Embedded Files
CLUTCH: The Living Earth Show and Tanner Porter
Monday, March 31st, 7pm
KMFA Classical 89.5
41 Navasota St. Austin, TX 78702
Program
Sebastian Zhang - alkali
Deniz Aslan - The Book of Transitions
Matt Abajian - A Broken Off Piece of Some Giant Blank Thing
Kirsten Townander - Consume!
Bike Öner - Contemporary Tribes
Robert Honstein - Music to Hear
Akshaya Tucker - "Through"
Program Information
Sebastian Zhang (b. 2003) - alkali
for Electric Guitar & Percussion
alkali is inspired by the alkali metals: elemental metals which are soft, corrode easily, and intensely unstable when reacting with water.
In particular, caesium is one of my favorite chemical elements—it is soft, shines like a pale gold, and melts at such a low temperature that you could melt it in your hand—were it not for the fact that it would instantly explode on contact with the moisture on your skin.
⁂
alkali draws from math rock, the contemporary percussion repertoire, and the modern chiptune scene.
About Sebastian Zhang
Unapologetically embracing the electric nostalgia of a younger generation, Sebastian Zhang (b. 2003) is a composer-percussionist influenced by the modern chiptune scene, upbeat video game riffs, math-rock melodies, and jazz fusion. His music draws upon scenes of everyday life—from chasing tadpoles to memories of cartoon ice cream—and how they echo grander themes of merry wonder and existentialist hope.
Sebastian has written for Sandbox Percussion, the University of Texas Percussion Ensemble, and Blacktop Percussion. His music has been performed across the United States at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), the Round Top Festival Institute, the Victoria Bach Festival, and the Great Plains International Marimba Competition. Several of his works appear on the Texas UIL Prescribed Music List (PML) and the Missouri MSHSAA PML.
Sebastian is an avid player of the asalato, a West African shaker percussion instrument with a prominent virtuosic solo subculture in Japan. In 2024, he advanced to the top 8 at the ASALATO NIGHT Freestyle Battle in Kyoto, Japan.
Sebastian is currently pursuing a BM in Music Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His instructors include Ivan Trevino, Omar Thomas, Yevgeniy Sharlat, and Thomas Burritt.
Deniz Aslan (b. 1997) - The Book of Transitions
for Electric Guitar & Percussion
The Book of Transitions is structured around the idea of a constant transition. This condition inherently implies a lack of a departure and an arrival point. It also implies a constant transformation in the nature of the transition in order for it to continue being one. To achieve that, I implement multiple strands of transitions that follow and superimpose one another while collectively carrying the tension of the piece.
About Deniz Aslan
Deniz Aslan is a composer and a bassoonist specializing in new music. He was born in 1997 in Ankara, Turkey. Classically trained in bassoon for ten years, he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in composition from Bilkent University under the supervision of Tolga Yayalar. As of 2025, he is a DMA student and an Assistant Instructor at the University of Texas at Austin, and continuing his studies under the supervision of Januibe Tejera.
Deniz has worked with ensembles such as Arditti Quartet, Black Pencil, Yurodny Ensemble, Collegium Novum, HANATSUmiroir, United Instruments of Lucilin, Splinter Reeds, Oerknal, MotoContrario, Reverberation Percussion, Anatolian Wind Quintet, Hezarfen Ensemble, and his music has been performed in Turkey, United States, Brazil, Italy, and Luxembourg. Deniz was a finalist in the 2023 Prix CIME Electronic Music Competition and the 2021 Balkan Composer Competition in Prishtina.
https://www.denizaslancomposer.com/
Matt Abajian (b. 2000) - A Broken Off Piece of Some Giant Blank Thing
for Electric Guitar & Percussion
While writing this piece, I have been thinking about:
• David Lynch’s passing
• Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari
• Nāgārjuna
• Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (ca. 1998-2006)
• Luciano Berio
• Good Old Neon
• admissions committees
• The Sound and the Fury
• my friends strewn about the midwest
• Wise Blood
• gigging again
• those crazy folks on Whitis and how they’re going to end up in jail and/or lots of debt
• “I’m/you’re only what I see sometimes” (1/30 edit)
E t c.
