the official website of Tiny Orchestral Moments

Tiny Orchestral Moments

is a series of residential workshops
bringing together musicians from all over the globe
to perform collaborative repertoire for
layered guitars, voices, violins, winds, percussion and drums
including structured improvisation that sounds composed,
and composed collaboration that sounds improvised.

We are actively preparing our story via a post-COVID
12-part documentary series, sharing stories and songs,
the unique people, performances and processes
of this gigantic geo & gender-diverse group
of masterful musicians
working to change the world
one Tiny Moment at a time
via music.

The music is built on the bones of an orchestra of precise guitarists,
members of Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists
also including the internationally-acclaimed California Guitar Trio
and Argentina's Electric Gauchos, BigTime Trio and Japan's Zum.

This gender-balanced orchestra is always
joined by special guests such as
prog Bass legend Julie Slick (Adrian Belew/EchoTest)
and Seattle music legends Beth Fleenor and Amy Denio.

TOM also features a dizzying array of internationally renowned specialists
including LA-based violinist Nora Germain,
New Zealand-based guitarist Nigel Gavin,
and NY Composer, Patrick Grant.

Performances

Peak Week IV: Tiny Orchestral Moments Performance
Wednesday August 28th 2019 @ Kirkland Performance Center ( details here )

Tiny Orchestral Moments Performance: Peak Week IV

If you find something resonant in this work,
we invite you to DONATE to support these people and processes
directly via PayPal:

Donations are made through Seattle Circle,
our non-profit arts umbrella organization which supports
ongoing Tiny Orchestral Moments workshops,
projects, people, performances and events.

Workshops

Tiny Orchestral Moments Workshop: Peak Week IV

Building on four+ years of Tiny Orchestral Moments Peak Week residential workshops,
TOM V Peak Week was held in the Seattle area
on Sunday August 28th - Sunday September 3rd 2022.

Peak Week 2022
as usual, featured an international array of collaborators including:

Pat and Deborah Mastelotto (special guest 'wild cards')
Electric Gauchos (Fernando Kabusacki, Steve Ball, Julie Slick)
Zum Trio (Luciano Pietrafesa, Shinkuro Matsuura, Fumihito Hatano)
Gitbox (Nigel Gavin)

In addition, we hosted our returning professionals from the TOM core team including:

Amy Denio (all known instruments + a few unknown)
Oscar Mander (guitar, piano)
Brad Hogg (guitar, bread, facilitation)

Peak Week 2019
also featured an international array of collaborators including:

California Guitar Trio (Paul Richards, Hideyo Moriya, Bert Lams)
Bigtime Trio (Horacio Pozzo, Claudio Lafalce, Martin de Aguirre)
Zum Trio (Luciano Pietrafesa, Shinkuro Matsuura, Fumihito Hatano)
Gitbox (Nigel Gavin, Sonia Wilson)
Electric Gauchos (Fernando Kabusacki, Fernando Samalea, Steve Ball, Alex Anthony Faide, Julie Slick)

In addition, we hosted our returning professionals from the TOM core team including:

Nora Germain (violin, voice, information movement)
Amy Denio (all known instruments + a few unknown)
Aileen Bunch (piano, voice)
Carl Germain (guitar, live sound, recording)
Brad Hogg (guitar, bread, facilitation)

...as well as a number of local and international special guests.

Each year, we host special featured
"wild card" guests including

Petra Haden (2016)
Janet Feder (2017)
Beth Fleenor (2018)
California Guitar Trio (2019)
Pat and Deborah Mastelotto (2022)

This year, our 2019 annual Peak Week event incorporate an inclusive workshop
designed for beginners and anyone new to the TOM team
embedded into the traditional week of TOM practices:

initiation: introductions, orientation
collaboration: group work, guided instruction
improvisation: principles and practices
writing: preparation for performance
performance: presentation of our work
recording: performance with the "red light" on
reflection: learning and recapitulation
productization: translation of this work into products
application: completion to enable continuation + expansion

Like previous years, events included focus on Continuous Improvisation applied to our interactions collaborations, writing, performing, recording, productization and monetization of our work together.

And, as in previous years, the Tiny Moments captured in this Peak Week
will be released in products: CD + streaming releases, videos and large and small format documentaries.

Interested?
More details are here.

Workshop History
quick glimpse of a previous Tiny Orchestral Moments workshop

Bass Camp II: June 7-9 2019 in Seattle -- COMPLETED!

