Citywater

Citywater new music ensemble is a group of talented professional musicians, including flutist Cathie Apple, clarinetist Milun Doskovic, cellist Timothy Stanley, pianist Jennifer Reason, violinist Amy Lindsey, and percussionist Ben Prima, who contribute their broad experience as Sacramento-based freelance musicians. Members of the ensemble hold music degrees from Sac State and other well-known universities and have played with key Sacramento ensembles such as Sacramento Baroque Soloists, Sacramento Choral Society, and the Sacramento Philharmonic.

This combination of instruments became popular for composers, which then inspired musicians to form ensembles to perform the new works, which in turn inspired more works to be written and commissioned. The vast repertoire and widely varying styles that this instrumentation inspires is one of the things that drew the members of Citywater together. In our first exciting season we introduced Citywater with performances at the Festival of New American Music and the New Millennium Series. We also collaborated with Princeton Music Department Chair Steven Mackey in a concert of his works at UC Berkeley, featuring the work Heavy Light, with Mackey himself on electric guitar. During the next two seasons we brought new music to Sacramento audiences by establishing the bi-monthly Furlough Friday Concert Series, inspired by the furloughs of state and local government employees. We offered deeply discounted tickets to government employees, hoping to reach out to a new audience.

To reach out to audiences that might not have otherwise attended a "classical" concert, we sought out works that were inspired by hip-hop, jazz, rock, or dance forms like tango and flamenco. This concert series featured works by local composers, such as Sunny Knable, Stephen Blumberg, Bill Clark, Garrett Shatzer, and Richard Cionco; new works by composers such as Nico Muhly, Alexandra Gardener, Alex Shapiro, and Kenji Bunch; and modern "classics" by composers such as John Cage and George Crumb. In 2010, Citywater was recognized for its artistry and contributions to the community by being invited to perform at the opening gala for the Crocker Museum. Very recently, Citywater was invited to be the "ensemble-in-residence" at Sac State, where we will work with student composers and performers developing new chamber music.