Legendary composer Philip Glass, both controversial and ever-present, has captured the American public perhaps more than any living composer. For his operas, symphonies, compositions for his own ensemble, and wide-ranging collaborations Glass has had an unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.

For three intimate evenings, Phillip Glass comes to ISSUE Project Room, New York’s City’s only European Chamber Music Hall. His only performance in Brooklyn this year, “Phillip Glass: Music With Friends” is a rare occasion featuring Glass in duo performances with Laurie Anderson [6/15] and Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields [6/13], as well Ryan Sawyer [6/15] and former ISSUE Artists-in Residence Tristan Perich [6/14] and Nate Wooley [6/13]. The full artist roster will be announced soon, under 200 seats will be sold for each performance.

A special benefit for ISSUE Project Room and the Aurora Foundation

Shot and edited by Damian Calvo

Michelle Nagai’s MARtLET, presented here in a unique performance and configuration for ISSUE Project Room’s 2011 Emerging Artists Commission, is a wearable hunk of tree bark fitted with light-sensing sensors that control sound-generating software.

Video by Blair Neal.

Cinematography by Colin Nusbaum. Editing by Ben Keller. Produced by Colin Nusbaum and Matthew Walker

“Original Innocence” is a new rock opera conceived by Dave Nuss and Eric Sanders. A traveling troupe of performers from a new religious sect dramatically depict their theology in a tent-meeting style ‘passion play’ about the creation of the world. While their tale includes familiar characters from the Biblical narrative — Adam, Eva, Lucifer, and Satan — their myth explores more ‘Eastern’ spiritual concepts of liberation and enlightenment, redefining humanity not as corrupted by but born from ‘original sin.’ The narrative tells of the pre-historical mythology of our world, offering a tale of Adam and Eva’s ‘first love’ in which their ‘sin’ ultimately leads to our ‘salvation’: the beginning of our human existence and ability to love.

Video by Blair Neal.

Video excerpts from Prince Rama’s Artist-in-Residence performance at ISSUE Project Room on February 20, 2012.

For the first performance, UTOPIA=NO PERSON, an initiation ceremony was conducted via “15 minute exorcise routines”. A play off the words “exercise” and “exorcise”, UTOPIA=NO PERSON focused on the body as a vehicle for utopian experimentation, encouraging willing participants to undergo a confrontation with personal demons and shedding of individual identity through the physical exhaustion of the body. Using the famous aerobics instructor Paul Eugene’s motto, “Let yourself go”, as an existential battle cry, THE NOW AGE transformed the concert space of ISSUE Project Room into a mystical gym.

Cinematography by Bradley Buehring and Blair Neal, editing by Matthew Walker

Performed by Iktus Percussion at the Naumberg Bandshell, Central Park, Manhattan

Co-presented by Goethe-Institut and New York Virtuoso Singers as part of Make Music New York

Karlheinz Stockhausen‘s 1975 music-theatre work Musik Im Bauch (“Music in the Belly”) for six percussionists places its audience in an outré fairly-tale dream world. The piece was inspired by a game Stockhausen played with his two-year-old daughter, Julika, in which the composer listened to the sounds in her noisy stomach. Seven years later, Stockhausen conceived Musik Im Bauch during a dream. A loose narrative defines the transformation into humanity of three automatons, who attack a giant bird-man, named Miron, savagely cutting open his stomach and pulling out 3 music boxes which play melodies based on the signs of the Zodiac. All the music throughout the piece is taken from the melodies of the music boxes—a separate work often performed outright, Tierkreis—played in different speeds and fragmentations. Stockhausen challenges the listener’s ability to hear these stretched out melodies stating “if you want to hear it, you need the ears of a giant, and the memory of a giant, otherwise you will not be able to tell if a wrong note is played, or at the wrong time, they are spread so far apart. Future generations will really have to expand their perception in order to be aware of a melody which unfolds over such a long time.” Preceding the Stockhausen, New York Virtuoso Singers under the direction of Harold Rosenbaum perform new choral compositions by Danish composers. Special thanks to the Goethe-Institut for their support of this concert.

