Thollem McDonas
Thollem McDonas’s extensive travels as a performer have covered much of the North American continent and Europe. In the past 6 years he has added 21 albums to his discography on 9 different vanguard labels in 4 different countries. His musical experiences are extremely diverse and his ever expanding variety of approaches to music making result in dramatically new and different outcomes.
Preceding the concert, Thollem McDonas will give a short talk on harmony and improvisation.
Martha Colburn with Thollem McDonas
Martha Colburn
Martha Colburn’s work utilizes the language and materials of filmmaking to comment on popular culture, consumerism, politics and sexuality. Through a collage of live action (paint-on-glass) animations, found footage, and documentary filmmaking techniques, she addresses contemporary topics to express her personal anxieties and passions. Martha’s films are a disturbing and at times humorous take on popular and political culture. She creates elaborately layered collages, paintings, and installations that incorporate transparencies, recordings, and live performances. As her conceptual process grows, so follows advances in an already detailed and labor-intensive animating process. Martha is expanding her technique into working with multi-plane glass animation, which represents a physical manifestation of her conceptually layered ideas.
Currently, Martha is working on films that combine art historical representations and current depictions of politics to challenge our notions of truth and fantasy. As a descendent of some of America’s earliest settlers (ministers, farmers and wagon train members), her work demonstrates an awareness of the repository of the guilt haunted twisted history of the American soul. Martha’s current work draws from this perspective and personal experience to address issues such as Methamphetamine use, environmental catastrophes, and man’s relationship to nature.
Thollem McDonas
Thollem McDonas is a pianist and composer of Irish and Cherokee descent, born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Not long after birth, he began studying the keyboard repertoire from the Medieval era to the 20th century. After graduating with degrees in both piano performance and composition, he dedicated his time to grassroots political movements and ecological restoration projects, before returning to music with his full focus. Currently on tour, his extensive travels as a performer and teacher have covered much of the North American continent and Europe (he often leads listening and group improvisation workshops). He is a founding member of several innovative ensembles, all of varying and disparate musics. In the past 6 years, he has added 20 albums to his discography on 9 different vanguard labels in 4 different countries.
As the founder and Artistic Director of Estamos Ensemble, Thollem McDonas is the recipient of the 2009 US Artists International Award, as well as a 2010 CAP grant from the American Music Center. He was commissioned by The Limon Dance Company for a large-scale commemorative piece for their 50th year anniversary. In September 2008, he was invited to perform the late works of Claude Debussy on the piano on which they were written, as well as his own comprovisations with Stefano Scodanibbio. On Debussy’s Piano And…(Die Schachtel, Fall 2010) is the first album ever recorded on Debussy’s piano.
“Thollem’s keyboard flights unleash cascades of notes of seemingly impossible velocity and no matter where he goes tonally, it always seems right, fresh and satisfying. He should be on everyone’s listening list who appreciates great piano music. As an improviser, he inhabits a world uniquely his own, rhythmically, harmonically and formally. A true original.” - Terry Riley
The Thirteenth Assembly + Pierre-Yves Macé presents Miniatures/Song Recycle
Forged from a shared history of collaborations ranging from intimate duos to Anthony Braxton’s sprawling Sonic Genome Project, The Thirteenth Assembly features four distinguished musician/composers working together as equals to create distinctively eclectic, yet cohesive music. Drawing on years of familiarity, as well as its members’ diverse backgrounds in genres ranging classical, folk,rock, jazz and the avant-garde, this collective ensemble has performed across the United States and Europe since 2007, and released its debut recording (un)sentimental (Important Records) in 2009.
“Cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, guitarist Mary Halvorson, violist Jessica Pavone and drummer Tomas Fujiwara are among the most exciting new jazz musicians to emerge on the New York scene,” declares the Wall Street Journal’s Martin Johnson, “and it is hard to talk about any one of these players without mentioning the others. Each of these musicians is a masterly soloist, and they all are creating music that is delicate, complex and eclectic. There isn’t much—if any—repertoire written for cornet-viola-guitar-drum ensembles, but with the appealing blend of unique sonorities and lithe rhythms found on (un)sentimental,that may soon change.”
Critics have credited the group with “truly remarkable capabilities”(Nick Storring, Exclaim!), “a knack for detailed and apropos framing of each others’ solo turns” (Bill Meyer, Dusted), and “an admirably relaxed sense of self, and a shared conviction to keep all options open” (Nate Chinen, New York Times). AllAboutJazz.com’s Troy Collins adds, “The unified ensemble sound of The Thirteenth Assembly is centered around empathetic communication and a willingness to subvert ego for the good of the group; there is no grandstanding here, only four longstanding friends conspiring to make adventurous yet accessible music. A stunning achievement,(un)sentimental demonstrates the endless possibilities of contemporary music by players at the top of their game.”
Pierre-Yves Macé (1980) is a French musician whose musical practice
encompasses improvisation on machines, a background in piano and classical percussion, jazz-rock/prog-rock bands, dance accompaniments, and an interest in literature and musicology. He received his PhD in Musicology in 2009, which explored phonography and the “sound document” in contemporary music. His first recordings, Faux-Jumeaux, was released on John Zorn’s Tzadik label in 2002. Subsequently, he released Circulations (Sub Rosa, 2005), and Crash_test ii (Tensional integrity) (Orkhêstra, 2006) for a string quartet. He has held residencies at CalArts in Los Angeles, CNMAT in Berkeley (2004), and GRM in Paris (2006, 2008). Macé has performed in the Octobre Festival in Normandie, MIMI, Villette Sonnique, Brocoli Transnumériques. His artistic collaborations include projects with ON (Sylvain Chauveau & Steven Hess), That Summer, Louisville, artist Hippolyte Hentgen, and writers Mathieu Larnaudie, Philippe Vasset, and Christophe Fiat. He is also a member of the Encyclopédie de la parole, a speech encyclopaedia crew whose goal is to constitute a compositional plan through which different forms of recorded speeches may be compared.
Miniatures / song recycle (2010) for piano and tape (including 12 anonymous found voices):
“I began working on this miniature project when I was asked to perform something for piano and laptop. My first concern was to avoid the typical ambient stuff which melts piano and electronics into long and extended movements. As a limited pianist, I also decided to use the instrument more as an accompaniement to something else (a lead part) than as a soloist in itself. All those thoughts lead me to work on a collection of very small pieces which rigorously alternate between “music concrète” miniatures, and songs made of recycled material. The processed voices we hear on those songs come from anonymous a cappella recordings found on the web (and to a lesser extend on films) ; reversed and cut into small fragments, they constitute a completely new musical material which is then accompanied by the piano. Set up that way, the collection of « songs » unexpectedly evoke a traditional lied form, a song cycle made of recycled raw material.”
Bonnie Jones and Andrea Neumann + Bob Bellerue
Bonnie Jones and Andrea Neumann will present an evening of electro-acoustic improvised music, using hacked electronics and custom-made instruments. Jones makes music with the circuit boards of digital delay pedals, teasing out tones and crackles by short-circuiting the board. Neumann performs on the inside-piano, a custom made amplified and electronically processed abstraction of a piano sound board.
Bonnie Jones
Bonnie Jones works with sound, text, and performance. Born in South Korea (1977), she was raised by dairy farmers in New Jersey, and currently resides in Baltimore, MD. During sound performances, Bonnie plays the circuit boards of digital delay pedals. Her primary sound collaborators are Joe Foster in Korea (as the duet “English”) and Andy Hayleck. She is also a member of the Performance Thanatology Research Society, an interdisciplinary performance group dedicated to the advancement of a higher histrionics brought on by imminent finalities. Bonnie has performed at the Kim Dae Hwan Museum, the Ontological-Hysteric Theater, the ErstQuake Festival, and the 14 Karat Cabaret.
Andrea Neumann
Andrea Neumannhas composed multimedia projects incorporating film, dance, and performance for the inside-piano — a simplified piano reduced to strings, resonance board, and a metal frame. With the help of electronics to manipulate and amplify the inaudible sounds, she has invented numerous playing techniques, sounds, and techniques for preparing the dismantled instrument. Because the original inside-piano is very heavy, a piano builder (Bernd Bittmann, Berlin) constructed a new and lighter one for her. She has worked intensively in the intersection between composition and improvisation and electronic and handmade sounds with Berlin musicians such as Annette Krebs, Ignaz Schick, Axel Dörner, Robin Hayward, and Burkhard Beins.
Bob Bellerue
Bob Bellerue is a composer, experimental musician, and creative technician based in Brooklyn NY. Over the last 20 years, he has been exploring live music and sound art, working with homemade percussion ensembles, the Balinese gamelan, dance, performance scores, installation, and live noise. Formerly based in Los Angeles, he ran the sub-garde experimental music and performance space, the I1 Corral, and curated the Beyond Music series and festival. Bellerue’s current work utilizes custom electronics and programming, incorporating feedback, prepared field recordings, de-musicalized instruments, and found oscillators. He is in the midst of long-term collaborations with the choreographer Wanda Z Gala and is involved with other experimental musicians such as Ecomorti, Telecult Powers, David Kendall, Smegma, Joseph Hammer, Phroq, Albert Ortega, Tecumseh, and Jarrett Silberman. He also performs regularly as a solo artist and in KILT with Raven Chacon. His work has been presented in Indonesia, Europe and across the United States, namely at the Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival, Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona, Issue Project Room, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Olympia Experimental Music Festival, Stanford University, California Institute of the Arts, UCSD, UCLA, and Naropa University. He is the Technical Director at The Kitchen and runs the Anarchymoon Recordings record label.
This concert is made possible in part by High Zero Foundation
Talibam! featuring Artist-in-Residence Matt Mottel
Hailing from New York, Talibam! has been making their presence felt since 2003 through numerous live gigs, self-released cdr’s and label releases. Talibam! has toured Europe ten times since 2006 and released 18 records during this period.
They have releases on ESP Disk, Roaratorio, Azul Discografica, Evolving Ear, Pendu Sounds, Wallace Records, Holiday Records, Thors Rubber Hammer, Ecstatic Peace, Gaffer Records, Blackest Rainbow, and others.
Talibam! Is one of the most potent and fascinating bands in contemporary music. The six plus years of interplay between Mottel and Shea has created one of the most unique and exciting live shows and some of the most powerfully recorded documents of any era. At a time when most culture sticks to conservative niche opportunities, Talibam! is interested in expansion and exploration; They manage to part the sea by not sticking to genre, aesthetic predisposition or the usual norms of what being a ‘band’ is. More inclined to put on a show that any and all will like, and not be stymied by ‘avant’ type casting, they have won over both unsuspecting and in the ‘know’ audiences worldwide. The energy of Kevin Shea’s full steam drumming is not to be missed, nor is the primal tone of Mottel’s synth run through a Marshall Half Stack.
TALIBAM! is collaborating with some of the most accomplished musicians working today. On their past two studio albums, they have been joined by Cooper-Moore, Jon Irabagon (Thelonious Monk Jazz Saxaphone Award Winner 2008), Peter Evans and countless others monster players. Working with both jazz and rock musicians, Talibam!’s former collaborators are in BATTLES, TV ON THE RADIO, GRIZZLY BEAR, WOODS, AKRON FAMILY, and more.
Matt Mottel’s visage should be familiar to anyone who’s been going to shows in NYC in the past ten years. He’s been hanging around NYC clubs since he was like 16, and dropping electric mind bombs with his synthesizer in those clubs nearly as long with folks like Awesome Color, Akron/Family, Jeffrey Lewis, Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear), Kenny Wollesen, Chris Corsano, Ras Moshe, Cooper-Moore, Sean Meehan, and his new band Shadow Maps.
Kevin Shea’s drumming and stage gymnastics have been gazed at with wide wonder through his membership in bands like Storm & Stress (Touch & Go), Coptic Light (No Quarter), People (I and Ear), Peter Evans Quartet (Firehouse 12), Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio), Tyondai Braxton (Battles) Sexy Thoughts (rcarchives.com), Mostly Other People Do The Killing (Hot Cup), etc.
