Alarm Will Sound: Erasing Musical Boundaries

“A tour de force on the idea of ideas” - The Boston Globe “…as close to being a rock band as a chamber orchestra can be." - The New York Times

(Free for Wash U students with ID)

Alarm Will Sound debuts at the 560 Music Center on November 9th with a performance that highlights its mission to erase boundaries of musical genre. The evening features world premieres of music by MacArthur grant recipient Tyshawn Sorey and electronic music artist Aphex Twin, as well as a piece by Colombian-American composer José Martinez. Sorey’s music has been noted for its ability to “shapeshift” (The New Yorker) and to defy categorization by bringing together elements of jazz, new classical music, improvisation, minimalism, and beyond into compelling unified works. Alarm Will Sound’s history with the music of Aphex Twin goes back to Acoustica, their 2009 album featuring arrangements of his music. For the tenth anniversary of the album, Alarm Will Sound musician Stefan Freund has created a new arrangement of the 2018 Aphex Twin track “T69 Collapse.” The evening will also include Danza Tòrridas by José Martinez with whom Alarm Will Sound first collaborated at the Mizzou International Composers Festival held in Columbia, MO.

"Our repertoire ranges from the arch-modernist to the pop-influenced, but our approach goes beyond the music itself. We frequently incorporate video, text, theater, and movement into our productions to inspire new questions in our listeners and encourage the search for new answers. Since our earliest days playing together at the Eastman School of Music, we have collaborated with composers, designers, writers, choreographers, videographers — a wide range of compelling experimental artists — in pursuit of undiscovered artistic territory. Along the way, we’ve proved that a small, audacious orchestra can make a huge impact. In every performance, we explore, challenge and reshape familiar musical conventions to create arresting experiences."

https://www.alarmwillsound.com/