Left Edge Collective
Left Edge Collective is a new music organization founded and directed by David Bithell and Terry Longshore at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University. We compose, perform, improvise, create interdisciplinary projects, and host an annual festival of contemporary performance which focuses on presenting and premiering new works by members of Left Edge Collective, works by internationally recognized guest artists, and collaborations between artistic disciplines. Left Edge Collective is the umbrella organization for a variety of artistic endeavors including the dynamic group, Left Edge Percussion, directed by Terry Longshore. The members of Left Edge Collective for this performance are Bryan Jeffs, Terry Longshore, and Theresa McCoy.
About the Performance Piece
Elevens for Dan Kennedy by Terry Longshore
Elevens for Dan Kennedy was composed to honor Dan Kennedy upon his retirement from California State University, Sacramento. The title is inspired by Lou Harrison, a composer Dan exposed me to as a student at Sac State. In addition to being an incredible composer, Harrison was also an inspiring writer. He often wrote poetry dedicated to his friends, in which he set the lines of poetry in rhythm (number of syllables of each line) taken from the dedicatee’s name. Dan + Kennedy = 11 characters (including the space between) so I have written “Elevens” in a meter of 11/8. Dan also exposed me to the world of hand drumming and the music of John Bergamo, both of which inspire this piece in its format and instrumentation. The work’s notation uses a combination of western rhythm and Indian bols–mnemonic syllables used in India to compose, teach, and remember pieces of music.