Khasma Piano Duo to Perform at Knox College with Video Artist Chris Craychee
Galesburg, IL (02/07/2023) — The Knox College Music Department will present "Trekking," a concert of brand new works played by the Khasma Piano Duo, featuring Ashlee Mack and Katherine Palumbo. Chris Craychee, visual artist based in Pittsburgh, PA, will provide video art to accompany each piece. The concert will take place on Saturday, March 4th at 7:30PM in Kresge Recital Hall, located in the Ford Center for the Fine Arts Building on the Knox campus. The event is free and open to the public.
"Trekking is a project inspired by people and nature moving through space and time," said Ashlee Mack, Khasma Piano Duo cofounder and Director of Piano Studies at Knox College. "In celebration of Khasma's 10th anniversary and 20 years of friendship, we decided to think bigger and invite some of our favorite composers and artists to collaborate with us. They have all contributed to our lives in a meaningful way and are people we have grown to love, respect, and admire over the years."
The duo commissioned six new works to be premiered on their program, along with music by Meredith Monk. The featured composers are Chris Catone, Hong-Da Chin, Kyong Mee Choi, Jeff Herriot, Amelia Kaplan, and James Romig. Each new piece will feature video art by Chris Craychee, who has been collaborating with all of the composers to create moving images that reflect their musical intentions.
The Khasma Piano Duo was formed in 2012 by Ashlee Mack and Katherine Palumbo. They have been playing together since meeting at Bucknell University in 2000. Because of their shared enthusiasm for contemporary music, the duo has dedicated themselves to the performance and recording of works from the 20th and 21st centuries. Their concert tours have taken them all over the US, with performances at universities, new-music festivals, and conferences. Their albums Switchback and Time Seems To Pass are available at Amazon, iTunes, and Bandcamp. Additional recordings can be heard on Innova and Navona Records.
Chris Craychee is a visual artist and freelance project manager/producer living and working in Pittsburgh, PA. His art has embraced painting, drawing, printmaking, writing, sculpture, photography, video, animation, and performance, and has utilized such non-traditional media as synthetic carpet, gunpowder, ice cubes, googly eyes, aluminum foil, plastic toys, and Chuck-A-Luck wheels. He received a BFA in Art from Carnegie Mellon University and has worked for Concept Art Gallery, the Andy Warhol Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Clear Story, and Deeplocal.