San Diego New Music Collective

The San Diego New Music Collective consists of performers, composers, music technologists, scholars and improvisors who are devoted to understanding and mastering the music of our time. In 2009, we gathered at the University of California at San Diego for its unique emphasis on uncompromising experimentalism, innovation, and rigorous performance practice. We seek to bring our challenging and rewarding repertoire to life for audiences of all backgrounds through communicative and engaging performances, education, and community outreach.

Selections from our Repertoire:

Iannis Xenakis: Psappha
Dustin Donahue, percussion

Robert Morris: Beautiful Beast
Scott Worthington, double bass

Paul Feyertag: 250 Multicolored Birds
Scott Worthington, double bass, Curt Miller, clarinet, and Dustin Donahue, percussion

Paul Hembree: Passion (text by Georg Trakl)
Meghann Welsh, soprano, Dustin Donahue, percussion, Ariana Lamon-Anderson, clarinets, Mark Dresser, double bass, and Aleck Karis, conductor

Selections of Electronic, Experimental, and Chamber Music by Paul Hembree.

Double bassist SCOTT WORTHINGTON (b. 1987) is active as a chamber musician, composer, and soloist. He has performed with a wide variety ensembles at festivals around the world such as the Chihuahua International Festival, June in Buffalo, the Lucerne Festival, and the Monterey and Montreal Jazz Festivals. While attending the Eastman School of Music, Worthington regularly performed with Musica Nova and Ossia New Music presenting concerts of 20th century music and premiering numerous works. From 2007-2009 he was invited to perform with the Lucerne Festival Academy working with conductor Pierre Boulez and members of Ensemble Intercontemporian. Desiring to expand the bass repertoire, Worthington frequently commissions works for solo bass and solo bass with electronics. He has premiered solos and concertos written for him by Robert Morris, Juan Trigos, and many of his peers. As a composer, Worthington's music has been commissioned and performed around the United States by big bands, chamber ensembles, soloists, and computers. He completed his undergraduate studies in bass at Eastman with James VanDemark and is a graduate student at the UCSD studying with Mark Dresser.

 

 

Soprano MEGHANN WELSH is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area where she completed a Bachelor of Music degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2002 and received her Master of Music degree from San Francisco State University in 2009. During her time at UCSC, Ms. Welsh worked with composer Lou Harrison and conductor Nicole Paimaent on the recording, Lou Harrison: Works 1939-2000, and performed the role of Micaela in Bizet's Carmen. At SFSU, Ms. Welsh performed the role of Elmire in Kirk Meecham's Tartuffe, and developed a love for chamber music through her performances and close work with the Alexander String Quartet. While living in the Bay Area, Ms. Welsh worked to present multi-media art projects in public spaces, collaborating extensively with dancers, video artists, poets, and computer and acoustic musicians. She also collaborated with local composers', premiering numerous chamber works including the role of Nina in Kevin Caulfield's musical drama, A Rose For Nina. Although her heart remains in San Francisco, Ms. Welsh is currently pursuing the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Contemporary Performance at the University of California, San Diego, studying under the inimitable soprano, Susan Narucki. Her own enterprises include Art and Meat, a work-in-progress chamber opera based on Bill Griffith's comic strip "Zippy The Pinhead", and her solo improvisation project, The Meghann Welsh Experience.

CURT MILLER is a sought after collaborator in the exploration of the clarinet and the performance and development of new chamber music. To this end he has premiered new chamber works by Rebecca Saunders and Lewis Nielson, worked closely with composer Helmut Lachenmann on performances of his solo and chamber music for clarinet, and performed with ensembles such as new music sextet Echoi and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble around the United States at venues such as the Kennedy Center and Miller Theater and performances abroad at the Lucerne Festival and the Festival of Music of Santa Catarina, Brazil. This work often extends to chamber music with electronics, including premieres of works by Tom Lopez and Peter Swendsen, performances at the SEAMUS 2009 National Conference, and masterclasses in performance with electronics by members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain and IRCAM. Curt currently studies clarinet at UCSD with Anthony Burr in addition to developing recent interests in improvisation and sound poetry.

Percussionist DUSTIN DONAHUE is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Percussion Performance at the University of California, San Diego, where he studies with Steven Schick, and performs with Red Fish Blue Fish. Dustin has made festival appearances in Europe and the United States, including soundScape, MusicX, and the Aspen Music Festival. Former mentors include Anthony Di Sanza, Jonathan Haas, and Thomas Stubbs. Dustin holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

PAUL HEMBREE's (b. 1982) compositions synthesize the expressive power of polyphonic music in the western classical tradition with modern experimental and electro-acoustic techniques to create a visceral and communicative sound. His work focuses on the perception of time and tempo, timbral metamorphoses and their textural analogies in the visual domain, and sonic gestures in physical space. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of California, San Diego, where he has studied with Philippe Manoury and Lei Liang. Recent ensembles that have premiere Paul's works include the Playground (Colorado), the Tasman String Quartet (New Zealand), the Antero Winds (Colorado), and he has received readings by eighth blackbird, Alarm Will Sound, and Fireworks. His compositions have appeared on a variety of music festivals, including New West Electronic Arts and Music Organization (NWEAMO) Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, the MusicX Festival, the Pendulum New Music series, the Oregon Composers Forum, the Aspen Underground, Soundscapes by Mystery Cabal, Future Music Oregon, and the Electro-Acoustic Juke Joint.