User:Alexjacobowitz/"spectrum ensemble"


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Spectrum Ensemble

NEW ARTICLE NAME: Spectrum Ensemble (instead of "spectrum ensemble")

New Article content includes:

Spectrum Ensemble is a non-profit organization, one of perhaps three music ensembles in the United States that exclusively program LGBT music, that is, works by LGBT composers. (Another is ChamberQUEER in Brooklyn, New York.)

Biography: Stephen Hall (from Chicago) and Jaime Esposito (from Dallas) met while they were both studying classical percussion at Northwestern University. Stephen Hall has won the Individual Keyboards competition of DCI with the Santa Clara Vanguard in 2011, and studied solo marimba with She-e Wu among others, and briefly with Alex Jacobowitz in Berlin; Jaime Esposito has studied with Robert Schietroma, and she has been an Ambassador Artist with the World Percussion Group and Heartland Marimba Quartet.

The Spectrum Ensemble's first concert was May 4, 2019, in Denton, Texas, at which four composers' works were premiered:


 * L.J. White: Cog
 * Luke Ellard: Speak over
 * Keven Rosacia: Golden Gate
 * Derek Tywoniuk: Dorothy Fragments (2019)

Composer Alex Temple's Ah yes, the three genders... was written for and premiered by the Spectrum Ensemble at the Percussive Arts Society International Conference on November 14, 2019 in Indianapolis.

In addition to performing new music, Spectrum Ensemble performs works of classical LGBT composers.

“In this program we shed a new light on the queer identity of some of your favorite composers like Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) and Samuel Barber (1910-1981). We also perform world premiers of works specially commissioned by four wonderful LGBTQ composers who produce some of the most exciting new music of our time.” - From the Denton concert's program notes.

The Spectrum Ensemble performs mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. Concerts after May 2020 were mostly canceled due to the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic.