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For over a decade, the unique ensemble that is Hub New Music has been developing its own distinct performance sound. <\/p>\n
Hub New Music initially began as a school project back in 2013. Michael Avitabile, who was earning his master\u2019s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, wanted to build upon his previous work with student composers and bringing a new piece to life.<\/p>\n
At first, the group mostly consisted of Avitabile\u2019s friends that played an assortment of instruments and wanted to perform less-than-common music off campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would find art galleries, churches, basically anywhere in Boston that would let a bunch of grad-students come and play a concert without having to rent the venue because we had no budget whatsoever,\u201d Avitabile said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking bringing chairs from our living room \u2026 capital DIY.\u201d<\/p>\n
While searching for pieces to perform alongside student compositions, Avitabile found music that a group called the Seattle Chamber Players had commissioned for flute, clarinet, violin and cello. Avitabile, a flute player himself, had never performed in an ensemble quite like this, and after the group began to perform this repertoire, it soon became the standard for Hub New Music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere isn\u2019t a ton of chamber music written for the flute, and so any opportunity to find a collection of work for the same instrumentation was quite exciting,\u201d Avitabile said. \u201cBeing nontraditional, it was actually a real gift that there was so much existing repertoire, and we didn\u2019t have to commission everything we played from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within just a few years, Hub New Music began to garner local and national attention, leading to their first \u201cambitious commission project\u201d in 2016 \u2013 a 35-minute epic titled \u201cSoul House\u201d by Robert Honstein. Now, over a decade later, the group tours nationally and only performs music specifically written for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a real journey and continues to be one that\u2019s particularly rewarding,\u201d Avitabile said. \u201cNo shortage of things to do, and people to meet, and places to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the flute, clarinet, violin and cello being a distinct ensemble, Hub New Music has spent the past 12 years developing their own style and mannerisms.<\/p>\n
More common groups, such as a string quartet, have had hundreds of years to set standards for performance. Meanwhile, an ensemble like Hub New Music has not had many examples. Instead, they end up teaching themselves by means of intentional listening and objectively judging their own performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really takes a decade \u2026 there will be one marking that for a string player, they play it longer, and for a wind player our default is to do it shorter, and then it\u2019s kind of like mediating those differences,\u201d Avitabile said. \u201cAnd at least in my experience, an immense amount of flexibility with pitch and dynamic and vibrato and color.\u201d<\/p>\n
This distinct sound helped lead their collaboration with composer Carl Simon, \u201cRequiem for the Enslaved,\u201d to be nominated for Best Contemporary Classical Composition at the 2023 Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n
When the announcement was made, the group was on a flight and Avitabile wasn\u2019t paying much attention to the potential for a nomination. Upon landing and taking his phone off airplane mode, Avitabile\u2019s phone was packed with texts. He searched for the nominations and sure enough, there was Hub New Music.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy colleagues were all asleep and I\u2019m punching them and poking them and being like, \u2018Guys, guys, I think we got sort of nominated for a Grammy!\u201d Avitabile said. \u201cSome stranger behind me taps me on the shoulder and he\u2019s like, \u2018Hey dude, did you just get upgraded to first class?\u2019 And I looked at him and I was like, \u2018Metaphorically, like kind of, I think?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Friday night, Hub New Music will take to the stage at Gonzaga\u2019s Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center. They will be performing works from their usual touring repertoire alongside pieces written by Gonzaga students specifically for the ensemble, giving the young composers a chance to hear their own work go full circle, from pen to performance. Hub New Music will also perform a piece written by faculty member Michael Kropf, who they met at a festival years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of great music is timeless, but there\u2019s something about listening to something by someone else who is living in the same exact world and having the same experience of being alive right now,\u201d Avitabile said. \u201cThere\u2019s something that can\u2019t be replicated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n