ISSUE’s Artist-in-Residence program is made possible, in part, through generous support from the Jerome Foundation and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.
Aaron Siegel and Christy Edwards’ “Preparing the Past” with Mantra Percussion + Wet Ink Ensemble (presented by Darmstadt Institute)
video still by Christine Edwards
Preparing the Past is an “evocative” three-movement work for 4-hand piano, two vibraphones and two glockenspiels. It is inspired by the activities taking and looking at photographs—from the actual picture-taking moment through the reconsideration of that moment as a physical artifact.
This premiere performance of the entire “Preparing the Past” features Mantra Percussion, who have collaborated with Aaron Siegel on performances of “Our Reluctance is Overstated” for six timpanists and on “Science is only a Sometimes Friend” for eight glockenspiels and organ. “Science…” was premiered in an outdoor performance in June 2009 that was hailed by The New Yorker Magazine as “a hypnotic cloud of chiming tones.” Pianists Emily Manzo and Anna Dagmar join the percussionists for the 40-minute “Preparing the Past,” which alternates between dense percussion drones, stark tolling and waves of consonant chimes. Visual artist and guitarist Christy Edwards, from the bands The Totallys and Christy & Emily, will accompany the music with a live edit of her lyrical video footage.
Aaron Siegel is a composer of acoustic experimental work that raises questions about the relationship between performers, audience members and the space they occupy together. His music has been performed by pianist Emily Manzo, Till by Turning, Mantra Percussion, Kyklos Ensemble, Iktus Percussion Quartet, Cadillac Moon, the Flux Quartet and the Aaron Siegel Ensemble. The first recording of the Aaron Siegel Ensemble, Every Morning, A History, was praised by Signal to Noise as being “representative of the flowering DIY chamber music scene in Brooklyn.” The Aaron Siegel Ensemble premiered Science is Only a Sometimes Friend for 8 glockenspiels and public participants in the East Meadow of Central Park as part of the 2009 Make Music New York Festival. Recent ensemble performances have included a preview of Preparing the Past at Roulette in New York and a reprise of Science… at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn. For more information visit aaronsiegel.net.
Hailed by the New York Times as “…finely polished…a fresh source of energy,” Mantra Percussion is dedicated to expanding the future of percussion, living in the present, and celebrating the past. Mantra Percussion commissions pieces by prominent composers to substantially expand the percussion repertoire, commissions young composers to breathe new life into the art, and performs classic repertoire from the past to remind us why we are here. Members of Mantra Percussion have performed at concert series and festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute, Darmstadt, the International Ensemble Modern Academy, and Tanglewood and have performed with groups such as the San Francisco Contemporary Players, the Lucerne Festival Percussion Group, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Sospeso Ensemble, Either/Or, Philadelphia Virtuoso Society, Red Light New Music, S.E.M. Ensemble, Argento Chamber Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Zs, and Hi Red Center.
Christy Edwards learned to play guitar from a Metallica Ride The Lightning tablature book, and started playing in bands during her stay at the Rhode Island School of Design. Christy plays guitar and sings in Christy & Emily and the Totallys. She mentors in an after school program called the Vibe Songmakers, helping students to write their own songs. Her animated video for the C&E song “105& Rising” was premiered on the TheFader.com, and her drawings have been shown and sold at the Scope Art Fair in New York.
Share – free audio & video jam
What is share?
SHARE is first and foremost a platform to explore expression, in a variety of artforms. Through its weekly open jam sessions, SHARE.nyc engages its participants and spectators in a continually changing dialog on art and culture. As such, SHARE represents an ongoing exploration of collaborative performance as cultural exchange. It mines the relationship of artistic practice to cultural identity, remapping a multiplicity of cultural discourses. The act of creating artistic content in a multicultural collaborative context is a fascinating and natural extension of the SHARE concept.
