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the EAR Unit
24th Anniversary Season!
ELECTRIFYING
NEW MUSIC
Members:
Band Biography
"Wizards of new music." LA Daily News
"The EAR Unit performs with exuberance and razor sharp precision." New York Times
"The California EAR Unit, d'excellents musiciens...un ensemble de tres grand qualite." La Province (Brussels)
"The exhilaration in their playing, as they plunge with glorious high spirits and dazzling skill into the world's most daunting repertoire...should be reward enough for anybody." LA Style
These are just a few of the national and international press accolades garnered by the California EAR Unit in its sixteen-year history. The Los Angeles-based new music ensemble is dedicated to the performance, promotion and creation of the exciting music of our time. Founded in 1981, the EAR Unit has brought unparalleled versatility, virtuosity and dedication to its performances and is recognized today as one of America's finest contemporary chamber ensembles.
The California EAR Unit is a chamber ensemble dedicated to the creation, performance, and promotion of the music of our time. The Unit was founded in March 1981 by a group of performers and composers with the goal of developing the first true repertory ensemble for new music in Los Angeles. As a result of its long and fruitful history, the Unit has achieved a flexibility and rapport rare in contemporary music, and has earned an international reputation as one of America's finest contemporary chamber ensembles. For its contributions to the field of contemporary American music, the ensemble has recently garnered awards from the LA Weekly (Best Classical Ensemble) and the 1999 "Letter of Distinction" from the American Music Center, and "Best of the Year" from on-line CD NOW.
The Unit has performed at major venues all over the world including Tanglewood, Brussels, Aspen, Kiev, Paris, the Kennedy Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Cologne, New York, Boston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Amsterdam, Reykjavik, and many places in between. The ensemble has been featured in documentaries for the BBC and Japanese television and many of their concerts have been broadcast by American and National Public Radio, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Danish National Radio, WGBH's "Art of the States" Program, the International Rostrum of Composers and live over the Internet in "Virtual Concert."
Since 1987 the EAR Unit has been Ensemble-in-Residence at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, performing in that time over 500 premieres by both local and internationally known composers. The Unit has collaborated with such artists as Rachel Rosenthal, Lula Washington and the Contemporary Dance Theater, Wadada Leo Smith, and Don Preston, among others. In addition, the EAR Unit has presented children's workshops to children in the LA area, (particularly in at-risk and underserved areas) reaching close to 10,000 children annually.
The EAR Unit has recorded for Nonesuch, Crystal, New Albion, New World,
Tzadik, O.O. Discs, Bridge, and Cambria labels. Recent CDs for the 2003-04 season include a three CD Series of EAR Unit repertoire on the Echograph label and chamber works of Pulitzer Prize winning Los Angeles composer Mel Powell.
Amy Knoles
SonicResolution
29654 Driver Avenue
Castaic, CA 91384
Ph (661) 775-9975, Fax (661) 775-3855
Mobile (213) 840-UNIT
E-mail: Amy Knoles
Members
Vicki Ray (Piano) Pianist Vicki Ray performs widely as a soloist and collaborative artist. She is a member of the award winning California E.A.R. Unit and Xtet. As a founding member of PianoSpheres, an acclaimed solo piano series dedicated to exploring the less familiar realms of the piano repertoire, her playing has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times for “displaying that kind of musical thoroughness and technical panache that puts a composer’s thoughts directly before the listener.” A long-time champion of new music Ms. Ray has had works written for by composers John Adams, Paul Dresher, Stephen Hartke, Kamran Ince, Shaun Naidoo and many others. In 1989 she was the first place winner in the National Association of Composers USA competition for performers of contemporary music. Ms.Ray has been featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the German ensemble Compania and the Blue Rider Ensemble of Toronto with whom she made the first Canadian recording of Pierrot Lunaire. She has played on various national and international festivals including the Salzburg Festival, the Berlin 750 Jahre Festival and the Ojai Festival where she premiered a new concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle. Her solo recording from the left edge, a collection of works written for her by composers living in California can be found on the CRI label. As a pianist who excels in a wide range of styles Ms.Ray’s numerous recordings cover everything from the semi-improvised structures of Wadada Leo Smith to the twisted groove base of John Adam’s Road Movies, from the elegant serialism of Mel Powell to the austere beauty of Morton Feldmans’ Crippled Symmetries. Ms. Ray has been a member of the piano faculty at the California Institute of the Arts since 1991.
