Eliza Rickman


Two Star Symphony

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California-based baroque pop singer/songwriter Eliza Rickman returns to Houston for a very special afternoon chamber performance featuring local neo-classical ensemble Two Star Symphony! Armed with an arsenal of instruments and a voice "seemingly ripped out of Snow White's larynx" (LA Underground), she will perform songs from her two original albums, as well as tunes from her forthcoming covers record, The Fire Went Wild. Two Star Symphony will begin the show with their dark, eerie string quartet compositions. Please note: Eliza will be joined by the ensemble for her set - a rare feast for the eyes and ears that you won't want to miss!

 
ELIZA RICKMAN:

There is always a hint of menace and reservoirs of force haunting the corners of Eliza Rickman’s voice, whatever register it occupies. Her presence on stage- whether she wears flowers in her hair, or stuffed birds; whether she plays a toy piano or a grand piano- is an enveloping, soft darkness, impossible to ignore.  It has been three years between Rickman's first album, O, You Sinners, and her newest effort, Footnotes for the Spring. In those intervening three years, Rickman added the autoharp to her repertoire, fought illness and heartbreak (and won), and turned 30. But mostly, she toured. She is a frequent featured musical act for the live rendition of the popular podcast Welcome to Night Vale, she joined the band Rasputina for a handful of dates, and she organized her own successful solo European tour.

During those three years, Rickman’s vocal delivery has also developed a new breathlessness. She wrote all the string arrangements on her debut. But friend Jason Webley produced and orchestrated Footnotes. Here, Rickman’s voice casts its shadow against Webley’s shimmering strings and a Phil Spector style wall of sound, flecked with melancholy and nostalgia. This clutch of songs comprises, among others, “Lark of my Heart”, written to commemorate the wedding day of Margaret Rucker, an unknown poet whose scrapbook was found in a dumpster many years after her death;  “Now and Then”, whose opening lines encapsulate the juxtaposition at the heart of the album- Oh, to be young again/blood is on my hands- and “Wax Nostalgic”, whose title speaks for itself.  But this is nostalgia without sentimentality.  Rickman’s voice has the power to hold the smallest grain of sadness, an intimation that the longed-for innocence depicted in her lyrics has slipped just below the glow of the orchestra and out of sight.
 
TWO STAR SYMPHONY:

Two Star Symphony is a Houston based instrumental music ensemble composing and performing all original music. Two Star’s dark distinctive sound is a result of a unique writing style that differs from most classical ensembles, in that member collaborates to create compositions where sheet music is never written. This unique style has been key in Two Star’s collaborations with other artists and mediums. Two Star has created original works with or under commission for: American Ballet Theatre Studio Company, Dominic Walsh Dance Theatre, Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre, Rice University, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston Public Media and Discovery Green. In addition to producing six albums of original material, Two Star has also created five original silent film scores and multiple soundtracks for independent film.
 

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