Sara Schoenbeck & Wayne Horvitz
Biography Sara Schoenbeck & Wayne Horvitz
Sara Schoenbeck
While focusing on the intersection between extended technique and melody Sara works to expand the notion of what the bassoon is capable of in both notated and improvised music. She is a member of Anthony Braxton’s 12+1(tet) and the Tri-Centric Orchestra; Gravitas Quartet with Wayne Horvitz, Ron Miles and Peggy Lee and Harris Eisenstadt’s Golden State Quartet. She performs and tours regularly with the Schoenbeck/Horvitz Duo; ensemble Wavefield; Petr Kotek’s SEM ensemble; the composers group WetInk; Marty Ehrlich’s Duende Winds with Nicole Mitchell and Tomeka Reid; Nels Cline Lovers Ensemble; Adam Rudolph's Go Organic Orchestra and the Michael Leonhart Orchestra. In years past Sara performed with Butch Morris; Eve Risser's White Desert Orchestra, Dakah Hip Hop Orchestra; Vinny Golia’s Large Ensemble and the Santa Barbara Symphony. Sara can be heard on music and film recordings including Matrix 2 and 3, Spanglish and Dahmer. She is looking forward to releasing her debut album as a leader in a series of intimate duets with in the Fall of 2021 on Pyroclastic Records.
Sara has forged musical relationships with many creative and inspiring musicians in the New York scene and beyond including Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, the legendary musicians Butch Morris and Yusef Lateef, Wadada Leo Smith, Robin Holcomb, Matt Mittchell, Pamela Z, Taylor Ho Bynum, Joe Morris and Mark Dresser to name a few.
She has performed at major venues throughout North America and Europe. A partial list includes the Free Music Festival in Antwerp Belgium, Biennale Musica in Venice Italy, the American Festival of Microtonal Music, MicroFest, SXSW, New Orleans Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Festival, Ear Shot Jazz Festival, Victoriaville, Something Else, Edgefest, Ottawa Jazz Festival, the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival in Los Angeles; San Francisco Jazz Festival, Saalfelden, Tempere Jazz Festival, Winter Jazz Festival, BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn, VisionFest, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Kitchen, Iridium, Disney Hall, Redcat, and the Kennedy Center.
Sara received her BFA from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts. She has been adjunct faculty at California Institute of the Arts, Citrus College and Pasadena Conservatory and given master classes at Amherst College, Hampshire College, Cornish College, University of Denver, Western Washington University and Sacramento State University.
Wayne Horvitz
has performed extensively throughout Europe, Japan, and North America. He is the leader and principal composer for the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, Sweeter Than the Day, The Gravitas Quartet and most recently “Electric Circus” a digital and live sampling based ensemble for audio and video. He performs regularly as an improviser on both piano and electronics. Past ensembles include The President; The Horvitz, Morris, Previte Trio; Pigpen; Zony Mash; The New York Composers Orchestra; Ponga and The Four Plus One Ensemble.
As a composer, Horvitz has been commissioned by The Kitchen, The Kronos Quartet, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New World Records, The Seattle Chamber Players and Earshot Jazz. He has received commissioning grants/support from Meet the Composer, The National Endowment for the Arts, The N.Y. State Arts Council, The Mary Flagler Carey Trust, The Seattle Arts Commission, Artist Trust, The Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, PGAFF and The Fund for U.S. Artists. Major works include the V Series for chamber orchestra and Mountain Language for string quartet, Vienna 2001 and 2002. In 2002 he was awarded a Rockefeller MAP grant for the creation of a new piece entitled “Joe Hill” for chamber orchestra and voice, which premiered in October of 2004 in Seattle and Burlington, Vermont. His 2003 composition Whispers, Hymns and a Murmur for String Quartet and soloist, funded in part by a Seattle City Artist grant, premiered in March of 2004. This composition and his earlier string quartet, Mountain Language have been recorded for the Tzadik label. His collaboration with Tucker Martine, Mylab, was on the top 10 CD list for 2004 in both the New Yorker and Amazon.com. In February 2005 he received the Golden Ear award from Earshot Jazz for “Concert of the Year.” In 2008 he received the NEA American Masterpieces Grant for his composition “These Hills of Glory” for String Quartet and Improviser, which was initially funded by 4Culture and The Mayor’s office of Arts and Culture. In 2006 support was awarded from 4Culture, The Mayor’s Office and the Paul Allen Foundation for the creation of “The Heartsong of Charging Elk”, based on the novel by James Welch and most
recently performed at the 2012 Montana Festival of the Book. With funds from 4Culture (2009) and the NEA the composition “For Piano, Alone, in Four Parts”, composed while in residency at the Blue Mountain Center, was premiered at the Nordstrom Recital Hall in November of 2009 by pianist Cristina Valdes. The song cycle “Smokestack Arias” premiered in February of 2012. Written for soprano voice, piano and electronics the piece is based on the events surrounding the “Everett Massacre” in 1916 in Everett Washington. With text by Robin Holcomb the piece premiered at Seattle’s ACT Theater with Dayan Hanson directing. Plans are in progress for performances in Everett for the centennial of the event.
