Boasting five of North America’s most adventurous exponents of new music for woodwinds, this double bill unites, for the first time, livewire clarinet soloist Lori Freedman with Quasar’s stellar quartet of saxophone virtuosos —Marie-Chantal Leclair, Mathieu Leclair, André Leroux and Jean-Marc Bouchard. Freedman opens both sets with works from her touring solo program by Richard Barrett and Raphaël Cendo—and teams up with Quasar for her own composition, No Man’s Clan (1996/2015). Quasar plays a work by Pierre-Alexandre Tremblay before a rousing finale with Freedman, performing Bouchard’s Le Cri des oiseaux fous (2012) and Fred Frith’s The Big Picture (2012), with a special guest appearance by the composer himself, on guitar.

Program: 

Richard Barrett: Interference (2000)                                                   

                            for contrabass clarinet

Lori Freedman: No Man’s Clan (1996, rev. 2015)                           

                           for saxophone quartet and bass clarinet      

Pierre Alexandre Tremblay: Les pâleurs de la lune (2014)                         

                           for saxophone quartet and live electronics

Intermission

Raphaël Cendo: Décombres (2011)

                          for contrabass clarinet and live electronics

Jean-Marc Bouchard: Le Cri des oiseaux fous (2012)

                          for saxophone quartet, soloist-improviser and live electronics

               I Premier Chant      

              II De l’aube à midi…

             III Jeu d’écho

             IV Les temps individuels ne se croisent jamais.

             V La folie est une pente glissante

             VI Le dernier cri

Fred Frith: Big Picture (2000)                 

                       for saxophone quartet and two improvising soloists