UPCOMING SHOWS: April-May 2013

Mon 4/29 - MIKROS Festival
As the opening night of the MIKROS Festival, I'll be performing with Ashley Paul (reeds, etc.) and Kathryn Schulmeister (bass). We will each perform solo sets, followed by the premiere of a trio piece by Ryan Krause.
@ Panoply Performance Lab, 104 Meserole St., 11206
8 PM

Wed 5/1 - premiere!
Northwestern University's Contemporary Music Ensemble premiers my new chamber orchestra piece, Diligence Is to Magic as Progress Is to Flight, featuring violin soloist Austin Wulliman.
@ Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 20208
7:30 PM

Sat 5/12 - solo and trio 
with Coppice (Noe Culler and Joseph Kramer)
and with Hal Rammel
@ Constellation, 60618

8:30 PM

Thu 5/16 - Parlour Tapes+ "The Guilty Party"
I'll be playing a bit with Alejandro Acierto as part of this wild murder mystery fundraiser event!
http://parlourtapes.com/

Wed 5/29 - Olivia Block + Carol Genetti + KAY
with the Green Pasture Happiness (Aaron Zarzutzki - modular synth, no-output turntable; Daniel Fandiño - modular synth, guitar; Brian Labycz - modular synth)
@ the Hideout, 60642
10 PM

APRIL 2013 - Jessica Pavone & Katherine Young: SOLOS Tour

Super excited for these upcoming shows in Switzerland and Germany! 

Jessica Pavone and I will each be performing new solo sets.

April 13th @ Kab de L'usine - Geneva, Switzerland
http://kalvingrad.com/
April 14th @ The Museum of Contemporary Art - Basel, Switzerland
http://www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch/en/museum-fuer-gegenwartskunst
April 15th @ Mulbau - Luzern, Switzerland
http://www.mullbau.ch/index.html
April 16th @ Madame Claude - Berlin, Germany
https://www.facebook.com/MadameClaudeBerlin
April 17th @ Oberdeck - Hannover, Germany

April 18th @ Baustelle Kalk - Cologne, Germany

http://baustellekalkpost.blogspot.com/
April 19th @ Hahnengasse - Ulm, Germany
April 20th @ Bavarian Public Radio - Munich, Germany

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES: Feb-Mar-April-2013

Thu 2/28-Sat 3/2 - E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E
E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E is an epic, town hall musical that pleads the case for a more empathetic economy, proposing, with Thomas Paine and Martin Luther King, money as everyone’s. Created by choreographer Daria Faïn and poet Robert Kocik, in collaboration with composer Katherine Young, vocalist Samita Sinha and The Commons Choir, E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E was developed by researching the sonic and connotative powers of language. 26 dancers, singers and actors treat our current inequity crisis with reparative tones, tunes and intentions while drawing on the body as horn of plenty.

The instrumental music is performed by and was developed in collaboration with Jen Baker (trombone) and Sam Sowyrda (percussion).
@ New York Live Arts, 219 W. 19th St, 10011
7:30 PM
Tickets
More info

 
Fri 3/8 - Solo Set with Noise-Bridge / Eliza Brown / Chris Fisher-Lochhead
Performing new and revamped solo pieces, I will open for new music duo Noise-Bridge (Christie Finn and Felix Behringer) from Germany. Noise-Bridge premieres two commissions by Chicago-based composers Eliza Brown and Chris Fisher-Lochhead.
@ Elastic Arts, 2830 N Milwaukee Ave, 60618
8 PM

Sat 3/9 - Trio with Jim Baker and Frank Rosaly
@ Heaven Gallery, 60622
9 PM

Tue 4/2 - Till by Turning performs Matt Marble
@ Princeton University as part of the Sound Kitchen Series
7 PM

April 13-21 - European Double Solo Tour with Jessica Pavone

Nov-Dec 2012: Pretty Monsters in Chicago + + +

Sun 11/4
JACKSON/ROEBKE
Keefe Jackson - reeds, Jason Roebke - bass
+
PRETTY MONSTERS
Katherine Young - bassoon, Erica Dicker - violin, Owen Stewart-Robertson - guitar, Mike Pride - drums & percussion


10 pm @ the Hungry Brain, 60618

more details:
http://umbrellamusic.org/

This show will feature the musicians who recorded the record -- violinist Erica Dicker, guitarist Owen Stewart-Robertson, and percussionist Mike Pride -- and will be the first time that we've all played together in Chicago. Would be great to see you there!