Share is an open jam, not just for digirati, but for all new culture lovers. Participants bring their portable equipment, plug into our system, improvise on each others’ signal and perform live audio and video. We furnish the amplification and projection. Share happens every Sunday.
open jams and walk-in sets — Bring your equipment/instruments/gear etc. to join the jam!
audio jam: Prepared and spontaneous music from eight plus simultaneous performers. This is the time and place to perform a piece of music you’ve written and hear it on a large sound system, improvise spontaneously with other participants, get feedback on your latest project or try out that new max patch/software setup. Bring your noise maker of choice and an XLR, quarter-inch or RCA cable to join.
video jam: multi-user live video synthesis. Generating an immersive visual environment, in the SHARE tradition, in which multiple participants are able to jointly compose the video output. Try out and learn about new VJ wetware. As with the audio, walk-in sets are encouraged. Bring your clips or camera or laptop/amiga and VGA, S-Video, or RCA cables to join
8pm, free —
Share @ Issue Project Room @ The (OA) Can Factory
232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215
direction/map:
http://issueprojectroom.org/contact
http://is.gd/ljow
SHARE is always 100% FREE!! (no admission!)
Show up early!!! and stay late!!
http://share.dj/share
http://facebook.com/sharenyc
http://issueprojectroom.org
Flexible Music + Imaginary Band
Haruka Fujii- percussion Eric Huebner- piano Tim Ruedeman- saxophones Dan Lippel- guitars
With an instrumentation that blurs the line between jazz, rock and classical music, Flexible Music was inspired by Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s Hout for saxophone, guitar, piano and percussion. Since 2003, the group has commissioned over 30 pieces including new works by Nico Muhly, Orianna Webb, Vineet Shende, John Link, Ryan Streber, Mikel Kuehn, Andrew Waggoner, Steve Ricks, Nizan Leibovich, Ethan Wickman, Ross Bauer, Carl Schimmel, Seung-Ah Oh, and Adam B. Silverman.
Flexible Music looks forward to engagements in fall of 2010 on the Macau International Music Festival in China and at the University of Montreal. This season’s concerts have included performances at Syracuse University, Bowling Green State University’s Mid-American Festival of New Music, Evolution Music Series (Baltimore), and Chamber Music Now (Philadelphia), and masterclasses at the Peabody Institute of Music and American University. Some of the ensemble’s past concerts and residencies include Brigham Young University, University of Utah, Manhattan School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, William Paterson University, and The Stone (NYC). Flexible Music’s debut cd, FM, was released by New Focus Recordings in March 2009. “This was my first encounter with Flexible Music, but it certainly won’t be my last. Each player was estimable in his or her own right; together, they provided a broad canvas upon which tonight’s composers could unfurl their imaginations.” Steve Smith, Night after Night Blog (Music Reviewer for NY Times and Time Out NY)
http://www.myspace.com/flexiblemusic
Imaginary Band
Gordon Beeferman – piano/compositions
Kirk Knuffke- tpt
Ken Thomson – alto sax
Matt Bauder – tenor sax
Josh Sinton – bari/bass clarinet
Brad Kemp – bass
Michael Evans – drums
“Complex and daringly modern…Mr. Beeferman’s music, with its skittish melodic lines and pungent atonal harmony, is gritty, fidgety and intriguing.”
—New York Times
GORDON BEEFERMAN is a composer, pianist and improviser based in New York City. His works — orchestral, solo, chamber, and opera — have been been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony, California EAR Unit, Quartet New Generation recorder collective, American Brass Quintet, eighth blackbird, pianist Winston Choi, soprano Lisa Bielawa, and others. His chamber opera “The Rat Land,” performed by the New York City Opera on its VOX: Showcasing American Composers series, was praised by the New York Times as “complex and daringly modern.” The Albany Times-Union described his orchestral work as “Chilling… unpredictable… brutal.”
Beeferman has received commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the BMI Foundation, and Concert Artists Guild, among others, and prizes including three BMI Student Composer Awards, an ASCAP Young Composer Award, and the BMG/Williams College National Awards to Young Composers Grand Prize. He has been a fellow at Tanglewood and a resident composer at the Copland House.
