May 17-18: Emerald City Music Presents Mother – Two Evenings of Music and Visual Storytelling Featuring the World Premiere of a Film by Carlin Ma
Photo of Carlin Ma by Elle Logan. Hi-Resolution available here.
Emerald City Music Presents Mother
Two Evenings of Music and Visual Storytelling
Featuring the World Premiere of a Film by Carlin Ma
“[Emerald City Music is] creating a welcoming and more inclusive
environment for intimate music-making” – The Seattle Times
Friday, May 17, 2024 at 8pm
415 on Westlake | 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets
Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts | 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets
Seattle & Olympia, WA – For its Season 08 finale, Emerald City Music (ECM) –– deemed “the beacon for the casual-classical movement” by City Arts Magazine –– presents a special program titled Mother, over two evenings on Friday, May 17, 2024 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 on Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, May 18, 2024 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW). Featuring the world premiere of an ECM-commissioned documentary by filmmaker Carlin Ma, this Mother’s Day-minded program blends Ma’s community-based visual storytelling with the music of Antonín Dvorák, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach, Anna Clyne, and Johannes Brahms, performed by Mezzo Soprano Erica Convery; Pianist Oksana Ejokina; Violinists Kristin Lee, Sunmi Chang, Vanessa Moss, Karin Choo, Sol Im, Annika Kounts; Violists Erin Wight, Aaron Conitz, Elizabeth Boardman Cellists Christine Lee, Page Smith-Bilks, and Holly Reeves; Bassists Mas Podgorny, Ross Gilliland, and Ramon Salumbides.
Mothers are foundational to the human experience: a figure in the lives of every person – whether one associates as positive or negative, joyful or complex feelings with their own mother. Yet center-lane celebrations of Mother’s Day do not provide a wholly adequate platform for expressing the immensity of these complex relationships. In this collaborative initiative, Emerald City Music aligns the mediums of film and live music together to explore the true diverse stories of Pacific Northwesterners that coalesce to define one word: “mother.” These challenging and inspirational accounts – as told by community members and captured by filmmaker Carlin Ma – are presented alongside works by Dvorák, Brahms, Anna Clyne, and more that musically give voice to this ubiquitous theme.
Ma says of her film’s meaning and what she hopes comes from watching her work:
“To understand our essence and story, we must understand what formed us… our mothers. We need to recognize inherited patterns and decide whether to grasp or let go. It has been a humbling journey, collecting the kaleidoscope of human experiences and weaving them together into a cohesive mosaic, with representation across age, class, and race.
Short film chapters are juxtaposed between each musical selection. This way, audiences may digest their emotional reactions to each film through the music. My goal is to spark earnest conversations, so that we can share what really matters to our being, from the beautiful to the challenging. We need to listen and learn from one another. Then, we can truly connect, building towards hope and healing.”
Emerald City Music is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for its casual environment combined with performances by award-winning musicians, ECM encourages attendees to enjoy its flagship “date-night experience” at 415 on Westlake, which features an open bar and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” praising its “nontraditional atmosphere” which allows for “artists [to] mingle with the audience during the intermission.” To reach audiences beyond its live presentations, all of ECM’s concerts are recorded and made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.
About Carlin Ma: Seeking means of discovery and expression, Carlin Ma has dedicated her life to music and the arts, including filmmaking, photography, solo piano, chamber music, and interdisciplinary projects. As a professional photographer and filmmaker, she has collaborated with institutions such as Aspen Music Festival, Seattle Symphony, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Music@Menlo. Special merit recognitions include front page feature in Symphony Magazine, publications in major news outlets like New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle, and 1st place Aspen Chamber of Commerce Photo Contest. Carlin has been the resident photographer for Emeraldy City Music since their opening 2016.
As a pianist, she has performed at international prestigious venues including the Kennedy Center, Ravinia Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Capella Hall (Russia), and more. She finds it equally meaningful to initiate performances in local venues, including the inaugural Seattle Musicians@Google. As a pedagogue, she credits her mentors, including Menahem Pressler, Yoshi Nagai, Arnaldo Cohen, Evelyne Brancart, Emile Naoumoff, and Karen Taylor. Carlin was the Associate Instructor at Indiana University. In 2021-2023, Steinway & Sons awarded her with “Top Piano Teacher in Seattle” for her private studio.
Carlin finds music and film/photo emerging from the same internal chord, which has led to many interdisciplinary projects. He is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Hawaii International Music Festival, creating projects that interweave classical music with Hawaiian inspirations. Seattle Symphony also invited her as an interdisciplinary artist in Octave 9’s inaugural season. Fostering perpetual discovery for herself and others is her committed passion.
About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director: Emerald City Music’s founding Artistic Director Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.” As a soloist, Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee became a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center after winning The Bowers Program audition and completing the program's three-year residency. In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is a devoted educator. She is on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin. Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions. Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.
About ECM: Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences. Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours seven productions annually, with each tour visiting Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival, and an annual concert in New York City.
ECM has gained recognition regionally and nationally as a major player in the chamber music scene. Emerald City Music made a name for itself beginning in its second season with a national collaborative commission with Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams, and has continued to press the boundary of chamber music with accolades like a tour of Steve Reich’s iconic and rare Music for 18 Musicians, a pitch-black performance of Georg Haas’s “In the Dark” quartet, and the West Coast debut of the Danish folk group The Dreamers’ Circus.
ECM values real, authentic connection and holds the belief that music possesses the innate power to connect people, inclusive of varying backgrounds and perspectives. Over eight years, artists from every corner of the globe have visited Emerald City Music to prove just that: there exists a special connection between artist and listener that only music can facilitate.
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