Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 8: Kimya Dawson + Dream Hampton. Nov. 7th

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 8: Kimya Dawson + Dream Hampton.

An extra special Chamber session with famed writer Dream Hampton and our favorite singer/songwriter Kimya Dawson. Expect some new songs, plus "a dialogue with Kimya about her newest album's major and minor themes: oceans, cancer, transgendered heros, feeling safe in your own skin, saving public libraries and making big albums in a small, familial way."

November 7th. 8pm.

Top Of The Town. Sorrento Hotel. 7th Floor.

$15/person.

Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

"Kimya Dawson straddles the line between precious and profound" - Rolling Stone

Kimya Dawson has been featured in Rolling Stone, Spin, Entertainment Weekly, NY Times, AOL Spinner session, etc. She has performed live on the View, played the Independent Spirit Awards, and also performed at Carnegie Hall for an REM tribute. THUNDER THIGHS is the first solo album from ex Moldy Peaches Kimya Dawson since the Grammy winning, platinum selling soundtrack from the movie JUNO. Album features guest performances from Aesop Rock, members of the Strokes, Mountain Goats, Forever Young Senior Citizen Rock and Roll Choir, Kimya's 5 year old daughter Panda, and more. Album will be released on Kimya's own label - Great Crap Factory- via Burnside Distribution October 18, 2011

dream hampton has written about music, culture and politics for 20 years. Her articles and essays have appeared in The Village Voice, The Detroit News, Harper's Bazaar, Essence and a dozen anthologies most recently Born to Use Mics: Reading Nas's Illmatic, edited by Michael Eric Dyson. She was an editor at The Source in the early 90s and a Contributing Writer at Vibe for its first 15 years. She co-authored the unreleased Black Book with Shawn Jay-Z Carter and collaborated with him on Decoded (November, 2010, Spigel and Grau.) She's co-authoring Kamal "Q Tip" Fareed's memoir, Industry Rules (Random House, 2011).

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 9: Y La Bamba + Eric & Encarnación. Nov 10th

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 9: Y La Bamba + Eric & Encarnación

November 10th. 8pm.
Top Of The Town. Sorrento Hotel. 7th Floor.

$15/person.

We are bringing heart-throb indie band Y La Bamba and flamenco stars Eric & Encarnación from Flamenco de Raiz together for the poetic fact that at the core of their craft is the unmistakable tradition of gypsy music. It is that simple, we want to hear these two beautiful ensembles on the same evening, and we want to sit down for a fireside chat about how they make music.

Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

"If you pine for the day when Astrud Giberto records some lounge-inspired Mexican songs with Devendra Banhart, the Portland, OR's Y La Bamba is totally your jam. Produced by the Decemberists' Chris Funk and masterminded by smooth chanteuse Luzelena Mendoza, Lupon is a haunted collection of avant-folk stunners." - Bust

With Y LA BAMBA, Luzelena Mendoza draws from both her strict Catholic upbringing as an only daughter of a Mexican immigrant and a debilitating illness that led her to fall away from her faith, to create what LA Weekly calls "Devendra Banhart-influenced art-folk with hazy femme vocals and traditional Mexican sounds.".

With a raw songbook of home recordings under her belt and a new group of musicians to help Mendoza with her musical vision, Y LA BAMBA began to captivate audiences in Portland and tour stops around the US. Eventually, the quintet would attract the attention of The Decemberists guitarist, Chris Funk, who offered his production skills for the band's first studio recording. Funk worked tirelessly to capture Y LA BAMBA's rustic tones, songs inspired by the traditional tunes of Mendoza's childhood, and her signature vocals that resemble the sounds spilling out of a 1930's Victrola. (Of late the band just inished a tour with Neko Case, and are putting the finishing touches on a new album produced by Stever Berlin of Los Lobos)

Eric & Encarnación

Eric "El Comanche Gitano" has been playing guitar professionally all of his adult life. He has lived and studied extensively in Andalucía, Spain. His most influential teacher has been Martín Chico of the famous gypsy flamenco family los Revuelos. His extensive experience both on the stage and as producer/songwriter bring out a strong sense of composition and melody as well as making him a captivating performer. Eric is the lead guitarist and co-founder/producer of the band "Children of the Revolution", who fuse flamenco, latin, middle-eastern and rock influences. COTR has produced 7 CDs to date, is featured on Putumayo's "Greece" and "Swing around the World" CDs, have and have sold out theaters all over the Seattle area, including Meany Hall, the Paramount Theater, and Benaroya Hall, and The Triple Door as well as touring around the world in major festivals and theater series including headlining Quebec's prestigious "World Guitar festival" with Manuel Barrueco.

