TNM presents LOST and FOUND

World premieres of Robert Honstein, Amanda Gookin, Sam Suggs
Recent works by Allison Loggins-Hull and Shelley Washington

When percussionist Michael Compitello approached composer Robert Honstein about a new work for solo marimba, Honstein drew on years of close collaboration with Mike to develop a distinctive approach to the instrument that seamlessly integrates traditional playing with unconventional sounds and objects. The resulting piece, Lost and Found, builds a narrative of nostalgia and memory from the idiosyncratic union of marimba and junk objects.

Accompanying the world premiere of Honstein’s Lost and Found are selections from Sam Suggs’s EDM Caprices, an original suite for solo bass pairing unaccompanied Bach transcriptions with arrangements of EDM pieces. The caprices, drawing on the dance-inspired origins of its subjects, sheds new light on both the Bach and EDM tunes through Suggs’s ingenious transcriptions and exhilarating performance. Cellist Amanda Gookin offers two selections from her provocative Forward Music Project: Stolen by Allison Loggins-Hull and Seething by Shelley Washington. Exploring the journey of a young girl who is sold into marriage, Loggins-Hull’s Stolen reflects on the theme of being lost or discarded on a deeply human level, while Seething by Shelley Washington viscerally brings to life suppressed feelings of anger and rage. Finally, Gookin and Suggs join forces to present works for cello and bass, including a new work based on musical fragments from Honstein’s Lost and Found.

In presenting the world premiere of Lost and Found Mike and Robert create a program that plays on the idea of things lost and discarded, but also on the collaborative spirit driving their process. The artists on this program - cellist Amanda Gookin, bassist Sam Suggs, and percussionist Mike Compitello - have worked together for years in many different contexts and their coming together represents a similar fusion of friendship and creativity.