Excerpt from Knots & Fields: Pierre Boulez on John Cage

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

love of life orchestra 1977

DARMSTADT: “Classics of the Avant Garde” presents its second annual 

ESSENTIAL REPERTOIRE festival

This year’s festival celebrates the 30th anniversary of the seminal New Music New York concerts curated by Rhys Chatham and held at The Kitchen (then on Broome Street), which put the still-burgeoning Downtown Scene – at the crossroads of minimalism, interdisciplinary performance, and various strains of post-punk – under a mainstream spotlight and redefined the presentation of experimental music.

DARMSTADT’s cross-section of composers involved in the original festival includes “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Connie Beckley, David van Tieghem, Jill Kroesen, Jon Gibson, Ned Sublette, Peter Gordon, Peter Zummo, Petr Kotik, Phill Niblock, and a performance of Meredith Monk’s Dolmen Music by the M6. Invited composers have been asked to present compositions of theirs from the 1970s, if not the actual pieces presented at the original Kitchen concerts. The festival will be held from December 3 through 5 at ISSUE Project Room. All concerts begin at 8pm. Tickets will be $20 at the door/$15 advance (available online at http://www.issueprojectroom.org or for cash purchase at Other Music.)

Saturday, December 5 at 8pm

Peter Zummo – “Minesweeper” (1979), “With Ease She Darts These Bees and Sees” (1979), “Blinded By the Sun” (1979); Performed by the composer with Bill Ruyle (percussion), Mustafa Ahmed (percussion), and Stephanie Woodard (reading)

David van Tieghem – Excerpt from “A Man and His Toys” (c. 1979); Peformed by the composer

Ned Sublette – Songs TBA; Performed by the composer and guests

Jill Kroesen – Songs TBA; Performed by the composer and the Love of Life Orchestra

Peter Gordon – “Macho Music” (1973), “Extended Niceties” (1976); Performed by the Love of Life Orchestra

With The Love of Life Orchestra (LOLO)

Peter Gordon, saxophone and keyboards; Peter Zummo, trombone; Max Gordon, trumpet; Martha Mooke, electric viola; Ned Sublette, Randy Gun, Zach Layton, guitar; Elio Villafranca, piano; Yunior Terry, bass; Mustafa Ahmed, congas and percussion; Bill Ruyle, mallets and percussion; David Van Tieghem, drums; Jill Kroesen, Nick Hallett, Daisy Press, Rachel Henry, vocals

For more information on Peter Zummo, visit: http://www.kalvos.org/zummope.html

For more information on David van Tieghem, visit: http://www.vantieghem.com/

For more information on Jill Kroesen, visit: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:3ifwxqw5ld6e

For more information on Ned Sublette, visit: http://afrocubaweb.com/nedsublette.htm

For more information on Peter Gordon, visit: myspace.com/pglolo 

This year’s festival celebrates the 30th anniversary of the seminal New Music New York concerts curated by Rhys Chatham and held at The Kitchen (then on Mercer Street), which put the still-burgeoning Downtown Scene – at the crossroads of minimalism, interdisciplinary performance, and various strains of post-punk – under a mainstream spotlight and redefined the presentation of experimental music.

DARMSTADT’s cross-section of composers involved in the original festival includes “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Connie Beckley, David van Tieghem, Jill Kroesen, Jon Gibson, Ned Sublette, Peter Gordon, Peter Zummo, Petr Kotik, Phill Niblock, and a performance of Meredith Monk’s Dolmen Music by the M6. Invited composers have been asked to present compositions of theirs from the 1970s, if not the actual pieces presented at the original Kitchen concerts. The festival will be held from December 3 through 5 at ISSUE Project Room. All concerts begin at 8pm. Tickets will be $20 at the door/$15 advance (available online at http://www.issueprojectroom.org or for cash purchase at Other Music.)

Friday, December 4 at 8pm

Meredith Monk – Dolmen Music (1979); Performed by the M6: Meredith Monk Music Third Generation

Jon Gibson – Criss Cross (1979) and other works; Performed by the composer

Phill Niblock – “Four Arthurs” (1978) superimposed with “Two Octaves and a Fifth” (1975); performed by the composer with Leslie Ross (bassoon) and Christa Robinson (oboe)

For more information on Meredith Monk, visit: http://www.meredithmonk.org/monk/index.html

For more information on the M6: Meredith Monk Music Third Generation, visit: http://www.m6ensemble.com/

For more information on Jon Gibson, visit: http://www.jongibson.net/Bio.html

For more information on Phill Niblock, visit: http://www.phillniblock.com/biography_photos_images.html 

This year’s festival celebrates the 30th anniversary of the seminal New Music New York concerts curated by Rhys Chatham and held at The Kitchen (then on Mercer Street), which put the still-burgeoning Downtown Scene – at the crossroads of minimalism, interdisciplinary performance, and various strains of post-punk – under a mainstream spotlight and redefined the presentation of experimental music.

