“We must respect the judgement of history.”

This is something I’ve said jokingly at my day job as an orchestral musician, after we play an unfamiliar piece from the past that usually sounds better on paper than in concert. I completely get it. We need to sell tickets, and the hits move product.

It’s no different for rock acts. We’ve paid good money, we want Freebird, damnit!

However, it’s often the case in classical music that an overlooked artist catches hold, and their story and music becomes incredibly relevant and important to a fuller understanding of a cultural era.

Such is the case with Julius Eastman and his minimalist masterpiece, Femenine.

Eastman was a pioneering figure in New York’s minimalist music scene, and is considered to be one of the most innovative composers of his time. Despite his significant contributions to music, Eastman's life and work were largely overlooked until recently, and his music is only now beginning to receive the recognition it deserves.

Eastman was born in 1940 in Harvey, Illinois, and grew up in Buffalo, New York. He studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and later at Bard College, where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in composition. After completing his studies, Eastman moved to New York City and became involved in the avant-garde music scene. He quickly established himself as a performer, conductor, and composer, and was associated with some of the most innovative musicians and composers of his time, including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Cage.

Along with Femenine, another important work by Eastman is Gay Guerrilla, a choral piece that deals with themes of homosexuality and gay rights. This piece was groundbreaking for its time and is considered to be one of the first pieces of classical music to address these issues.

Despite his significant contributions to music, Eastman’s life was marked by personal struggles and financial difficulties. After alienating lovers and collaborators alike, Eastman was evicted from his apartment in the mid-’80s. Most of his scores were bagged and carted away. After he died, alone in a Buffalo hospital at age 49, it took eight months for an obituary to be published.

But even putting the historical significance of Eastman’s work aside, Femenine is simply great music, a one-hour meditation on beauty, spontaneity, and community. It’s an open score, meaning we get to choose who’s in the band. And we also have great latitude in how the piece evolves, with Eastman’s 4 page score giving us very spare direction. The line between composer and performer is moved significantly in favor of the musician, with the result being performances that are utterly original and specific to that moment in time.

And our band for the April 20th performance is awesome, including Portland composer and pianist Darrell Grant, composer and violist Kenji Bunch, composer and vocalist Bora Yoon, all joined by the virtuosos of 45^th Parallel. It’s going to be a spectacular evening of spontaneous music creation!

At the 1971 debut of Femenine, Eastman served soup to the audience, and we’re pleased to have PDX-based Stone Soup on hand to serve their delicious soup at our show;)

45^th Parallel Universe presents
Femenine by Julius Eastman
Thursday, April 20th, 2023, 7:00 pm

Straub Collective
3333 NW Industrial Street
Portland, OR, 97210

Purchase tickets here.

Check out Eastman’s performance of Femenine. You’ll hear the mechanical bell machine that plays throughout, and the informality of conversation in room as the performance begins. Simply magical…

Ron Blessinger
Executive Director, 45^th Parallel Universe