BACK COVE CONTEMPORARY MUSIC FESTIVAL

DAY 3 OF THE PORTLAND CONSERVATORY’S 9TH ANNUAL FESTIVAL

The 9th annual Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, sponsored by the Portland Conservatory of Music, presents three concerts of exciting new chamber music April 7th through 9th. Featuring performances by some of Maine’s top musicians, including the Portland String Quartet, the Portland Piano Trio, Mark Tipton’s Les Sorciers Perdus, pianist Bridget Convey, and more, the festival offers new music by nearly twenty composers from northern New England, many of whom will be in attendance to meet the audience and talk about their pieces. The first two concerts, both at Woodfords Church, are Friday, April 7, at 7:30, and Saturday afternoon, April 8, at 2:00. The third concert moves to downtown Portland’s SPACE Gallery, Sunday afternoon, April 9, at 2:00.

The focus Sunday is on music and the spoken word, a tie-in to National Poetry Month. Former Maine Poet Laureate Betsy Sholl reads several of her poems in collaboration with musicians Gary Wittner and Jim Cameron, and Mark Tipton’s quartet Les Sorciers Perdus performs with Downeast poet Alan Brooks. Philip Carlsen offers a setting for string trio of a long, contrapuntal poem by Robert Bringhurst, which the musicians speak while they play. In Jet-Pack for One, Beth Wiemann combines her bass clarinet playing with an electronic reading of a wry poem by Miriam Gamble. Josh Newton narrates his Commedia, which also features flutist Nicole Rawding. Gustavo and Gaelyn Aguilar, offer a mixed-media piece about their cross-country Who Eats at Taco Bell? project. The program concludes with an audience-participatory electronic/video work by Bill Matthews.