Deutsche Bank Concert

In the spaces between

In the spaces between features two compositions written by Camila Agosto that combine a range of multidisciplinary elements to create a unique musical experience. The first piece, “The Memory of Water Vol I,” is part of a new series of works that blend text, live composition, improvisation, electronics, and custom instruments. It was created in collaboration with Martine Thomas, a violist and poet.

The second composition, “Paracusia IV,” created in collaboration with Justin Massey, is part of a larger program consisting of five movements. It involves solo saxophone and live surround-sound electronics, through speakers placed around the performance space that emit live, recorded, and processed sounds. The performer reacts to these auditory “hallucinations”— also known as Paracusia— as they struggle against a multitude of spiraling voices.

Martine Thomas is a violist, performing internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, improviser, and composer collaborator. She has appeared at the Berliner Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Mariinsky Theatre, Disney Hall, the KKL Lucerne, the Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts, and at the BBC Proms, Mariinsky White Nights Festival, Donaueschingen Festival, and Lucerne Festival. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the International Contemporary Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Tyshawn Sorey, Kim Kashkashian, and Ghost Ensemble. Martine loves presenting solo recitals, and is looking forward to recitals this year in New York City, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and upstate New York. She is also passionate about recitals and concerts in community-oriented settings, including as a Music for Food artist fellow, through Meristem Artists, at the Biophony Festival, and in Celebrity Series Concert for One. Martine has a special interest in contemporary music and working with composers, which has led to recent collaborations and premieres with Tyshawn Sorey, Raven Chacon, Canila Agosto, Rebecca Saunders, George Lewis, Catherine Lamb, Miya Masaoka, and Joy Guidry as well as extensive workshops and performances at the Banff Centre and Lucerne Festival. Martine received her Bachelor of Arts from Harvard and her Master of Music from New England Conservatory, where she studied in the Harvard-NEC Dual Degree program. Her mentors include Paul Neubauer, Martha Katz, Mark Steinberg, Paul Biss, and Vijay Iyer. She is currently working on her doctorate in viola performance at CUNY Graduate Center and is on the string faculty at Brooklyn College Conservatory and Point CounterPoint.

Canadian saxophonist and composer Justin Massey is an interpreter of contemporary music based in Toronto, Ontario. With an obsession of creating new sonorities and textures through the saxophone, Justin searches for obscure and unexplored sounds offered by the instrument and its unparalleled potential to create visceral and emotional music. Justin presents music of his generation in all of his performances by commissioning new repertoire and collaborating closely with composers in search of these new sounds, often through electronic manipulation of the saxophone. With a passion for education, Justin has a private studio and teaches saxophone, flute, and clarinet in the Greater Toronto Area. He is the St. Andrew’s Academy of Music Visiting Faculty in saxophone, and has taught lessons, masterclasses, and band clinics at St. Andrew’s College, the Crescent School, and University of Toronto Schools. Justin completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at West Virginia University. He has earned degrees from Conservatoire de Bordeaux, Bowling Green State University, and the University of Alberta. He has studied with Michael Ibrahim, Marie-Bernadette Charrier, John Sampen, Allison Balcetis, and William Street.