When the avant-garde chamber group Bent Frequency kicks off its season with a free concert at Georgia State University this September, co-founder Stuart Gerber will celebrate two decades of pushing Atlanta chamber music forward.
Gerber and co-artistic director Jan Berry Baker make a statement right from the start with Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Kontakte,” a work for piano, percussion and four-channel electronic tape first recorded in 1960.
“We thought it appropriate to present this important 20th century work,” Gerber, a professor at Georgia State University, wrote in an email. “I’ve played this piece many times — over 50 — but never in the context of a Bent Frequency show.”
Stockhausen’s influence on Gerber and Bent Frequency runs deep. His doctoral thesis from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music examined “aesthetic and technical demands” in three Stockhausen works. Beyond serving as a lodestar for his career, the study helped him develop a working relationship with the composer himself. One of the most public acknowledgments of that is “Himmels-Tür,” a 2006 composition dedicated to Gerber.
Bent Frequency is more than just Gerber and Baker, but they form the core of a chameleon ensemble of local musicians and guests from out of town. Baker, who served as an associate professor at Georgia State University is now in that out-of-town category; she is professor of saxophone at UCLA.
To keep expanding Bent Frequency’s musical world, Gerber and Baker formed the Bent Frequency Duo project, a vehicle for new commissions. Recent additions include “Tuning In,” a 2022 work for saxophone and percussion by George Lewis, which was given its Atlanta premiere last December at Eyedrum. At that same concert, the duo premiered “Every Next Day,” Alvin Singleton’s work for soprano saxophone and percussion, with the composer looking on from the audience.
While the opening concert of Bent Frequency’s 20th anniversary season features a foundational work, Gerber is also looking to the future: The show includes two world premieres by Dante De Silva and Robert Lemay.
Bent Frequency season opener. 7 p.m. Sept. 25. Florence Kopleff Recital Hall, Georgia State University, 15 Gilmer St. SE, Atlanta. bentfrequency.com
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