Open Gate Theatre Presents
Sunday Evening Concert Series feat. Motoko Honda Band and Ken Rosser’s Shadow Language Guitar Quartet

Sunday February 7, 2010
7:00 – 10:00pm

$10 General // Students, Seniors, and Series Performers $5

Motoko Honda Band
Motoko Honda - Keyboards
Jeff Gauthier - violin
Maggie Parkins - cello

Ken Rosser's Shadow Language Guitar Quartet
Ken Rosser - electric guitar
Ken Lasaine - electric guitar
Andre LaFosse - electric guitar
Kevin Tieman - electric guitar

About Motoko Honda Band + Ken Rosser's Shadow Language Guitar Quartet

Originally from Yokohama, Japan, keyboardist Motoko Honda has emerged as one of the most distinctive voices on the Los Angeles area’s new music scene. After graduating from CalArts after studying extensively with such notables as Wadada Leo Smith, Honda immediately made her presence known, bringing a refined classical touch, a broad and sophisticated musical vocabulary (which often includes prepared piano and electronics), and a sensitive and collaborative sensibility to a decidedly improvisatory approach to music-making. Along with Smith, Honda has been involved in notable collaborations with such artists as Vinny Golia, Nels Cline, Oguri, Emily Hay, Kris Tiner, Steuart Liebig, Carole Kim, Sara Schoenbeck, and many others. For this concert, Honda will appear with a frequent collaborator, violinist Jeff Gauthier (who at this point needs no introduction), and cellist Maggie Parkins (an outstandingly gifted musician heard with the likes of the Eclipse Quartet, the Zeena Parkins Group, Guy Klusevsek, Alex Cline’s Continuation Quintet, Elliott Sharp, and countless major figures in the classical music world) for a set of adventurous, multidirectional chamber-prov. (Please note that due to schedule conflicts the originally stated billing of Honda with Steuart Liebig and Joseph Berardi will not appear.)

Opening the evening will be the debut performance by Ken Rosser’s Shadow Language Guitar Quartet. Rosser himself, a supremely accomplished guitarist best known for his involvement with such artists as Bobby Bradford, Wayne Peet, Brad Dutz, and the Grandmothers, assembled, leads, and plays with this unique ensemble comprised of four electric guitars, the other guitarists being Ken Lasaine, Andre LaFosse, and Kevin Tieman. Drawing on a wide and varied repertoire of modern compositions Rosser selected and arranged for the group, the sound alone is sure to be spectacular. It’s another first in Eagle Rock!

About Open Gate Theatre

Open Gate Theatre was founded in 1982 by Artistic Director Will Salmon. They are dedicated to opening the gates between music, dance, and drama; between cultures; between the unconscious and the conscious; between emotion, mind and spirit. Open Gate is both an ensemble and a creative collective, combining image with sound, voice with movement, and poetics with light; Open Gate strives for a theatre that is both passionate and numinous. Open Gate is a unique approach to theatre; unified in its expression and impulse, diverse in its sources and disciplines. For more information, contact Artistic Director Will Salmon at ogtwills@hotmail.com or 626.795.4989.