Jack Gabel's Through a gentle Rain, performed by
Tessa Brinckman and Mitsuki Dazai, on the NPM CD release
Glass Sky as sound track in
new slide-show Okinawa 1965-66 by Katherine O'Connor
Jack Gabel's Surnella
neglecta (piano solo), performed by
Alexander Schwarzkopf; May 20, 2017, on Cascadia Composers Sense of
Place concert, at Colonial Heights Prebyterian Church, Portland, Oregon
Recent Events
STURNELLA NEGLECTA for piano solo
Sara Daneshpour (piano)
Portland Piano International commission premiere
November 3 - 6, 2016
McMinnville, Milwaukie, Portland, Hood River, Oregon
SOUNDING THE FURIES for alto sax and digital media
Tom Bergeron (sax), Takafumi Uehara (video)
October 3 - 4, 2015
BODYVOX Studio, Portland, Oregon
FJORD for SATB a capella choir
October 5th, 2014
First Presbyterian Church of Portland Portland,
Oregon
May 17th Agnes Flanagan Chapel,
Lewis & Clark College
May 18th Lincoln Recital Hall
Portland State University
Resonance performed new music from the Pacific Northwest and Scandinavia
exploring the beauty and spiritual connection of the natural world.
Performance included the world premiere of Jack Gabel's The Moon's Passing Smile.
The Stravinsky Project
Jack Gabel's contribution: 'Ritual March of the Ancestors Moderne'
one of 10 one-minute marches,
based on themes from Stravinsky's 'The Rite of Spring', commissioned by
Bob Priest for
Portland's 2013 March Music Moderne, perfromed by the Free Marz String
Trio
Friday 8 March
Community Music Center
8 pm - free
Brian McWhorter and Florian Conzetti perfrom DIAMETER X
in the lobby of Portland Center Stage Gerding Theatre at the Armory
photo by Takafumi Uehara
DIAMETERS WORLD PREMIERE
Part the First
Thursday February 7 (2013) Arts Walk in the Pearl - a rare opportunity
to hear the entire set performed (DIAMETER I through XII - scores detailed here).
DIAMETERS is a set of 12 duets, each for a different orchestral
instrument and set of percussion instruments. Each is under five minutes
in duration and designed to be programmable in any combination. This
video is from the premiere performance of the entire set at the Gerding
Theater at the Armory, Portland, Oregon, February 7, 2013 — a rare
opportunity to hear the entire set performed (DIAMETER I through XII,
back to back).
Moreover, the performance was uniquely staged in the Gerding Theater
lobby, with percussion instruments spread across the main floor and
musicians arrayed around the Mezzanine balcony. Not a typical "concert,"
as the audience mingled around performers and instruments.
Much is written in the early 21st C. about crashing the so-called 'iron
curtain' between Western Classical Music (in the concert hall tradition)
and Popular Music (in the street or public house tradition).
Unfortunately, the discussion is too often over musical language, style,
affectation, attitude, etc.. Staging and accessibility are perhaps as
important, if not more so. Typically, hybrid or crossover creations are
held up as breakthrough successes, but too often leave little substance
in their wake. Another option is presenting aesthetically substantial
work in unusual contexts. Either as a 'destination' event or a
'discovery', challenging expectations and achieving memorable stature.
This performance and post-production is supported in part by Cascadia
Composers, Northwest New Music, Portland Center Stage Gerding Theatre at
the Armory, Ronni Lacroute / WillaKenzie Estate, Regional Arts and
Culture Council, Oregon Arts Commission, Oregon Music Teachers
Association; Anna Laska, Kasia Kosciuszko; Agnieszka Laska Dancers
Jack Gabel has written numerous concert hall works for many different
combinations of instruments and voices, with and without electroacoustic
accompaniments. He also creates mixed-media works. As Agnieszka Laska
Dancers' Resident Composer, his musical output for the past 10 years is
primarily programatic work for the dance theatre stage -- intimate
dances like SPRING QUARTET and the award-wining multi-media-performance
movie THE FALL '01. Returning to his DIAMETERS series (started 1980 as a
graduate student and completed 2011 on an Oregon Arts Commission
Fellowship), a rarely heard, abstract side to Gabel's music comes to the
fore.
