Sunday March 18th

Doors 7 // Show 8pm // $12 // All Ages

In September of 2016, six diverse musicians came together unexpectedly within the walls of Boston’s NewEnglandConservatorytoformNewAcousticband,NightTree. Thesextetofconservatory-trained musicians attracts dramatic attention not only for its abnormal instrumentation of two fiddles, cello, accordion, saxophone, percussion, voice, and the occasional viola and mandolin, but for their collective representation and incorporation of traditions from Irish, Classical, Swedish, Jazz, Klezmer, and Afro- Cuban music.

Within their arrangements, each artist’s personality is given a spot to emerge with fiery improvisation, individual compositions, and a pristine ear. The band thrives on playing in complete darkness as to allow themselves the opportunity to solely listen with the absence of any possible visual distractions. They react to each other at any given moment, in a matter of seconds. They have learned to get inside each other’s musical minds, creating one explosive and unpredictable wave of sound that is Night Tree.

The group, all students at NEC, were named the Conservatory’s Wildcard Honors Ensemble for 2016- 2017. Awards for this title included a sponsorship from NEC, a headlining performance at the historic Jordan Hall, and a year of working with Winifred Horan, fiddler and co-founder of Irish super-band, SOLAS. Night Tree will be releasing their debut album on September 1st of this year, produced by

Se?amus Egan, another founding member of SOLAS. The band began touring in Vermont at the beginning of 2017, followed by a spring tour to Washington, D.C. Night Tree recently concluded a summer tour where they performed New York City, New York State, Philadelphia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine.

Night Tree will be releasing their debut album on September 1st, followed by a release tour that goes from Vermont down to Asheville, concluding at the Burren Backroom Series in Boston for their official release show on October 11. Their 10-track debut album features original compositions ranging from somber and plaintive melodies to raucous and energized tumult.

Sunniva Brynnel, composer as well as singer and accordionist in Night Tree, brings her pastoral melodies to her instrumental and vocal pieces. In her song “Thanksgiving”, Sunniva openly expresses her constant

longing for travel to satisfy her hunger for a place that feels like home. Saxophonist Zach Mayer has composed pieces with the vision of Night Tree as a single voice. This can be heard in his songs “A Wish on the Wind” and “Wheel in the Forest”. “FoWrist”, written by fiddler Lily Honigberg in collaboration with percussionist Julian Loida, unites Ireland’s traditional style of playing with the syncopated rhythms of Cuba. Each track on the album has a different flavor, very much a representation of the six members of the band and their differences. Night Tree blossoms with a bang as they re-imagine tunes using imagery such as shipwrecks. They interject fiery solos and breakdowns that give traditional music a wildly new meaning.