Projects

I love the process of learning new pieces especially when I can work closely with the composer. I have been collaborating with composer colleagues on new and recent works for solo cello and electronics with performance and recordings in mind. There are also pieces from the established repertoire that I have always been interested in.

Some of the composers include Ellen Reid, Chris Dobrian, Zeena Parkins, Bill Alves, Kaija Saariaho, and Tom Flaherty.  New pieces coming.....

Eclipse is dedicated to the music of twentieth century and present day composers. The scope of their repertoire spans works from John Cage and Morton Subotnick to collaborations with the singers Beck and Caetano Veloso. Eclipse has the versatility to cross genres from works that include electronics and computer processing to the jazz compositions of grammy award winning pianist Billy Childs.  The Quartet has performed frequently on both coasts and has participated in festivals such as the Look and Listen Festival in NYC, the Festival for New American Music in Sacramento, the Scarlatti Festival in Naples, Italy, the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Festival, the Angel City Jazz Festival and the Hear and Now Festival in Los Angeles.

The repertoire of Eclipse contains works by such dynamic composers  as Roger Reynolds, Julia Wolfe, Ben Johnston, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Annie Gosfield, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Philip Glass, John King and Lois V. Vierk. They have premiered new works by Zeena Parkins, Carla Kihlstedt, Justin Haynes, Gernot Wolfgang, Stephen Cohn and David Jaffe.

Eclipse has recorded the string quartets of Zeena Parkins for the Tzadik label and Morton Feldman’s epic Piano And String Quartet piece with pianist Vicki Ray on Bridge Records. In June 2013 Eclipse released a disc of three works for percussion and string quartet with percussionist William Winant on New World Records as recipients of the Aaron Copland Fund for Music Recording Grant. In Winter of 2014 the MicroFest label released Ruminations featuring Eclipse’s recording of Ben Johnston’s Revised Standards.

The Eclipse Quartet has been Artists in Residence at Mills College in Oakland California and at the historic artists’ retreat Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.

Brightwork newmusic is a classical new music sextet based in Los Angeles, California. A flexible and fearless group of world-class musicians, Brightwork consists of piano, violin, cello, flute, clarinet, percussion (an instrumentation which is often called “Pierrot + percussion,” and which is to modern chamber music what the string quartet was to earlier centuries), and champions the best of the music that’s being written today, while continuing to play the classics of “new” music from the last hundred years.

We play the music we love, whether this is one of our favorite masterworks of the 20th century, or the latest dazzling score from a composer whose music we just discovered. What the listener can expect at a Brightwork concert–at the very least–is exciting, emotionally engaging music presented in state-of-the-art performances. Brightwork seeks to draw the audience into the creative process.

MOJAVE TRIO is dedicated to presenting a wide variety of classical music from the standard repertoire of the 18th-19th centuries to new works of our time. The ensemble performs all over Southern California  including the "Sundays Live" radio broadcast from Bing Theater at the LA County Museum of Art, Monk Space, Pomona, Occidental and Scripps Colleges, and more.

A versatile performer of music spanning five centuries, Grammy® nominated GENEVIEVE FEIWEN LEE has thrilled audiences on the piano, harpsichord, toy piano, keyboard, and electronics.  She enjoys music that challenges her to go outside of her comfort zone to sing, speak, act, and play new instruments.   She has appeared as a soloist in France, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Poland, and the Netherlands.  She recorded Kurt Rohde’s ONE for speaking pianist (Innova), works by Tom Flaherty and Philippe Bodin on Elements (Albany), and appears on six other CDs.  In the Los Angeles area, Ms. Lee has been a guest performer with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music series at Disney Hall, Southwest Chamber Music, Jacaranda, Piano Spheres, and the Hear Now New Music Festival.  She’s a founding member of the Mojave Trio and performed in Carnegie Hall with the Garth Newel Piano Quartet.  She is Professor of Music at Pomona College

Violinist SARA PARKINS is a Grammy award winner for the Best Chamber Music Performance of the complete recordings of the Haydn String Quartets, with the Angeles Quartet. Sara is also a prizewinner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition with the Stonybrook Piano Trio. Sara is also a member of the acclaimed Eroica Trio. She has collaborated with prominent new music composers and performers such as Anthony Braxton, Mark Dresser, Zeena Parkins and Guy Klucevsek. In addition, Sara has performed with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York City. She is currently principal second violinist with the Pasadena Symphony, is an active studio musician, and was a member of the Rosetti String Quartet in Los Angeles. Ms. Parkins has performed at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Strings in the Mountains, and the Bravo Festival in Vail, Colorado. Internationally, Sara has participated at the Taklos Fesitval in Zurich, The Wels Unlimited Festival, the Festival Internationale  de Cadeques in Spain and in Eisenstadt, Austria. Sara is featured on Phillips Classics, Victo, Avant and Tzadik recording labels. She attended the Curtis Institute of Music and SUNY at Stony Brook.

Cellist MAGGIE PARKINS is equally at home in chamber music, orchestral music and the avant-garde. She has performed throughout the Americas and Europe and her work currently ranges from concert recitals to multimedia, multi-genre collaborations. Always an advocate for new and experimental music, Parkins, along with the Eclipse Quartet, has commissioned or premiered numerous works from composers, including Carla Kihlstedt, Zeena Parkins and Fred Frith. As a chamber musician, in addition to the Eclipse String Quartet, she also is a member of the Mojave Piano Trio and Brightwork newmusic. In the orchestra world she has performed under the batons of Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, Simon Rattle and Andre Previn performing with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Syracuse Symphony, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Pasadena Symphony, the Riverside Symphony and the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra. She was cello professor and coordinator of chamber music at UC Irvine from 1997-2016.

The Smudges is the duo of Maggie Parkins and Jeff Gauthier, that often includes members of their extended musical family. They perform original music that involves improvisation and electronics. They have performed with percussionist Alex Cline, and are planning future projects with guitarist Nels Cline, harpist Zeena Parkins and others.

You can purchase their recent album, "Song and Call" on Cryptogramophone Records by clicking HERE