Write-up in the Reader about the show and the record: 
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/katherine-youngs-pretty-monsters-keefe-jackson-and-jason-roebke/Event?oid=7696450


Thurs 11/29
with JAMES FALZONE'S EARLY MUSIC CONVENTION:
James Falzone - clarinet, Jason Stein - bass clarinet, KAY - bassoon + electronics, Lou Mallozi - turntables and electronics, Josh Abrams - bass, Tim Daisy - drums and marimba, Frank Rosaly - drums and electronics

9 pm @ Elastic, Chicago
www.elasticrevolution.com

Sat 12/1
Prom Night Record's Save the Date series, co-produced by J. Sinton:
PRETTY MONSTERS
+
HAG:BradHenkel/SeanAli/DavidGrollman and TWINS OF EL DORADO:KristinSlipp/JoeMoffett(CD RELEASE!)

8 pm @ Douglass Street Music Collective, Brooklyn

Sat 12/15
Protest Heaven presents:
GIALLORENZO/YOUNG/DAISY
Paul Giallorenzo - piano, synthesizer, KAY, Tim Daisy - drums
+
REMPIS/KESSLER/ZERANG
Dave Rempis - saxophones, Kent Kessler - bass, Michael Zerang - drums

9pm @ Heaven Gallery, 60622

E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E rescheduled due to Sandy

Having rehearsed and teched, we were ready to go with E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E when Sandy hit, knocking out power in Lower Manhattan. NYLA is still without power as of Thursday, so the show has been cancelled for this week. The plan is to reschedule sometime this season.

Everyone from the production is safe and sound, so that is the main thing.

Pretty Monsters Reviews

[F]erocious and elegant....All four musicians play so much with wringing unusual sounds from their axes that the story is less about how Young's aytpical instrument fits in, but how all four create an intense alien landscape.

- Shaun Brady, downbeat.com

The essence of Pretty Monsters (the band) lies not in Young’s willingness to go in...different directions, but rather her willingness to travel these seemingly oppositional routes almost concurrently, and certainly within a given composition. This keeps listeners on the edge of their seats; at the music’s best, it threatens to upend any comfortable divisions between music and noise.  

- Neil Tesser, chicagomusic.org

[E]ven in moments of abandon, this music feels controlled; the improvised solos sound like essential facets of the compositions. This is because Young, like her occasional employer Anthony Braxton, understands that selecting a musician and creating the right opportunity can be a powerful compositional act. 

- Bill Meyer, Dusted

[L]ike someone improvising to a Melvins record.
- Peter Margasak, The Chicago Reader

Heavy metal jazz on steroids with layers of texture that include guitar washes, violin drones, electronic flights of fancy all somehow tied to a virtuoso bassoonist whose compositions take everything you thought you knew or familiar with in the free or experimental jazz genre and politely tosses it right out the window and this is a beautiful thing. I would be remiss if I did not mention the incredible cover art done by Rob Patterson.

- Brent Black, criticaljazz.com

The cyclical “Patricia Highsmith”...is rendered with slinky undertow, lunkheaded beats colliding with fractured and skittering guitar (Stewart-Robinson is a no-wave blues revelation here) and mated with swooping ponticello bowing and low, reedy blats. Young’s bassoon is not always in the foreground; frequently, she supports higher-pitched statements from guitar and violin with droning warble or a patchwork of live electronics and loops.
- Clifford Allen, New York City Jazz Record


[T]here’s nothing at all typical about the bassoon playing of one Katherine Young, and as a fascinating, unbounded extension of her musical personality, neither are her Pretty Monsters. Katherine Young’s Pretty Monsters is a brash, assured first statement from a talented young performer who is poised to do for the bassoon what Tom Cora did for the cello. 
- S. Victor Aaron, Something Else


[B]assoonist Katherine Young transcends the instrument’s reputation with a shrewd combination of talent and technology; she employs extended techniques and effects pedals to subtly expand the horn’s range...
- Troy Collins, All About Jazz

It doesn't happen often that you listen to an album wondering what the hell is happening here. Pretty Monster's debut album is one of those albums. You hear lots of familiar stuff, some jazz, some rock, some classical even, but then everything is stretched and mangled to fit another sound purpose, something strange, unique and compelling, covered with a sauce of noise, and all that without losing a coherent sense of lyricism that ties the entire album together.
- Stef, Free Jazz Collective

These cool inspired tracks were recorded by folks who are obviously feeding off one another's creative tendencies...and the results are rather hypnotic and bewildering.
- Baby Sue

new piece for Open House Chicago

Saturday, October 13, I will premiering (approximately 6 times!) a new piece:  
After the fire, quarries dynamited for bassoon and fixed media.

Access Contemporary Music commissioned this project as part of the annual Open House Chicago events organized by the Chicago Architecture Foundation.  One of four ACM composers working at different buildings throughout the city, I have written the piece inspired by the material textures and history of the Nickerson Mansion. I will be performing the piece every 20-30 minutes from 1-4 PM on the third floor of the house (which is also known as the Driehaus Museum).

www.acmusic.org/attend/concerts/open-house-chicago

Nickerson Mansion
40 E. Erie
1:00 to 4:00 PM
www.driehausmuseum.org