Encarnación "La Paloma", dancer/singer/guitarist was born in Barcelona to a family of exiles from the Spanish Civil war and lived between Barcelona and Mexico City most of her life. Still, her family kept her immersed in flamenco music while in Mexico. In Andalucía, she has studied with Belén Maya, Miguel Vargas, Juan Ogalla, Soraya Clavijo, Mario Maya, and Cristobal Reyes. In Mexico, she studied with Manolo Vargas, and Ricardo Montoya, her most influential teacher, with whom she performed in tablaos and theaters all across Mexico as well as touring/recording with COTR.

Together they are bringing top level artists direct from Spain such as Rafael de Utrera to the NW for the first time as well as touring nationally and internationally. Their new live CD "Flamenco de Raiz will be released early November 2011.

Penthouse Symposium No. 15: Rethinking Philanthropy. Nov. 5th.

An evening of conversation with 6 of our countries most compelling young World Changers: Adam Braun (Pencils of Promise), Ellen Gustafson (Feed Foundation and 30 Project), Sean Carasso (Falling Whistles), Neil Blumenthal and David Gilboa (Warby Parker), and Matthew Segal (Our Time).

Saturday, November 5th. 8pm.
Penthouse of The Sorrento.

$20/person. Proceeds will be donated to at least one of their foundations. The audience will cast ballots.

Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

Adam Braun. As a college student traveling across the globe, Adam asked a small boy begging on the streets of India what he wanted most in the world. The answer: A pencil. The promise that came in handing out that first pencil led to the sharing of thousands while backpacking through 50+ countries, learning from locals about the need for a nonprofit that built schools based on a model of community ownership and empowerment.

Pencils of Promise was founded in October 2008 with a mere $25 in hopes of building one school in Laos. The movement that grew out of the PoP approach of nonprofit idealism and for-profit business accountability soon encouraged Adam to leave his job at Bain & Company and work exclusively on realizing the PoP dream. Today, that dream has manifested into more than 40 schools in Laos, Nicaragua and Guatemala. In creating a dedicated community of over 250,000 members, PoP has become a leader in social media engagement, sustainable development, youth empowerment and digital innovation.

Ellen Gustafson is the Founder and Executive Director of the 30 Project, a campaign to address global hunger and obesity as one global malnutrition problem and to develop long-term solutions for food system change. The 30 Project is hosting and inspiring dinners around the country and world to promote a new dialogue and new solutions to a better food system.

She is the Co-Founder of FEED Projects and the FEED Foundation, a company and non-profit that create good products which have helped provide over 60 million school meals to children globally. Prior to FEED, Ellen worked at the UN World Food Programme, ABC News and the Council on Foreign Relation. She has a BA from Columbia. She was one of Fortune's 2009 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs, Inc's 2010 30 Under 30, has given a TED talk, and is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Sean Carasso. An avid adventurer, Sean left college early to travel the world with John Paul DeJoria and with every step wanted to see more. In 2008 he went to South Africa on a TOMS Shoe Drop and traveled north into the Democratic Republic of Congo. There he learned of children sent to the front lines of war, armed with only a whistle.

That night he wrote a small journal called Falling Whistles that was forwarded around the world. He received thousands of emails asking, what can we do? The Falling Whistles campaign was born with a simple response - make their weapon your voice and be a whistleblower for peace. Out of his garage-office in Venice California, FW has partnered with local leaders in Congo to rehabilitate hundreds of women and children and is creating a global coalition for peace in our world's deadliest war.

Neil Blumenthal loves helping people see. Determined to radically transform the eyewear industry, Neil and three friends launched Warby Parker (www.warbyparker.com). Warby Parker designs and sells vintage-inspired frames and prescription lenses for $95 whereas comparable quality glasses cost $500. And, for every pair sold, a pair is given to someone in need.

Neil had been the Director of VisionSpring, a non-profit social enterprise that trains low-income women to start their own business selling affordable eyeglasses to individuals living on less than $4 per day in South Asia, Africa and Latin America. He was responsible for developing VisionSpring's award-winning strategy (Fast Company Social Capitalist Award '08, '07 and '05) and expanding VisionSpring's global presence from one to 10 countries. In 2005, Neil was named a Fellow for Emerging Leaders in Public Service at NYU Robert F. Wagner School for Public Service. Prior to joining VisionSpring, he worked with the International Crisis Group and attended the Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution in The Hague, Netherlands. Neil received his BA from Tufts University and his MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where he was both a Social Enterprise Fellow and a Leadership Fellow.

Matthew Segal co-founded OUR TIME (www.ourtime.org) in 2011 to channel the consumer power and voting strength of Americans under 30 in a united membership organization. In building OUR TIME, Matthew merged the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE), a voting rights campaign he founded in college, with Declare Yourself, a national civic engagement organization founded by Norman Lear, which registered nearly 4 million young Americans to vote.

