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The eclectic musical troupe Wet Ink Ensemble, named The New York Times’ Best Classical Music Ensemble of 2018, will present a chamber-music concert that includes the world premiere of “Moving (1),” written by Dr. Chaz Underriner, assistant professor of digital arts at Stetson University. Underriner’s compositions focus on the notions of landscape and portraiture in the context of experimental music.
The concert is 6-7:15 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, at Stetson University’s Second Stage Theatre, in the Museum of Art – DeLand, 600 N. Woodland Blvd.
In addition, the troupe’s Stetson University residency will include an artist talk with Wet Ink Ensemble’s technical director, composer and principal electronics performer Sam Pluta 6-7:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 23, in Stetson’s Rinker Welcome Center. Both events are free and open to the public.
“Events like Wet Ink Ensemble at Stetson are special because they are presentations by composers and performers working at the absolutely highest level in new classical music compositions,” said Underriner. “This is a rare chance to see an excellent ensemble that is wholly focused on performing innovative and adventurous new compositions.”
The New York-based, avant-garde collective of composers, performers and improvisers, who are dedicated to adventurous music-making, has been performing its exploratory compositions to worldwide audiences for the past 20 years. This is the first experimental music piece Underriner has written for Wet Ink Ensemble.
“The composition is the first piece in a new series of works about the sensations of travel and features an amplified ensemble with field recordings and video,” said Underriner.
“The ‘Moving’ series primarily explores moving through space and the sensations of traveling through landscapes. For this piece, I was imagining traveling underwater at Blue Spring State Park and the St. Johns River.”
Underriner layered and combined his videos with music he had written for the ensemble, and field recordings of Blue Spring State Park. The audience also will hear tourists talking at the park, and Underriner counting voltage levels while shooting wagon-wheel videos in the electronics part of composition.
