Liquid Music is a leading producer of special projects in contemporary music that features artists from across genres. It was founded at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2012 and went independent in 2020. Kate Nordstrum is the owner and artistic director of Liquid Music, and she joins The Current Morning Show to describe what Liquid Music is and talk about the new season and in many ways, a new era for Liquid Music. Listen to the interview using the audio player above, and read a transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: I have a guest this morning to talk about Liquid Music and talk about the fall series, the fall season, which is in swing. Kate, welcome to the Morning Show.

Kate Nordstrum: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Jill Riley: Yeah, glad you could join us this morning. I think the place to start really is the big question for anyone who's not familiar: What is Liquid Music?

Kate Nordstrum: Thank you. Well, Liquid Music is a series of music events that has been going since 2012 like you said. We are exploring — so I would say people who come to Liquid Music concerts are interested in expanding their musical horizons, learning about new artists, or new projects by artists who they do know, but are heading in different directions. Liquid Music works with artists to build new creations. So sometimes the projects that we ultimately present take a couple years in the development and Liquid Music serves as a producer to help artists develop these special projects. So Liquid Music really is a series that showcases work on many scales, so we have very intimate shows that are introductions to artists who are just emerging. And then we also do very large-scale productions as the projects require. So I would say Liquid Music is a journey, and it is an opportunity to kind of build a hunger for new music in our community, and then all these projects go on beyond the Twin Cities, of course, to many other stages.

Jill Riley: It sounds like folks should really come with this curiosity, and really open their minds to to something new, and really on this artistic side of creation and collaboration. What can someone expect when they go to a Liquid Music experience?

Kate Nordstrum: Yeah, well, you really hit the nail on the head by identifying the audience as full of curious listeners. I would say that an audience for Liquid Music is all ages; you really get young folks and people who have been music lovers their whole lives, and a lot of older folks too. So I love that the common denominator is like a hunger for something that people haven't experienced before, and being in a room where you are all hearing something for the first time and feeling that together is such a magnificent feeling, and young and old can appreciate it alike. So I think there's just that common bond that our audience has on the music side of things. I'm looking for music and artists who are really, like, diving into emotional territory. I personally love music that is emotionally engaging and that you can feel. I grew up dancing, and I did play violin too, but as a dancer, I really thought about music in terms of what it did to my body, and I still talk about music in that way. How is music feeling inside? How is it coursing through me? It's a very easy way for anyone to talk about music; you know: How does it make you feel, versus some of the more technical ways of addressing acoustics and stuff.

Jill Riley: Yeah, because that feeling is so individual.

Kate Nordstrum: Yeah! 

Jill Riley: Yeah, and on the subject of dancing, I mean, we could put a piece of music on right now and our bodies would move in completely different ways. I think, yeah. That's a cool comparison to make. I'm talking with Kate Nordstrum, the owner and artistic director of Liquid Music. So the 2024 season, it's rolling. It started and there are still plenty of shows left before the season is over. Now, there are performances scheduled in the Twin Cities. There's one specifically this Friday that I'd like to dig into. But I understand that Liquid Music has grown. Can you tell me about the growth?

Kate Nordstrum: Yeah, so Liquid Music, we have, of course, an abiding commitment to the Twin Cities and presenting here, and even a new relationship with an institution locally: Northrop is now a partner. So Liquid Music and Northrop are presenting together three or four projects a year. We're focused on their historic organ and using that in the venue where I'm also thinking a lot about new music and dance projects, because it's such a wonderful venue for that.

And there's regular work with the Walker Art Center, sometimes the Schubert Club. So the partnerships here are strong. But beyond the Twin Cities, there's just opportunity to, of course, produce elsewhere. This season, we will have projects that are at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and at UCLA. We are working on a site-specific project in the southern Utah desert, actually. And that is specifically a project that just needs to be in that place, and it's exciting to work with the arts presenter in Utah to mount it. It will be John Luther Adams "Crossing Open Ground" for 40 musicians. So Liquid Music is no longer bound to a single institution. We were birthed at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; I own the series now independently. And there's the freedom to think about where these projects need to land. And now there's partners across the country, and even beyond. I'm heading to Paris to spend time there mounting a Liquid Music project.

Jill Riley: On Friday, Liquid Music and Berlin [the nightclub in Minneapolis] are presenting saxophonist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and Grammy Award winner Josh Johnson in a show called Josh Johnson: Unusual Object. This will be his Minneapolis debut. Can you tell us a bit about Josh Johnson, for anyone who's not familiar, and about the upcoming show.