In early 2009, Matthew co-founded the 80 Million Strong Coalition, the largest campaign of organizations in the United States that addressed youth unemployment and other economic challenges facing individuals under 30. In this capacity, Matthew spearheaded a national jobs summit of hundreds of young leaders, provided testimony to the House Education and Labor Committee, and was the only youth representative invited to attend President Obama's conference on jobs and economic growth. Matthew is a contributing writer to the Huffington Post, is frequently quoted in the press, appears regularly on CNN and MSNBC.

Penthouse Symposium No. 14: An evening with Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture For Humanity/TED Prize winner. Nov. 4

Friday, November 4th. 8pm. Penthouse Symposium

No. 14: Design Like You GIve A Damn II. An evening with Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture For Humanity/TED Prize winner and Summit Series founder Elliot Bisnow with Eric Kessler, founder of Arabella Philanthropic Advisors.

Penthouse of The Sorrento.

$35/person. Includes a copy of Design Like You Give a Damn II.

Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

Cameron Sinclair is the co-founder and 'chief eternal optimist' (CEO) for Architecture for Humanity, a charitable organization which builds architecture and design solutions to humanitarian crises, and provides pro-bono design and construction services to communities in need. Over the past twelve years the organization has worked in forty four countries and has over seventy independent city-wide chapters. Projects range from schools, health clinics, affordable housing and long term sustainable reconstruction after disasters.

Sinclair and Architecture for Humanity co-founder Kate Stohr compiled a bestselling book Design Like You Give A Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises and are currently working on a second volume. Sinclair is a recipient of the TED prize and a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. In 2008 Sinclair and Stohr were named as recipients of the National Design Awards and the following year jointly awarded the Bicentenary Medal by the Royal Society of Arts for increasing people's resourcefulness.

As a result of the TED Prize Sinclair launched the Open Architecture Network, the worlds' first open source community dedicated to improving living conditions through innovative and sustainable design.

Cameron runs a collaborative design firm that operates at 36,000 ft (in flight) and recently joined as an advisor to USAID with a focus on reforming international aid.

Elliot Bisnow is the Founder of Summit Series. Named the "Davos of Generation Y" by Forbes and "a gift to the United States and the world" by President Clinton, Summit Series draws together a collection of artists, entrepreneurs, activists, philanthropists and musicians and drives the agenda of making what's good for business good for the world.

Through an annual gathering, community-based digital platform, and year-round events, the stage is set for Summitters to forge lifelong friendships, spawn new business ideas, tackle global issues, and in turn, make our world a better place.

Prior to founding Summit Series, Elliott co-founded Bisnow Media Corporation with his dad, Mark. The company currently publishes 25 daily business newsletters, hosts 200 business conferences a year and has 80 employees in eleven United States cities. A former college tennis player and avid world traveler, Elliott spends his spare time connecting with interesting people and learning how to surf and ski.

As founder and Managing Director of Arabella Advisors, Eric Kessler has built a social venture firm dedicated to making philanthropy more effective. His client work at Arabella includes philanthropy strategy, evaluation, foundation management and project execution. Eric has spearheaded evaluations of many of the world's most significant nonprofits and served as executive director of numerous foundations through the Arabella Foundation Managementplatform. He also recently helped build and lead strategy development for a donor collaborative supporting passage of the 2010 Child Nutrition Act. His insights on civil society and effective philanthropy are often quoted by the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio’s “Marketplace”.

Penthouse Symposium No. 16. With Mark Bowden (author of Black Hawk Down) and his new book WORM: The First Digital World War. Oct 27th.

Penthouse Symposium No. 16. With Mark Bowden (author of Black Hawk Down) and his new book WORM: The First Digital World War.

In Conversation with Gayle Troberman, Chief Creative Officer, Microsoft.

"Bowden provides lucid explanations of computer-related concepts while narrating an edge-of-the-seat account . . . A nerve-wracking but first-rate inside peek into the world of cybercrime and its vigilant adversaries." -Booklist

October 27th. 7pm.
Fireside Room. Sorrento Hotel.

$25/person. Price includes copy of WORM: : The First Digital World War

Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

Mark Bowden is the author of seven books, including Black Hawk Down, The Best Game Ever, Bringing the Heat, Killing Pablo, and Guests of the Ayatollah. He reported at The Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty years and now writes for Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and other magazines. He lives in Oxford, Pennsylvania

DJ Spooky was here. Hope you made the show...

Night School with Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky on Ice from Scott Macklin on Vimeo.

Night School // ~5 min. Lesson // DJ Spooky // Book of Ice

On September 25, the second season of Night School kicked off as Michael Hebb brought the accomplished composer, multimedia artist and writer Paul D. Miller AKA DJ Spooky to the Sorrento Hotel for a gathering of music and discussion around his latest work, The Book of Ice. Thanks to a unique partnership with the Master's of Communication in Digital Media (MCDM) program at the University of Washington, a video series giving viewers an inside look into Hebb's events will be created throughout the year.

