Nonsequitur kicks off the 2026 NonSeq concert series with a special performance introducing this year’s team of Community Curators:
RM Francis is an artist working with computer-generated sound, with a focus on the unique perceptual effects of the simulated human voice and the unstable auditory personae that emerge from artificial speech systems. Alongside this inquiry into the material properties of the voice, he is engaged in an investigation of the semantic affordances of spoken language decoupled from its capacity for the communication of human intention. His performance at the Chapel will feature vocal synthesis generated from information extracted from non-linguistic audio and converted into phonological data.
Haley Freedlund (they/them) is a trombonist, tour manager, photographer, and community builder, and was the lead curator and producer of Racer Sessions from 2016 until its final season in 2024. In all the work they do, Haley is committed to supporting efforts for new and creative music, large ensembles, nontraditional instrumentation, and uplifting underrepresented artists from all walks of life. Their performative and compositional practice often creates an amalgam of jazz, chamber music, songwriting, and free improvisation. When Haley plays the trombone or sings, it is truly an extension of their spirit.
Trumpeter/composer Cuong Vu is an internationally acclaimed artist, recognized by jazz critics as an original voice and innovator with his work with the Cuong Vu Trio. Collaborative works include projects/recordings with a wide range of artists such as Bill Frisell, Myra Melford, David Bowie and Pat Metheny (on recordings that earned Cuong two Grammys). Cuong is currently professor and head of jazz studies at the University of Washington.
Cellist Gretchen Yanover wears two musical hats: one as a composer of spacious string atmospheres which she performs on electric cello with a looping pedal, and one as a classical acoustic cellist performing with Northwest Sinfonietta and other ensembles. Tonight she will perform past and current selections from her body of work for solo electric cello. “With an electric cello in hand and a loop pedal under foot, Yanover is her own one-woman band. Playing and layering her melodies, she crafts instrumental atmospheres that grow and transform onstage.” – Maggie Molloy, Classic KING FM — NPR Slingshot