Eighth Blackbird

Schwantner, as well as ground-breaking works from Jennifer Higdon, Derek Bermel, David Schober, Daniel Kellogg, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Jefferson Friedman and the Minimum Security Composers Collective. The group received the first BMI / Boudleaux-Bryant Fund Commission and the 2004 NEA / CMA Special Commissioning Award, and has received grants from BMI, Meet the Composer, the Greenwall Foundation, and Chamber Music America, among others. The ensemble has enjoyed acclaim for its recordings and is active in teaching young artists about contemporary music. In addition to its residencies, the ensemble has taught masterclasses and conducted outreach activities throughout the country, including the Aspen Music School System (grades K-12), the La Jolla Chamber Music Series, the Candlelight Concert Series and Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa. The members of eighth blackbird hold degrees in music performance from Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory and Northwestern University. The group derives its name from the Wallace Stevens poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.

The eighth stanza reads:
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know

*Molly Alicia Barth performs on a Lillian Burkart flute and piccolo.

+ Matthew Duvall endorses Pearl Drums and Adams Musical Instruments