Cellist and improviser Okkyung Lee is a 2011 ISSUE Artist-in-Residence. A native of Korea, Okkyung Lee has been developing her own voice in a contemporary cello performance, improvisation and composition. using her solid classical training as a springboard, she incorporates jazz, sounds, Korean traditional and pop music, and noise with extended techniques to create her unique blend of music. She has received a composer commission from New York State Council on the Arts (2007) and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant (2010).

ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation; the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund; Meet the Composer; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.

On 11/11/11, for their third and final installment of their artist residency, Prince Rama will herald in the end of the world by way of karaoke. Using the number one hit singles corresponding with the dates of eleven different predicted “apocalypses” such as Heavens Gate, Jonestown, and Y2K, they will “chop and screw” the songs to a point beyond recognition and invite anyone who wishes to participate to perform the resulting pieces.

The word Apocalypse literally translates to mean “revelation” or ”lifting the veil”. At times the songs seem to directly reveal a fear of collective destruction (such as Britney Spears, “Til The World Ends” or Zager and Evans, “In the Year 2525″). Other times they contain messages of hope or survival (like Faith Hill, “Breathe”  or The Bee Gees, “Stayin Alive”).  UTOPIA = NO TIME seeks to “lift the veil” on the ways in which the end of time is embalmed in pop music, and how the act of karaoke serves as a channel to resurrect and assure the eternal recurrence of apocalypse through pop.

ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation; the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund; Meet the Composer; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.

ISSUE Project Room’s Emerging Artists Commission program is made possible, in part, through generous support from: the Greenwall Foundation; the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund; Meet the Composer; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Trumpeter Nate Wooley performs his new piece “Eight Syllables,” the first composition using a notational system based on the International Phonetic Alphabet. Phonetic sounds, which are the building blocks of syllables, are mapped onto a set of parameters limiting how the lips, tongue, teeth, and throat are manipulated to influence the sound of the trumpet.

8 Syllables is the first composition using a notational system based on the International Phonetic Alphabet. The symbols for different phonetic sounds, which are the building blocks of syllables, are mapped onto a set of parameters limiting how the lips, tongue, teeth, and throat are manipulated, to create a trumpet sound. A collaboration with artist and percussionist Ben Hall (New Monuments/Graveyards) to create visual representations of the scores will be featured in a book/cd of the piece, co-produced by Issue Project Room and Peira Records.

Nate Wooley (b. 1974) was raised in Clatskanie, Oregon, a small fishing and lumber town on the Columbia River. He began playing trumpet professionally with his father at age 12. After college in Eugene, Oregon and Denver, Colorado he moved to Jersey City, New Jersey, where he currently resides. Since 2001 he has become a much sought after performer, composer, and improviser, working with Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Christian Marclay, C. Spencer Yeh, and David Grubbs , among others. His trumpet playing has been called “exquisitely hostile” by Italy’s Touching Extremes Magazine, and his solo performances and recordings have been numbered amongst a privileged handful that have helped to shape a new approach to the instrument.

ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation; the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund; Meet the Composer; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.

ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation; the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund; Meet the Composer; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.

Cellist and improviser Okkyung Lee is a 2011 ISSUE Artist-in-Residence. A native of Korea, Okkyung Lee has been developing her own voice in a contemporary cello performance, improvisation and composition. using her solid classical training as a springboard, she incorporates jazz, sounds, Korean traditional and pop music, and noise with extended techniques to create her unique blend of music. She has received a composer commission from New York State Council on the Arts (2007) and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant (2010).

In long white shadows the performance space is explored by performers who constantly change their relationships within and towards to it. The audience is faced with rather unusual ways of perceiving the music and movement: simple, slow and hypnotic at times.

Michelle Boulé is a dance artist, teacher, and BodyTalk practitioner based in New York. She has been performing and teaching internationally over the last 11 years. Since 2001 she has worked with Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People and in 2010 received a New York Dance and Performance Award “Bessie” for her performance and creative collaboration in Last Meadow by Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People. She has also worked with the Deborah Hay Dance Company (William Forsythe commission If I Sing to You), John Scott, David Wampach, John Jasperse, Liz Santoro, Neal Beasley, Donna Uchizono, Christine Elmo, Beth Gill, Judith Sanchez-Ruiz, Doug Varone (Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Opera Colorado), Netta Yerushalmy, and Gabriel Masson. She is part of the teaching faculty and Artists Advisory Council of Movement Research in New York. She has also been a faculty/artist-in-residence at Hollins University (Roanoke, VA) and the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign, IL). She participated in the SKITE artists residency in Caen, France in 2010, and in 2002, she was a DanceWeb scholarship recipient at Impulstanz in Vienna. She has shown work in New York at the Center for Performance Research, Judson Church, P.S. 122, Danspace Project, the Bushwick Starr and at the Krannert Center in Illinois and the University of Utah.

ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation; the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund; Meet the Composer; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.

2011 Artist-in-Residence Prince Rama will transform ISSUE Project Room into a point of origins. They will construct a “sacred space” using gathered matter from off-site urban wilds of Brooklyn. Audience members will be invited to build their own instruments and utilize them in an extended jam session open to anyone who wishes to attend (regardless of musical skill). This aims to investigate the utopian symbology of “the jam session” as a poetic reenactment and microcosmic creation of an ideal democratic society. Cut off from the rest of the world, yet wholly imbedded within it, this ritual space becomes a NO PLACE.

