02.25.11 - 8:00pm

Dan Joseph Ensemble + David Broome plays Feldman, Chan + Michael Waller Guitar Quartet No. 432, CRITICAL CHORD

Photo by Kevin Ryan

The Dan Joseph Ensemble was founded by New York-based composer Dan Joseph as a vehicle for his growing body of post-minimal compositions. With a unique instrumentation anchored by hammer dulcimer and harpsichord, a mix of winds, strings and percussion, the ensemble sound is harmonically rich and deeply resonant, evoking a musical world both old and new; ancient and modern.

Tonight’s program will include an encore performance of Tonalization (for the afterlife) and the 2004 quintet Percussion and Strings.

Described as ”one part classical minimalism, one part rustic European mountain music. . . and maybe one part sunshine” (Time Out New York), and “hypnotic webs of sound reminiscent of early minimalism and psychedelia” (Newmusicbox.org), the ensemble has been active in New York City’s lofts, galleries and concert stages since 2002. The group’s first CD, Archaea (Mutable Music, 2006) helped find an international audience for the composer’s work.

Following three New York performances in spring 2010 of Dan’s newest work for the ensemble, Tonalization (for the Afterlife), an expansive 35-minute multi-movement work that takes the ensemble deeper into the composer’s ecstatic realms of rhythm and color, a second Mutable Music CD release is scheduled for Spring 2011.

Also during the first half of 2011, Joseph will be an artist-in-residence at The Vaults at 14 Wall Street through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Swing Space program where he will workshop and perform new works for the ensemble. The current lineup features Tom Chiu (violin), Loren Dempster (cello), Maria Ilic (harpsichord), Leah Paul (flute), Danny Tunick (percussion) and the composer on hammer dulcimer.

David Broome plays Morton Feldman’s Palais de Mari & Marc Chan’s “Repeated Measures”

A diverse pianist/composer of great imagination, David Broome’s curiosity for music has led him to create new possibilities for the concert stage. David has experimented and performed in nearly every musical genre from classical to rap, jazz,gospel, musical theater, big-band, and heavy metal, among others. His recitals have been appreciated in America and across Europe and he has been described in the NewYork Times as a “deft and focused performer,” and as an artist who composes “juicily atmospheric music.” David regularly performs with and writes music for EnsemblePamplemousse, as well as more theatrical, performance art groups – Tall Brown Bootsand Corky Has a Band. David holds a Master’s of Music from the Manhattan School ofMusic and a Bachelor’s of Music from Towson University where he studied with Phillip Kawin and Reynaldo Reyes

Michael Waller’s Guitar Quartet No. 432, CRITICAL CHORD is new composition that explores just-intonation, spectral phenomenon, and ecstatic binaural immersion: where the harmonic series based tuning has a fundamental of 432 Hz, a pitch deeply intertwined in nature, with cosmic proportion to the universal constant speed of light. The piece slowly unfolds the harmonic seventh chord (7/4): introducing beating tones which massage the original harmonic skin of the “critical chord”.

He will be performing this work with John P. Hastings, James Ross, and Chris Morda.

Michael Vincent Waller is a New York City based composer and visual artist, studying vocal raga and composition  with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela. This has provided a beautiful inspiration to his focus on modal, drone, and electronic means. The deep intrinsic experience of involving overtones is the essence of his canvas of acousmatic and spectral composition. Michael endorses the phenomenologist approach to sound as his “central attitude” and manual for being. He has performed/collaborated with Sean G. Meehan, Tom Chiu, Alex Waterman, Ha-Yang Kim, Daniel Panner, Yvonne Troxler, Gregor Kitzis, Sabir Mateen, Christine Bard, Erica Dicker, Michael Seltzer, Benjamin Herrington, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Andrew Lafkas – performing ensemble works at venues ISSUE Project Room, Tenri Cultural Institute, Diapason Sound Gallery, Paris London West Nile, Port d’ Or, Glasslands, and The Living Theatre.