[photo credit: Sierra Madre Playhouse]
Brightwork newmusic teams with People Inside Electronics for “New Music Game Night!” at 8 p.m., a program of game-inspired contemporary works. The centerpieces include Cristina Lord’s choose-your-own-adventure piece based on Kafka’s “Metamorphosis” and Isaac Schankler’s polyrhythm game “The Six-Body Problem.” Also on the program are works by Los Angeles composers Siobhán Dougall — whose contribution is a new work made with Jen Wang — and Richard An, alongside pieces by Danny Clay, David McBride, inti figgis-vizueta and John White, and John Cage’s “Living Room Music.”
The premise is less novelty than method. Games have rules, chance and players who make decisions in real time — which is a fair description of a good deal of postwar experimental music. Cage’s “Living Room Music,” scored for household objects, has been making that argument for decades.
Brightwork newmusic is a Los Angeles chamber sextet formed in 2013 by pianist Aron Kallay, built around piano, violin, cello, flute, clarinet and percussion. The ensemble commissions living composers, premieres their work, and — in its own framing — invites listeners into the creative process. The Los Angeles Times has called the group dazzling. Kallay, the artistic director, performs alongside Sara Andon on flute, Brian Walsh on clarinet, Shalini Vijayan on violin, Maggie Parkins on cello and Nick Terry on percussion.
The Playhouse, a nonprofit 99-seat theater founded in 1924, has hosted Brightwork repeatedly this season as part of an ongoing residency.
Bring a competitive streak.
“New Music Game Night!” will be performed on Saturday, August 22 at 8 p.m. Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. For more information, call (626) 355-4318 or visit sierramadreplayhouse.org. Tickets: $12 to $35.