It’s January 27th 2025 and I’m writing this because the piece isn’t quite finished yet, so I can tell you more accurately than I would be able to later that while these things undoubtedly influenced the aesthetic derivation of the work and the overall “mood,” the piece really was composed primarily (basically solely) through my love of playing the electric guitar and listening to the vibraphone, but in a year or so the “real program” will leap out to me and then this blurb will say something else, probably about desiring-production or Enoch and the bear or solipsistic omen-crafting or, god forbid, “mindfulness,” but, for now, I just hope that Andy and Travis enjoy playing it as much as I have enjoyed writing it (so far) and that it meets your eardrums in a fashion that makes your evening at the Draylen Mason Studio on Navasota a little bit nicer.
About Matt Abajian
Matt Abajian is a multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Austin, Texas. His work covers a broad range of musical expressions, working in his local experimental, popular, and classical scenes. He spends most of his time writing music and text, drinking various forms of coffee, and walking on trails.
Kirsten Townander (b. 2001) - Consume!
for Mezzo-Soprano, Electric Guitar, & Percussion
“Consume!” is a song about rampant consumerism in the United States. Written for mezzo-soprano, electric guitar, and percussion, Consume! takes a light approach to an undeniably dark topic—featuring sarcastic lyrics, silly ostinati, and common consumerist items used as found percussion instruments. All of this theatrical mayhem is underscored by an ambient audio recording of self-checkout kiosk sounds. Enjoy (and then go out and buy a bunch of shit you don’t need)!
Need…this!
Need…that!
Need…shit!
When it’s shiny and new,
Don’t know what to do!
When it’s calling my name,
It’s a feeling I can’t tame!
So many treats to choose!
I know I can’t lose.
So many trends to try!
Surely no one can deny…that
I need it! I need shit!
I need it! I need to buy it, need to try it!
Yes, I need it!
I need all the shit I can get.
Saw all the aisles I could roam!
All the stuff was better than my stuff is at home!
How could I not buy each thing…
When I was convinced of the joy it’d bring?
Plus, I can shop on my phone!
To discover more shit to own.
Oh, and it comes straight to my door!
Convenience I can’t ignore!
I need it! I need shit!
I need it, yeah! I need to buy, need to everything!
I really need more and more, always need more and more shit!
Yeah, I need all the shit I can get.
The trends were calling out to me.
I didn’t know how to flee.
The brands were begging to be bought.
I saw an ad, and I was caught!
Said that it would make me look nice,
So I didn’t think twice.
Said that it would make me feel good,
So I knew that it would…
that it could…
should?...
I need it! I need shit!
I need it! I need to buy it, need to try it!
Yes, I need it!
Really really really truly need it!
Really really truly absolutely need it!
I definitely need it!
I need it!
I always need more shit.
Need…this!
Need…that!
Need…shit!
About Kirsten Townander
Illinois-bred, Austin-based musician Kirsten Townander (b. 2001) is a composer, educator, and flautist. Her artistic work is fueled by her love of story-telling, passion for human connection, and appreciation for her multidisciplinary background, which spans the disciplines of theatre, dance, and—of course—music. Whenever possible, she seeks to bridge gaps between these often “separate” art forms and foster spaces for performers to embrace creativity in ways that are not always readily encouraged within the traditional frameworks of Western art music and academia as a whole. She hopes that those who hear and play her music are left with renewed feelings of curiosity and wonder for the world around them.
Currently, Kirsten is pursuing a Master of Music in Composition (M.M.) from the University of Texas at Austin, where her instructors have included Donald Grantham and Yevgeniy Sharlat. She previously earned a Bachelor of Instrumental Music Education (B.M.E.) and dual Bachelor of Music Composition and Flute Performance (B.M.) from Illinois State University, where she studied composition with Roger Zare, Carl Schimmel, Roy Magnuson, and Alex Stephenson and flute with Kimberly Risinger.
