Composers, performers create new sound for debut concert
Composers, performers create new group, sounds.
- May 10, 2011
Orchestre dB, formerly a workshop of composers and performers that now is a performance group, will debut in a concert of contemporary music at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 3, in room 1055 of Cal State East Bay’s Music Building.
The concert will feature "heavy use of amplified instruments and big sounds," according to Rafael Hernandez, assistant professor of music and chair of the department.
“Being our first formal year as a course (previously the ensemble was directed as part of other chamber ensembles), the group’s performances can get off with a bang,” said Hernandez, who is the concert co-director with Jeff Miller, a lecturer in the CSUEB Music Department.
The name "Orchestre dB" was chosen to summon imagery of an established, large performing group (Orchestre is French for orchestra) with imagery of something unexpected but related to sound and music (dB is the abbreviation of decibels, a unit for the measurement of sound). There is also double meaning in that in French, as "Orchestre d'EB (East Bay)" would sound like "Orchestre dB," according to Hernandez.
After a few years of ad hoc, extracurricular activity, Hernandez introduced non-bowed piano repertoire to the students, encouraging them to write for the ensemble as if they were writing for their own band.
The campus is at 24800 Carlos Bee Blvd., Hayward, 94542. There is a parking fee of $10 per vehicle per day, payable at permit machines, or a limited quantity of $2 per hour parking meters.