What emerges is an intimate look into DJ Spooky's recent travels to Antartica and his thoughts on climate change, symphonic hip-hop and the future of humanity itself. Mix all of that in with a string quartet playing Spooky's newest compositions that are all inspired by the sounds of ice and you get the essence of what can only happen at Night School. Check it out.

SUMMER SCHOOL No. 1. Bobby Bare Jr, Tucker Martine, Carey Kotsionis, Kevin Murphy (the moondoggies), Jason Dodson (the maldives)

the other side of nashville, a night of songs and stories. june 19th. 7pm. penthouse of the sorrento (seattle).

bobby bare jr. is a nashville superstar, and an indie rock demi god, and one of the most entertaining charisma-rich brilliant human beings we know. tucker martine is straight up one of the most in-demand producers of our generation (hot off the billboard number one decemberists album) and he is a nashville native and one charming man, and carey k. will melt your heart, period. kevin and jason are heroic musicians, and this night is going to be quite memorable.

from bobby:

"there is more than one type of music made in music city and more than one type of kid that is born in nashville. hear the stories of 2 sons of the city and a handful of remarkable special guests as we evoke the other side of nashville."

grab tickets here. fifteen bucks.

facebook event page (because i am certain you want to invite every last friend)

Bobby Bare, Jr.

A Nashville native and musician who has recorded several solo albums, along with two albums with his band, "Bare, Jr.". In 1974, when Bare Jr. was only eight, He and his father, singer Bobby Bare, were both nominated for a Grammy for the song "Daddy What If." He has performed with his band the Young Criminals Starvation League, an ever-changing group of musicians. They have released three studio albums, an EP, and a live album. His last cd "A STORM-A TREE-MY MOTHER'S HEAD" came out on 30 Tigers/Naked Albino Recordings in 2010.


Tucker Martine

is an American, Nashville native, Grammy nominated record producer, musician and composer who has worked with artists such as My Morning Jacket, Mudhoney, Bill Frisell, The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, R.E.M., Laura Veirs, Quasi, Spoon, The Long Winters, Jim White, Death Cab For Cutie, Jesse Sykes, Mirah, Brian Blade, and Tift Merritt. Notably, he produced The Decembrists latest album, The King Is Dead, which debuted in January 2011 and topped the billboards at number 1 in the country. In 2010, Paste Magazine included Martine in their list of the 10 Best Producers of the Decade. Martine received a Grammy nomination in 2007 in the "best engineered album" category for the Floratone album with Bill Frisell on Blue Note. He has also released several albums of his field recordings. As a composer and musician Martine has released 2 albums under the recording pseudonym Mount Analog as well as Mylab (a collaboration with keyboardist Wayne Horvitz) and Orchestra Dim Bridges (with violist Eyvind Kang). Additionally, Microsoft called upon Martine's creativity when they asked him to help compose the startup and branding sounds for Microsoft's new operating system Vista.


Carey Kotsionis

A performer with a candy box full of styles, Carey Kotsionis possesses a vocabulary of songwriting from another era. Mixing jazz, blues, country, and pop, Kotsionis creates a sound woven together by her dynamite voice. Carey currently lives in Nashville.


Kevin Murphy of The Moondoggies.

"The Moondoggies write music that takes us deep into the fields, where the stalks of grain or the wild grasses of a prairie reach to above our heads and we're hearing the sound of a hissing wind and, if our senses were more attuned, we'd smell the dirty fur and feathers of all kinds of hidden animals, out there with us. It's a feeling of being lost in our own thoughts - or lost in their thoughts. There is a softness in the group's rustic drumming up of the echoes of the soul that are floating off of the nail pegs of their barn rafters. Both "Tidelands" and their previous effort, "Don't Be A Stranger," are albums that sound like the silhouettes of lonely trees and the footsteps of someone or something that we're dreading, walking somewhere behind us, keeping a reasonable distance, coming out of the shadows from the middle of nowhere. It feels as if, no matter how isolated we might get, how much we try to get away, the footsteps that follow us through these songs will one day catch us and then what?"
- Daytrotter.


Jason Dodson of The Maldives:

The Maldives are an alt-country band from Seattle, Washington known for sold-out live performances described by KEXP-FM as "transcendent". They have released three albums beginning with a self-titled EP in 2006. Their most recent album Listen To The Thunderwas rated the second best "Northwest Album" of 2009 by Sound on the Sound. The Maldives regularly play in Seattle and have performed at the Sasquatch!, Bumbershoot, South by Southwest, and Doe Bay music festivals.In addition to traditional rock instrumentation, the members of the band play violin, lap steel guitar, banjo, mandolin, and accordion.

SUMMER SCHOOL No. 2. Stadler/Roderick/Hebb/NAFTA Tour. July 6th.

matthew stadler's 12 city nafta tour ends in seattle with the sweet music of john roderick and deep pots of carne en su jugo. july 6th.