Performers: Chris Graham, Josh Perry, Steve Sehman, Chris Howard, Piero Guimaraes, Dennis Sullivan and Derek Kwan (electronics)

Based in New York City, Iktus Percussion is an ambitious, dynamic young ensemble committed to expanding the boundaries of the percussion genre. Iktus is a collective-based operation, featuring an array of industrious and multi-talented percussionists with Chris Graham, Justin Wolf, Steve Sehman, Nick Woodbury, and Cory Bracken at the core. Iktus has commissioned over fifty new works for percussion from such composers as Angélica Negrón, Aaron Siegel, Lisa R. Coons, Jenny Olivia Johnson, Stefan Weisman, and Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin and Wood). Iktus has performed at such venues and festivals as the Bang on A Can Marathon, Galapagos Arts Space, Le Poisson Rouge, Issue Project Room, Symphony Space, and Trinity Church. Iktus has been appointed to several residencies including SUNY Purchase College (where they performed Laura Kaminsky’s percussion concerto, Terra Terribilis), CUNY Brooklyn College, and the Pre-College music program at Stony Brook University.

At Eyebeam, 540 West 21st Street, New York

Presented by Eyebeam Art & Technology Center in collaboration with Turbulence.org and ISSUE Project Room

From June 7th-23rd The composer-percussionist Eli Keszler transforms Eyebeamʼs Project Space with L-Carrier, a large-scale,mechanical stringed instrument, immersing audiences in rich harmonies and sparse, multi-directional rhythms. A remote website displaying the pieceʼs evolving visual data score supplements this audio environment, and June 7th, 7PM-8PM the piece will serve as accompaniment for a live ensemble performance, featuring Eli Keszler, Ashley Paul, Anthony Coleman, Alex Waterman, C Spencer Yeh, Catherine Lamb, Geoff Mullen, and Reuben Son.

For the opening night of L-Carrier, an ensemble will perform a detailed score written by Eli Keszler to accompany the installation. The composition has been written so that fluid, dynamic acoustic sounds push and pull against the installationʼs sonic control.  This event also inaugurates the release of Eli Keszlerʼs double CD Catching Net, a collection of installation and ensemble recordings, released by the Berlin-based PAN – ACT label.  L-Carrier is presented as part of Eyebeamʼs sound series Rec.Play., a curatorial initiative founded by Eyebeam Creative Director Roddy Schrock.

Eli Keszler is a composer, artist and multi-instrumentalist based in New York City. He has toured extensively throughout Europe and the US, performing solo and in collaboration with artists such as Phill Niblock, Aki Onda, Tony Conrad, Loren Connors, Jandek, C Spencer Yeh, Ran Blake, and Ashley Paul.

http://eyebeam.org/events/eli-keszlers-l-carrier

The Darmstadt Institute is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Dedalus Foundation and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Concert length: 90 minutes (with intermission)

Like most New York teenagers, the talented young players of Face the Music are fascinated by the many cultures they represent and observe in their daily lives. Contemporary classical music feeds that hunger, and at Issue Project Room they will present the work of three composers who have different world perspectives.

Osvaldo Golijov’s virtuosic “Last Round” is a meditation on the tangos of Astor Piazzola, and Ljova’s “Ori’s Fearful Symmetry’” has a Mediterranean lilt. Face the Music will also perform Puerto Rican-American composer Angélica Negrón’s “El Gran Caleidscopio,” written for Face the Music, which presents a unique sound-world filled with toy pianos, rain sticks, and other atmospheric sounds. The second half of the program will be a set performed by Ms. Negrón’s electro-acoustic pop outfit, Balún.
Praised for “stunning performances” by The New York Times, Kaufman Center’s Face the Music is an “alt-classical” ensemble of more than seventy unusually talented teenagers from in and around New York City. Advancing Kaufman Center’s commitment to modern music, Face the Music provides an unparalleled performance and education experience for the next generation of musical leaders. The group was founded in 2005 by Special Music School Music Director Jenny Undercofler and composer Huang Ruo.

Under the direction of conductor Dr. Undercofler, Face the Music has played across New York City at venues such as Le Poisson Rouge, Merkin Hall, Roulette, the River to River Festival and the Bang On A Can Marathon. The group has been featured on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase, NPR’s All Things Considered, and played on a live broadcast marking the opening of NY Public Radio’s Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. In 2011, Face the Music was honored with the ASCAP Aaron Copland Award.

Face the Music features middle and high school students from over twenty different New York area schools. Many of the performers are students or alumni of Kaufman’s own Special Music School, the only K-8 public school in New York City that integrates pre-conservatory musical training with academic education.

Balún is a dream-pop group from Brooklyn via the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico.  Their music has been described as a “dreamy mix of mellow, minimal music that brings to mind seductive Stereolab songs, nonboring atmospheric soundscapes—and the best children’s music” (Time Out Chicago).  For this show, they’ll be performing new music from their upcoming album as well as an exciting collaboration with Face the Music.

http://www.balunonline.com