Featuring masterful Bass, Guitar, Clarinet and Music Instructors from
Italy, Philadelphia, Germany and Seattle including:

Julie Slick, Marco Machera, Alessandro Inolti and Steve Ball.

Also featuring Special Guest presenters: Beth Fleenor, Trey Gunn, Markus Reuter, Tony Levin
and a number of other surprise guests.

Some in person, some via remote connectivity.

This year, the event includes integration into the SeaProg festival
where TROOT, Trey Gunn & Markus Reuter , and EchoTest
are each playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday night (respectively).

The workshop included SeaProg show attendance as part of the tuition.

More details are here.

Tiny Orchestral Moments
2018 Indiegogo Campaign Completed Successfully!

T H A N K Y O U to everyone who donated.
If you missed your chance to DONATE to support the
completion of our documentary series, you can also donate directly via PayPal

These donations are made through Seattle Circle,
our non-profit arts umbrella organization which supports
ongoing Tiny Orchestral Moments workshops,
projects, people, performances and events.

Tiny Orchestral Moments: Documentary Trailer

Watch on YouTube

WHO
Tiny Orchestral Moments

is an international community of connected musicians who meet periodically to practice, perform, write, record, and improvise together.

We invite new Music into the world by collaborating across geographies, genres, genders and generations. The ensemble includes a gender-balanced core team of invited, masterful musicians who are already established in their work as internationally-recognized performers.

The core team is energized via contributions from guests, students, beginners, apprentices, organizers, instructors and experienced collaborators from in and outside the worldwide Guitar Craft and local Seattle Circle communities.

WHAT
Workshops

Tiny Orchestral Moments hosts weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly inclusive Workshops where we invite a full spectrum of aspiring, practicing and master musicians to come together to collaborate and participate in the act of bringing music to life.

The aim: develop practical skills to work in diverse groups, resolving (alleged) differences by practicing the act and art of Harmony. We actively develop structured improvisation that sounds composed, and composed collaboration that sounds improvised, including beginners and masters.

Recurring Workshops are open and designed to include existing local communities. Longer, quarterly and yearly Workshops are hosted as residential retreats where participants live and work together to invent, write, refine, present, perform and record collaborative repertoire for layered guitars, voices, violins, strings, wind, keys, bass, drums and percussion.

This work is designed to enable individuals to practice and experience effective group collaboration. While grounded in music, this work and these practices also apply to and are useful for groups building products, managing teams and/or working toward any common goal.

WHERE
Performances

Tiny Orchestral Moments performances are immersive. We fill the room with movement and sound in 360-degrees as musicians play in and around the audience. Physical surround sound is often complemented by striking lights and multiple walls of ambient video, and supported by a mobile orchestra of guitarists from the extended Seattle and international Guitar Circle community.

In addition to hosting public performances as part of each project, workshop and retreat, the full team also invests energy working, writing, improvising and recording in world-class studios.

HOW
Products

TOM I Peak Week in 2016 resulted in 3 CDs of new music
recorded at London Bridge in Seattle.

TOM II Peak Week in 2017 resulted in 2 CDs new of music
recorded at Bear Creek in Woodinville.

TOM III Peak Week in 2018 resulted in 3 CDs new of music
recorded at London Bridge in Seattle and an immersive CD of music recorded at SkyMuse in Stanwood.

TOM IV Peak Week in 2019 resulted in 5 CDs new of music
recorded at Ronald House & Kirkland Performance Center.

TOM V Peak Week in 2022 will result in 3 CDs new of music
recorded at Avast Studio in Seattle.

* * *

Complementing these CDs emerging from the first five seasons of TOM, Seattle Director Louise Amandes is directing a
12-episode (~10 hours total!) Tiny Orchestral Moments documentary series
for official release post-COVID.

And, we are working on a separate short documentary feature
sharing the story of our recent immersive collaboration with
Ron Jones at SkyMuse studios.

TOM Peak Week IV
August 25-September 2019

Tiny Orchestral Moments LIVE

a. TOM I @ the Chapel, b. TOM @ RChain
c. TOM @ SeaProg, d. TOM III @Ballard Homestead
e. / f. TOM IV @ Kirkland Performance Center
photos a, b, d by Peter Dervin, c by Donna Van Buren, e by Louise Amandes, f by Danette Davis