Their performance is part music, part movement, part theater. Young and gifted, the sextet eighth blackbird (always in lower case) champions the music of living composers with their unique new-music concerts.

        The group, which performs for the Cincinnati Chamber Music Society Tuesday, was formed at the Oberlin Conservatory. The musicians — Molly Alicia Barth (flutes); Michael Maccaferri (clarinets); Matthew Albert (violin and viola); Nicholas Photinos (cello); Matthew Duvall (percussion) and Lisa Kaplan (keyboards) — also hold degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

The sextet eighth blackbird offers unique new-music concerts (Enquirer photo) | ZOOM |

        In the past two years, they have won several top awards (including a 2000 Naumburg Award and first prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition). They have appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, Minnesota Public Radio's St. Paul Sunday. Their debut CD, Round Nut Tool, was released in 1999.

        The Enquirer spoke with Mr. Albert in Chicago, where eighth blackbird holds residencies with Northwestern University and the University of Chicago.

        Question: Why the title Round Nut Tool?

        Answer: We were on a road trip in the summer of '98, driving all night from Arkansas to Michigan. We had a flat tire, pulled off, and got all the nuts off the tire, but one. It was round; we had only a hexagonal wrench. There's an adapter you're supposed to use. ... We finally found the round nut tool. The idea is that extra something you need to get a task done or to reach your goal.

IF YOU GO

What: eighth blackbird, Cincinnati Chamber Music Society    When: 8 p.m. Tuesday    Where: Corbett Auditorium    Tickets: $20; $7 students; CCM students free. 533-0451.

        Q: Is this what life is like on the road?

A: We don't drive all night when we can avoid it! Last spring we played in Boston and our next concert was in Memphis, so, over the next two days we drove to Tennessee. When you spend a lot of time in the car, you hear everyone's dreams, everyone's hopes.

        Q: What is your hope?

A: That the six of us would be the ensemble in residence at a college or university, coaching other chamber music groups, commissioning music, doing readings of new works, so people saw the whole process from start to finish.

        Q: What is it like to work with a living composer?

A: It's so exciting. Music becomes more of a process rather than a piece of art that's just on a page.

        Q: Do you choreograph your music, or does it just happen?

A: Some pieces we have memorized, and for those we work on getting some kind of stage movement that is natural with the piece. We eventually set what we're going to do, so we're not improvising onstage. So, yes it is part of the performance.

        Q: The Kronos Quartet is also playing next week (Miami University, Jan. 18). Are you continuing in their tradition?

A: I hope that can be said, because they were such trailblazers. They were an inspiration to me. When I was in high school, I went to one of their concerts ... Everything was so fresh and exciting. You never knew what they were going to do next, but you always knew it was going to be utterly convincing.

        When I programmed concerts later, I was always shooting for that breadth of styles, that vitality and freshness. That's what people should be seeing in a concert.

        People go to a concert, and sometimes hear a piece they've heard before and they can sit back and relax. But another kind of a concert is one that is exciting in a way that you didn't expect, and it just gets you thinking, and kind of grooving.
       

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