Troublesome Gap is a collaborative new music festival for composers hosted by the flute, harp, and percussion trio, Archaea Tree Ensemble (ATE). The festival will be he held from May 17-24, 2015 at unique retreat center AZULE in Hot Springs, North Carolina. Award winning composer Robert Paterson will be attending as Composer-in-Residence providing lessons, coachings, and seminars. Troublesome Gap
is centered on the collaborative process of new compositions. Each composer will write a new work to be premiered by ATE and during the composition process, will receive two consultation meetings via Skype (or in person, if location allows it) with ATE; this way, the piece is collaboratively constructed and any compositional questions regarding our individual instruments may be answered to ensure the best possible interpretation and performance of the new composition. Once at Troublesome Gap, composers will receive private lessons with Robert Paterson, who will also serve as a coach for rehearsals. ATE and Paterson will present seminars to the composers on a number of topics (like the intricacies of writing for harp, the challenges of recording, how to make a living as a composer in our society, etc.) and the invited composers will also have the opportunity to present their own music in open seminars. The culmination of the festival will be a public concert premiering the five works. After the festival, composers will receive two professional recordings (by professional recording engineer of the NRO, Jeff Zahos) – one of the live concert performance, and one of a studio recording made by ATE during the retreat.
