Iowa
This Iowa City ‘supergroup’ is an unforgettable act. Meet the bandleaders behind the ensemble.
That is considered one of an ongoing sequence profiling creatives who’ve made an impression within the Iowa Metropolis space.
In the event you’ve seen a efficiency by Iowa Metropolis’s Lex Leto x Christine Burke Ensemble, you recognize it is an expertise.
Seems, so is their rehearsal.
The six ensemble members gathered in a nook of a room on the Voxman Music Constructing one January night, training an almost six-minute tune that, to the listener, is unpredictable.
Their devices — together with a saxophone, melodica and flute — emitted generally sharp, different instances dissonant sounds.
A few of the musicians wandered in regards to the area, one reducing to the ground with a small smile because the others stood round. One other grabbed a handful of pencils, the noise including to the tune.
This “supergroup,” as they have been dubbed, consists of Lex Letourneau, Christine Burke, Gabi Vanek, Justin Comer, Laura Canelo Cohen and Ramin Roshandel, all “classically educated musicians” who, of their phrases, “depart from their roots in favor of aleatory, noise, and tune.”
It’s possible you’ll acknowledge their names or have seen them carry out in different gigs.
Comer is a part of the Iowa Metropolis trio Wombat. Vanek based Oxcart New Music, Little Village reported. Letourneau has carried out with Elly Hofmaier, aka Penny Peach. Roshandel carried out with Jean-François Charles on the Englert Theatre and the duo launched an album. Burke has written for Duo Axis, amongst others, and Cohen is a latest College of Iowa alumnae who works at music4life in North Liberty.
Extra:Press-Citizen Folks to Look ahead to 2023: Iowa Metropolis’s Penny Peach changing into a musical drive
After they come collectively, their experimental, improvisatory, collaborative pursuits end in a theatrical, playful and compelling present that audiences at Iowa Metropolis’s Mission Creek Pageant, Gabe’s, Public Area One and extra have gotten the prospect to expertise.
In the event you’ve missed their reveals, the ensemble is recording an album with a $1,000 grant from the Iowa Arts Council. Filmmaker Rachel Lazar is engaged on a movie in regards to the making of the album.
Now, bandleaders Burke and Letourneau, who carried out as a duo for the opening night time of the Refocus Movie Pageant in Iowa Metropolis, share how their paths led to an ensemble that embraces the unconventional and their musical pursuits.
Exploring the experimental and the improvisatory
It’s due to the experimental scene in Iowa Metropolis that Letourneau, who makes use of they/them pronouns, met Burke, getting concerned in an ensemble that really started in 2016.
Burke’s ensemble — a bunch of people with a shared curiosity in a recent, improvisational, experimental music — have been booked for Comer’s month-to-month live performance sequence iHearIC. Comer, who performs saxophones within the ensemble, launched them because the Christine Burke Ensemble to the viewers.
That’s how they bought their identify, he defined.
In 2021, the ensemble carried out a present at Public Area One, and it’s that iteration of the ensemble that performs right this moment.
However for his or her Mission Creek Pageant efficiency, Letourneau’s identify was added, and its remained that manner since.
Rehearsing and recording the primary three songs they wrote for his or her Mission Creek Pageant submission Letourneau recalled as “magical.”
“I simply keep in mind feeling like, ‘Holy s***, we stumbled onto one thing right here,” they mentioned. “The way in which that everyone was simply enjoying collectively and we have been making one thing that we had by no means actually heard earlier than.”
The ensemble doesn’t simply play. They carry out.
Take “The Fly,” a tune about Letourneau caught inside, no daylight and an annoying fly. On stage, Letourneau’s fellow ensemble members antagonize them. In a single case, that meant bassoonist Vanek whispering into Letourneau’s ear utilizing a superb Australian accent throughout their Mission Creek Pageant efficiency.
“Lex all the time says that she has to apply to not chuckle after we’re round her on the middle,” Vanek mentioned in an e mail. “I needed to see if I might make her crack and that foolish voice was a great guess.”
Within the piece, the ensemble members are improvising, although it’s not with out route.
“We have labored out — inside the thought of improvising — what sounds work on this piece. What will we need to convey whereas we’re improvising and what is the sequence of occasions,” Comer mentioned. “It is not a totally ‘do no matter you need.’ It is like, do no matter you need inside this construction and trying to convey this concept to the viewers.”
Collaboration is necessary to the ensemble. For instance, whereas a tune might start with Letourneau’s written lyrics or melody, the ensemble members develop it by way of experimentation and ideas, Burke defined.
And every bit the ensemble performs isn’t performed the identical manner twice. Although the ideas stay the identical, the precise sounds differ, Letourneau defined.
“You are experiencing one thing totally new within the second and it requires you to be extremely current with your self and together with your ensemble members they usually’re such expert and intuitive musicians that that makes that actually thrilling,” they mentioned. “You don’t know precisely what’s going to occur each time.”
