Collocation 3: Teodora Stepančić with Laura Cetilia
Indexical’s Collocation series continues with a program curated by Teodora Stepančić, featuring Laura Cetilia. Cetilia is a composer a performer, co-founder of Ordinary Affects, and part of duo Mem1 with Mark Cetilia. She and Stepančić frequently collaborate through the LCollective and Piano+ series.
About the Program
Laura Cetilia is a composer and performer, co-founder of Ordinary Affects, and part of duo Mem1 with Mark Cetilia. She is currently pursuing her DMA in Music Composition at Cornell University. Laura frequently collaborates with Teodora Stepančić, performing and writing for LCollective and Piano+ (ensemble and concert series founded by Teodora).
The program includes three recent works by Laura Cetilia for cello, voice, piano, sine tones and field recordings. Two pieces were originally written for different instruments (violin/field recordings and tuba quartet). For the Collocation series, Laura will create new versions of these pieces to perform on cello, voice and electronics. The third, new piece is written for Teodora, for piano and sine tones.
The performance takes place at Teodora’s home which often serves as rehearsal and concert space, as well as a welcoming home for artists and collaborators passing through New York.
Laura Cetilia
As a daughter of mixed heritage, Mexican-American cellist, Laura Cetilia is at home with in-betweenness, straddling the worlds of performer / composer, acoustic / electronic and traditional / experimental sound practices. Her music has been described as “unorthodox loveliness” (Boston Globe) and hailed as “alternately penetrating and atmospheric” (Sequenza 21). Her compositions have been played by ensembles such as Wet Ink, HereNowHear, tacet(i), Mivos Quartet, S.E.M. Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, Dog Star Orchestra, a.pe.ri.od.ic, Verdant Vibes, LCollective, The Furies, and violinist Erik Carlson. She has created site-specific sound installations for the Bennington Museum and Ben Ari Museum for Contemporary Art. She has curated for the performance series ctrl+alt+repeat (est. 2004) , ars subtilior, public offering, durational concerts at RISD museum, and for the Estuary Ltd. imprint. The Grove Dictionary of American Music describes her electroacoustic duo Mem1 as a “complex cybernetic entity” that “understands its music as a feedback loop between the past and present.” In the performer / composer collective Ordinary Affects she has collaborated with, commissioned and premiered works by composers such as Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, Michael Pisaro, Jürg Frey, Eva-Maria Houben, and Magnus Granberg. She is currently pursuing her D.M.A. in Music Composition at Cornell University and is a proud mother of one.
Teodora Stepančić
Teodora Stepančić is composer, pianist and curator. In recent years, Teodora has been collecting works for the piano and different ensemble formations that speak in the voice of the outsider, a hushed voice, that does not try to draw attention to itself, that stresses generosity, attentiveness, intimacy, spirit and focus. She is interested finding different ways of presenting, performing and creating music and tries to create an atmosphere that invites for intimate listening and experience, a space for sharing sounds, ideas and music. Teodora curates, organizes and performs concerts in Europe, USA, Middle East and Argentina. She just finished the fourth season of Piano+ concert series. In her compositions Teodora explores different ways of incorporating theatrical and visual elements into music performance, cyclical and game-based musical forms, and developing works in close collaboration with individual performers.
Laura Cetilia:
sparrow+sine
for violin/voice and field recording. originally written in february 2021 for violinist rachel panitch of thread ensemble. this version (performed by me) reveals one of my working methods – compositions that begin as improvisations on my instrument, the cello.
as i work in my home i can’t help but take in the sounds that are happening around me. last summer our neighbor bought a bird feeder and set it up in his backyard which our kitchen overlooks. in between feedings, swarms of sparrows would come to his backyard and hang out in the shrubs just outside one of our windows. the sparrows were so present in our daily lives while we were working from home during the pandemic i found it impossible to not include them in this piece. i’ve used field recordings from my local surroundings in other works but they’re usually much more subdued than this one.
Laura Cetilia:
from petrichor
a new piece for teodora. sine tones and piano. sine tone chords slowly rise as notes from the piano create subtle beating with the ascending harmonies.
petrichor is the scent released from the earth just after rain. this phenomenon was co-discovered by scientists isobel joy bear and richard thomas in 1964.
Laura Cetilia:
it comes in waves
this is basically a love song. (i’m surprising myself by publicly admitting to that.) it’s based on a chord progression from another strange project i took on in january 2021. i organized a quartet of tubists to play a series of chords in the woods on the beach at goddard state park in rhode island. it was a dream of mine that i was for some reason determined to realize in the middle of the pandemic – i wanted to hear the horns of ghost ships sounding their calls during a brisk winter twilight. it was a stunning experience to have musicians and friends gathered in the cold by the beach to make this wild thing happen, especially during a pandemic. we recorded it on ambisonic microphones, one in the woods amongst the tubas and the other on the beach amongst the wind and the waves.
the “love song” bit came afterwards in the warmth of my home. i recorded a version of that with me on cello/voice and my partner mark cetilia on electronics at a local recording studio and former venue, machines with magnets. for this performance, i’m combining the field recording of the tubists on the beach with an acoustic performance of the song. the two weren’t originally intended to be together, but sometimes that’s when the most serendipitous things can happen.
Teodora Stepančić is composer, pianist and curator. In recent years, Teodora has been collecting works for the piano and different ensemble formations that speak in the voice of the outsider, a hushed voice, that does not try to draw attention to itself, that stresses generosity, attentiveness, intimacy, spirit and focus. She is interested finding different ways of presenting, performing and creating music and tries to create an atmosphere that invites for intimate listening and experience, a space for sharing sounds, ideas and music. Teodora curates, organizes and performs concerts in Europe, USA, Middle East and Argentina. She is currently presenting second season of Piano+ concert series at Spectrum, Brooklyn. In her compositions Teodora explores different ways of incorporating theatrical and visual elements into music performance, cyclical and game-based musical forms, and developing works in close collaboration with individual performers.