Tuesdays @ Monk Space PRESENTS

Nick Photinos and Vicki Ray

Nick Photinos (Eighth Blackbird) debut solo release concert, with Vicki Ray!
Join cellist Nick Photinos, best known as the founding cellist of the four-time Grammy winning new music ensemble Eighth Blackbird, as he performs music from his first solo album, Petits Artéfacts, out 8/25 on the New Amsterdam label. The show features never-before-recorded music from the album from some of the most acclaimed names in new music — David Lang, Andrew Norman, Bryce Dessner, David T. Little — but also a newer generation of groundbreaking composers like Angélica Negrón, Florent Ghys, Molly Joyce, and Pascal Le Boeuf, who are quickly gaining notoriety as well. Nick is joined by LA’s own “phenomenal and fearless,” Grammy-nominated pianist Vicki Ray, also featured on the album.

T@MS Interviews Nick Photinos:

Can you tell us about the process of recording your album, Petits Artéfacts?

The concept for the album happened after I premiered the Florent Ghy work, Petits Artéfacts, a 17 minute work of six small, tightly constructed pieces. I got thinking about all the short pieces I had played over the years and, when I started digging around, found that none of them had been recorded yet, so the content came together pretty quickly. So did the idea to collaborate with pianist Vicki Ray and percussionist Doug Perkins, two people I’ve played with for many years but not often enough. The recording sessions themselves happened in May and June of 2016 and January of 2017.

What are your thoughts on performing this music live? Does the live performance offer something the recording cannot, and vice versa?

The plan was always to tour this music live following the release, so it’s been really great to get this music out in the world more. As far as why go see this live, besides just that live music is and should be better than listening to recordings: the Ghys in particular has great accompanying videos that Florent made himself, so those are definitely worth seeing and something you can’t get from the album alone. A lot of the works also have more punch when seen live, from the politically-charged Little to the wit of the Norman.

Do you plan on more solo albums in the future?

I’ve started thinking about it, but I want to get as much mileage out of this album as I can, so that’s at least a few years down the road.

Did you work with any of the composers personally while recording the album? Can you tell us about this experience?

Not so much in the recording process itself, but I did work extensively with Florent for the editing and mixing process. I’ve loved his album Télévision, not just for the music but also the sound on the recording: full and rich but also close and present, with not as much reverb as a lot of solo classical albums have. He had a lot of great input and helped shape the sound of the recording in a big way.

So far we’ve been focusing on your work as a soloist in light of your new album, but you’re also the cellist for the Chicago-based new music ensemble, Eighth Blackbird. Can you tell us a bit about your experiences with Eighth Blackbird? In contrast with solo performing, what do you love most about performing with the group? Anything on the horizon for you guys that you’d like to share?

I’m the founding cellist of Eighth Blackbird, now in its 21st season, so it’s old enough to drink. There’s so much I love about the group–the repertoire, the staging and memorization–but it all comes down to simply getting to go to work every day, whether that’s at our studio or recently onstage in front of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and just play good music really, really well together, and have fun doing it. So much on the horizon for us, including a new album of a staged 90-minute work by Dan Trueman, called Olagón, that comes out on Nov. 10; performances of that and our regular rep; and this June the second year of Blackbird Creative Lab, our two-week summer festival in Ojai, CA that’s free of tuition, room, and board for accepted fellows.

Joe Mazza photo1 (1)
November 21, 2017
8:00 pm
Monk Space
4414 W. 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Joe Mazza photo1 (1)
November 21, 2017
8:00 pm
Monk Space
4414 W. 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90004

Nick Photinos (Eighth Blackbird) debut solo release concert, with Vicki Ray!
Join cellist Nick Photinos, best known as the founding cellist of the four-time Grammy winning new music ensemble Eighth Blackbird, as he performs music from his first solo album, Petits Artéfacts, out 8/25 on the New Amsterdam label. The show features never-before-recorded music from the album from some of the most acclaimed names in new music — David Lang, Andrew Norman, Bryce Dessner, David T. Little — but also a newer generation of groundbreaking composers like Angélica Negrón, Florent Ghys, Molly Joyce, and Pascal Le Boeuf, who are quickly gaining notoriety as well. Nick is joined by LA’s own “phenomenal and fearless,” Grammy-nominated pianist Vicki Ray, also featured on the album.

T@MS Interviews Nick Photinos:

Can you tell us about the process of recording your album, Petits Artéfacts?

The concept for the album happened after I premiered the Florent Ghy work, Petits Artéfacts, a 17 minute work of six small, tightly constructed pieces. I got thinking about all the short pieces I had played over the years and, when I started digging around, found that none of them had been recorded yet, so the content came together pretty quickly. So did the idea to collaborate with pianist Vicki Ray and percussionist Doug Perkins, two people I’ve played with for many years but not often enough. The recording sessions themselves happened in May and June of 2016 and January of 2017.

What are your thoughts on performing this music live? Does the live performance offer something the recording cannot, and vice versa?

The plan was always to tour this music live following the release, so it’s been really great to get this music out in the world more. As far as why go see this live, besides just that live music is and should be better than listening to recordings: the Ghys in particular has great accompanying videos that Florent made himself, so those are definitely worth seeing and something you can’t get from the album alone. A lot of the works also have more punch when seen live, from the politically-charged Little to the wit of the Norman.

Do you plan on more solo albums in the future?

I’ve started thinking about it, but I want to get as much mileage out of this album as I can, so that’s at least a few years down the road.

Did you work with any of the composers personally while recording the album? Can you tell us about this experience?

Not so much in the recording process itself, but I did work extensively with Florent for the editing and mixing process. I’ve loved his album Télévision, not just for the music but also the sound on the recording: full and rich but also close and present, with not as much reverb as a lot of solo classical albums have. He had a lot of great input and helped shape the sound of the recording in a big way.

So far we’ve been focusing on your work as a soloist in light of your new album, but you’re also the cellist for the Chicago-based new music ensemble, Eighth Blackbird. Can you tell us a bit about your experiences with Eighth Blackbird? In contrast with solo performing, what do you love most about performing with the group? Anything on the horizon for you guys that you’d like to share?

I’m the founding cellist of Eighth Blackbird, now in its 21st season, so it’s old enough to drink. There’s so much I love about the group–the repertoire, the staging and memorization–but it all comes down to simply getting to go to work every day, whether that’s at our studio or recently onstage in front of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and just play good music really, really well together, and have fun doing it. So much on the horizon for us, including a new album of a staged 90-minute work by Dan Trueman, called Olagón, that comes out on Nov. 10; performances of that and our regular rep; and this June the second year of Blackbird Creative Lab, our two-week summer festival in Ojai, CA that’s free of tuition, room, and board for accepted fellows.