Cello and Piano Duo: TwoSense

Friday, Oct. 11, 7:30 p.m.

The season starts with a bang as the ferocious duo TwoSense, praised in the New York Times for their “imaginative phrasing” and “fresh approach and taste for variety,” comes to Columbia – and the Southeast – for the first time. TwoSense is cellist Ashley Bathgate, the newest member of the venerated chamber ensemble Bang on a Can All-Stars, and pianist Lisa Moore, formerly of Bang on a Can and one of the leading figures in contemporary music for decades. Their eclectic program includes Martin Bresnick’s intense, mercurial “Prayers Remain Forever” and the evocative, slowly shifting harmonies of Kate Moore’s “Velvet,” which achieves the lyrical and emotional force of a power ballad (both works were written for the duo in 2011). A highlight of the show will be the world premieres of brand-new works by Jack Perla and Paul Dresher, both eclectic composers/performers/polymaths based on the west coast.

Composer Portrait: John Fitz Rogers

Monday, November 11, 7:30 p.m.

Southern Exposure's first “Composer Portrait” concert features the chamber music of much-loved series founder and USC composition professor John Fitz Rogers, presenting a tour of Rogers’ eclectic, ever-evolving compositional style. Music ranges from one of Rogers' earliest published works, the flute solo “Bend Sinister,” written as an undergraduate, to his recent saxophone and bassoon quartets, the frenetic “Prodigal Child” and stunning “Come Closer.” In “Come Closer” (2011), players use headphones, listening to streams of clicks or pulses that enable them to each conceive of the basic pulse of the piece differently, making the seemingly impossible rapidity of the work playable. Featured performers are USC’s own world-class faculty and students, including pianists Phillip Bush, Marina Lomazov and Joseph Rackers, flutist Jennifer Parker-Harley, soprano Tina Stallard, oboist Rebecca Nagel and bassoonist Michael Harley (with the bassoon group Dark in the Song). This show also includes the world premiere of a piece written by USC composition professor Reginald Bain commemorating Rogers’ tenure with Southern Exposure.

Modern Choral Masterworks: The Trinity Cathedral Chamber Singers

Saturday, February 22, 7:30 p.m.

Southern Exposure’s first concert of 2014 features one of the Southeast’s finest choirs, the Trinity Cathedral Chamber Singers, directed by Jared Johnson, Trinity’s music director and organ professor at the University of South Carolina.

The Trinity Cathedral Choir regularly tours throughout Europe, including performances at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, and the Canterbury and Gloucester Cathedrals in England. The Trinity Chamber Singers, a select group of 12-14 singers, have created a program that will plumb the depths of innovative choral music, both a capella and accompanied by the organ, from the 20th and 21st centuries. Works by the famed “holy minimalists” Arvo Pärt and John Tavener will highlight a mystical, mercurial program that includes fresh-sounding works both (comparatively) old – by quirky American composer William Albright, British master Benjamin Britten, and French icon Olivier Messiaen – and new, by some of today’s brightest stars, including Steven Stucky, Zachary Wadsworth, Daniel Kellogg, John Fitz Rogers, Gabriel Jackson, and Jonathan Dove.

Featured performers:
Trinity Cathedral Chamber Singers
Directed by Jared Johnson
With organist Christopher Jacobson

Indy Classical Innovation: yMusic

Friday, March 21, 7:30 p.m.

The dazzling sextet yMusic is perhaps the leading product of a new generation of musicians that live in the fertile stylistic zone bridging contemporary classical music, rock, pop and jazz that has been called “indy classical.” Comprised of three winds (trumpet, flute and clarinet) and three strings (violin, viola,and cello), the group met playing backup for artists such as Sufjan Stevens, the National, and Antony and the Johnstons. Their debut record, “Beautiful Mechanical,” was Time Out New York’s number one-ranked classical album of 2011. It features driving, edgy music that sounds both refreshing and familiar, including newly-composed pieces by Shara Worden of the indy rock group My Brightest Diamond, Annie Clark, the singer-songwriter better known as St. Vincent, and electronic musician Son Lux.  While including some choice tunes from “Beautiful Mechanical,” yMusic’s show will also feature new music from their second, as-yet-unreleased-and-untitled album. Composers writing for yMusic on this recording are a “who’s who” in classical / pop music today, including Sufjan Stevens, Nico Muhly, Andrew Norman, Marcos Balter and Mark Dancigers.