Comprised of Bakersfield’s finest and most forward-thinking artists and new music advocates, the Collective presents works by Milton Babbitt, Ray Zepeda, and other BNMC members in a program entitled “Re-Imagining Milton Babbitt: A Centennial Celebration for an Exceptional American”. The technical and artistic demands are extraordinary for every chair, many of which are held by members of the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra and the music faculties of Bakersfield College and California State University, Bakersfield. Moreover, audiences are challenged to assimilate an abstract music of a complexity that obfuscates the lines of both jazz and contemporary concert music. The debut performance was to a packed house and the response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic for something heretofore unheard in Bakersfield.
Recent additions to the repertoire incorporate indeterminacy or “chance operations”, theatrical elements with spinning wheels, toy guns where ensemble members die and get dragged off stage, and dramatic acting featuring social commentary and parody of contemporary culture, all based on the superarrays excerpted from Milton Babbitt pieces. Oh, and there is a EDM or House DJ-driven groove underneath it all!
The Collective’s debut album on Soundsketch Records, Re-Imagining Milton Babbitt: A Centennial Celebration for an Exceptional American, received high media praise and enjoyed nationwide radio airplay.