Sanctuary Sessions

Westwood UMC Sanctuary Music Presents
SANCTUARY SESSIONS
featuring HOUSE ON FIRE

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Sunday, March 13th (3pm)
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Westwood United Methodist Church
10497 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles
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Free Admission: In-person & Livestream
Please wear a mask if attending in person.
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Watch the livestream – CLICK HERE
Download the program – CLICK HERE
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House on Fire is a music ensemble consisting of Wells Leng, Richard An, and Andrew Anderson – dedicated to the performance of new and experimental music. The program contrasts the dizzying heights of intensity found in David Lang’s Burn Notice and Zosha Di Castri’s Dux with meditative, sparse, introspective works by Jo Kondo, Kate Moore, Judith Weird, Cassie Wieland, and David Macbride. Concert is free and open to the public. Masks required if attending in person.

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PROGRAM

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Jo Kondo – Walk / 6
Kate Moore – Spin Bird / 4
Judith Weir – Fragile / 3
David Lang – Burn Notice / 8
Jo Kondo – Aquarelle / 12
Cassie Wieland – Ember / 6
Zosha di Castri – Dux / 11:30
David Macbride – bells of remembrance / 9:30

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RICHARD AN

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Richard An (b.1995) is a composer and performer, born and raised in Los Angeles. Richard’s primary ambitions as a performer lie in interpretations of modern and contemporary music, and has performed music by Christopher Cerrone, Tristan Perich, Andrew McIntosh, Natacha Diels, Du Yun and Raven Chacon, Caroline Shaw, Oyvind Torvund, Sofia Gubaidulina, Julius Eastman, Steve Reich, Jurg Frey, Joan Tower, Stephen Hartke, Zhou Long, Tom Johnson, Beat Furrer, Eve Beglarian, George Crumb, Luciano Berio, Lucky Mosko, Toru Takemitsu, Morton Feldman, Olivier Messiaen, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros and more. Richard performs with stickytack (a piano+ duo), house on fire (a new music trio) and quartet friends (a 2pno 2perc quartet), and has performed with Monday Evening Concerts’ Echoi Ensemble and The Industry. Richard plays piano and percussion, and has been known to sing, conduct, and teach. Richard’s music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Calder Quartet, members of Yarn/Wire, HOCKET, Resound Duo, Great Noise Ensemble, and more. Richard has a Bachelor of Music in Composition from the University of Southern California and a Master of Fine Art from the California Institute of the Arts. He plays taiko and tabla, and makes YouTube videos.

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ANDREW ANDERSON

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Andrew Anderson is a musician deeply invested in the performance of classical and contemporary music, in both solo and collaborative settings. He has worked with many established composers, including Donnacha Dennehy, Eve Beglarian, Lukas Ligeti, Courtney Bryan, and as well as with Pulitzer Prize finalist Ted Hearne in preparation for the LA Phil premiere of his oratorio PLACE. He has also commissioned works by up-and-coming composers such as Wells Leng, Richard An, and Matt Sargent. As a performer, he has had the great opportunity to perform at such venues REDCAT, the Carlsbad Music Festival. and the Walt Disney Hall as part of the 2019 Fluxus Festival. Andrew attended the University of California, Irvine (BMus, 2017) and at the California Institute of the Arts (MFA, 2019), where he was recipient of the Fletcher Jones Foundation and Dumont Scholarships. His primary teachers have been Nina Scolnik and Vicki Ray. Currently on staff at Moorpark College, Andrew also works across Southern California as a free-lance musician and piano technician in training. Other interests include exploring extended just-intonation systems for the piano, from both a performance and technical-tuning aspect.

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WELLS LENG

Wells Leng (1994-) is a performer/composer/improviser based in Los Angeles. Having graduated from USC with a BM in Composition and a BA in Piano Performance and CalArts with an MFA in the Performer-Composer program, they have studied composition with Donald Crockett, Brian Head, Andrew Norman, Frank Ticheli, Andrew McIntosh, and Nicholas Deyoe; piano with Antoinette Perry and Vicki Ray; cello with Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick. As both a performer and composer, Wells has collaborated with many other artists all over the world. An active member of the LA taiko community, they have worked closely with prominent artists such as San Jose Taiko, Kris Bergstrom, Isaku Kageyama, Shoji Kameda, as well as other musicians specializing in Japanese music; Kozue Matsumoto and Rachel Rudich. Wells is part of House on Fire Trio, stickytack, and Quartet Friends. Aside from playing taiko, cello, and piano, they are also an amateur player of several other instruments. Wells is currently the collaborative keyboardist at Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church.

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