Premiere of Ben Montgomery's "Trio"

Hello everyone!

Last week I was so honored to premiere a new work for an… unusual… chamber ensemble by amazing composer, Ben Montgomery! When one thinks of trios, I doubt an instrumentation of horn, baritone sax and vibraphone comes to mind. However, this unique set-up is actually an incredible study in tone color and blend. If played sensitively, the horn and sax can almost vanish inside the sound of the vibes at soft dynamics, creating a timbre that I have truly never hear before! Even more beautiful are the moments where the two wind instruments pull out of the texture, either simultaneously or individually.

Ben’s piece is entitled “Trio,” and consists of two movements “Stasis” and “Current.” The former is almost out of time, and is based around a different concept of temporality; rather than focusing on tempo and pulse, performers follow the score and base their motion around the individual events occurring. “Current,” on the other hand, is a challenging exercise on textual interweaving and exact rhythm and timing. This was such an amazing and fun project, and it was truly a privilege to work with two excellent musicians and some of my favorite people, Joey Speranzo on the sax and Katherine Fortunato on vibes! We should be recording the piece soon, so keep an eye/ear out for the link!

Yours,

Caiti Beth

PC: Ben Freedman