Racer Session #564 | Threshold Quartet | Sunday May 7th, 2023 at 7pm

Hello, improvisers!

We are heading into our first Racer Session of May, and are excited to share that this session will be presented by Don Berman!

Don Berman is a drummer and percussionist who has been a joyful and inclusive part of the Seattle creative music scene for over thirty years. Don received his musical training at Oberlin College and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he studied with Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame percussionists Michael Rosen and Thomas Siwe. A key Seattle experience for Don was studying free jazz and improvisation with composer/pianist, Alistair "Al" Hood in the late 1990's.

Don will be sharing a new ensemble, Threshold, where he is joined by:

Heather Bentley - Cello, Electronics
Simon Henneman - Guitar, Electronics
Dennis Rea - Guitar, Electronics

Read on for some words from Don, as well as some more background on this new ensemble. We’ll see you at Racer this Sunday at 7pm! And remember, we’re down to our last three sessions before taking an extended Summer break this year. So don’t miss it!

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“I grew up in Oberlin, Ohio, where my father, William Berman, was the viola professor and also violist in the Oberlin Conservatory String Quartet. So, as a child, I constantly heard chamber music both in person at concerts, and also at home on recordings. A couple of months ago, I decided that I wanted to make quartet recording and did some serious thinking about instrumentation choices. Instrumentation is a perfect topic for our racer session. Composers, of course, think about this all the time. When creating a new, they carefully select the instruments for which to write the piece. And they are often commissioned and challenged to create works for unusual ensembles.

So I decided, "How about a 21st century string quartet"? With three string players and a percussionist "disguised" as a string player? I was inspired by Seattle trumpet player, Tony Grasso, whose band The Tony Grasso Saxophone quartet consists of three excellent saxophonists and Tony on trumpet! I was delighted when cellist/violist, Heather Bentley, and guitarists, Dennis Rea and Simon Henneman were interested and available to do the recording, which will soon be released on Scott Schaffer's creative Right Brain Records label. Heather, Dennis, and Simon each incorporate electronics into what they do, so the ensemble is able to utilize its broad sonic palette to take listeners across a "Threshold" into exciting new musical spaces.

The band encourages you to try improvising in various different instrumental combinations and with players who may be new to you. Explore!”

- Don and Threshold