Christin Schillinger — Diaphonic: New Sounds for Bassoon

Fox Bassoons Performing Artist Christin Schillinger, known for her ‘natural interpretations’ and ‘perfect musical choices’ within new music, specializes in the accessibility of the avant-garde. Her latest album, Bassoon Transcended {MSR Classics/Swineshead Productions}, explores music for bassoon by active women composers. With collaborative pianist Jed Moss, Schillinger continues this research on the stage performing concerts throughout the 2015-16 season. At the center of the program are two world premieres: Diaphonic by San Francisco composer Kyle Hovatter and Double Helix by Long Beach composer Jenni Brandon. The first published work for bassoon by a woman dates to 1930: Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Diaphonic Suite for bassoon and cello is a chromatic etude in duet form. In Diaphonic, Kyle Hovatter creates a fresh, and modern composition drawing from Seeger’s original source material. For bassoon and track, the work maintains Seeger’s contrapuntal and chromatic significance, while layering further textural and rhythmic layers to her dissonance. In contrast, composer Jenni Brandon creates an original composition for Bassoon and Piano. Brandon’s Double Helix draws inspiration from sculptor Susan Hawkins’ work of the same name. The sculpture depicts two dancers embraced in duality. The arc of the dancer’s backs and curvatures of their legs emote peace, strain, beauty, and pain. Although the dancers are clearly enveloped in a duet, they do not touch. Brandon’s composition considers the both the objective and subjective views of the sculpture.
Other works on the program include Swing Shift by Adrienne Albert, Of Breath and Touch by Alex Shapiro, and Goodbye, Old Paint by John Steinmetz.