Kate Nordstrum: Josh is an incredible artist. He's a producer, he's a composer, he's a saxophone player, and he hasn't been here before, so we needed to bring him here for his first show. It'll be a very intimate event. Berlin is about a 75-seat venue, perfect for a solo show. And you know, one thing that I love about Josh — so his fingerprints have been on many incredible albums in collaboration with artists like Leon Bridges, Harry Styles and others, so he's a major collaborator, and he's doing his own work, which is very special. But I love how he thinks about music and genre. On the Liquid Music blog, we interviewed him, and he spoke about his interest in poking at genre and asking what, asking why, he wants to be in conversation with jazz and electronic music, but he's not. He doesn't feel bound to those genres. He said that he's really interested in limits, in the margins, in blurred lines, and that's what Liquid Music is all about. So we speak the same language, and we're excited for this introduction.

Jill Riley: It looks like there's a world premiere for Liquid Music happening in October. And you mentioned Northrop. Do you want to talk about what's coming up in October?

Kate Nordstrum: Yes. We will be making great use of their historic organ. Kit Downes is a keyboardist, organ player based in Berlin, originally from the U.K., and he doesn't spend a lot of time in the U.S., so it's just special to get him over here first of all. But he's creating a new work called Southern Bodies. This is a collaboration with a legendary guitar player, Bill Frisell, and it will utilize musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, which feels really special to me. I have loved working with the SPCO, and the players in particular, who are some of the greatest instrumentalists in our country, and they — a trio of musicians from the SPCO — will be part of this production. So it's a little bit over an hour of new musics. There will be a bit of a duo presentation between Kit and Bill, and then all the musicians will join and be part of this new work.

Jill Riley: Kate Nordstrum is the owner and artistic director of Liquid Music. I've just really enjoyed talking to you about the Liquid Music series. As you've talked about Liquid Music this morning, I'm really able to wrap my head around the meaning, but really you've said "not being bound." I've heard you say that a few times, and even talking about not being bound by venue, like, where the music needs to happen, you know, the environment of where it happens, and then not having really limits on the creation and the creativity really, it seems like there's no limit there. Can you just talk more about "Liquid Music" as we come to a close? Am I anywhere in the ballpark here?

Kate Nordstrum: Absolutely, yeah! You get it. Yeah, all these types of artistic ideas and types of music flow together, and it is impossible to contain music, and it's impossible to contain liquid. And I think we came to that name — actually, me and a colleague of mine — were able to come to that name when I was at the SPCO. Thinking about being at a classical music organization, it was necessary for this new music series to have a connection to the classical world and composed music. But it didn't need to be bound to that structure  in a heavy-handed way.

Jill Riley: Sure.

Kate Nordstrum: And so the title came about thinking about thinking about that. And I think it inspires a lot of folks, especially musicians who are creating new work, looking to do something that they haven't done before and stretch. So I'm still happy with the title. It's always hard to title and, you know, it still fits! And as we move to different partnerships, different contracts with different types of institutions, as Liquid Music goes out into the world in different ways, it still makes so much sense, no matter who we work with, whether a project happens at a museum or happens in the Utah desert, you know, we are thinking about place. We are thinking about the touchstones that need to be present and the project that we're doing. And we're thinking about how that also can't be utterly contained and we don't want it to be. 

Jill Riley: Love it, yeah, and it continues to grow. And going forward. Kate, where can people keep up with what's going on at Liquid Music? We've mentioned a couple of the events coming up. Where can people go for more information?

Kate Nordstrum: Everything is housed on the Liquid Music website, liquidmusic.org. So we've announced all of our fall events for 2024. We have a few upcoming events on the website that go beyond that, but we will be announcing a new season of spring and beyond, shows that will happen sometime in February. So the website will take you through this year, and then keep checking back.

Jill Riley: Excellent. Well, you can catch in the near future, saxophonist, composer, multi instrumentalist and Grammy Award winner Josh Johnson at Berlin, which there is not a bad seat in the house in that place. I mean, that is just a very intimate room in the North Loop. So Friday night in Minneapolis, the debut of Josh Johnson: Unusual Object, Kate, thanks so much for joining us today.

Kate Nordstrum: Thank you so much.

Jill Riley: You are listening to The Current.

Credits

Guest – Kate Nordstrum of Liquid Music
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Nilufer Arsala
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Link

Liquid Music – official site