Bewitching Petals
PARTCH Ensemble
WORLD PREMIERE
- Price
- $25*
- Genre
- Music
- Season
- Winter/Spring 2026
- DATE
- JUN 26-27
- TIME
- FRI-SAT, 8 PM
- RUNTIME
- Approx. 90 minutes, with intermission
- COUNTRY
- USA
- PROGRAM
- Not yet available
* Discounts available for REDCAT members, students & the CalArts faculty and staff
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About
PARTCH Ensemble—the Grammy Award-winning ensemble specializing in the music of the iconoclastic composer Harry Partch—debuts newly constructed, custom-built replicas of instruments designed by Partch in their annual survey of his music. Accompanying two world premieres by Rand Steiger and Daniel Corral, the evening begins with excerpts from the rarely heard Partch piece On the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma—a kaleidoscope of swirling timbres that amazes with the composer’s “multiple exposure” technique—and concludes with the “Prologue” & “Epilogue” from Partch’s midcentury piece The Bewitched. Partch’s instruments entitled the Crychord, Chromelodeon II, Zymo-Xyl, and Gubagubi will have their debut performances with the Ensemble, providing what LA Weekly describes as “weird and wonderful sonorities, truly unlike anything else on Earth or any neighboring celestial body.”
The program includes an instrument “petting zoo”: audiences are encouraged to interact with the instruments on stage after the show.
Outlandish
—
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times
This performance is supported in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
This performance is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Funded in part by The Amphion Foundation, Inc.
PARTCH Ensemble was supported by New Music USA’s Organization Fund in 2025-26.
about the artists
PARTCH Ensemble preserves and advances the musical world of American composer Harry Partch (1901–74). Partch created some of the most alluring and emotionally powerful music of the 20th century. He composed music for drama, dance-theater, multimedia, vocals, and chamber music—all to be performed on the extraordinary orchestra of instruments that he designed and built himself. Using custom-built replicas of Partch’s unique musical instruments, the Ensemble enlivens Partch’s music through performances, recordings, online broadcasting, and interdisciplinary collaborations. PARTCH Ensemble continues Partch’s legacy by commissioning new works by living composers and educating for the next generation of composers, performers, scholars, and fans of Partch’s instruments and musical concepts. The Ensemble has performed for the LA County Museum of Art, UCLA’s Partch Centennial Celebration, Sacramento’s Festival of New American Music, Mills College, UNM Albuquerque, the Getty Center, Repertory Dance Theatre of Salt Lake City, Carlsbad Music Festival, Jacaranda Music, Guadalajara International Book Fair, Grand Performances, Brooklyn’s Roulette, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the San Francisco Symphony, and South Korea’s Tongyeong International Music Festival. In 2004, they made their REDCAT debut premiering Harry Partch’s Bitter Music, and have returned every year since.
cast & creative team
Performed by PARTCH Ensemble
Artistic Director: John Schneider
Additional Guest Musicians:
Piccolo: Sara Andon
Bb Clarinet: Philip O’Connor
Bass Clarinet: Brian Walsh
Koto: Kosue Matsumoto
Composers: Daniel Corral, Harry Partch, Rand Steiger