(oh, and matthew's heavily anticipated new novel Chloe Jarren's La Cucaracha, with books made fresh that day, like thick tortillas, for each and every guest.)

i will let matthew explain this spectacular twelve city carpet ride (see below), which we are honored to have a small part in... but first, grab tickets here, includes the book, hebb will be cooking, roderick will be singing, and we will be in conversation with our hometown hero mr. stadler.

buy tix, fifty dollars.

facebook event page

penthouse of the sorrento (seattle).

Publication Studio NAFTA Tour 2011

Chloe Jarren's La Cucaracha, made expressly by Publication Studio and Third Place Press for that day and gathering.

more info and dates here...

Matthew Stadler is the author of five novels, including Landscape: Memory, The Sex Offender, and Allan Stein, for which he's been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, and a United States Artists Fellowship, among many other prizes. He was the literary editor of Nest Magazine; his stories and essays appear in ArtForum, Domus, Wiederhall, The New York Times, and Fillip, among other journals.

stadler and hebb in sf and la.

june 21st - san francisco - we are taking over the intersection for the arts gallery / hubsf with chef leif hedendal cooking. grab tickets here.

june 27th - los angeles - we are invading a falling-down-mansion in los feliz with chef colleen french cooking. grab tickets here.

!Flash! Night School Symposium with Little Bee Author Chris Cleave.

A very very very last minute engagement with NY Times Bestselling Author Chris Cleave.

In Conversation with co-founder of Seattle Reads Chris Higashi and director of Sweet Crude/Seattle City Council candidate Sandy Cioffi.

Tomorrow. 8:30pm. Fireside Room. No Charge.

Q: Have you been to Nigeria and witnessed the horrors that are at the center of Little Bee?

Chris Cleave: No I haven't and no I wouldn't - not to the Niger Delta area where the Nigerian parts of the book are set. Westerners there are frequently kidnapped and ransomed. I wouldn't dare. Everything I know about that area is from journalists, much braver people than me.

(In 2005-2008, Sandy Cioffi made four trips to the volatile Niger Delta in Nigeria to film Sweet Crude, documenting conditions there and interviewing the region’s key stakeholders, including leadership of the armed resistance movement. In April 2008, she and her film crew were detained by the Nigerian State Security Services and held in military prison for seven days. She completed Sweet Crude, which has garnered several awards including the Lena Sharpe Persistence of Vision Award at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2009. She is currently running for Seattle City Council.)

Chris Cleave's debut novel Incendiary, about a terrorist bomb in London, was published in Britain July 7, 2005, the day of the London subway and train bombings. It won a 2006 Somerset Maugham Award, was shortlisted for the 2006 Commonwealth Writers Prize, won the United States Book-of-the-Month Club’s First Fiction award 2005 and won the Prix Spécial du Jury at the French Prix des Lecteurs 2007. His second novel is titled Little Bee in Canada and the US, where it is a New York Times #1 bestseller. It is titled The Other Hand in the UK, where it is a Sunday Times bestseller. It was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards. Chris Cleave has been a barman, a long-distance sailor and teacher of marine navigation, an internet pioneer and a journalist. Cleave is in Seattle May 12-14 for The Seattle Public Library’s Seattle Reads Little Bee program.

Monday. Chamber Vs Chamber continues...

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 5

Feb. 7th : No 5

7pm. Fireside Room.

"Cold Landscapes"

Mount Eerie with the OdeonQuartet and rising-star Kaylee Cole.

(Odeon quartet features members of the Seattle Symphony)

These three musical outfits will explore the relationship between music and place, and specifically cold and frozen places.

Ticket: $18 (only 70 seats available). Buy tickets here.

Facebook Event Page

Chamber vs. Chamber. As the musical fraction of the Sorrento's Night School, Chamber vs. Chamber endeavors to spark a dialogue between rock and traditional chamber music, combining classical chamber performances with indie-rock theatrics. Each Chamber vs. Chamber evening will include multiple illuminating performances and a lively post performance conversation between the musicians, hosted by City Arts editor Mark Baumgarten.

Performer Bios:

OdeonQuartet

Formed in 1999, OdeonQuartet is comprised of distinguished artists who are dedicated to presenting concerts of the highest artistic quality and building new audiences for chamber music through performances and educational outreach programs. The artists include Gennady Filimonov and Artur Girsky violin(s), Heather Bentley viola and Rowenna Hammill cello. Gennady has been soloist/concertmaster in collaboration with Rod Stewart, Linda Rondstatt, Tony Bennett, Sarah Brightmann, "Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber" , "Heart" and many others. Artur has been a member of Seattle Symphony Orchestra since 2006. Heather has appeared as soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. Rowena joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble with which she performed for ten years, eventually as Associate Principal and serves as Associate Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Opera.

