Diversity scholar to present multimedia cello recital

Cellist Seth Parker Woods, a UB Center for Diversity Innovation Distinguished Visiting Scholar for 2021-22, will present an evocative, theatrical and genre-bending program on Nov. 12 at UB.

Titled “Difficult Grace,” the concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

In the evening-length, multimedia program, Woods will serve in the triple role of cellist, narrator/guide and movement artist, performing music written for and with him.

The program:

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s Calvary Ostinato from Lamentations: “Black Folk Song Suite.”

Fredrick Gifford’s Difficult Grace, with artwork by Barbara Earl Thomas.

Monty Adkins’ Winter Tendrils, with film by Zoë McLean.

Nathalie Joachim’s The Race: 1915, with projected images of Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series.

Freida Abtan’s My Heart Is A River.

Pierre Alexandre Tremblay’s asinglewordisnotenough 3 [invariant].

Heightened by film, spoken texts, dance and visual artwork by Jacob Lawrence, Barbara Earl Thomas, Zoë McLean and Freida Abtan, “Difficult Grace” creates a vivid sonic and visual canvas that draws its inspiration from the Great Migration, 1915 archive research of the historic newspaper The Chicago Defender, immigration, and the poetry of Amiri Baraka and Dudley Randall.

A discussion with Woods and Department of Music faculty member Jamie Currie will follow the performance.

Tickets for the concert are available through a variety of outlets at the following pricing structure:

UB faculty, staff, alumni, seniors and non-UB students

$10 plus $2.40 fee at www.ticketmaster.com (up to 90 minutes prior to concert time).

$14 in person at the Center for the Arts (noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday).

$18 at the door (one hour before concert time).

All UB faculty, staff and students with a valid ID will receive one complimentary ticket to this performance.

General public

$15 plus approximately $2.55 fee at www.ticketmaster.com (up to 90 minutes prior to concert time).

$19 in person at the Center for the Arts (noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday).

$23 at the door (one hour before concert time).

Note that in addition to the individual transaction fee outlined above, TicketMaster also adds a $2 order charge to every order, whether one ticket or multiple tickets are being purchased in that order.

All spectators at on-campus concerts must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and wear masks inside Slee Hall. A vaccination card, a photo of a vaccination card, an Excelsior Pass or a digital vaccine card are all acceptable. Attendees should be prepared to show photo ID as well.

This performance will also be livestreamed.

Hailed by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” who possesses “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” Woods has established a reputation as a versatile artist straddling several genres. A fierce advocate for contemporary arts, he has collaborated and worked with a wide variety of artists, ranging from Louis Andriessen, Elliott Carter, Heinz Holliger, G. F. Haas, Helmut Lachenmann, Klaus Lang and Peter Eötvos, to Peter Gabriel, Sting, Lou Reed, Dame Shirley Bassey and Rachael Yamagata, to such visual artists as Ron Athey, Vanessa Beecroft, Jack Early, Adam Pendleton and Aldo Tambellini.

His debut solo album, asinglewordisnotenough (Confront Recordings-London), has garnered great acclaim since its release in November 2016 and has been profiled in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, 5against4, I Care If You Listen, Musical America, Seattle Times and Strings Magazine, among others.

Before joining the UB faculty this academic year as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Center for Diversity Innovation, Woods served on the music faculties of the University of Chicago, Dartmouth College and the Chicago Academy of the Arts.

He holds degrees from Brooklyn College and Musik Academie der Stadt Basel, and a PhD from the University of Huddersfield.

In the 2020-21 season, he was an artist in residence with the Kaufman Music Center, and from 2018-20 he was an artist in residence with the Seattle Symphony and a creative consultant for the interactive concert hall Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center.

For a complete listing of all concerts being presented by the Department of Music, visit the department’s website.