Event Title
Trope: A Program of Music for Saxophone by Women Composers that Pursues a Social Comment
Performer / Ensemble
Ellie Parker (Alto Saxophone), Pablo Martinez (Piano), Brady Spitz (Percussion)
Date of Publication
3-26-2021
Document Type
Concert
Abstract / Program Notes
Trope (2007) Marilyn Shrude
“Trope” is one of four pieces collectively referred to as “Voices of Dissent,” all of which are based in some fashion on “We Shall Overcome.” The others are “Wedge” for alto saxophone and piano by Elainie Lillios, “Resonances” for soprano saxophone and piano by Mikel Kuehn, and “Beginnings” for alto saxophone and piano by Burton Beerman.
13 For 3 Through 5 (2019)
Dorothy Hindman This piece continues in my works that explore commercial objects symbolizing the social issues that created them; in this case, Muppets… It is significant for our times that since 2000, Sesame Street has introduced numerous new Muppet characters addressing social issues impacting preschool children, including: food insecurity and homelessness; parental incarceration; living with HIV; autism; and more. This work reinterprets the openings of the Sesame Street themes from my childhood, my sons’ childhoods, and today, to create a reverent, nostalgic homage to a show that gave me so much comfort as a young child, and continues to do so for so many in distress.
Skin (2016/2018)
Gemma Peacocke For the last five years – since moving to the United States – I’ve been trying to understand the (white) American idea of race and the relationship between violence and sexuality. My immigrant’s sense of curiosity about the American fixation on skin has gradually stretched into tendrils of understanding, wending between the intricate layers of privilege, power, and shame associated with race and with sex, down into the dark roots of the country’s history.
Biography
British saxophonist Ellie Parker is an active advocate of new music and creative collaboration. She is the recipient of the inaugural Laura Buss Sayavedra Award for Citizen Artistry in the city of Houston, and was a Da Camera Young Artist Fellow between 2018-2020. She is Adjunct Professor of Saxophone at Sam Houston State University where she teaches undergraduate music performance and music education majors, as well as Instructor of Music Theory at Houston Community College. Ms. Parker achieved ABD in the Doctor of Musical Arts in Saxophone Performance with a minor in Musicology at the University of Houston where she studies with Dan Gelok in 2020. She also studied at Birmingham Conservatoire with Naomi Sullivan, and completed a Masters of Music at Sam Houston State University studying with Dr. Masahito Sugihara with additional study at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel through the Eurasmus Exchange.
Keywords
Alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, piano
Description
25-minute performance
Trope: A Program of Music for Saxophone by Women Composers that Pursues a Social Comment
Trope (2007) Marilyn Shrude
“Trope” is one of four pieces collectively referred to as “Voices of Dissent,” all of which are based in some fashion on “We Shall Overcome.” The others are “Wedge” for alto saxophone and piano by Elainie Lillios, “Resonances” for soprano saxophone and piano by Mikel Kuehn, and “Beginnings” for alto saxophone and piano by Burton Beerman.
13 For 3 Through 5 (2019)
Dorothy Hindman This piece continues in my works that explore commercial objects symbolizing the social issues that created them; in this case, Muppets… It is significant for our times that since 2000, Sesame Street has introduced numerous new Muppet characters addressing social issues impacting preschool children, including: food insecurity and homelessness; parental incarceration; living with HIV; autism; and more. This work reinterprets the openings of the Sesame Street themes from my childhood, my sons’ childhoods, and today, to create a reverent, nostalgic homage to a show that gave me so much comfort as a young child, and continues to do so for so many in distress.
Skin (2016/2018)
Gemma Peacocke For the last five years – since moving to the United States – I’ve been trying to understand the (white) American idea of race and the relationship between violence and sexuality. My immigrant’s sense of curiosity about the American fixation on skin has gradually stretched into tendrils of understanding, wending between the intricate layers of privilege, power, and shame associated with race and with sex, down into the dark roots of the country’s history.