Beth Custer Ensemble

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I really had no idea this would occur but…I just received an Emmy award for my score for Mantis Shrimp, an episode of KQED’s fine Deep Look series. Maybe it was the bassoon patch I used? What a thrill to have such a prestigious award, I’m speechless.

For the past year I’ve been working on Water Worship, an oratorio about our most precious resource with live original music and films. It premieres Sunday, June 11th, 4pm, at the Luggage Store Gallery. Performed by The Beth Custer Ensemble, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble string quartet, Dean Santomieri narrating, Bart Hopkin on experimental instruments.  There will be some gorgeous water footage by William Farley , Federico Cusigch, and others. Craig Baldwin will be projecting found footage from his massive archives.

Advance tickets highly recommended!

See you there!

Hey Everyone,
Where would I be without you? I’m in deep gratitude to you all. To mom Jean Huffman who bought me my first clarinet, mail order, the same one I play today! To Lucija Kordic and Alexander Bailey who’ve designed cool media for me for decades, and Anne Hamersky who’s taken gorgeous press photos of all my ensembles. To media peeps Derk Richardson, Joel Davis, Sandy MirandaSedge Thomson, Ton Maas, and countless others running vital media around the globe.To the directors who’ve hired me Cathy Lee Crane, Bill Farley, Joe Goode, Brad Coley, Octavio Solis, Jo Kreiter.…and so many others. To SF Arts Commission who are funding Water Worship and Blue Mountain Center, where I began composing it.

And…..I’m Emmy Nominated. Thank you KQED.

And to all my musician collaborators, and to my great husband Federico Cusigch, love you.
Very special thanks to all my fans. I’m truly nothing without you.

Ah, my favorite weather, cool and sunny.

The reviews are coming in for my new release, For the Grace of Any Man, and they are great! Thank you Jesse Hamlin (SF Chron): “you sound great,” RAR Jungle creator of the power ukulele at Leleukeleles said “some of the best music I’ve heard in a long time.” and Jean Huffman (my mom) “WHO is that trumpet player?!”

The stunning CD artwork created by designer Alexander Bailey (DJ of Nerd Nite SF king of Radio Khartoum) is worth the price of the release. People as far away as Israel, Hawaii, and Amsterdam have ordered theirs, I’m selling out of copies quickly, get yours while they last!

Fallen bird

Dear Lovely Ones,

Being a full time musician is a grace, it’s lovely to do what you love for a living. People often ask me ‘why do you play in so many bands?’ I’ve pondered this often and run the gamut of reasons but the one that shines through is my desire to play music in as many situations as possible, I love the challenge that each musical endeavor presents.

Whether it’s playing in my first ever Sondheim musical at the Drew School (Into the Woods, what a lovely score, thanks for hiring me James Garrison!), to scoring a film (don’t miss Plastic Man this summer!), to performing a live original score to Bee Film by Cathy Lee Crane, to recording The Beth Custer Ensemble‘s upcoming release in Jeff Cressman‘s cozy studio (almost done!), to teaching private music lessons, to performing with my ensembles, I have a lot of work to do every day and it’s fascinatingly challenging. Anyway… I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do, so there you have it.

One of my very favorite ensembles to play with is Trance Mission. After years of being somewhat dormant as a group we’ll be blossoming out big time this month on June 12th at Cousin Jack’s Mariposa Evenings music festival, on June 13th Russian Center in SF, and at Chapel of Chimes Garden of Memory on June 21st. Come out and hear our new material that we recently recorded and are priming to release soon (hopefully in the fall) and chestnuts from our four seminal releases. Big congrats to Sir Stephen Kent for being honored by Berkeley City Council as Artist of the Month, well done!

You too can commission a composer as the Bernal Hill Players so generously did with me thanks to a grant from SFFCM. I created Four Hidden Stairways of San Francisco for them and the premiere is at the Presidio Officer’s Club on June 19, 6pm and it’s free!

All the Very Best,

Beth

Hey there,
I’m thrilled to announce that The Beth Custer Ensemble and special guests will be performing in New York on November 22nd as part of the Pacific Film Archive’s Georgian Film Retrospective. I’ve launched a Hatchfund crowdfunding campaign to get us there. Please check out the prizes, there’s lots to choose from including having me play on your composition, receiving a stack of my CDs including my latest re-release of ‘Respect as a Religion’ and future release of ‘Aguaplano.’ Or you can come hear a concert with a couple of your friends in my studio! Every donation helps and none are too large!!

I attended Harvey Wainapel’s concert last Friday at the California Jazz Conservatory for his wonderful Amigos Brasileros Vol. 2 CD release party. It was a great evening of music. As most of you know, Harvey joined Clarinet Thing a few years ago and he’s contributed a few Brazilian compositions to the group. Clarinet Thing will be at our favorite venue, The Berkeley Hillside Club on October 17th. Our last Hillside concert sold out so get there early for an evening of completely acoustic clarinet heaven! We are poised to record another CD, our third after the critically acclaimed Cry, Want, and the earlier Agony Pipes and Misery Sticks.

More good news~ the poignant William Farley documentary film Plastic Man: The Artful Life of Jerry Ross Barrish that I’ve been scoring for the past six months premieres at the Mill Valley Film Festival in Mill Valley on Sunday, October 5th at 2:30 and in San Rafael on Wednesday, October 8th at 5:30. I’m really proud of this project and hope you can make one of the screenings. I’ll be at both and I think there will be Q & A’s after each screening so you can harass me with compositional queries!

Thanks for reading this far and please consider donating to my Hatchfund. Think of all the Beth Custer releases you can give as gifts for the whole millennia!

Yours,
Beth

Lots to report, folks, thanks for checking in…hope you’re having a lovely summer.
I’m heading out soon to an annual yoga retreat in the Sierras, much needed respite from city life.

The Beth Custer Ensemble is working on a new CD, as yet untitled (‘Pants I Rode In On’?), for fall release. The fabulous Jeff Cressman is at the helm recording. We’re lucky to catch him home from the road, he’s often touring with Santana. Jeff is a dream to work with. He’s easy going, has a great sense of humor, and big ears, as musicians say to compliment other musicians!

Looking forward to our upcoming Freight show, August 9th, 8pm. This is a Respect as a Religion CD re-release party (as opposed to a ‘re-pressed’ party!). Long out of print, BC Records is re-issuing this fab CD with it’s underground hit ‘Empire of the United States’
composed in response to all the lies surrounding the 2003 invasion of Iraq and against imperialism in general. I figure it’s a good time to re-press….since nothing seems to change in that realm of things!

Looking further ahead into the future…my wonderful clarinet quartet, Clarinet Thing will be making a rare appearance October 17th at our favorite venue, the Berkeley Hillside Club. Mark your calendars and more deets on that soon.

Also working on a new CD with Trance Mission Trio. We’re hoping to get some fall dates so stay in touch about that. You can sign up on our FB page, like us, send us gifts even!

I’m winding up my latest freelance composing job for a documentary by a great filmmaker, Bill Farley. Watch here for details mid August as to it’s release date/place.

Ciao for now, lovely summer one and all,
Beth

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