Bike Öner (b. 1988) - Contemporary Tribes
for Mezzo-Soprano, Electric Guitar, & Percussion
Contemporary Tribes is a part of my ongoing and ever-evolving project Sounds of People. The piece was composed for The Living Earth Show, built upon selected materials from their improvisational sessions in response to my recipe—a written communication framework I create for musicians.
Each performer recorded their session separately, on different days and at different times, likely in varying moods. This process assembles distinct temporalities, which converge into a singular, fluid experience in live performance. Their co-presence on stage becomes a representation of mixed realities—a juxtaposition of their individually recorded moments with the immediacy of the present, all framed within my reality and my depiction of Contemporary Tribes.
About Bike Öner
Born in Istanbul, Turkey, and now based in Austin, USA, Bike is a composer and cellist. Her work encompasses acoustic, electronic, and electro-acoustic compositions, score-based and improvised performances, alongside artistic research. Bike delves into themes of proximity, memory, and (re/de)-construction, while her entire body of work also explores the concept of co-presence and mixed realities in states of transition and transformation.
Bike holds a bachelor’s degree in cello performance and a master’s degree in the same field. In 2022, she earned her Master of Music Composition degree from Istanbul Technical University MIAM - Center for Advanced Studies in Music. Her works have been showcased on various stages in Turkey and abroad. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, Butler School of Music.
Robert Honstein - Music to Hear
for Mezzo-Soprano, Electric Guitar, & Percussion
Text by William Shakespeare
Music to hear, why hear’st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.
Why lovest thou that which thou receives not gladly,
Or else receives with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
Resembling sire and child and happy mother
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: ‘thou single wilt prove none.’
About Robert Honstein
Celebrated for his “waves of colorful sounds” (New York Times) and “smart, appealing works” (The New Yorker), Robert Honstein (b. 1980) is a New York-based composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and film music. His music has been performed by the Albany Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Dal Niente, Mivos Quartet, Del Sol Quartet, Argus Quartet, New Morse Code, Colin Currie, Theo Bleckmann, Doug Perkins, Michael Burritt, Karl Larson, and Ashley Bathgate, among others. Interdisciplinary collaborators include photographer Chris McCaw, projection designer Hannash Wasileski, graphic designer Laura Grey, and director Daniel Fish.
His music has been released by New Amsterdam Records, New Focus Recordings, Soundspells Productions, Cedille Records, and Other Minds Records. His debut film score, The Real Charlie Chaplin, was nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy in Outstanding Music Composition. Robert is a founding member of the New York-based composer collective Sleeping Giant and co-founder of Fast Forward Austin. He is Program Director of Concert Composition and Composition Faculty at NYU, Steinhardt.
Akshaya Tucker - "Through"
for Mezzo-Soprano, Electric Guitar, & Percussion
Around a year and a half ago, I started writing resistance songs inspired by the protest songs of American folk music. Through is the first song I've shown to other people, and Tanner Porter and Living Earth Show have been such incredible collaborators on this project, adding many of their own elements to the piece. Through is a love song to my friends and community. It's rooted in Los Angeles and our lives here (minus the part about the rain... that's more of a metaphor!) The final line, "there's no way out but through," is directly inspired by game master/philosopher Brennan Lee Mulligan, but has roots in Dante's Inferno, Robert Frost, among many others.
Text by Akshaya Avril Tucker
In the rain, in the rain
I’ll sew our hearts together in the rain
A stitch in time to save all nine
of our lives as they march on by;
the crowded bus, the dusty cats,
the moms who walk their kids to school
in the rain…
Through poisoned air, through fire and flood
through biblical greed and unearned love,
you fit my heart like a hand in a glove, my love,
and I’ll hold you there forever in the rain;
I will sew our hearts together in the rain.
A hundred lives create a home,
a hundred hurts and pains to come,
but a thousand roots with ancient feet
can crack the walls, break through concrete.
So, hurry up, we cannot wait
for the flood to reach our door,
a hundred ways we can resist
but first of all, we need friendship.
You bring the jam, I’ll bring the bread,
it’s not a lot, but the table’s spread.
