Dave Maric: The Open Fund for Music Creators
For:
Phronesis Plus Classical Ensemble. A New Work by Dave Maric
After 4 years of informal chats with the band and discussions with festivals, I have finally got the chance to write a new piece for the internationally recognised power jazz trio Phronesis for a world premiere at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in April 2017 together with a chamber ensemble. This piece will explore the exceptionally vibrant polyrhythmic and lyrical language of the band’s music and pit it against, whilst also aligning it with, the more classical sensibilities of the ensemble. The music will sporadically emerge throughout a concert that incorporates their own existing compositions and then gradually takes over as a finale to the whole event where the band and ensemble are unified.
I’ve been composing for 16 years now and have throughout that period always been interested in stimulating cross-genre projects of different kinds as a composer, and for even longer as a performer. Phronesis is a band that I have known since their birth, and it has been thrilling to watch their development which famously exhibits a unique, engaging and interesting approach to the jazz trio format. I have had the chance to work with them on a couple of occasions before as a composer and also as project leader at a South Bank education project – but this will be far more ambitious than anything we have achieved together so far. It will, in fact, be extremely challenging and rewarding (hopefully for everyone involved), and is precisely the kind of thing I love to take on!