Brush | Reed
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BRUSH | REED is set amongst an exhibition in a field of color we call #TINT. Created by juxtaposition of forms that collide in a way that transcends reason and thought, encouraging the viewer to be present and experience the immediacy of the moment.
Linnea Marie Maas & Jennifer Bill join together to explore the parallels between painting and music via live stage performances. Jennifer transforms the printed notes of her musical score into lush soundscapes, while Linnea further interprets the music into visual color and form on her fresh canvas.The live art that blooms at every BRUSH | REED performance captivates and moves audiences. The paintings that emerge establish a visual memory of the sights, sounds, and emotions of each intimate affair, impressing upon the audience member a feeling of symbiosis between the two disciplines presented to them.
The artists join together to explore the parallels between painting and music via live stage performances. Jennifer transforms the printed notes of her musical score into lush soundscapes, Linnea further interprets the music into visual color and form on her fresh canvas.The live art that blooms at every BRUSH|REED performance captivates and moves audiences. The paintings that emerge establish a visual memory of the sights, sounds, and emotions of each intimate affair, impressing upon each audience member a feeling of symbiosis between the two disciplines presented to them.
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Brush | Reed
Thursday May 23rd, Doors 7pm, $5
Featuring Linnea Maas & Dr. Jennifer Bill
This is the only performance booked door this dynamic duo in Minneapolis, don’t miss out!
BRUSH|REED was conceived in the Summer of 2008 on a warm, humid afternoon in Minneapolis, when the painter and musician — both originally from the area and friends since 1995—were brainstorming a way to fuse their respective arts. BRUSH|REED emerged as an experience designed to cross disciplines, unite their passions, and highlight the close relationship between music and visual arts for audiences around the world.
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Linnea Mass was born in Minneapolis on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1979 and was carried home during a snowstorm. She grew up in the small town of Mound and always drew. Her attraction to visual drama started early: when she was only 32 inches tall, she stood in the kitchen doorway and was shocked as Grandma removed all her teeth at once. This was the first vivid image that impressed itself on her memory and precluded a lifetime of visual thinking.
Later, leaning on the bark of a thin limb midway up her favorite maple tree, Linnea was touched by the tenderest breeze. It was filled with the sensation of perfection and she could feel it contained all the secrets of the alternate nature of the universe. The sensation of unutterable beauty has caused years of daydreaming and unremitting attempts at translating the elusive feelings into shapes communicating complexities bigger than words, a little picture guide to these unidentifiable but poignant emotions.
Linnea studied illustration at Washington University In St Louis and cultivated her current graphic style after taking a woodcut print class, where under the direction of a spontaneously combusting maniac she developed a penchant for triphop in the wee hours of the morning and putting thick outlines around objects in her drawings.
In 2004 the Robots invaded.
Currently, Linnea spends her time making art at a converted casket factory in Northeast Minneapolis. She just finished drawing her very first coloring book. Her projects include acrylic and oil paintings, murals, commissions, and collaborations; action painting with rock bands, classical saxophonists, and electronic music DJs; freelance illustration, designing furniture, making pictures for children’s books, and staring at the sky through moving branches.
Her thoughts are still all pictures, and she fills pages of sketchbooks with secret nonsense and meandering doodles, out of which evolve series of characters brimming with internal dialogue. Linnea paints them into pictures to nudge you to believe in her imagined reality where colors are twice as bright, love is infinitely more vivid, and the world is condensed into simple, crystallized pleasures, so just a smile ignites a connection to make any distance small.
Jennifer Bill is a saxophonist and conductor, Dr. Jennifer Bill has performed in Asia, throughout Europe and the United States. She performs solo and chamber music with a variety of groups including BRUSH|REED, Pharos Quartet, and ēmergere. As a conductor she currently leads the Boston University Concert Band.
As a saxophonist, Dr. Bill has performed contemporary chamber music with a diverse group of artists including vocalists, clarinetists, cellists, flutists, violinists, taped media, percussionists, wind quintet, and dancers. Currently she is working with visual artist Linnea Maas in the experimentation of the auralvisual in a collaboration named BRUSH|REED. BRUSH|REED has performed in Hong Kong, Scotland, and the USA. Dr. Bill has participated in numerous world premieres for saxophone including most recently Faustus: a SaxOpera by John Plant in 2016 as part of World-Wide Concurrent Premieres, Greenwich Village Portraits by David Amram in 2014 as part of World-Wide Concurrent Premieres, Canciones Andinas by Michael C. Kregler in 2014, A deep clear breath of life by John Plant in 2013, Fantasia on the Theme of Plum Blossom by Shih-Hui Chen in 2013 as part of World-Wide Concurrent Premieres, and Two Reflections on Poems by Anne Sexton by Michael C. Kregler in 2012. She has been a guest soloist with the Boston University Wind Ensemble in 2016 and 2005, the BUTI Wind Ensemble in August of 2015, the Hong Kong Wind Ensemble In May of 2014, and the Northeastern University Wind Ensemble in November of 2012. She has participated in national and world conferences including the World Saxophone Congress, the North American Saxophone Alliance national conference, and the North American Saxophone Alliance regional conference.
As a conductor Dr. Bill currently leads the Boston University Concert Band and is an active clinician throughout New England. She previously led the Providence College Symphonic Winds from 2009-2017. Dr. Bill led the BU Concert Band in a tour of Ireland in May of 2015 with performances in Dublin, Galway, Killarney and Macroom, was a guest conductor with the Hong Kong Wind Ensemble in May of 2014, and in May of 2011 led the PC Symphonic Winds in a tour of Italy with performances in Napoli, Maiori, and Monte Porzio Cantone (Roma).
Dr. Bill is currently faculty at Boston University, performance faculty at Boston College, applied faculty at Rhode Island College, and adjunct professor of music at Pine Manor College. She is the saxophone instructor, wind ensemble coordinator, and assistant director of the saxophone workshop for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. She serves on the Board of Directors for World-Wide Concurrent Premiers and Commissioning Funds, Inc. Dr. Bill is also the sole organizer, director and officer of Music Performance & Education, Inc.