in Oakland, and that means Music on the Edge is back at work bringing great ensembles to Pittsburgh. This year’s season will open with a double quartet concert featuring Stockholm’s Ensemble Son and New York’s Either/Or. The two contemporary music groups will combine forces to present a concert made entirely of premiere performances. The program includes Dark Flow by Either/Or cofounder and pianist Richard Carrick, Herabouts by Ensemble Son trombonist Ivo Nelson, and works by Keeril Makan (Letting Time Circle Through Us),  Lisa Streich (PAPIROSN), and Zeena Parkins (Circles and Squares). Several of the works will explore spatial relationships, sometimes by placing the performers in different parts of the performance space; sometimes by having different elements of the music unfold on independent, yet interconnected, timelines.

Either/Or is a flexible chamber ensemble based in New York City. Founded in 2004 by pianist/composer Richard Carrick and percussionist David Shively, Either/Or presents compelling new and recent works for unconventional ensemble formations rarely heard elsewhere. The group draws upon its roster, featuring some of New York’s leading interpreters, in programming intense chamber music alongside larger ensemble works. E/O has performed to critical acclaim at Miller Theatre, Merkin Concert Hall, The Kitchen, Philadelphia Museum of Art, MATA Festival, and ICA:Boston, in addition to frequent appearances at experimental music venues such as The Stone, Roulette, and Issue Project Room. Either/Or’s programs have included numerous world, U.S., and New York premieres. These range from major works of American experimental music to rarely heard classics from the dynamic margins of the European avant-garde. In addition to ongoing collaborations with emerging artists, Either/Or has brought distinguished composers such as Helmut Lachenmann (2008), Paolo Aralla (2009), Chaya Czernowin (2010, 2011), Karin Rehnqvist (2012), and Rebecca Saunders (2013) to New York for portrait concerts and lectures through E/O’s Composer’s Atelier series.

Ensemble SON comprises Saxophonist Joergen Pettersson, Guitarist Magnus Andersson, Percussionist Jonny Axelsson, and composer/ trombonist Ivo Nilsson. Some of Sweden’s most adventurous performers, they explore and expand the boundaries of contemporary musical expression both individually and as a group. (What’s more, each of their surnames ends in “son.” Pettersson has his roots in the Stockholm saxophone Quartet and is also active as a soloist and chamber musician. Andersson, one of the world’s leading guitarists in contemporary music, is known for his intimate personal relationship to his material and his audience. Percussionist  Axelsson is a well known interpreter of modern art music and has been involved in several exciting collaborations with artists working beyond the confines of music. Nilsson has premiered many solo and chamber works for the trombone and has made use of electronic sounds and theatrical effects in his performances.

Ensemble Son and Either/Or perform on Saturday, October 5, 8 p.m. at Pitt’s Bellefield Hall Auditorium. Tickets are available through the Pitt Repertory Theatre Box Office, by calling 412-624-7529, or visiting music.pitt.edu/tickets. Tickets in advance: general admission is $15; students and seniors are $10. At the door: general admission is $20; students and seniors are $15. Pitt students free with ID