SPLINTER REEDS
Splinter Reeds is the West Coast's first reed quintet, formed in 2013 with the coming together of five colleagues highly active in multiple facets of the New Music scene. The sum of their wide ranges of experience – in settings including free jazz, improvisation, electronic music, pop, punk, and metal as well as classical – has enabled them to rapidly zero in on a distinct aesthetic identity. The ensemble is explicitly dedicated to cutting-edge composition and expanding the existing reed quintet repertoire through the collaborative development of new works by emerging and established composers. Splinter Reeds features Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Bill Kalinkos (clarinet), Nicki Roman (saxophone), Jeff Anderle (bass clarinet), and Dana Jessen (bassoon).
(un) WIRED
Dana Jessen's (un) Wired is a solo electroacoustic and improvisatory project that incorporates sonic environments and live processing through Ted Moore's DJII interface. Jessen and Moore’s ongoing collaborative process began in 2021 and has led to performances that showcase Jessen's unique musical language interacting and improvising with live digital processes and sound worlds. (un) Wired has been presented at Splendor in Amsterdam, Cleveland’s CUSP Series, and the SPLICE Festival.
SPLICE MUSIC
SPLICE is an organization dedicated to the performance, creation, and development of music for performers and electronics. SPLICE is comprised of an annual Institute designed for performers and composers to study the integration of performance with electronics, the Ensemble who focuses on cultivating a canon of electroacoustic works, and an annual two-day Festival of concerts that blend engaging live performances with new technologies.
CARVE
Carve is Dana Jessen's solo program of music for bassoon and electronics, as well as the title of her debut solo album that blurs the lines between composition, interpretation, and improvisation. Jessen has cultivated a solo electroacoustic canon that includes works by George Lewis, Taylor Brook, Sam Pluta, Paula Matthusen, Peter V. Swendsen, and Kyle Bruckmann, among many others. She has been presented as a soloist at Amsterdam's Splendor, Studio LOOS in the Hague, the American Academy in Rome, University of Chicago’s CHIMEFest, Stanford's CCRMA, the Innova Festival in Minneapolis, the SPLICE Institute, Oberlin Conservatory, NYC's Avant Music Festival, SONiC Festival, and Bohemian National Hall, the Third Practice Festival of Electroacoustic Music, Wet Ink Presents series, and Chicago's Constellation, among others.
Jessen has additional ongoing projects including: Prairie Ghosts (with Erica Dicker); Tendrils with Katherine Young and Ben Roidl-Ward; a trio with Sam Pluta and Eric Wubbels; a duo with Stephan Haluska; and is a regular collaborator with the Splice Ensemble.