In 2012, with funds from the MAP Fund and the Japan foundation, “55: Music and Dance In Concrete” premiered in collaboration with choreographer Yukio Suzuki, producer/engineer Tucker Martine and video artist Yohei Saito. Taking field recordings of composed and improvised fragments recorded in the bunkers of Ft. Worden in Pt. Townsend Washington a 45 minute electronic score was created. The full work was presented as a performance and installation at Ft. Worden (Port Townsend) and at the Arizona State University Museum of Art in September of 2012. “Other Room Music (55 Redux) for String Trio_ Electronics and Piano_Electronics was presented in April 2013 as a work-in-progress at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival and premiered at Cornish College for The Arts in September 2013. This work, an extension of “55: Music and Dance In Concrete”, uses various audio components of the installation along with a written score to create a performance piece with live musicians that re-interprets the original electronic score. In May of 2013 Horvitz’s Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble spent a week in residence at The Stone in NYC. Ben Ratliff of the NY Times wrote, “Mr. Horvitz kept his attention on the band with microscopic focus, quick-cutting between contrasts, putting something free or rippling against a fixity. It held your attention, and when it was perverse, it was just perverse enough.” In January of 2014 the band went into the studio for two days to record the CD “At The Reception”, which will be released in October of 2014 on the Songlines label. The 12’ Vinyl issue of the music for “55: Music and Dance in Concrete” was released in August of 2014 on Horvitz’ own Other Room Music label.
In 2014 Horvitz received a grant from the Shifting Foundation to write a full- length suite of compositions for septet entitled “Some Places are Forever Afternoon (11 Places for Richard Hugo)”, based on eleven poems by the iconic Northwest poet Richard Hugo. The work will be recorded in January of 2015,
released on CD in May of 2015 and premiered in the fall of 2015 in Washington State, Montana, and Oregon, the places Hugo loved and wrote about.
On the back of this new work, three of the compositions will be expanded for full orchestra and will be premiered by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra on October 29, 2015, with guest “improvising soloist” Bill Frisell.
Works for theater and dance include music for the 1998 production of Death of A Salesman for Seattle's ACT theater (directed by Gordon Edelstein); productions of Ezra Pounds's Elektra and the American premiere of Harold Pinter's Mountain Language, both directed by Carey Perloff. In 1992 choreographer Paul Taylor created a new work OZ, to eleven compositions by Wayne Horvitz in collaboration with the White Oak Dance Company. Other theater and dance works include music for Bill Irwin's Broadway show Strictly NY, and productions by the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Ammi Legendre, Nikki Apino and House of Dames. The Crispin Spaeth Dance Company and Offsite Dance with choreographer Yukio Suzuki and Yoko Higashino.
Horvitz has composed and produced music for a variety of video, film, television and other multimedia projects, including two projects with director Gus Van Sant, a full length score for PBS's Chihuly Over Venice and two films about the creation of Seattle’s EMP museum. His 85-minute score to Charlie Chaplin's film The Circus, for two pianos, two clarinets, and violin was premiered in Jan. 2000 in Oporto, Portugal. His score for the classic silent film, Woman of Tokyo, directed by Yasujiru Ozu, premiered at the Northwest Film Forum in 2005 and late in NYC at the Winter Garden. Most recently, in collaboration with Robin Holcomb, he composed scores the 5 silent films by Japanese director Naruse released in 2011 as a box set by Criterion. Also in 2011 he composed a score for the feature length film “Marrow” directed by Matt Wilkins and premiering at the NW International Film Festival.
As a sideman and collaborator he has performed and recorded with Billy Bang, Carla Bley, Curlew, Marty Ehrlich, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Robin Holcomb, George Lewis, Ikue Mori, Butch Morris, David Moss, Bobby Previte, Elliott Sharp, Michael Shrieve, William Parker, Christian Marclay, Kazutoki Umezu, Zeena Parkins, Philip Wilson, and John Zorn (Naked City, Cobra, etc.), among others. He has produced records for the World Sax Quartet, Human Feel, Marty Ehrlich, Fontella Bass, The Living Daylights, Bill Frisell, John Adams, Robin Holcomb, and Eddie Palmieri.
In December of 2011 Horvitz, with partners Steve Freeborn and Tia Mathies (of OK Hotel etc.), opened “The Royal Room” in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood. The Royal Room’s mission is to create a venue that serves the local community, honors and fosters the diversity and historical culture of Seattle’s south end, while supporting local musicians and encouraging artists to develop new projects. National artists are also presented, and deliberately wide ranges of aesthetic perspectives are represented. The venue combines traditional booking models with a curatorial and project based approach.
Born in New York City in 1955, Wayne Horvitz lives in Seattle with his wife, composer Robin Holcomb, their daughter Nica and son Lowell. He is an adjunct professor of Composition, Improvisation and Electronic Music at The Cornish College for the Arts.
