A new dance work by Nancy Karp + Dancers, with music performed by the Friction Quartet and David A Jaffe

In 2022, Nancy Karp + Dancers commissioned a new work from David A. Jaffe for a full-evening dance piece entitled “fly through the night, and land near dawn.” The music consists of three works by David A. Jaffe: Fox Hollow, for string quartet, String Quartet for Two Instruments, for violin and viola, and a new commissioned work, with the same title as the dance piece, scored for mandolin/mando-cello, violin and cello. It was premiered at the Dresher Studio in Oakland, California in late October, 2022. The music was performed by the Friction Quartet, with David A. Jaffe, mandolin/mandocello.

Here is a video of the entire performance. . .

Animation created for live performance of "'Cluck Old Hen' Variations"

Violinist Karen Bentley Pollick, one of America's leading contemporary music violinists, has been championing the medium of live video/film combined with solo violin. In a desire to include "Cluck Old Hen Variations" in these shows, we enticed video animation artist Fred Kolouch to create a fanciful animation, based on ink drawings and simple abstracted objects, all suggested by the words of the folk tune, "Cluck Old Hen," which served as the basis of "Cluck Old Hen Variations." The words go "My old hen's a good old hen, she lays eggs for the railroad men, sometimes nine sometimes ten, that's enough for the railroad men. My old hen cackles, she cackles quite a lot, the next time she cackles, she'll cackle in a pot."

Info on performances here.  Here are several stills from the animation...