Mount Eerie is Phil Elvrum. The 31 year-old multi-instrumentalist has played in other bands, and worked as a producer, but remains best known for this solo project, which began under the name the Microphones in 1997. In 2003, he renamed the project Mount Eerie (and added an "e" to his last name, Elvrum) after returning from a trip to Norway, where he lived alone in a remote cabin for a winter. To date, his most critically acclaimed album is the Microphones' 2001 epic The Glow Pt. 2. The first official Mount Eerie album-following the Microphones' final 2003 full-length, also called Mount Eerie-is 2005's No Flashlight: Songs of the Fulfilled Night. It was followed by 2007's Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7, a 132-page, hardcover book of his photography, packaged with a 10" picture disk. In early 2009, the journals he kept and drawings he scribbled in Norway were released as a 144-page hardcover book called Dawn. It came with 16 color photo cards and a CD of songs he wrote while living in the cabin.

Kaylee Cole played her first Spokane show in April 2007. By January 2008, she was out in Seattle on a mini seven-show tour that warmed the ears of repeatedly rapt audiences. Cole's diverse audiences across Pacific Northwest gigs have gobbled up her two EPs, waiting hungrily for the release of the album. Recorded in September 2008, her self-released album We're Still Here Missing You, collates Cole's unpretentious lyricism with a style of music that does not waver in its organic attention to unique, charming melodies. Now living in Seattle, Washington Cole spends time touring and working on her new record with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek.

Winter/Spring 2011 Session Commences.

Night School at the Sorrento: Winter/Spring Term commences...

Penthouse Symposium No. 10: Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson. No. 11: TBA No. 12: Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts.

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 5: Odeon Quartet, Mount Eerie, and Kaylee Cole. No. 6: Portland Cello Project and Lesbian.

Drinking Lessons No. 17: Blind Vodka Tasting. No. 18: Master class with Simon Ford and Erick Castro. No. 19: Absinthe Soiree Part Deux with American Standard Time

The Silent Reading Party continues with Kyle O'Quin playing Chopin....

Winter term begins with some lovely news, City Arts will now be co-producing the Night School series and documenting each event in a series of journal entries authored by editor Mark Baumgarten and available at cityartsonline.com. We have an incredibly rich line-up of happenings at the hotel, here is the complete line-up, (sorry about the length) stay tuned for a few late Spring additions.

Penthouse Symposium No. 10 : Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson.

Thursday, January 20^th.

Wallace Shawn in conversation with Sean Nelson. Topic: Wallace's new book Essays.

The Penthouse Symposium concept is simple: we will continue to host some of the leading intellectuals, artists, and writers of our time for an intimate and casual course on a subject of their choosing. Past Symposiums guests have included: Atul Gawande, Garry Wills, Lesley Hazleton, Bill Mckibben, Alan Khazei and many others.

*Upon confirmation of their reservation guests will receive a pdf of required reading. In a Symposium dialogue is encouraged.

$40/person, includes a hearty stew and a copy of Wallace Shawn's new book. Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

Our thanks to Town Hall Seattle for making this event possible.

Wallace Shawn. Known to stage and film audiences as an extraordinary character actor, Shawn is also an Obie Award-winning playwright and best-selling author. His celebrated works include The Designated Mourner and The Fever, along with the poignant film My Dinner With Andre, which Shawn co-wrote. His most recent work, Essays, released in 2009, is a highly personal, often self-deprecating collection of Shawn's perspective on life, politics, morality and the power of art.

Sean Nelson is a Seattle writer/musician/filmmaker. Probably best known for being the lead singer in Harvey Danger, which disbanded last year, he was also in the Long Winters, and has recorded with Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Robyn Hitchcock, the Minus 5, and many other bright lights besides. His debut solo LPs, Make Good Choices and Nelson Sings Nilsson, are due out in 2011. Nelson co-wrote and starred in Lynn Shelton's My Effortless Brilliance. His debut as a screenwriter/co-director, Treatment, will be making the film festival rounds this year.

Penthouse Symposium No. 11: TBA

Penthouse Symposium No. 12: Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts, author of Harlem is Nowhere.

April - date TBA. *Pick up the current copy of Harper's for a feature excerpt from Harlem is Nowhere. **Sharifa will appear on NPR's All Things Considered Jan 31^st - check local listings.

Topic: Sharifa's new book: Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America.

$40/person, includes a hearty stew and a copy of Harlem is Nowhere.. Tickets available Feb. 1^st at Brown Paper Tickets.

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, New York Times Book Review, Harper's, The Nation, Boston Globe, Transition, and Times Literary Supplement. She has received awards from the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Originally from Houston, Texas, she graduated in 2000 from Harvard University and was a Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom. Sharifa is writing a trilogy on African-Americans and utopia; her first book, Harlem is Nowhere, will be published in 2011 by Little, Brown & Company.

Chamber Vs. Chamber No. 5 and No. 6.

Feb. 7th : No 5

7pm. Fireside Room.

"Cold Landscapes"

Mount Eerie with the OdeonQuartet and rising-star Kaylee Cole.

(Odeon quartet features members of the Seattle Symphony)

These three musical outfits will explore the relationship between music and place, and specifically cold and frozen places.

Ticket: $18 (only 70 seats available). Buy tickets here.
Facebook event page.

April 17^th: No 6

7pm. Fireside Room.

"Metal and Resin"

The Portland Cello Project and Lesbian.

Portland's celebrated Cello Project will perform pieces ranging from classical compositions to Motörhead and beyond, fusing the beautiful with the brutal. PCP's collaboration with artful noise architects Lesbian will combine lush string arrangements with their epic musical meanderings, making for an undoubtedly unique and unforgettable evening.

Co-produced by KEXP Seek & Destroy host and City Arts Magazine columnist Hannah Levin.

Ticket: $15 (Only 70 seats available). Buy tickets here.

Facebook event page.

Chamber vs. Chamber. As the musical fraction of the Sorrento's Night School, Chamber vs. Chamber endeavors to spark a dialogue between rock and traditional chamber music, combining classical chamber performances with indie-rock theatrics. Each Chamber vs. Chamber evening will include multiple illuminating performances and a lively post performance conversation between the musicians, hosted by City Arts editor Mark Baumgarten.

Performer Bios:

OdeonQuartet

Formed in 1999, OdeonQuartet is comprised of distinguished artists who are dedicated to presenting concerts of the highest artistic quality and building new audiences for chamber music through performances and educational outreach programs. The artists include Gennady Filimonov and Artur Girsky violin(s), Heather Bentley viola and Rowenna Hammill cello. Gennady has been soloist/concertmaster in collaboration with Rod Stewart, Linda Rondstatt, Tony Bennett, Sarah Brightmann, "Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber" , "Heart" and many others. Artur has been a member of Seattle Symphony Orchestra since 2006. Heather has appeared as soloist with the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra. Rowena joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble with which she performed for ten years, eventually as Associate Principal and serves as Associate Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Opera.

Mount Eerie is Phil Elvrum. The 31 year-old multi-instrumentalist has played in other bands, and worked as a producer, but remains best known for this solo project, which began under the name the Microphones in 1997. In 2003, he renamed the project Mount Eerie (and added an "e" to his last name, Elvrum) after returning from a trip to Norway, where he lived alone in a remote cabin for a winter. To date, his most critically acclaimed album is the Microphones' 2001 epic The Glow Pt. 2. The first official Mount Eerie album-following the Microphones' final 2003 full-length, also called Mount Eerie-is 2005's No Flashlight: Songs of the Fulfilled Night. It was followed by 2007's Mount Eerie pts. 6 & 7, a 132-page, hardcover book of his photography, packaged with a 10" picture disk. In early 2009, the journals he kept and drawings he scribbled in Norway were released as a 144-page hardcover book called Dawn. It came with 16 color photo cards and a CD of songs he wrote while living in the cabin.

Kaylee Cole played her first Spokane show in April 2007. By January 2008, she was out in Seattle on a mini seven-show tour that warmed the ears of repeatedly rapt audiences. Cole's diverse audiences across Pacific Northwest gigs have gobbled up her two EPs, waiting hungrily for the release of the album. Recorded in September 2008, her self-released album We're Still Here Missing You, collates Cole's unpretentious lyricism with a style of music that does not waver in its organic attention to unique, charming melodies. Now living in Seattle, Washington Cole spends time touring and working on her new record with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek.

Portland Cello Project. Since the group's inception in late 2007, they have performed with a veritable "Who's Who?" list of Portland musicians, from Laura Gibson to The Dandy Warhols, Horse Feathers, Mirah and Loch Lomond, just to name a few... The group's newest full-length is being released on June 9th, 2009 on their new label, local independent Kill Rock Stars. This CD and indeed the relationship forged with this well-suited record label embodies the group's belief that "collaboration is the cornerstone of independence and artistic freedom." Two of the artists who have collaborated with PCP: Thao Nguyen of Thao With The Get Down Stay Down and local musician Justin Power, contribute four songs each to this CD, the Thao and Justin Power Sessions. And the other four songs on the record are strategically placed examples of cello sublimity and madness: from a Pantera cover, to a solemn religious piece by John Tavener.

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Drinking Lessons No 17,18, and 19.

Jan. 24^th : No 17.

"Vodka... Blind"

7pm. Fireside Room.

Andrew Friedman, owner of Liberty and the President of The Washington State Bartenders Guild is co-hosting this unique evening dedicated to understanding and appreciating that fine white liquid known as vodka. Expect a blind tasting of 8 local and imported spirits. Everyone has a favorite vodka, but how will yours stack up? Reserve your seat now and help us pick the winner- taking the crown as the Drinking Lessons Vodka of the year.

