Genre defying ensemble PROJECT Trio and composer Adam Schoenberg collaborate on new concerto, premiering in 2016. 

Genre defying chamber ensemble PROJECT Trio will perform a new concerto composed by Adam Schoenberg in Spring 2016. IRIS Orchestra will premiere the work on February 27, 2016, followed by performances with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Amarillo Symphony, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

"Scatter", an electroacoustic concerto for PROJECT Trio, is a single-movement, through-composed work that begins in a slow and atmospheric way. Electronic sounds add color that one would not normally find in the traditional orchestral sonic realm and provide an extra layer of ambient tones and drones. As the piece begins, subtle electronic colors emerge within the bed of sound that the orchestra creates: primarily a lush canvas of brass pads and strings playing harmonics. As the sound develops, the concerto begins to evolve by way of groove-oriented music. The concerto gradually becomes faster as more complex grooves and ostinati are introduced. The overall architectural narrative is: slow/atmospheric-subtle groove-disjointed motion-high speed groove-epic bang.

Composer Adam Schoenberg is excited to have the opportunity to compose a concerto for PROJECT Trio, saying, "I am a great admirer of PROJECT Trio. Their ability to perform in many different styles and genres excited me as I begin to conceptualize their first ever concerto. They are extraordinarily vibrant and energetic players who play with much passion and virtuosity. Given their own unique sense of collaboration and capacity for improvisation, my main goal is to create a concerto that showcases their ability to be a genre-defying ensemble. Elements of jazz, funk, fusion, pop, and groove-oriented music will be fused within a traditional orchestral sound. Improvisation and quasi-aleatoric techniques will be employed within the score."

About PROJECT Trio

With a rapidly growing reputation as one of the most engaging and exciting chamber ensembles in the USA and around the world, PROJECT Trio brings audiences of all ages to their feet. Beat-boxing flutist Greg Pattillo, cellist Eric Stephenson and bassist Peter Seymour bring together a high energy mix of classical music, jazz, world music, and sounds of today. PROJECT Trio has an especially strong following among younger classical music audiences, with a phenomenal 80 million views and over 100,00 subscribers on their YouTube channel. Gramophone Magazine recently singled out the group as "an ensemble willing and able to touch on the gamut of musical bases ranging tom Baroque to nu-Metal and taking in pretty much every style in between," and The Wall Street Journal hailed the Trio for their "wide appeal, subversive humor and first-rate playing." This Fall, the Trio was featured as guest artist with the Kansas City and Phoenix Symphonies and toured to Israel and Germany. Please visit www.projecttrio.com to learn more.

About Adam Schoenberg

An improvisor at heart, Adam Schoenberg's engaging musical vocabulary has found resonance with audiences throughout the world. Full of "mystery and sensuality" (The New York Times), Schoenberg's music embraces both warm tonality and gentle chromaticism and has been heralded as "open, bold and optimistic" (Atlanta Journal-Constitution). By the conclusion of the 2015/16 season, his orchestral suite Finding Rothko will have received nearly 50 performances and his American Symphony more than 20 performances. Major commissions have come from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Kansas Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Aspen Music Festival and School. Upcoming projects include collaborations with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, IRIS Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, and a song-cycle commissioned be the Washington Performing Arts for a premiere at the Kennedy Center in January 2016.Upcoming album releases include a recording of Schoenberg's orchestral works (Finding Rothko, American Symphony, and Picture Studies) by the Kansas City Symphony for Reference Recordings. More information is available at www.adamschoenberg.com.

For more information, contact Peter Seymour at peter@whatisproject.org.