Enjoying to one another’s strengths
How is it that there are six individuals in Iowa Metropolis who share these music pursuits and are available collectively to carry out?
It is a query Letourneau and Burke ask themselves, although it could possibly be defined away by quite a lot of components: programming similar to Iowa Metropolis’s Feed Me Bizarre Issues, the college, destiny or an agglomeration of issues.
Like the opposite ensemble members, Burke and Letourneau are concerned in initiatives exterior the ensemble. However they write music that performs to the strengths of their ensemble.
In flip, the ensemble makes music that, of their phrases, makes listeners say, “Wow, I by no means thought I might sing alongside to music this bizarre!”
Relaxation assured that the ensemble doesn’t anticipate its viewers to know what they’re stepping into, if evident by the Iowa Metropolis music scene that helps the ensemble whatever the stage of familiarity individuals have with their music.
“What I discovered is that just about everybody that is into music in Iowa Metropolis is open to experiencing almost something,” Comer mentioned.
How the ensemble fulfills completely different elements of Burke and Letourneau’s pursuits
One in every of Burke’s earliest reminiscences was listening to a Simon & Garfunkel album with headphones on.
“The expertise of sound itself, it is one thing I feel loads about now in my very own work,” she mentioned. “Like a lot for me is simply in regards to the expertise of listening and just like the pleasure of listening and that may get to be pretty subjective, I assume, however I feel loads of the sound materials I find yourself choosing in my very own work — and this interprets to work with the group too — however that is one thing I might take heed to for six hours.”
Burke grew up within the Chicago suburbs earlier than shifting to Indiana as a excessive schooler. Music was a part of Burke’s life early on. Her mom, a pianist, launched she and her siblings to classical repertoire.
Her undergrad was at Duquesne College in Pittsburgh. A clarinet participant, composing grew as her ardour as a result of she bought to create somewhat than simply carry out.
“I keep in mind at considerably of a youthful age, realizing that I might consider sounds in my head, and that I could possibly be fully answerable for directing wherever they go, which is like very reverse from my strategy to composing now,” Burke mentioned.
In her first few years of composing, Burke wished to make each choice appropriately. It wasn’t sustainable, she realized, as a result of it meant that if there may be one right choice, every thing else is fallacious.
Being a rock star was Letourneau’s dream as a toddler, however insecurities and a crippling efficiency nervousness meant the band, one thing communal, was the extra smart possibility.
Despite it, Letourneau cast on with performances, singing in highschool choir to pulling apart friends on the College of Georgia to carry out in entrance of and construct their resolve.
It was additionally throughout school the place Letourneau interrogated the thought of efficiency in a classical music setting, unhappy with how little the interplay was between performer and audiences.
For 2 longtime musicians exploring their craft, the ensemble fulfills what they know, and didn’t know, they wanted.
For Burke, as a composer, the ensemble permits her to apply her inventive worth: to not do the identical factor. And he or she will get to do it with 5 different proficient musicians on a constant foundation, their sound and strategy by no means missing of their integrity.
For Letourneau, it’s each an exploration and an assurance of their identification.
They knew they liked performing. However with the ensemble, they get to run round at Gabe’s yelling at individuals. They are often theatrical, a “a part of myself that I hadn’t met but.”
“Making music with Christine and our bandmates felt, for me, like coming house to one thing that I hadn’t identified was fairly there for me,” Letourneau mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘Oh, that is it for me. That is the undertaking that I’ve all the time wanted to make.’”
Lex Leto x Christine Burke Ensemble
Recognized for: Up-and-coming experimental music group based mostly in Iowa Metropolis that dabbles efficiency artwork.
What to look ahead to: Their upcoming album.
The place to seek out them: Catch the members at these reveals, together with Burke at Public Area One Feb. 25, Comer and Vanek as half iHearIC at PS1 Feb. 26, and Comer and Burke on the James Theater March 7.
Paris Barraza covers leisure, life-style and humanities on the Iowa Metropolis Press-Citizen. Attain her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or 319-519-9731. Observe her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.
JELD-WEN, a manufacturer of windows and doors in Grinnell, has announced it will be laying off 152 workers effective Nov. 7.
The announcement was made on Iowa’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) site.
The company, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, was founded in 1960 and has 18,000 employees, with operating facilities in 16 countries in North America and Europe with 2023 sales of $4.3 billion, according to the company’s website.
JELD-WEN did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Earlier this year, JELD-WEN announced the closing of its Hawkins, Wisconsin facility, affecting 338 employees, and in Vista, California, resulting in the loss of 110 jobs.
The Iowa Hawkeyes lost two players from their football team this week.
Both running back Leshon Williams and wide receiver Kaleb Brown have announced that they will redshirt for the rest of the season and enter the transfer portal at the end of the year.
Despite the two players opting to leave the program, it hasn’t phased head coach Kirk Ferentz. He isn’t worried about the decisions that they made at all.
When asked about Williams and Brown transferring, Ferentz offered a short and brutal quote.
