Seattle Modern Orchestra

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Seattle Modern Orchestra

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Seattle Modern Orchestra is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike. For complete program information, please visit our website:
www.seattlemodernorchestra.org

10/13/2026

🎵 SOLOIST SPOTLIGHT: C. Neil Parsons

A Boston-based bass trombonist, choreographer, dancer, and director, C. Neil Parsons is a “hybrid artist” who thrives in collaborative projects. He has previously performed with SMO as soloist in Frederic Rzewski’s Moonrise with Memories in 2024, and as director of Kate Soper’s Ipsa Dixit in 2022.

Parsons has spent a lifetime onstage, appearing in his first professional theater production at age three. Extensive touring has taken him to 40 states, with engagements at major performing arts centers, residencies at numerous universities, and guest appearances with symphony orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

On November 9 at the Meany Center, Parsons pays tribute to Seattle’s legendary trombonist Stuart Dempster, performing music and movement from William O. Smith’s Encounter (1970), leading Dempster’s S.M.O.R.E.S., and presenting Curtis Hughes’ new work, chewing gum tornado.

🎟: https://bit.ly/46Convr

📸: Amy Vandergon

09/29/2026

Curator Rachel Yoder on the inspiration for our November 9 concert at the Meany Center for the Performing Arts:

“Ten years ago, in the fall of 2016, there was an '80 and 90' concert at Meany Hall in celebration of the 80th birthday of Stuart Dempster and the 90th birthday of William O. “Bill” Smith. It was a tradition that apparently began with a 40/50 concert in 1976, and though Bill passed away in 2020, it brings me great joy that we can now celebrate Stuart’s 90th birthday, and what would have been Bill’s 100th!

Stuart and Bill are names well-known to the Seattle experimental music scene and beyond, as composers and performers of course, but also due to their three decades as co-leaders of the UW Contemporary Group (1968-1997). As I researched for this concert, I was struck by the staggering number of performances they put on over the years, often involving dozens of faculty and students. Many of these people are still playing and creating music in Seattle (including in our own SMO!), and we must give thanks in part to Stuart and Bill for the thriving, multifaceted contemporary music community we enjoy today.”

🎟: https://bit.ly/46Convr

📸: (1) Amy Vandergon / (2) University of Washington School of Music Contemporary Group, circa 1970–71

09/21/2026

"Visceral Sonic Weirdness": C. Neil Parsons explains how a Reddit deep dive and Stuart Dempster's iconic performance of Robert Erickson's General Speech inspired his commission for Curtis K. Hughes, chewing gum tornado 🍬🌪️

📍University of Washington School of Music Meany Center for the Performing Arts — Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater
📅 November 9
🎟 https://bit.ly/46Convr

09/01/2026

📣 JUST ANNOUNCED: 2026–2027 SEASON

Our 17th season features vibrant, cutting-edge music from the 20th and 21st centuries centering sound and place.

🐺 NOVEMBER 9 | 90/100: Celebrating Stuart Dempster, Bill O. Smith, and West Coast Experimentalism
We return to the University of Washington to celebrate the legacies of Stuart Dempster and William O. Smith. Curated by clarinetist Rachel Yoder, the evening integrates improvisation, deep listening, and movement, with special guest C. Neil Parsons.

🌊 FEBRUARY 12 | Reflecting: Water and Light
Hear the world premiere of Andrew Waggoner’s new work for SMO, Lovely, Lost, alongside environmental works by Gabriella Smith, Marcos Balter, and John Luther Adams.

🪕 MAY 29 | Solo Travels/Diasporic Journeys
Our season closer traces movement and migration through an Asian diasporic lens. Baldwin Giang presents his own concerto, P**a Boy, Erin Wight performs Dai Fujikura’s Wayfinder, and the ensemble explores improvisation in Qiujiang Levi Lu’s Tri.

🎟 Subscriptions & tickets on sale now: http://seattlemodernorchestra.org/

07/15/2026

🐋 In honor of , we're reflecting on our performance of George Crumb's Vox Balaenae ("Voice of the Whale") last fall, featuring longtime SMO flutist Sarah Pyle as program curator and soloist.

Offstage, Sarah serves as the Green Stormwater Program Manager at Pierce Conservation District, administering environmental grants programs and empowering individuals to improve water quality and wildlife habitat in their own communities.

"I’ve long dreamed of creating a program of environmental art music that helps us all to explore how we form relationships with the natural world. Despite seemingly insurmountable challenges to a healthy environment, it is possible to make a difference through collective action, deep commitment, and tireless stewardship of our natural resources.

George Crumb’s Vox Balaenae is a monument to a time of nature without humans. The piece calls for masked players; I have chosen to present this piece without masks to contrast the erasure of humans in Crumb with a different vision, where humans, animals, and plants, shape and are shaped by each other." — Sarah Pyle

07/07/2026

Planting flowers: our favorite kind of audience participation 🌸💕🌎

In Sarah Pyle's "Meadows," musicians read from a graphic score on plantable paper made with seeds from Washington State's native plant species. During the performance, members of the ensemble hand out pieces of the score to the audience to encourage at-home ecosystem restoration.

🎥: Scott Farkas

07/03/2026

demonstrates the fine art of marimba shredding 🤘

🎥: Album recording session for against/Time, featuring Huck Hodge’s percussion concerto “The Shape of the Wind, the Shadow of Time”

Support our album: https://bit.ly/SMOAgainstTime

07/01/2026

🔊SOUND ON🔊 The second movement of CHARI's Breaking Time features Luke Fitzpatrick on violin. Premiered by SMO at the Royal Room in 2024, the work examines the concept of time through shifting meters, graphic notation and improvisation.

🎥 Featured artists: CHARI, James Falzone, Bonnie Whiting, Eric Rynes & Luke Fitzpatrick

06/27/2026

A musical triptych from our October concert with Flicker Duo at the Chapel Performance Space 3️⃣🎶🌷

In Sarah Pyle's "Meadows," musicians read from a graphic score on plantable paper, featuring seeds from Washington State's native plant species. During the performance, the ensemble hands out pieces of the score to the audience to encourage at-home ecosystem restoration.

06/23/2026

📃 COMPOSER SPOTLIGHT: Jérémy Jolley

We recently finished tracking two of the commissions on our album, against/Time. Next up in the studio will be SMO founding director Jérémy Jolley's (contro-)clessidra — a series of layered bespoke duos crafted over more than a decade for SMO’s musicians.

Jolley on recording his work: "This will be my first commercial recording, and it is humbling and exhilarating. Most, if not all, of us have a deep connection with recordings starting in our youth that we carry with us today.

For an interpreter to have their performance, or for a composer to have their music, on a recording is joining that deep connection we have with the artists that formed our musical energy and spirit. And as the music of my favorite artists no longer was theirs alone but became part of me, became mine through their recordings, a recording of my works is returning that energy and spirit back as it will no longer be mine alone but for all who are curious to listen."

📸: (1) Amy Vandergon; (2) Michelle Cheng

Support our recording project with a gift today: https://bit.ly/SMOAgainstTime

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Seattle, WA

Website

http://www.seattlemodernorchestra.org/

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