$20/person per class. Sorrento Hotel, Fireside Room. Buy Tickets Here.

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March 2nd: No. 18.

"Gin Roundtable and Master Class with Simon Ford and Erick Castro (Rickhouse/SF)"

Simon Ford is hands down one of the most renowned bartenders and liquor professionals in the world, and we are thrilled he will join us to teach two courses on a subject he knows better than almost anyone. Star mixologist Erick Castro from the renowned Rickhouse in SF will be joining Simon for two distinct Drinking Lessons.

March 2^nd. 6:00pm. Penthouse/Sorrento room. Gin Roundtable - only twenty tickets available. Engage in a two hour exploration of the history of gin with Simon while Erick mixes golden age gin cocktails. $40/person. Buy Tickets Here.

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March 2^nd 8:30pm. Penthouse/Sorrento room. Gin Master Class - only twenty tickets available. Previous bartending experience suggested. 2 hour course on gin history, cocktail technique, and philosophy. $30/person. Buy Tickets Here.

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Simon Ford (Industry Visionary and International Ambassador) currently works in the capacity of International Ambassador for Plymouth Gin and the Director of Brand Education for Pernod Ricard USA. Over the past seven years, this role has taken him across the globe training the experts and first-time barkeeps alike as well as directing on-premise strategy for a portfolio of brands in the US. From running a wine shop to opening some of England's most lauded cocktail bars, judging spirits in competition and marketing some of the biggest brands on the planet have made Mr. Ford a highly respected voice in the spirits industry.

Simon received the award for Best Brand Ambassador at New Orleans Tales of the Cocktail 2007 and was named an Industry Visionary in the UK. His bar in the UK has won numerous awards including Best New Bar, Theme Magazine 2002, Best Bar, Theme Magazine 2003 and Best Cocktail offering, Theme magazine 2006 in addition it was named in the Guardian News Paper as one of the top 10 cocktail bars in the UK and as one of the Great Cocktail Bars of the World by the Diffords Guide.

Erick Castro / Rickhouse. After earning his chops at Bourbon & Branch, Castro was assigned the beverage director position at its newest sister bar, Rickhouse. Since it opened in June of 2009, and under the direction of Castro, Rickhouse has been named one of the World's Top Bars by Food & Wine magazine. Recently, it also won The Cheers: Benchmark Award for Top Cocktail Lounge 2010.

April 18^th : No 19.

"Absinthe Soiree Part Deux with American Standard Time"

7pm

"An absinthe soiree" with Gwydion from Marteau Absinthe and Marc from Pacifique Absinthes and star bartender Nathan Weber from Tavern Law. Held in the Fireside room - the more the merrier. This more casual drinking lesson is only $20 and includes absinthe tasting, history, tasty bites from the kitchen, and several absinthe based cocktails will be available. Greg Vandy of KEXP fame and American Standard Time will be spinning "absinthe" inspired tunes throughout the evening.

$20/person per class. Buy Tickets Here.

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Behind the Bar:

Gwydion Stone. Maker of Marteau absinthe, Gwydion founded The Wormwood Society, an organization devoted to absinthe education...

http://www.absinthemarteau.com

Marc Bernhard. Owner and distiller of Pacific Distillery, makers of Voyager gin and Pacifique absinthe, Marc professional background is in herbs and spices...

http://www.pacificdistillery.com

Nathan Weber. Star bartender and Bar Manager at Tavern Law, awarded top 25 bars in America by GQ magazine.

DJ Greg Vandy, Was once a bartender but is better known as the famed DJ behind KEXP's Roadhouse and author of the spectacular new blog American Standard Time.

The Silent Reading Party continues...

Five new dates for the Reading Party, now with special guests and music. Kyle O'Quin (Wild Orchid Children and Kay Kay) will play Chopin and other delights on that piano. Come early! January's reading party was sitting-on-the-floor-packed.

Upcoming Dates: February 2^nd, March 2^nd, April 6^th, May 4^th

Special Guests: each month we bring in luminaries from the Seattle community, to read silently, and entertain us with their post reading party "book reports" published on the SLOG. Past special guests have included: John Roderick, Heather Mchugh, and Dow Constantine.

The Reading Party runs from 6pm - 9pm in the Fireside Room. There is no charge. Happy hour menu is available for the duration of the event.

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"The Reading Party. Silent sustained reading at a bar, because no one wants to read alone."

- Christopher Frizzelle

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Mr Frizzelle has more to say about these popular gatherings here...

What is Night School?

Night School is a collaboration between the Sorrento Hotel, Michael Hebb, an array of intellectuals, artists, writers, filmmakers, mixologists, chefs and the leading cultural institutions in the Northwest. Night School was established to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Sorrento Hotel. Please visit www.nightnightnight.com for more information.