This was a MN State Arts Board-funded concert series that let me experiment with collaborative music-making, event design, and multi-genre concerts. Plus, I got to form a new band, the avant-choir called To Be Named, Thing. So, that is neat!

What I learned: People want variety, and something unexpected. Problem is, of course, that they can’t expect the unexpected otherwise it’s expected so why would they come if they were expecting something? Does that make sense? What I mean is that the improvised music bits were 100% everyone’s favorite, but if I advertised IMPROVISED CONCERTS half of who came woulda.

Though the people who did come felt unexpectedly connected to the rest of the audience (read: strangers) and the musicians who they DIDN’T come to see. They even took a gamble on unexpected venues. That’s a lot to ask of a Minnesotan.

For me, this represents proof in the pudding that I needn’t worry so much. I was so nerve-wracked at the task of packing shows (they weren’t) that I missed in the moment how awe-struck everyone was of each other. And anyone following along at home knows that THAT’S my goal. To get people to participate in the wonder of congregating around arts and music. To feel something individually, together. To look around and go “gosh, what a bunch of weirdos” and also mean thine own self.

Anywho, this is my piece To Be Named, Thing by To Be Named, Thing off the unreleased album To Be Named, Thing.

Artists: Larry Wish, Carnage the Executioner, DJ Piecemeal, Elena Stabile, Ice Climber, Paolo Debuque, Corissa Bussian, Kristina Rodel, Carole Schulz, May & the Ladies, (ab)scheid

Locations: Barely Bros. Records, Nautilus Music-Theater, Squirrel Haus Arts

This cycle holds such a special place in the repertoire that it’s easy to forget that when Schubert first shared these with his friends--a year before his death--they were taken aback, and even deeply worried about him. He is quite literally staring at the end of his life, writing throughout the 1820’s to friends and family about the ravages of syphilis, poverty, political censure, depression, and the instinct to achieve something before succumbing to it all.

Given that context, and with almost 200 years of scholars arguing about the meaning of German Romantic poetry, it seems impersonal to approach Winterreise as a narrative about lost love. At least, not romantic love.

How about a narrative of losing the sense of love?

As in No. 11, Frühlingstraum: “I dream of love for loves sake”; or No. 20, Wegweiser: “Searching for peace, and without peace”. Or, perhaps the very first words of the cycle: “I enter as a stranger. As a stranger I depart.”

What causes a person to feel unworthy of love? When does the love given by family, friends, partners turn intangible, invisible, incomplete? How does it feel to exile yourself?

These are the questions asked by Müller’s text and Schubert’s music. And more. What are they? Justin relates it to the concept of sonder: the realization that each individual has a life that exists without your existence. Carson relates it to stretching the connection between people to a point of being in another dimension.

Do you feel love for love’s sake? Are you a stranger? Have you arrived, or are you just on your way out?

Enjoy.

Justin Anthony Spenner: Baritone

Carson Rose Schneider: Pianist/Dancer

Location: Hamline United Methodist, Saint Paul, MN

I Enter As A Stranger was a self-produced multi-discipline reimagining of Franz Schubert’s Die Winterreise. The project depicts what it feels like to be neurodivergent, and explores the struggle of finding and maintaining personal connection while living with mental illness.

Justin Anthony Spenner: Baritone/Dancer/Executive Producer

Darrius Strong: Dancer/Choreographer

Carson Rose Schneider: Pianist/Dancer

Sequoia Hauck: Director/Cinematographer

Jeff Korte: Photographer

Samuel Malm, Ash Warren, Makayla Gayle, Benji Perez Gonzalez: Film Editors

Myrtle Lemon-Todd: Graphic Design

Chris Foss: Sound Mixing

Location: Digital; hosted by Sparrow Live

The Twin Cities New Music Festival is put on annually by 113 Composers Collective (check them out in my People section). This weekend-long festival features some of the most important experimental compositions, composers, and performers through portrait concerts of established repertoire and world premieres. It’s a great way to get your ears weird, which is how I prefer my ears. Keep this event on your radar for next year!

The clip featured here is of Dietrich Schnebel’s Maulwerke, performed with Twin Cities local favorite, Adam Zahller. Maulwerke is less of a score and more of an instruction manual (or Dungeon Master guide) that sets rules for improvisation. For our interpretation, we identified “allowed” voice/sound manipulations, then swapped the role of leader/follower. Notice the industrial-grade headphones? Yeah, we couldn’t hear each other. Fun stuff!

Justin Anthony Spenner: Improvisor

Adam Zahller: Improvisor

Location: Park Square Theater, Saint Paul, MN

I’ve never had a camera so close to my face.

Das Fliegenpapier (The Flypaper) is a haunting piece by Steven Kazuo Takasugi for Flute and Vocalist (I think of it as flute mime). It is a haunting pondering on the commonality of death. Poet Robert Musil’s mind expanded when he saw a fly struggling to escape a ribbon of flypaper in his studio. What at first seemed so simple and obvious- that death is the same for a fly as it is for a human- quickly became exceedingly complex as he noticed the rhythmic stutters, the desire for life, and the blinking of mysterious organs.

With this video, we were able to explore the most iconic aspect of Takasugi’s compositions: detail. I assure you, every nuance you see captured is written on the page. And if it wasn’t, Steven made sure to write it down after we did it. While that seems dictatorial, it’s actually just the process of making a living document. Now, when someone attempts the piece next, our subtle artistic interpretations will be non-negotiable, and their mistakes will become the edits for the next duo.

Woof. Existential. Enjoy!

Justin Anthony Spenner: Voice

James DeVoll: Flute

Location: Studio Z, Saint Paul, MN

The Golden Ass is an experimental opera that tells the Cupid and Psyche Myth through the perspective of Psyche’s state of mind at given points throughout her journey.

Tiffany M. Skidmore: composer

Patrick Gallagher: librettist

Joey Crane: stage director

Betsy McCann: conductor

Jared Miller: Pianist

Location: Nautilus Music Theatre, Saint Paul, MN