**PLEASE BRING ALONG AN INSTRUMENT!**

ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation; the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund; Meet the Composer; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.

For her first Artist-in-Residence performance at ISSUE Project Room, Okkyung Lee will collaborate with Tom Rainey (percussion), Liberty Ellman (guitar) and Skuli Sverrisson (bass).

Cellist and improviser Okkyung Lee is a 2011 ISSUE Artist-in-Residence. A native of Korea, Okkyung Lee has been developing her own voice in a contemporary cello performance, improvisation and composition. using her solid classical training as a springboard, she incorporates jazz, sounds, Korean traditional and pop music, and noise with extended techniques to create her unique blend of music. She has received a composer commission from New York State Council on the Arts (2007) and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant (2010).

Established in 2006, ISSUE’s AIR program provides emerging artists with a 3-month residency including rehearsal space, production, curatorial, and pr/marketing support to create new works, to reach the next stage in their artistic development, and gain exposure to a broad public audience. ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation, the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund, and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.

Photo by Reuben Radding

Bassist and composer James Ilgenfritz kicks off his first Artist-in-Residence performance with the music of Anthony Braxton for solo bass. Ilgenfritz will also bring a chamber ensemble to premiere a new work for septet, featuring Leah Paul (flute), Kirk Knuffke (trumpet), Julianne Carney (violin), Chris Dingman (vibraphone), Taylor Levine (guitar), and Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon), with Ilgenfritz on contrabass. The evening will conclude with Billy Fox’s Blackbirds and Bullets celebration of their CD release Dulces, which includes Ilgenfritz on bass.

I: James Ilgenfritz: The music of Anthony Braxton for Solo Bass

Various works from Anthony Braxton’s Duo, Quartet, Ghost Trance Music, Pulse Track, and works for brass ensemble or orchestra are collaged together using Language Music -based improvisation structures.

II: New music for chamber ensemble

A new chamber work for septet, featuring Leah Paul (flute), Kirk Knuffke (trumpet), Julianne Carney (violin), Chris Dingman (vibraphone), Taylor Levine (guitar), and Sara Schoenbeck (bassoon), and Ilgenfritz on contrabass, followed by a game piece for the septet, augmented with percussionists and woodwinds.

II: Billy Fox’s Blackbirds and Bullets: CD Release Party Composer Billy Fox’s second record for Clean Feed, Dulces, features jazz improvisation influenced by west african and north indian music. The band, Blackbirds and Bullets, features James Ilgenfritz (bass), John O’Brien(drums), Evan Mazunik (keyboards), Miki Hirose (trumpet), Gary Pickard (saxophone), Matt Parker (saxohpone), and the composer playing maracas and conducting.

Established in 2006, ISSUE’s AIR program provides emerging artists with a 3-month residency including rehearsal space, production, curatorial, and pr/marketing support to create new works, to reach the next stage in their artistic development, and gain exposure to a broad public audience. ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation, the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund, and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.

Immediately following the concert, Artistic Advisory Board Member David Grubbs will host a Q&A reception for ISSUE members with Nate Wooley

Nate Wooley (b. 1974) was raised in Clatskanie, Oregon, a small fishing and lumber town on the Columbia River.  He began playing trumpet professionally with his father at age 12.  After college in Eugene, Oregon and Denver, Colorado he moved to Jersey City, NJ, where he currently resides.  Since 2001 he has become a much sought after performer, composer, and improvisor, working with Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, John Zorn, Christian Marclay, C. Spencer Yeh, and David Grubbs among others.  His trumpet playing has been called “exquisitely hostile” by Italy’s Touching Extremes Magazine, and his solo performances and recordings have been numbered amongst a privileged handful that have helped to shape a new approach to the instrument.

The Seven Storey Mountain is a 7 part series of abstractions and additive processes on the theme of ecstaticism.  Each performance features elements of all the proceeding performances and consist of a layered tape background, over which Wooley combines graphic notation and improvisation.  The first Seven Storey Mountain featured David Grubbs on harmonium and Paul Lytton on percussion and was released on Important Records in 2009.  The second iteration took place at Issue Project Room and featured C. Spencer Yeh on violin and Chris Corsano on drums and will be released on Important Records in 2011.  This, the third iteration of Seven Storey Mountain, is performed by Lytton, Corsano, Grubbs, and Yeh, along with vibraphonists Matt Moran and Chris Dingman.  The concept of each performance is to go directly towards producing an object without overdubs, editing, or hand-wringing; to capture a group of musicians dealing with a certain set of information that is designed to push them towards a sort of sense of release. An analog of this may be religious ecstasy or trance behavior.  The overarching form is dedicated to the not-always-successful, but honest religious aspirations of Thomas Merton.

Established in 2006, ISSUE’s AIR program provides emerging artists with a 3-month residency including rehearsal space, production, curatorial, and pr/marketing support to create new works, to reach the next stage in their artistic development, and gain exposure to a broad public audience. ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation, the Suzanne Fiol Memorial Fund, and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts, celebrating 50 years of building strong, creative communities in New York’s 62 counties.