Title: To Paint Their Madness
Commission: 2015
Completed: 2016
Instrumentation: chamber orchestra
Premiere Location: October 7, 2016 in Chicago
Premiere Ensemble: Ensemble Dal Niente
Notes:

Pierce Gradone’s music reflects the strange brew of musical cultures that made up his childhood, where an omnivorous hunger for music-making led him to playing bluegrass in the hills of Appalachia, sprinting the marathon of blinding-fast pentecostal shout music, learning the varied languages of jazz, and—naturally—joining and quitting a number of failed garage bands. Drawing inspiration from visual art, literary theory, popular culture, and Western music history, his work seeks to situate notions of groove, glitch, and virtuosity within contemporary musical practices. Gradone’s music been performed by the Pacifica Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente, Line Upon Line Percussion, Ursa Ensemble, the Parhelion Trio, Concert Black, and many others. His Fromm Commission will produce a new chamber orchestra work for Ensemble Dal Niente, to be be premiered in October 2016 at the Ear Taxi Festival in Chicago.