For many instrumentalists, the idea to "sing through your instrument" is just a figure of speech. But for Cleveland-based Ogni Suono saxophone duo, it's an actual way of life.
Ogni Suono founders Noa Even and Phil Pierick stopped by the Classical 101 studios today to give us sneak peek into their brand-new recording, SaxoVoce — a collection of new works composed specifically for Ogni Suono and uniting the power of saxophones with the possibilities of the human voice.
Even and Pierick started Ogni Suono (which means "every sound" in Italian) in 2009 with the goal of fostering the saxophone duo by catalyzing the creation of new repertoire for it.
To that end, they established the commissioning program that, with funds from New Music USA and additional support through Kickstarter, enabled them to commission nine composers to write new works for two saxophones and voices.
Those new pieces make up the repertoire on SaxoVoce. All of the works on the recording make unusual use of the voice in combination with saxophones.
In the video below, Even and Pierick tell a ghost story while playing their instruments in a selection from Dave Reminick's Walking After Midnight, create a kaleidoscope of sound color by singing while playing instruments in Chroma by Chris Fisher-Lochhead and shout, scream and whisper numbers, names of foods and other random words in Clamor by Erin Rogers.
Ogni Suono performs selections from SaxoVoce tonight at 7 p.m. in the Green Room of The Garden Theater, as part of the New Music at Short North Stage series, supported by the Johnstone Fund for New Music. Admission is free.
