In “Expedition #5: Spirals and Echoes,” Ninth Planet journeys through sonic shape and texture in a program featuring 2019 and 2020 winning compositions of the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Award. Selim Göncü’s “Widerklang” for bass clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello (Ettelson 2020), presents a distorted, noisy, and quasi-improvisational sound world, exploring the connection between noise and pitch. Written for violin and viola, Jee Seo’s “Four Pieces” presents four self-portraits, each centered around one of four words: Sigh, Fever, Groove, and Song. Daijana Wallace’s “Shades,” for solo cello, is centered around a single note as the vehicle to explore a whole range of textures, from mystery, aggression, and heaviness to melodic, soft, and sultry. Ending the program is Jack Frerer’s “Spiral Sequences” for string quartet (Ettelson 2019). The first movement, fast and driven by spiraling fragments and sequences, presents an ever-tightening inward spiral that the slower second movement unravels.
Ninth Planet is a new music ensemble and service organization dedicated to the commissioning, performance and furthering of new music, especially the works of young composers and artists and those from underrepresented communities. Created in 2019 as a merger of Wild Rumpus and Composers, Inc., Ninth Planet continues the traditions of both organizations by commissioning new works, offering the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award instituted by Composers, Inc., and performing existing, innovative pieces that stretch the genre’s limits. Concert programs represent a range of styles, with emphasis on local composers, women and LGBTQA+ composers, and composers of color. Ninth Planet prioritizes close interaction with our guest composers, seeking to invite them into our rehearsal process and the thoughtful presentation of their work in concert. Ninth Planet is a registered not-for-profit organization.