Flotation Device 2026-04-12 - Old Meets New in Seattle

Old Meets New is the main theme as we contrast songs from the dawn of Western art music in Medieval Europe with contemporary works inspired by them. We marvel at the exploratory character of Medieval music as composers grappled with such newfangled concepts as notation, polyphony, and consonance vs. dissonance. Simon Hanes, Ming Tsao, Nils Henrik Asheim, Meara O’Reilly and Roust Poziumski are the latter-day practitioners mixing the forms, tunings and instruments of old music with modern rhythms and harmonies. Ross Lee Finney’s expresses his own Midwestern small town nostalgia in an orchestral gem that’s just gotten its first recording 50 years after its premiere. And we preview Seattle concerts by The Tallis Scholars, Chris Speed’s Yeah No quartet and Carrie Shaw’s Wind Up Vocal Project, while Bonnie Whiting sets the poetry of female inmates, and Sam Pluta performs with Wet Ink Ensemble partners Josh Modney and Mariel Roberts. Creative and improvised music with host Michael Schell.