Tiny Orchestral Moments (led by Steve Ball) is an international troupe of connected musicians who meet periodically to practice, perform, write, record, and improvise together. We invite new Music into the world by collaborating across geographies, genres, genders and generations.

The ensemble includes a revolving, gender-balanced core team of invited, masterful musicians who are already established in their work as internationally-recognized performers. Many of the members are 30+ veterans of Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty Guitarists, however the core-team have moved way beyond Fripp-influenced repertoire and have expanded their palate and practices to include a vast array of new techniques, timbres and talent.

Tiny Orchestral Moments has been making music together since 2016, and we now have an opportunity to complete a new documentary film that tells the story of how they all came together, what we do, and why we do it. Your support of this work will allow us to finish this film and to release it to the public.

The performers present collaborative repertoire for layered guitars, voices, violins and percussion -- including structured improvisation that sounds composed, and composed collaboration that sounds improvised.

Why is TOM crowd-funding?

This ongoing, international project requires an enormous amount of time, energy, resources, and money. We are working to complete the TOM documentary at the quality it deserves via support from our international community of fans and supporters who may already know the extensive and impactful work of these international masters.

We are seeking wider support for our work, music, workshops and international team so that we can grow and continue to enable these world-class musicians to come together against all odds, building on our 30+ years of history.

Throughout this campaign, we are sharing be posting updates including tiny magical musical moments, outtakes, behind-the-scenes stories, surprise performances, related history, updates on the editing process and more.

Many scenes in the documentary were filmed at four iconic Seattle recording studios: London Bridge, Bear Creek, Avast and Robert Lang with a revolving-door of invited guest musicians and producers.

Seattle Director, Louise Amandes has been working on the project since the first Tiny Orchestral Moments workshop in August 2016. She and her film-making collaborator, Ron Austin captured the TOM team in live performances and in London Bridge, Bear Creek studios over the past three years of intensive workshops and performances.

Their previous feature-length documentary " Bezango, WA," released in 2014, tells the tale of cartooning and comics in the Seattle area, focusing on the alternative community. The film chronicles both the past and the present, while featuring Frank M. Young, co-creator of the Eisner Award winning graphic novel "The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song,"

Louise has been working on the documentary for three years, and it reveals the people, projects, and process of Tiny Orchestral Moments via stunning 'moments' of music, animation, interviews and insights. The documentary covers three years of incredible collaboration based upon the principle of Continuous Improvisation with an intimate, inside look at how masterful, improvising musicians work together to bring music to life, by devoting their life to making music in groups.

About Tiny Orchestral Moments

T.O.M. began as a twelve-week series of performances by the Seattle Guitar Circle that ran weekly from January 7^th – March 24^th 2016 at the Seattle Creative Arts Center in Ballard. Each week, the ensemble of ~12 Crafty Guitarists presented a dynamic show based upon an intricate and evolving repertoire spanning Bach to Fripp to Ives,… punctuated with pockets of Structured Improvisation with guitarists flowing, moving, Circulating and playing in and around the entire performance space. This new show expands on the previous Tiny Orchestral Moments format by inviting in world-class players from all over the world to collaborate on an expanding repertoire of Structured Improvisation techniques.

About Seattle Guitar Circle

Seattle Guitar Circle was founded in 1993 by Seattle-based musician Steve Ball (with collaboration from Bill Rieflin) after the first generation of the League of Crafty Guitarists disbanded near the end of a three-year world tour in 1992. Over the past 23+ years, the Seattle Guitar Circle community has staffed spin-off projects like the Atomic Chamber Ensemble, the Steve Ball Roadshow, and the acclaimed seven-year weekly performance project: Tuning the Air.  Tiny Orchestral Moments is the latest, recurring performance project developed by the Seattle Guitar Circle community. T.O.M. expands on a multi-decade tradition of exploring unique group-composition techniques such as Circulation, Group Loops and Structured Improvisation.

Seattle Circle is a 501-C3 organization founded in 1999 whose mission to develop and promote appreciation of music throughout the Puget Sound area by hosting education, workshops and music events. Our mission is achieved by providing professional facilities, performances, presentations and instruction in an inclusive, educational atmosphere. We provide instruction on both an individual and group level, and we regularly share the results of our work with the public through recurring events, rehearsals and workshops complemented by frequent concerts, presentations and performances.

Inquiries, Interviews, Press and Project Contact

Steve Ball

(206) 660-0055

steveball at steveball dot com