Transient Canvas: NEC Composers' Series and Robert Ceely Electronic Music Studio

The spring semester starts with a bang as we host the tour-de-force bass clarinet and marimba duo Transient Canvas for a night of electro-acoustic music. Amy Advocat and Matt Sharrock have commissioned close to a hundred new works for their unique instrumentation, and performed countless others, including on their three albums released by New Focus Recordings. Tonight, they premiere five new works by student composers Genie Alvarado, Benjamin Lichter, Samuel Mincarelli, Yuanwei Ni, and Chris Zacharias, which feature electronic elements that range from fixed media to live digital-signal processing. Transient Canvas will also present NEC alumnus and Boston Conservatory composition faculty member Dan VanHassel’s Epidermis, an energetic and exciting piece featured on their album Wired.

For over a decade, Boston-based contemporary duo Transient Canvas has been thrilling audiences with their “engaging musicality and easy sense of ensemble" (Cleveland Classical) and “superb” performances (Boston Globe). Bass clarinetist Amy Advocat (she/her) and marimbist Matt Sharrock (they/them) relish the creative potential of working with living composers, with the San Francisco Chronicle lauding “the versatile imagination they both display and inspire in others” and a commissioned repertoire of over 90 works.

Since 2017, they have hosted their annual paid Composer Fellowship Program that is free and open to composers of all ages. They maintain an active touring schedule with recent performances at the Alba Music Festival, Festival of New American Music, Music on the Edge, New Music Miami, and Red Note New Music Festival, among others. Recent educational residencies include the University of Southern California, University of Miami, New York University, and Longy’s Divergent Studio. They have three albums — Right now, in a second; Sift; and Wired — released on New Focus Recordings. Transient Canvas proudly endorses Henri Selmer Paris and Marimba One.

For more information, visit transientcanvas.com.