DARMSTADT’s cross-section of composers involved in the original festival includes “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Connie Beckley, David van Tieghem, Jill Kroesen, Jon Gibson, Ned Sublette, Peter Gordon, Peter Zummo, Petr Kotik, Phill Niblock, and a performance of Meredith Monk’s Dolmen Music by the M6. Invited composers have been asked to present compositions of theirs from the 1970s, if not the actual pieces presented at the original Kitchen concerts. The festival will be held from December 3 through 5 at ISSUE Project Room. All concerts begin at 8pm. Tickets will be $20 at the door/$15 advance (available online at http://www.issueprojectroom.org or for cash purchase at Other Music.)

Thursday, December 3 at 8pm

Connie Beckley – “Sound Split” (1976), “Tiptoe” (1979), “Showdown” (1976); Performed by the composer

“Blue” Gene Tyranny – “Harvey Milk (Portrait from ‘How to Do It’/A circuit to help generate the feeling of meaning)” (1978), “The White Night Riot” (1979); Electronic sound pieces prepared by the composer (in attendance), special guest performers TBA

Petr Kotik – Excerpt from There is Singularly Nothing (1973); Performed by the S.E.M. Ensemble with special guests

For more information on Connie Beckley, visit: http://conniebeckley.com/ConnieBeckleyBIO.htm

For more information on “Blue” Gene Tyranny, visit: http://www.bluegenetyranny.com/bio.html

For more information on Petr Kotik, visit: http://www.semensemble.org/pk.html 

Darmstadt “Classics of the Avant Garde” presents:

A Month-Long Festival of Concerts, Workshops, Film Screenings, Conversations and World Premieres at ISSUE Project Room Featuring:

Susie Ibarra, Elliot Sharp, Tony Oursler, Anthony Coleman, Tony Conrad, David Grubbs, Joan La Barbara, Luke Dubois, Tom Hamilton, Ha-Yang Kim, Branden W. Joseph, Stephan Moore, John King, Dan Joseph, Ne(x)tworks, Matthew Welch, Elodie Lauten, Bing and Ruth, TILT, Either/Or, Climax Golden Twins, Connie Beckley, Ensemble Pamplemousse and much more!

Darmstadt ”Classics of the Avant-Garde” music series is proud to announce its first ever Institute, a month-long festival at ISSUE Project Room dedicated to exploring the connection between live performance and pedagogical practice.  This month of interdisciplinary programming includes concerts, lectures, workshops, film screenings, and talkbacks which celebrate and critically examine the continuum of the experimental tradition in music and related media.  It is the hope ofDarmstadt’s curators that its Institute will deepen the understanding and appreciation of experimental work, both within the New York music community and the general public.

This month of dynamic programming involves both established composers and performers, alongside emerging artists.  In addition to countless concerts of premieres and cherished repertoire, highlights of the festival include workshops led by Joan LaBarbara and Susie Ibarra, conversations between David Grubbs and Branden W. Joseph and Tony Conrad and Luke Dubois, a lecture-performance by Merce Cunningham Dance Company musicians Stephan Moore and John King featuring a live rendering of John Cage’s “Fontana Mix,” film presentations by Tony Oursler and Bradley Eros, in addition to “sectional” events—a program of guitar music with Dan Joseph and Elliot Sharp and an evening connecting the voice to visual art, with Connie Beckley and Lesley Flanigan.  There will also be post-performance talkbacks with performers and composers.

The Institute kicks off Monday, June 1 with a FREE artist-in-attendance screening of Tony Oursler’s video project, Synesthesia, an oral history of New York’s downtown music and art scenes, and concludes on Saturday, June 27th with performances by Tom Hamilton and David Linton

Darmstadt is describing the artists participating in its June Institute as a “faculty” of sorts, enabling a non-institutional, publicly accessible forum. In the spirit of its namesake’s “holiday course,” Darmstadt aims to provide a vital resource, a venue to connect artists, performers, writers, and educators with each other and, in turn, with audiences…all towards the enrichment of New York’s vibrant new music scene.

Darmstadt ”Classics of the Avant Garde” is the Brooklyn-based contemporary music series led by composer-musicians Zach Layton and Nick Hallett, which presents the best of New York City’s live experimental music, and relevant media. Darmstadt will celebrate its fifth anniversary this November with an annual performance of Terry Riley’s In C, which Alan Kozinn described in the New York TImes as “the most vital, audacious and energizing performance of the score I’ve ever heard.” Darmstadt regularly hosts its concerts and DJ sets at ISSUE Project Room while its founders both create and curate work for such institutions as PS1 and The Kitchen.  Darmstadt began as a “listening party” of avant-garde recordings at Galapagos Art Space before quickly evolving into a live performance series, and in 2007 was included in The New York Times ’Best of New Music’ rundown. As DJ’s, Layton and Hallett have delivered memorable sets at Steve Reich 70th birthday celebration at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and at the Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival.

Darmstadt Institute is sponsored in part by funding from Meet the Composer Creative Connections, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the Experimental Television Center (supported by the New York State Council on the Arts)

NOTE:  Sunday, 28th with Christy and Emily and Pterodactyl CANCELLED