CROSSSOUND MISSION

CrossSound is dedicated to the pursuit of three artistic priorities:

•to serve a rising generation of Alaskan, American, and international creative and interpretive artists in the field of musical arts across cultural traditions;

•to engage musicians and audiences from across the state, meeting them at the earliest stages of their artistic development and stretching their creative capacities over time; and

•to commission and present new works by local, national, and international composers that take into account Alaska's unique cultural and geographical character, inventing and reinventing an "Alaskan sound" through newly created repertoire.

CROSSSOUND REVIEWS

Mike Dunham/Anchorage Daily News:

CrossSound delivers wild rivers of new music (2005)

“Juneau's aggressively exploratory CrossSound group presented a rare Anchorage program of daring, difficult, ink-still-wet music on Friday.  [. . . Composer Mathew] Burtner came onstage with a Yup'ik cauyaq drum, alternately striking the head or making it hum by rubbing it with his hand in a circular motion while deliberately, ceremoniously pacing around the players in a kind of ritual.  Played merely as an item in a percussion section, the cauyaq is just a big tam-tam. But Burtner -- raised in Naknek and Nuiqsut, familiar with Native music from his early years -- knows that the drum's sound is only part of the deal, that it also requires motion. The visual action supplied an anchor point -- or distraction -- while the drones stretched without horizons or trajectory. [. . .] Then, over the course of a few bars, the pulse quickened. The rhythm became almost frantic, a mad dance punctuated by wild mandolin plucking from Dimitris Marinos of Greece. The trombone "sun" strode onto the stage and stood next to the cauyaq, which was no longer traveling but throbbing in one place. The excitement had me twitching in my seat in the kind of "my head's going to explode" astonishment that Plato's cave dweller might experience at the revelations of the outside-the-cave world.” (Program: “Riff Raft”)

Heather Lende/Anchorage Daily News: (2003)

“. . . they are brave artists making new music with some of the finest musicians in the world and performing it right here of people they know prefer show tunes.  They trust we’ll applaud, even if we don’t get it all. I thought of . . . the man who homesteaded next to the pond where we [go] swimming.  He said Alaskan’s ‘are what we want to be, mostly.’  I suspect the folks who wrote and played the music we heard at the Chilkat Center Saturday night were all terrific musicians who, if they chose to, could give us one heck of a Broadway music revue.  But they don’t want to wade in familiar ponds; they want to dive headfirst into wild rivers, and for that I am thankful.” (Program “Seaboard Alexander: Piano 2-hand, 4-hand, 6-hand”)

Philip Munger/Progressive Alaska (blog):

The sane yet visionary approach to art (9/09)

“The Pacific Northwest's best kept new art experience . . . I can't emphasize enough how exciting CrossSound's concerts are.” (Program:  “Rebound!”)

Mike Dunham/Anchorage Daily News:

Wii Sax and Dueling Foghorns at CrossSound concert (9/09)

“ . . . substantial and worth hearing again . . . the most successful excursion by CrossSound into Anchorage yet.” (Program:  “Rebound!”)

Steve Layton/Sequenza 21: The Contemporary Classical Community (on-line magazine)

Way up North (8/09)

“It’s time once again for the minor miracle that is the CrossSound Festival (28 Aug – 6 Sep). Alaska native, Harvard grad and Asian zither performer extraordinaire, Jocelyn Clark, is the driving force behind this truly unique yearly series; concerts that not only bring living contemporary music into this far corner, but as well building bridges between Eastern, European and American musics and performers. This is the festival’s 10th year — no mean feat and worth big kudos to all involved.” (Program: “Refugium”)

Oliver Schneller [Berlin-based German Composer] says:

August 23, 2009 at 2:57 am

This festival is a fantastic venture! I was there for the very first one in 1999 – an unforgettable and inspiring experience. Continued success and happy tenth!!

Alexandra [Gardner] [Washington DC based American Composer] says:

August 23, 2009 at 3:06 pm

Hooray for CrossSound! I was there for the 2nd one in 2000, and it remains one of my favorite musical experiences ever. Best wishes for another great festival this year!