Around the kitchen we will stand,
and talk and cry and make a plan.
And through our tears and anger too,
we’ll make a plan, how do I free you?
How do I free you, and you free me?
In the rain, in the rain,
how do we free each other in the rain?
Through poisoned air, through fire and flood
through biblical greed and unearned love,
you fit my heart like a hand in a glove, my love,
and I’ll hold you there forever in the rain;
I will sew our hearts together in the rain.
There’s no way out but through,
no way out but through…
About Akshaya Tucker
Akshaya Avril Tucker (she/they) is a composer who draws inspiration from the music and dance traditions of South Asia, having trained as a cellist and Odissi dancer from a young age. Their music, called “affirming” (The Washington Post), often explores meditative and gestural soundscapes. She has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Rider, Piano Spheres, WindSync, invoke, Johnny Gandelsman and Lucia Lin and many more. Her music has been performed by A Far Cry, members of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and more. They will be an Instructor of Music Composition at Interlochen Arts Camp in 2025, and will be completing their DMA in Composition at the University of Southern California this year.
About the Artists
Tanner Porter
Tanner Porter is a composer-performer and songwriter. In her “original art songs that are by turns seductive and confessional” (Steve Smith, The New Yorker), Tanner explores her passion for storytelling, often framing her work within the imagery of the California coast she grew up on. Tanner’s orchestral music, described as “drop-dead gorgeous” (Jim Munson, Broadway World), has been commissioned by the San Francisco Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Nu Deco Ensemble, and the New York Youth Symphony, among others.
Music as a vehicle for the mingling of artistic mediums is at the heart of Tanner’s work, stemming from a reverence for theatrical productions, and a deep love of song arrangement. She is thrilled to have collaborated with choreographer Claudia Schreier on two new ballets: Slipstream, for the Boston Ballet, and Kin, commissioned by the San Francisco Ballet and hailed as “a total-stage spectacle” (Rachel Howard, SF Chronicle).
As a songwriter, Tanner has been commissioned to write and perform song-cycles by institutions such as Dumbarton Oaks (A Sky To Love More, premiered by Eric Jacobsen and Friends) and the Louisville Orchestra (True Lover’s Knot, premiered by the LO under the baton of Teddy Abrams). Her short opera Boughs was commissioned and premiered by Barnard College and Columbia University’s New Opera Workshop. Her most recent record, One Was Gleaming, was released in 2024 with mixing by Christopher Botta and mastering by David Peters of Oak House Recording. Called “an outstanding, genre-defying album from a uniquely talented composer-songwriter…a rare, must-listen recording from an important artist with much to say” (Lauren Ishida, I Care if You Listen), One Was Gleaming features colorful arrangements and “songs imbued with nothing less than life itself” (Adobe and Teardrops). Her previous record, The Summer Sinks, was recorded with LA-based studio Oak House Recording and can be heard on all streaming platforms.
As a performer, Tanner had the privilege of being in the original Broadway cast of ILLINOISE, with music by Sufjan Stevens, direction and choreography by Justin Peck, a book by Jackie Sibblies Drury and Justin Peck, music direction by Nathan Koci, and new orchestrations by Timo Andres. She was the vocal/guitar understudy for two roles played by Tasha Viets-Vanlear and Shara Nova (My Brightest Diamond)/Becca Stevens.
As an arranger, Tanner orchestrated Grammy award-winning songwriter Aoife O’Donovan’s All My Friends for premiere with the Orlando Philharmonic, with a 2024 record featuring orchestrations for The Knights of New York, the Westerlies, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
Tanner was a composer-in-residence with the Louisville Orchestra's 2023-2024 Creators Corps, a 2022 Early Career Musician in Residence at Dumbarton Oaks, and has been a fellow of the Aspen Music Festival, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Next Festival of Emerging Artists. Her works have been presented at Carnegie Hall, the New World Symphony’s New World Center, the Prototype Festival, the Miami Light Box, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music, New Music Gathering, and the American Composers Orchestras Connecting ACO Community virtual series. She was a 2019 recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Scholarship. Tanner holds degrees in composition from the University of Michigan’s SMTD (BM) and the Yale School of Music (MM). She is a member of ANTiCX collective.
