Name: Threshold + Tempered Steel
Start: 2026-01-16T20:00:00-08:00
Location: Chapel Performance Space at Good Shepherd Center

4649 Sunnyside Ave N, 4th floor, Seattle 98103 (Wallingford)
$5 - $20 suggested donation at the door (NOTAFLOF)
More info: https://www.waywardmusic.org/
Threshold is an improvising band composed of Seattle music scene veterans Don Berman (drums), Dennis Rea (guitar), Simon Henneman (guitar), and Heather Bentley (cello). This project is the manifestation of a musical vision Berman has held for years. His late father, William Berman, was a master violist who performed extensively in symphonic and string quartet settings. Having listened to so much of his chamber music playing, Don decided to form a 21st century string quartet: cello, two guitarists, percussion, and creative electronics, as opposed to the classical two violins, viola, and cello format. The music from their first album has been described as “often challenging listeners to identify the sources of the unique sounds they are hearing.” Bruce Greeley wrote about their second album: “A quartet of questions. . .I hear four equal voices. . . [T]he music proves to be its own consciousness-expanding sound show for the ears!” — Earshot Jazz Magazine (41:7) July, 2025.
Active for more than 20 years, Tempered Steel is Frank Junk, and Dennis Rea playing amplified, electronically enhanced thumb pianos. The trio thumbs its collective nose at musical convention with seamless improvisations conjuring everything from phantom harpsichords and subterranean percussion to vintage musique concrete. The group has played Seaprog, the Olympia Experimental Music Festival, Northwest Folklife Festival, the Zero-G Concert Series, and scads of underground haunts in the Pacific Northwest. Recommended to partisans of Harry Partch, John Cage’s prepared piano music, and Konono No. 1. Tempered Steel’s eponymous album is available through the usual streaming services.