Moe! Staiano Guitar Ensemble

Wielding the baton for Moe! Staiano’s large ensemble, comprised of 10 guitarists and one composer-drummer. Since 2016 Moe! has offered me the job of sub-conductor, and each time I negotiated for the position of semi-conductor.

This piece, Away Towards the Light, has been working on me since the first time I conducted in 2016, again in 2017, and in a stunning session in 2018 that coincided with the death of another artist who always called me to away towards the light: Paul Clipson. Since then, Moe! has presented elegiac versions at Garden of Memory, which I had to hear from afar due to a small stitch in in the inhale. The composition will always be an act of agency for me, and a marker of loss.

At the rehearsal for this piece, to be presented by the curator who commissioned it in the first place, I received the glad gift of insight from players who have been realizing the composition since 2016 and who are realizing it for the first time. Their care for this piece, Moe’s inclusive practice, and the strength of the composition itself, which calls for rigorous technique and deep communication, catalyzes that part of me that knows what a difference music made together makes. Expect depth of feeling, Expect we-making.

Featuring Moe! Staiano on drums, John Angel, Lorenzo Arreguin, David James, Brent Miller, Melne Murphy, Josh Pollock, John Schott, Jas Stade, Robin Walsh and Bill Wolter on guitars, and Jason Hoopes on bass.

The evening includes a not-to-be missed set by Normal (Fred Frith – guitar | Sudhu Tewari – home-made instruments).