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-Concerto for Two Universes, Donna Perlmutter
Rehearsing at Cabrillo under Marin Alsop (Photo: Ron Jones)
"Mason Bates's Digital Loom, for organ and electronics...transformed the hall into something between a decaying cathedral and an East Berlin club." -Alex Ross
With Maestra Marin Alsop at Cabrillo (Photo: Ron Jones)
"Contemporary composers can integrate high-definition recordings of sounds they want to evoke, as Mason Bates does in his cleverly constructed Liquid Interface. The first movement, "Glaciers Calving," begins with an ominous recording of glaciers crashing into the Antarctic Ocean, soon followed by dense, haunting swirls from the strings and electronic beats that accelerate to lively drum and bass rhythms. Mr. Bates's colorful four-movement tone poem, which uses a vast orchestra and electronics to evoke water in both soothing and menacing forms, received its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall ... Mr. Bates, who is also a D.J. (working under the name Masonic), has written other works blending classical and electronica. ... For the listener it was like wandering down a road with a string quartet playing on one side and a D.J. spinning on the other.-Vivian Schweitzer
Mason Bates & Robert Moody at the premiere of Rusty Air in Carolina by The Winston-Salem Symphony
"If Mason Bates' Rusty Air in Carolina is any indication, this 30-year-old composer (who is based in the East Bay and has a parallel career as a DJ) also has a voice...A Virginia native who summered as a teenager in South Carolina, his new work recalls sticky Southern nights, filled with the chatter and buzz of katydids and cicadas. ...You could feel the humidity, while luxuriating in Bates' exquisite, almost Impressionistic, atmospherics." -Richard Scheinin
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SPECIAL PROJECTS. The famed San Francisco club Mezzanine last year presented Mercury Soul: An Electro-Acoustic Evening, which attracted 1,400 people to a space normally associated with rock and electronica artists, and the event returns to Mezzanine on May 28. A collaboration between visual installation artist Anne Patterson and Maestro Benjamin Shwartz of the San Francisco Symphony, the event embeds sets of classical music in an evening of groovy electronica and beautiful, surreal visuals. (Go to www.MercurySoul.org for more info.) Having performed in a variety of spaces as a DJ in the San Francisco and Berlin scenes, he has often appeared at venues such as 111 Minna, John Colins, Sip, Fuse, and Temple. In Rome, his sets of trip-hop and funk have been heard at Scarabocchio and Metaverso in Testaccio, a thriving electronica scene tunneled inside an ancient pottery dump. He has performed his live electronica with upright bassist David Arend at the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art), the San Jose Jazz Festival, the Doug Fir club in Portland, and many others.
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July 12, 2009
: Pianist Yeol Eum Son performs White Lies for Lomax at the Portland Piano Festival May 28, 2008
: Mezzanine (for Mercury Soul) May 20-31, 2009
: The Van Cliburn Foundation showcases its semifinalists in performances that include White Lies for Lomax, for solo piano May 20-23, 2009
: The San Francisco Symphony under Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas premieres The B-Sides, for orchestra & electronica April 15, 2009
: The YouTube Symphony performs The B-Sides, for orchestra & electronica, at Carnegie Hall March 29, 2009
: The Adorno Ensemble performs Red River, for mixed ensemble & electronica, at the Switchboard Festival March 20-22, 2009
: Chanticleer, 'an orchestra of voices,' premieres Sirens, a large work for a cappella chorus, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music March 18, 2009
: Chanticleer, 'an orchestra of voices,' premieres Sirens, a large work for a cappella chorus, at Mission Santa Clara in Santa Clara, CA March 17, 2009
: Chanticleer, 'an orchestra of voices,' premieres Sirens, a large work for a cappella chorus, at First Congregational Church in Berkeley, CA March 8 & 10, 2009
: The California Symphony under Maestro Barry Jekowski premieres a new orchestral work for at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, CA January 30-31, 2009
: The Oklahoma All-State Orchestra under Maestro Robert Moody performs Rusty Air in Carolina, for orchestra & electronica
January 28, 2009
: Isabelle Demers performs Digital Loom, for organ & electronica, on Juilliard's Focus! Festival