Island Phantasy
Presented by Cascadia
Composers, a chapter of the National Association of Composers, USA.
Recorded live on October 20, 2012, at St. Anne's Chapel, Marylhurst
University, Marylhurst, OR. Performed by Tylor Neist (violin
1), Lucia Conrad (violin 2), Marissa Winship (viola), and Diane Chaplin
(cello).
video
Six Diameters (II, III, V, VIII, X,
XI)
Oregon Music
Teachers Association Composer of the Year performance Skamania
Lodge, Stevenson, Washington
Performed by Brita Horlings, cello; Noah
Weiner, oboe; Samuel Zacharia, viola; Annika Horlings, clarine; Jonathan
DeBruyn, violin; Nick Halsey, trumpet; Ian Kerr, percussion
July, 29, 2012 (vcl., vln., ob.,
cl, vla, tpt., perc.)
COMET CRASH 9 electroacoustics from the Dog Star CD
rendering of Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, I am like a slip of comet with video montage by Agnieszka Laska
Cherry Blossom
Musical Arts Visual Music 2012 March 29, 2012, 8:00 pm Bodyvox,
1201 NW 17th Avenue, Portland,
Fifth
Quasi-Annual International Teeny Tiny Film Festival March 31 @ 7 pm Estacada
Auditorium 500 N. Main Street Estacada, Oregon
RAIL RIDE solo busker wth dancer and
electroacoustics from the Dog Star CD
Agnieszka Laska Dancer Heidi Nelson with Harrison Welter
March 5, 2012 EARS WIDE OPEN Preview Party & Panel
Discussion Hipbone Studio * FREE
Joined by the Pacific University Chamber Choir,Portland Vocal Consort
presents world and northwest choral premieres of works by Northwest
composers:
February 25 at the First Presbyterian Church, 1200 S.W. Alder
February 26 at Taylor-Meade Performing Arts Center on the campus of
Pacific University in Forest Grove.
COMET CRASH 9 electroacoustics from the Dog Star CD
rendering of Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, I am like a slip of comet with video montage by Agnieszka Laska - presented by Scrratch PDX
February 11, 2012 Hipbone Studio 1847 E. Burnside Portland,
Oregon MAP
COMET CRASH 9 electroacoustics from the Dog Star CD
rendering of Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, I am like a slip of comet with video montage by Agnieszka Laska - premiere presentd by Cascadia
Compores on Sighs and Spirits
October 29, 2011 Colonial Heights
Presbyterian Church 2828 SE Stephens Street Portland, OR
97214 MAP
COMET CRASH 9 electroacoustics from the Dog Star CD
rendering of Gerard Manley Hopkins poem, I am like a slip of comet with original choreography by Agnieszka Laska - premiered by Ciudad
Interior
October 29,
2011 Museo de la ciudad Queretaro, Mexico
Elegy on a theme by Jean
Sebelius for solo cello
Performed by Diane Chaplin
March 19, 2011 PSU, Portland,
Oregon
video
Mama's Song for solo violin
Performed by Lisa McWorter Nov. 5, 2010 Cherry Blossom
Musical Arts, Central Lutheran Church, Eugene, Oregon
video
Three Diameters (IX, XI, X)
(fl., vln., trpt., perc.)
