The lines of communication were fully open when the CalArts New Century Players took over last week's "Green Umbrella" concert for an evening mostly about delightful ways of drawing new sounds out of traditional instruments. Former CalArts luminary Lois V Vierk sent along her 1991 Timberline, music that I hear mostly as a portrait of a composer's pleasure in the making of evocative, richly colored sound. Ten players stationed around an open grand piano, playing on the strings with splendidly varied gadgetry, bathed Stephen Scott's Vikings of the Sunrise in audible radiance. Shaun Naidoo's skittish Bad Times Coming, which pianist Vicki Ray had performed with tape at a "Piano Spheres" concert last year, returned with Ray and a live ensemble to even greater effect. For a rare instance on the new-music panorama, it was possible to leave the Japan America Theater that night both reassured and entertained.
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