“Not to be callous, but if a player isn’t playing, you don’t lose much.”
Williams had been dealing with an injury throughout the season thus far. Before the injury, he had shown flashes of being a player that could end up making an impact. Unfortunately, those flashes were never able to come to light on the field.
As for Brown, there were big plans for him coming into the season. But, he was suspended for the first game of the year and was never able to earn his role back.
Clearly, Ferentz is not worried about how his team will respond to the news. Basically, he doesn’t think the losses of them will impact the team at all.
Ferentz isn’t necessarily wrong with what he stated. Neither player had a role that will change how the team has been operating. However, it was the way he said it that was a bit out of line.
Regardless of the role that they players had, handling the situation with a bit more grace would have been a better look.
All of that being said, Iowa is not a program that needs to be graceful necessarily. The Hawkeyes want to win football games and neither Williams or Brown was contributing to that goal so far this year.
Looking ahead to the future, we wish the best to both Williams and Brown. Hopefully, they find success in their future endeavors.
The Iowa On3 Massey Ratings top 25 list as of Oct. 8 underwent some changes compared to last week’s rankings. These updates highlight the competitiveness of Iowa high school football, especially when you consider that only three of the top ten teams remain unscathed.
Meanwhile, two teams ranked 11 to 25 swapped spots. Here’s how the state’s top teams fared after the 2024 Iowa high school football season has reached its halfway point.
The On3 Massey Ratings, officially used during the BCS era, is a model that ranks sports teams by analyzing game outcomes, strength of schedule, and margin of victory.
CLICK HERE to watch your high school’s games on NFHS Network now!
After losing to Dowling Catholic, the Tigers have secured victories against ranked teams. Their latest conquest was against 23rd-ranked Waukee Northwest, wherein Drake DeGroote completed three touchdown passes to Zay Robinson. Valley can extend their winning streak to five games against Waterloo West.
The Maroons survived the fierce opposition ushered in by fifth-ranked Ankeny Centennial in a match that needed three overtime periods to be settled. Dowling Catholic showed resilience despite a 21-3 halftime deficit and scoring their first touchdown with six minutes left in the third quarter. Overcoming that test of character should give the Maroons confidence in their upcoming match against Urbandale.
The Dragons are flying again after clinching their third consecutive victory against ranked opponents. This time, they’ve shut out eighth-ranked Southeast Polk, thanks to their defense, ranked fourth in Iowa high school football. After limiting Ankeny, Waukee, and Southeast Polk to 14 points, Johnston should have no problems defeating Urbandale on the road.
The Bulldogs remain undefeated after five games and haven’t allowed 20 points to an opponent since their season opener against sixth-ranked Pleasant Valley. Bettendorf’s latest result was a 33-14 masterpiece over Kennedy, a game practically over by halftime when the Bulldogs established a 27-6 lead. Bettendorf can improve to 6-0 by defeating Davenport Central this week.
The Jaguars could not translate their fantastic start against Dowling Catholic into a victory. Failing to close out the Maroons after three overtimes handed them their second consecutive defeat. However, they remain in the top ten and could bounce back with easier matchups against Roosevelt and Waukee Northwest over the next two weeks.
In their last match, the Spartans surrendered 28 points to Cedar Falls. While that’s a concern, the second-best offense in Iowa high school football scored a season-high 52 points. Pleasant Valley is on a groove, scoring 101 points in their two previous games. In that case, they should have no problems maintaining the momentum against Muscatine.
After starting the season at 1-3, the Hawks have won two consecutive games, beating Iowa City West and Prairie by a combined score of 73-38. However, their schedule gets more challenging as they face 11th-ranked Liberty and top-ranked Valley in their following two assignments.
The Rams’ shutout loss to Johnston halted their winning streak. That result also brings their record against the top ten teams to 2-2. It’s also a total contrast to their 48-3 win over Sioux City East the week before. Southeast Polk should make a better effort in the next two weeks to defeat No. 13 Waukee and second-ranked Dowling Catholic. Those games are perfect for the Rams’ defense to prove why they are Iowa high school football’s top-ranked defense.
The Titans have scored over 50 points in back-to-back games, defeating Jefferson 56-6. The week before, they scored 55 on Glenwood. Lewis Central can keep their hopes for a perfect season intact by defeating Winterset, Norwalk, and Dallas Center-Grimes in their next three games.
The Comets flew to the top ten after a 29-8 victory over Ballard Community. North Polk’s defense has intensified, allowing only 33 points in its last three games. Before that run, they gave up 68 points to Bondurant-Farrar and Carlisle combined. On deck for the Comets are Indianola this week and Boone on the 18th.
11. Liberty
12. Pella
13. Waukee
14. Linn-Mar (+1)
15. West Lyon (-1)
16. Decorah
17. Xavier
18. Iowa City High
19. Cedar Falls
20. Humboldt
21. Grundy Center
22. Williamsburg
23. Waukee Northwest
24. ADM
25. Western Dubuque
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