by Melanie Wong


Above: Cadillac Moon Ensemble; below: Circles and Lines
Friday evening at the Tenri Cultural Institute, Cadillac Moon
Ensemble presented a program of music exclusively written by members the composer
collective Circles and Lines. A unique quartet comprising flute, violin,
cello, and percussion, Cadillac Moon Ensemble has commissioned over 50 new
works for their instrumentation, including four of the five pieces on the
evening’s program.
On the first half of the program, violinist Patti Kilroy and cellist Meaghan Burke demonstrated their duo skills in Noam Faingold’s Knife in the
Water (named for Roman Polanski’s first feature film). A series of disconnected sonic outbursts and melodies ranging from sparse pizzicato sections to chaotic rhythmic chases created a chilling effect throughout; that is, until its comical ending, complete with an audience fake-out, where the
performers were instructed to wait for applause before proceeding to the
forceful and abrupt ending.