Fountain City Ensemble

Columbus State University Schwob Department of Music professors Andree Martin, Paul Vaillancourt, Amy Griffiths and Lisa Oberlander became the Fountain City Ensemble about four years ago.

One of them, I can't remember which one, was going to perform in Kiryu, Japan, and the other three wanted to go. So they decided to form an ensemble and all four of them got to go.

Andree and Paul are married, and Amy and Lisa have known each other since their college days.
In the photo, Andree (left-to-right), Paul, Amy and Lisa, are in Kiryu.

Every year since then, they have performed a program that included a commissioned piece. Apparently, there isn't much repertoire for flute, percussion, saxophone and clarinet.

The quartet's Oct. 27 concert is the first with a commissioned piece. But it is still a very contemporary program.

I'm very intrigued by it.

There is a piece by a composer named Jacob ter Veldhuis, who is better known as Jacob TV.

The Dutch composer, who calls himself an "avant pop composer," is obsessed with American pop culture and he has a piece called "Heartbreakers." He uses video and audio clips from "The Jerry Springer Show."

There is a reworking of Gregorian chants called "Chance Chants" by Barbara Kolb, along with a multimedia presentation of Louis Andriessen's "Workers Union," which features clips from the 1927 movie "Metropolis."

I'll have more about the concert in next week's To Do.

The concert is at 7:30 p.m. in the Studio Theatre. It's free.