Performed by Celine Thackston, flute; Tatiana Kolchanova,
violin; Brian McWhorter, trumpet; Florian Conzetti, percussion
Oct. 30, 2010 Colonial Heights
Presbyterian Church, Portland, Oregon
Oct. 29, 2010 Walters Cultural Arts
Center, Hillsboro, Oregon
video
Farewell to Wang Wei for a
cappella choir
Performed by
Portland Vocal Consort Mar 9,
2010 First Congregational Church, Portland, Oregon
Mar 10, 2010 Nazarene Church,
Longview, Washington
3 DIAMETERS (IX, XI, X) (1980-90)
DIAMETER IX (flute and tom toms)
Cleine Thackson, fl; Florian Conzati, toms
DIAMETER XI (violin and marimba)
Tatiana Kolchanova, vl; Florian Conzati, marimba
DIAMETER X (trumpte and cymbals)
Brian McWorter, tpt; Florian Conzati, suspended and antique cymbals
Jack Gabel, (b. 1949 -) presently lives in Portland, Oregon. He
has traveled extensively, throughout Europe, Africa and Asia and worked
many summers as a commercial fisherman in Alaska.
Jack Gabel has written numerous concert hall works for many different
combinations of instruments and voices, with and without electroacoustic
accompaniments and/or enhancements. He also creates mixed-media works
alone and with collaborators, using musique concrete and poetry,
frequently his own, some of which has been published apart from its use
in contemporary performance pieces and more traditional settings for
singers.
Though classically trained with composers Derek Healey, Tomas Svoboda
and poet Ralph Salisbury, Gabel recounts as his most memorable musical
experience, the impromptu jam session he had with an Afghan tribesman in
a Herat tea house in 1972 -- the composer on mouth organ and the local
talent holding forth on his handmade, rough-hewn, 3-string lute. The
two miraculously found a common modality straight away and carried on
for several hours. "No concert-hall premiere or recording session can to
date compare," adds the composer, "nor likely ever will."
Today, Gabel's work is infused with widely varied ethnic and ancient
colors and motives, most notably those of the ancient, native cultures
of North America.
His 1997 article History of Electronic Music for the
All Music Guide can be found at www.allmusic.com
In addition to his NPM releases, Jack Gabel's discography includes
Whale Hunt Dream on the MMC (2000) release Viola Concertos,
Vol. II by Karen Dreyfus with the Silesian Philharmonic, Jerzy
Svoboda conducting
Etude de la Saison for solo koto,
by Elizabeth Falconer on the Sparkling Beatnik (2000) release, Water
Colors
Auto-Mobile from original poetry for tenor sax, processed string
bass and narrator/percussionist on a percussion battery infused with
junked car parts, on the The Third Angle New Music Ensemble's Gagliano
Records (1999) release, The Junkyard Concert
" Whale Hunt Dream... evocative, mysterious tone poem of
considerable beauty." -- David W. Moore, The American Record Guide
" In the Land of Wu...a remarkably quieting piece, it has an
affecting sense of great emotional space." -- John Duffy, Choral
Magazine
"...the most forward-looking work of the evening, Jack Gabel's gorgeous
Farewell to Wang Wei, which invigorated this program..." -- Brett
Campbell, Willamette Week
"...Through a Gentle Rain places the Japanese stringed koto in
delicate conversation with the alternating timbres of flute, piccolo and
alto flute," -- Donald Rosenberg, The Gramophone
"I am especially taken by the Gabel, an exploration of different colors
created by the flute and Japanese Koto." -- Christopher Chafee, American
Record Guide
"Gabel's voice is distinct...style: a broad lyricism, nuanced
electronics, New Age moodiness, modernist roots and humor." --
David Stabler, The Oregonian
"...the aural ecstasy of Turtle Island...One of the most original
and challenging CDs I've heard all year...a dreamtime journey that is as
contemplative as it is hallucinatory." -- Matthew Moon,
Crossroads
"...Gabel's appealing work sounded like no one else's... a unique and
valuable Northwest voice." -- Brett Campbell, Eugene Weekly
"Through a Gentle Rain is a piece by American composer, Jack
Gabel, influenced by his experience of Japanese life and culture and
writing for flute and koto mellifluously and evocatively." -- Peter
Mechen, Music Matters New Zealand
" Hellenic Triptych... hails from another musical world...
epitomizes imagination and courage..." -- Eleonora M. Beck,
Sforzando
![Third Angle Percussion Quartet - The Junkyard Concert [Live]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ul5JPEU9L._SL500_AA300_.jpg
)
