Flotation Device celebrates the 100th birthday of Hans Werner Henze with a mini-retrospective of his iconoclastic and eclectic music, including his multilingual cabaret Voices and his experimental chamber opera El Cimarrón which recounts the life of an escaped Cuban slave. We also take our first dive into Kaikhosru Sorabji’s 6½ hour Fifth Piano Sonata (AKA Opus Archimagicum) which has waited nine decades to be heard since it was composed in the 1930s. Janice Giteck gets her own 80th birthday commemoration with a work inspired by the Coyote character in Native American literature, while Dewa Alit tackles the intonational clashes between a Balinese gamelan and a Western piano. Emily Manzo plays Mary Halvorson, Mary Halvorson plays with Ambrose Akinmusire, and cavalcade of new releases continues with offerings by Horse Lords, Steve Layton, Denis Dufour and the Seattle-based Gefühlswallung trio. Creative and improvised music with host Michael Schell from 91-3 KBCS Bellevue/Seattle/Tacoma.
