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New curator, John Teske

At the recent Salon in May, Tom Baker announced he will be stepping down as curator. Tom will still be involved as a board member and I (John Teske) will be taking over the Salon hosting, booking, and communications. I am excited to step into this role and look forward to continuing Tom's great work fostering the development, presentation, appreciation of new music in our community. If we haven't met and you'd like to have a piece on a future Salon, feel free to send me an email or catch me after a Salon. Also, if you're not familiar with my work, there are many listening samples on my website.

Tom and I thought it would be nice at this transition to give a recap of the Salon history: The Seattle Composers' Salon was first hosted by Christian Asplund in in the summer of 1999. He moved away shortly thereafter and Tom Baker became the host in the fall. The Salon was first held at the Mennonite Church in Lake City, then moved to Soundbridge at Benaroya Hall, and is now in residence on the Wayward Music Series at the Chapel Performance Space. Over the years, there have been more than: 80 salons, 300 compositions, 700 performers, and 130 individual composers. The Salon has commissioned new work, sponsored concerts, and held events such as Phil Kline's Unsilent Night, the New Music Holiday Office Party, and the Is That Jazz? Festival. The Salon has featured local, regional and national composers including John Adams, Gabriela Lena Frank, Joel-Francois Durand, Wayne Horvitz, and Martin Bresnik.

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