Dorothy Stone (Flute, Composer, Conductor)DOROTHY STONE, flutist, composer and conductor has been active on the vanguard of the international contemporary music scene for over twenty years and has been consistently hailed for her virtuosic and persuasive interpretations of the latest literature.
Ms. Stone is a founding member of the highly acclaimed California EAR Unit, Ensemble in Residence at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She has performed as soloist throughout the United States and Europe as well as for National Public Radio and WGBH’s Art of the States Program. She has built a custom live electronic system for her solo flute composition Wizard Ball which has received prizes from the International League of Women Composers, the Freeman Composition Contest, and the Ars Electronica Festival.
Ms. Stone has recorded for Crystal, New Albion, Cambria, Newport Classics,O.O. Discs, Tzadik, CRI/Emergency, the Nonesuch Record labels, and the Voyager label in CD-ROM format. Her solo album for New World Records entitled None but the Lonely Flute includes works by Milton Babbitt, Stephen L. Mosko (both written especially for her), John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Kathryn Alexander. Her recording of Morton Feldman's four hour trio "for Philip Guston" was awarded “Best Classical CD” by CDNow.
Amy Knoles, Biography-Amy Knoles
Amy Knoles, currently touring the program SACRED COW with Butoh artist Michael Sakamoto, tours globally performing computer assisted live electronic music with percussion controllers and interactive video. Her work has been described as being of "frightening beauty, fascinating, complex" -N.P.R. A "Los Angeles' new music Luminary, infinitely variable, infinitely fascinating" - Los Angeles Times. Amy is the recipient of the “2006 Meet The Composer Commissioninng Music Award” to create the piece SCRED COW, the 2005 American Composers Forum Subito Grant 2007 & 2005, the Durfee Grant - 2003, "UNESCO International Prize for the Performing Arts - 2000", the 1999-2000 "Individual Artist Fellowship" Award from C.O.L.A., the 2001 Lester Horton Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music for Dance", and she was the 1996 ASCAP Foundation " Composer-in-Residence at the Music Center of Los Angeles", recently created a sound environment for the J. Paul Getty Museums' walking tour, and is the composer for Collage Dance Theater.
Amy has been the Executive Director of the California E.A.R. Unit for twenty-five years (recently awarded the "Letter of distinction" from the American Music Center), which had been the Ensemble in Residence at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for nineteen years, who've now moved their series to REDCAT. She has also worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Kronos Quartet, Pierre Boulez, Rachel Rosenthal, NatPlast, Squint, Ensemble Modern of Frankfurt, The Bang On A Can All Stars, The Paul Dresher Ensemble, Collage Dance Theater, Basso Bongo, and Squint performing with live electronics and interactive video. And has worked with John Cage, Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman, Louis Andriessen, Don Preston, Frank Zappa, Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Tod Machover, Flea, Quincy Jones, and many others.
Amy has recorded nearly 30 CD's of new music and is proud to announce the release of her solo recordings "Men in the Cities" and 2 x 10 x 10 x 10 + 1", on the Echograph Label.
Erica Duke-Kirkpatrick, cellist, is an active soloist, chamber musician, and specialist in contemporary music. She has performed in premieres of solo and chamber works throughout the US, Central and South America, and Europe with appearances at New Music America, the Manca Festival in Nice, Ars Electronica in Linz, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Computer Music Festival in Zurich, Tanglewood, Aspen, and Ravinia festivals, and the San Francisco Symphony "New and Unusual Music" series. Ms. Kirkpatrick has had works written especially for her by major composers including Mel Powell, Alvin Lucier, Elliott Carter, and Morton Subotnick, with whom she has toured and recorded since 1981. Ms. Kirkpatrick is also solo cellist of the Santa Fe Pro Musica, and was principal cellist of the 1986 Ojai Festival Orchestra and the Bloch Festival Orchestra at Newport, Oregon. A founding member of the Ear Unit, she is on the faculty at California Institute of the Arts and the University of California at San Diego. Ms. Kirkpatrick has recorded for Nonesuch, Wergo, New Albion, Voyager, and Cold Blue records.