Michaela Moore/The Juneau Empire

When theatrical spectacle isn't enough (1/10)

“Perseverance Theatre's current production, Sarah Ruhl's "Eurydice," opens with symphonic genius: [CrossSound’s] Jocelyn Clark and Ed Littlefield play a haunting duet that evokes the ocean's steady rhythmic tide. Even though the play is not a musical, the live music created by Clark and Littlefield throughout the performance is a defining character in Roblin Gray Davis's production, and in my view, the star of the show.”


NOTE: Southeast Alaskan newspapers do not review, only preview.

CROSSSOUND STAFF

Dr. Jocelyn Clark
Founder | Director

After graduating from high school in Juneau, Alaska, where she played with the Juneau Symphony and attended the Sitka Fine Arts Camp, Jocelyn spent a year in Japan on an ICYE scholarship where she became interested in non-western music. She started studying the koto at the age of 18 with the Sawai Koto Academy at Wesleyan University where she received the Kellam Prize for East Asian Studies. From 1990 she studied zheng at the Nanjing Academy for the Arts in China, continuing her studies the following year with Wang Changyuan in New York City. From 1992 to 1995 she received a scholarship to study traditional Korean music majoring in kayagûm performance at the National Classical Music Institute in Seoul, Korea. While finishing her Master's and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard University in the departments of East Asian Languages and Civilization, and Ethnomusicology, she produced a number of concerts featuring both traditional and modern compositions for East Asian instruments. She won a Fulbright Fellowship for the 1999-2000 academic year, and a Seonam Foundation Fellowship for the 2000-2001 academic year, to return to Korea to study Korean music. Clark plays kayagûm and tours internationally with IIIZ+ (www.threezeeplus.com), which she founded with composer/percussionist Il-Ryun Chung of Berlin. She is also a member of the AsianArt Ensemble, Berlin. Having premiered more than 20 new works for kayagûm (and koto), she has appeared as a soloist at the Jeonju Sanjo Festival, Opera Latenight in Nürnberg, the Global Ear Series in Dresden to name a few. Recordings can be found on the Wergo Label (works of Klaus Stahmer) and Schott (works of Volker Blumenthaler). Through CrossSound, she has commissioned over 50 new works of music for Alaskans. Her writing on music in Alaska will appear in Oct. 2009 in the forthcoming book "Alaska at 50: Past, Present, Future" from the UAA Press, and her chapter on contemporary Korean sanjo ("scattered melodies") will appear in the book "Sanjo" published by the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts in Sept. 2009. A winner of the Alaska "40 Under 40" award in 2009 for her work with CrossSound, Jocelyn has served on the Alaska State Council on the Arts since 2004 and on the Juneau World Affairs Council since 2005.

CROSSSOUND BOARD

•Bob Banghart (Musician; Designer, Banghart and Associates; Curator of Exhibitions, Alaska State Museums, Juneau)

•Nancy Nash (Musician, Teacher, Haines)

•Susan Brandt-Ferguson (Musician, Teacher, Sitka)

•Clara Weishahn (Actress/singer, Haines)

•Nancy Hemenway (State of AK, Juneau)

•Liz Dodd (State of AK/Hazy Island Books Juneau)

CROSSSOUND AWARDS

CrossSound's 2000-2001 Season:
• American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)/Chamber Music America 1st place National Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music

The Displacement Map (CrossSound 2002 Commission):
Composer: Stefan Hakenberg, and Film Maker: Theo Lipfert
• 1st place Jury Prize for the Best Experimental Film at the Cinema Paradise Island Independent Film festival in Honolulu Hawai'i 2003,
• 1st place Audience Prize for the Best Experimental Film at the Cinema Paradise Island Independent Film festival in Honolulu Hawai'i 2003,
• Honorable Mention (2nd Prize) for Best Documentary at the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee 2003, • Official selection of the Tribeca Film Festival, NYC, 2003

The Eternal Return (CrossSound 2002 Commission):
Composer: C.P. First and Film Maker: Matt Marello
• Won the Sonic Circuits X International Festival of Electronic Music and Art, 2002

CrossSound Director Jocelyn Clark
• Won "Alaska 40 Under 40" for her work with CrossSound in 2009