West Coast String Summit gathers an exciting array of instrumental innovators for its first event
Josh Zubot Strings, Quatuor Bozzini, Malcolm Goldstein, and more join the roster March 9 to 12
Quatuor Bozzini
Josh Zubot Strings. Photo by Gen Monroe Photography
The Vancouver Improvised Arts Society, Vancouver New Music, NOW Society, and the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre present the first annual West Coast String Summit at various venues from March 9 to 12. The Western Front will also present Quatuor Bozzini, performing a new work by Sarah Davachi, at the Front on Thursday, March 16
SOME FESTIVALS evolve from careful planning, a thorough analysis of the target demographic, and a careful look at the long-range weather forecast. Others just fall into place like they were meant to be—and this year’s inaugural West Coast String Summit is one of those.
It’s not that event organizers Josh Zubot and Meredith Bates hadn’t been thinking about such a thing for quite some time. The two violin virtuosos, whose credits range from session work to chamber music to out-there electronic improvisation—had each, independently, come to the conclusion that the time was ripe for a multiday celebration of contemporary string playing.
Zubot had been particularly impressed by avant-garde cellist (and Vancouver International Jazz Festival collaborator) Tomeka Reid’s Chicago Jazz String Summit, and had been looking for ways to bring some of his old Montreal cronies to his new home town. So when he got word that Vancouver New Music had booked a local appearance by his former mentor Malcolm Goldstein and his Quator d'occasion, the proverbial light bulb lit up in his head.
Coincidentally, the Western Front arts centre had plans to host another Montreal ensemble, Quatuor Bozzini, for a residency in March.
“It came together very quickly because of that,” Zubot says.
With Vancouver New Music and the Western Front in agreement, Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre programmer DB Boyko—herself a former Western Front music curator—offered a venue, with the New Orchestra Workshop Society and its 8EAST space also signing up for smaller concerts and workshops. And just to add some international flair and instrumental diversity, Seattle’s extraordinary Eyvind Kang, a pioneering composer and improviser who’s now specializing in new music for viola da gamba, has committed to perform.
It’s an amazing array of talent.
Zubot is especially happy to present Goldstein’s quartet. The older violinist has long been a key link between contemporary composition and the world of free improvisation; playing and studying with him had a formative impact on the Saskatchewan-born Zubot’s own music.
Malcolm Goldstein
Meredith Bates
“He’s been a big mentor, influence, and collaborator. I think I saw him for the first time when I was in school in Montreal, and then throughout my years there we just slowly started doing stuff together,” Zubot recalls. “I did a little bit of studying with him on improvisation and composition, so we started off with that. After that we just played a lot together, improvised-music shows, and I was actually in the group that’s coming out, with Malcolm, myself, [violist] Jean René, and [cellist] Émilie Girard-Charest. We were a working quartet up until I moved away, and then bassist Nicolas Caloia kind of took over my spot.”
The Bozzini quartet, he continues, is more focused on through-composed music: the group is essentially the Canadian equivalent of the San Francisco–based Kronos Quartet or London’s Arditti Quartet, having commissioned hundreds of new scores from both emerging artists and established art-music stars. One of their most recent recordings was devoted to the music of Victoria educator and provocateur Christopher Butterfield; for their West Coast String Summit appearance, they’ll perform French composer Éliane Radigue’s deeply meditative Occam Delta XV.
Other West Coast String Summit shows will include the duo of Bates and electronic composer Alex Abahmed; violinist Cindy Kao and electronic musician Aysha Dulong’s Sapphire Haze project; Goldstein and Caloia in duet; and an entirely improvised meeting between various festival performers and other local players.
Naturally enough, Zubot would also like to make special mention of his own Josh Zubot Strings concert at the Roundhouse on March 9. It’s a release party for the group’s eponymous debut CD, and also a chance to see five of B.C.’s most accomplished string improvisers working within an unusual format: a quintet with three violinists, one cellist, one upright bassist and, surprisingly, no violist. Joining Zubot and Bates on violin will be the leader’s older brother, Jesse Zubot, who should need no introduction to local listeners. Filling in for cellist Peggy Lee, now residing in Australia, will be Marina Hasselberg, whose own solo debut, Red, was recently released to unanimous acclaim. And on bass will be James Meger, an accomplished composer and recording engineer in his own right.
It probably shouldn’t be surprising that some of the most striking moments on the quintet’s debut come when the performers sound like anything but a string quintet. I’m thinking of “Night Time”’s gorgeous melody, reminiscent of something that the great Armenian duduk virtuoso Djavan Gasparyan might have played. Or the subtle ensemble work on “Leaf and Water” in which the ensemble breathes together like a Pauline Oliveros accordion. Or sections of “Auger”, in which the players summon up the psychedelic sound of the great Jimi Hendrix—without amplification or fuzz pedals.
While new-music string quartets like the Bozzinis are often concerned with subtle innovations of timbre and tonality, Zubot and his accomplices sometimes make wholesale changes to their instruments’ personalities. “There’s nothing strings can’t do,” they seem to be saying.
“Ever since I was young,” Zubot explains, “I’ve played very diverse music and styles. I’ve never been focused, not focused like ‘I’m a folk player, and that’s all I’m going to do,’ or ‘I’m a classical musician, and that’s all I’m going to do,’ or ‘I’m a jazz player.’ I’ve basically played all that music my whole life. So that’s why my writing, maybe, is a little bit all over the place, because that’s me. I’ve just been all over the place in styles, and that comes through in my music and my playing.
In this case, however, “lack of focus” doesn’t result in any reduction of musical appeal. Under Zubot’s direction, all five members of his group pull together to create a cohesive identity, one that combines technical brilliance and an adventurous temperament with just enough folk sweetness to make for easy access. Josh Zubot Strings is a remarkable achievement—and so, too, is the way that various Vancouver arts organizations have come together to to make the West Coast String Summit happen.
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