The Box Is Empty, Seattle’s newest contemporary music ensemble, introduces itself with a performance of two works by the groundbreaking Louis Andriessen. The program offers the rare opportunity to hear Andriessen’s early masterpiece De Volharding (perseverance).  The unrelenting Workers Union completes the program for exciting insight into the music of one the last half-century’s most innovative composers.  Come hear these works that helped to launch Louis Andriessen from composer of the Dutch avant-garde to one of international influence and importance. 

The Box Is Empty, Seattle’s newest contemporary music ensemble, performs its second concert this January: David Lang’s Pulitzer-prize-winning the little match girl passion (Northwest premiere) and Steve Reich’s Proverb. We begin with Proverb, which quotes Ludwig Wittgenstein,  “How small a thought is takes to fill someone’s whole life!”  The little match girl passion answers with the touching story of Hans Christian Andersen’s little match girl, who slowly freezes to death as she lights match after match desperately trying to keep warm.  Come hear these beautifully minimal settings of a haunting winter’s tale.