December 10, 2008
: Red River, for mixed ensemble & electronica, is performed on a concert featuring the music of Young Concert Artists composers at Merkin Concert Hall December 8, 2008
: Red River, for mixed ensemble & electronica, is performed on a concert featuring the music of Young Concert Artists composers at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts November 9, 2008
: The Seattle Chamber Players performs The Life of Birds, for mixed ensemble, at the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, CA November 9, 2008
: The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony's performance of Omnivorous Furniture is broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Company at 1pm EST
November 7, 2008
: The Charleston Symphony under Maestro Robert Moody performs Rusty Air in Carolina, for orchestra & electronica October 23, 2008
: The Adorno Ensemble performs Red River, for mixed ensemble & electronica, at San Francisco State University on a concert featuring electronic music by Mason Bates & Mark Applebaum October 12, 2008
: Pianist Lara Downes performs White Lies for Lomax at Le Poisson Rounge in New York October 7, 2008
: The Portland Symphony opens their season with Liquid Interface, for orchestra & electronica, at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine under the direction of newly-appointed Maestro Robert Moody October 6, 2008
: DJ Masonic teams up with members of the Portland Symphony for an evening of ambient electronica & classical music at Portland's reknown Space Liquid Interface, for orchestra & electronica, at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine under the direction of newly-appointed Maestro Robert Moody October 5, 2008
: The Seattle Chamber Players performs The Life of Birds, for mixed ensemble, at the Orcas Center at Orcas Island (Washington State) September 27-28, 2008
: The Virginia Symphony under Maestro Robert Moody performs Rusty Air in Carolina, for orchestra & electronica September 25-26, 2008
: The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony under Maestro Edwin Outwater features Mason Bates in its Intersections series, performing Omnivorous Furniture, for sinfonietta & electronica September 18, 2008
: The Seattle Chamber Players performs The Life of Birds, for mixed ensemble, at the Lithuanian Academy of Music September 13, 2008
: The Seattle Chamber Players gives the European premiere of The Life of Birds, for mixed ensemble, at the Figura Festival in Copenhagen August 21, 2008
: Icarian Rhapsody is performed by Benjamin Shwartz at the Magic Magic Orchestra at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre
August 2, 2008
: Liquid Interface, for orchestra & electronica, is performed by Marin Alsop at the Cabrillo Festival July 27, 2008
: The National Repertory Orchestra performs Rusty Air in Carolina in Breckenridge, CO July 24, 2008
: Excerpts from the opera California Fictions are performed at Aspen Music Festivlal May 22, 2008
: Antares gives the NY premiere of Red River at the Chelsea Art Museum May 20, 2008
: Pianist Eric Huebner gives the NY premiere of White Lies for Lomax at the Tenri Gallery May 16, 17, 19 2008
: Rusty Air in Carolina, for orchestra & electronica, is performed by the Richmond Symphony, with Mason Bates performing live electronica on drumpad/laptop May 4&6, 2008
: The California Symphony premieres a new work under the baton of Barry Jekowski February 8, 2008
: Antares performs Red River, for chamber ensemble & electronica, at the Ravinia Festival February 7, 2008
: Under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, The National Symphony gives the New York premiere of Liquid Interface at Carnegie Hall February 2, 2007
: BAM Cafe (Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY), post-concert party February 1, 2008
: San Francisco's famed club Mezzanine presents Mercury Soul, an electro-acoustic evening, featuring live electronica and new concert music in a club environment
January 25, 2008
: The Seattle Chamber Players premiere The Life of Birds on Seattle's On the Boards Festival November 1, 2007
: Set of live electronica, with MarsBassMan, opening the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, CA
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Mason Bates / MasonicMason Bates / Masonic : electronica and classical composer in San Francisco, Mason Bates is a member of Young Concert Artists. Official site of Mason Bates / Masonic (DJ and electronica / techno artist). ©2003 by Mason Bates / Masonic. |