The Living Earth Show
The Living Earth Show exists to push the boundaries of technical and artistic possibility while amplifying voices, perspectives, and bodies that the classical music tradition has often excluded. The organization uses the tools of experimental classical music to facilitate the creation of its collaborators' most ambitious musical visions and create work that reflects and responds to our world.
Based in San Francisco, The Living Earth Show is simultaneously one of the premiere contemporary chamber ensembles in the United States, a groundbreaking production company (TLES Productions), and uncompromising record label (Earthy Records). The Living Earth Show has presented seasons of commissioned multimedia productions since 2011, working with dance companies, visual artists, sculptors, poets, and other musicians to craft compelling, immersive, progressive new work.
Recent live highlights include productions at Rewire Festival in The Netherlands (Elemental View, a collaboration with Ellen Fullman), SF Performances (Lyra: a collaboration with Post:ballet, filmmaker Ben Tarquin, and composer Samuel Adams), SXSW (performing with COMMANDO, TLES’s queer and trans nü metal collective), Sutro Baths (Tremble Staves: a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon and the National Parks Service), Davies Symphony Hall (a collaboration with the San Francisco Girls’ Chorus), The Met Cloisters (Lordship & Bondage: The Birth of the Negro Superman: a collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and composer M. Lamar), and Spoleto Festival USA.
The Living Earth Show has released five recordings, several of which are available via Earthy Records, the organization’s in-house record label of innovative, virtuosic chamber music. The label’s inaugural year featured albums created with Danny Clay (Music for Hard Times) and Samuel Adams (Lyra), both released in collaboration with filmmakers and visual artists.
Committed to supporting the next generation of artistic thinkers, The Living Earth Show has been in residence at University of Maryland (2021), the Music Department at Stanford University (2019), the University of Michigan Center for World Performance Studies (2019), University of California Davis (2022), and University of South Carolina (2018).
Travis Andrews
Travis Andrews is the co-founder, executive director, and electric guitarist in The Living Earth Show. In that capacity, Andrews' performances have been praised as “mind-blowing” and "a vanguard effort of new chamber music" by the San Francisco Examiner and "emotional, transcendent, and at times bursting with raw post-rock power" by the Charleston City Paper. In his work, he strives to use the tools of classical and contemporary music to foreground the voices and perspectives often marginalized by the tradition and its presentation.
Highly in demand as a solo artist, Andrews has been a featured soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble.
He has performed with John Doe of X, Bryce Dessner of The National, Terry Riley, & Kronos Quartet. A musical omnivore, Andrews also performs with avant-thrash trio Freighter, chambercore band miRthkon, and queer nü metal band COMMANDO.
Andrews has authored articles and books for String Letter Publishing and has been an artist in residence at universities and conservatories around the country. He is an endorsing artist for Fishman Transducers.
Andy Meyerson
Andy Meyerson is a drummer and percussionist based in San Francisco, California. He is the Artistic Director, co-founder, and percussionist of The Living Earth Show, one of the premiere experimental classical ensembles in the United States.
He is also the drummer and co-founder of queer nü metal collective COMMANDO, music director of renegade dance company Post:ballet, drummer for Russian feminist protest and performance art group Pussy Riot, the artistic director and CEO of uncompromising experimental chamber music record label Earthy Records, and a renowned solo artist.
Andy Meyerson has released two solo percussion recordings: “My Side of the Story,” a collection of percussion solos written for him by Adrian Knight, Jude Traxler, Brendon Randall-Myers, Samuel Adams, and Danny Clay on slash/sound recordings, and “Extra Time,” an album of percussion solos written for him by Sarah Hennies on Hasana Editions.
He is an endorsing artist for Spaun Drums, Innovative Percussion, and Marimba One.
Event Coordinator: Mojgan Misaghi (she/her)
Program Assistant, Butler School of Music Composition
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Kirsten Townander
CLUTCH Social Media Coordinator
Micah Rosenstein
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