A “fully liberated pianist” (Cadence Magazine), Beeferman has performed in a wide range of settings, from concerto soloist to free-improviser. In New York he has performed at Roulette, the Vision Festival, the Knitting Factory, MATA, Columbia University’s Italian Academy and the Improvised and Otherwise Festival, as well as at other venues across the US and Canada. He has collaborated extensively with dancers, writers, and visual artists, in particular, with choreographer Anita Cheng; his work has been performed locally at spaces including the Joyce SoHo, Danspace, and the Merce Cunningham Studio.
A native of Cambridge, Mass., Beeferman was born in 1976. He played piano from an early age; he studied jazz and Third Stream privately with Ran Blake. He received his B.M. in composition from the University of Michigan and was awarded the Stanley Medal, the School’s highest undergraduate honor. His teachers have included William Albright, William Bolcom, Bright Sheng and Leslie Bassett for composition, and Steven Drury and Anton Nel for piano.
Beeferman’s recordings of improvised music are available on Generate Records. Scheduled for release in 2009 are chamber works on the Genuin and Summit labels.
Bing and Ruth + Elodie Lauten
Formed in 2006 by Brooklyn based composer and pianist David Moore, ambient chamber band Bing and Ruth utilizes a large number of traditional acoustic instruments to craft expansive soundscapes and quiet microtonal textures. With clarinets, voices, cellos, bass, percussion, and piano, the group calls upon a family of experienced musicians and improvisers who ably interpret Moore‘s slow-developing, visceral compositions. Recent performances for the ensemble include a pair of shows for New York’s Wordless Music Series; sharing the stage with Icelandic super-band Mum and British minimalist composer Max Richter.
http://www.myspace.com/bingandruth
Composer Elodie Lauten’s musical oeuvre includes many electronic and electro-acoustic pieces, as well as chamber and orchestral music. Lauten’s landmarks are unique neo-operas – some of which she has directed – evolving or deconstructing the classic form: The Death of Don Juan (1985), Existence (1991), The Deus Ex Machina Cycle (1997), Orfreo (2004) and Waking in New York (1999), which appeared on a list of the most influential works of the last three decades.
Lauten’s music has been presented by the Lincoln Center Festival, the New York City Opera, WNYC, The Kitchen, the Performing Garage, the Dance Theater Workshop, La Mama, the Soho Baroque Opera, Downtown Music Productions, AFMM, Interpretations, the SEM Ensemble, The Whitney Museum, and at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. The current discography includes 27 titles to-date, released on Lovely Music, O.O. Discs, Point/Polygram, New Tone (Italy), 4-Tay, Tellus, Nonsequitur, Capstone, Frog Peak, Pitch, Studio 21 and Unseen Worlds.
No stranger to visual and media arts, Lauten has had solo, collaborative and group gallery showings in New York and Boston including sound installations, drawings, as well as computer-based art and animation.
In 2008 Lauten’s music was featured in the Seattle Chamber Players’ Classics of Downtown program along with major names in the industry, curated by critics Alex Ross and Kyle Gann.
Lauten received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, ASCAP, Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, and The Music Liberty Initiative. Lauten has taught on the composition faculty at New York University. She currently teaches music technology at NYC Tech. She is a regular contributor to the classical music internet publication Sequenza21. With 20 years of experience as a producer of both recordings and live events, she is currently the artistic director for Lower East Side Performing Arts. She is a writer/publisher member of ASCAP.
Francesco Dillon & Emanuele Torquati
“Simple Space”
New Music for cello and piano
Emanuele Torquati, piano
Francesco Dillon, cello
Program
G. Scelsi: To the Master for cello and piano
M. Van der Aa: Oog for cello solo and electronics
S. Sciarrino: Melancolia 1 for cello and piano
M. Srnka: Simple Space
J. Harvey: Tombeau de Messiaen for piano and DAT
Silvestrov: Postludium 3 for cello and piano
Cellist Francesco Dillon was born in Torino in 1973.He graduated with the maximum of degrees at the Conservatorio “L.Cherubini” in Firenze under the inspirational guidance of Andrea Nannoni. Other very influential teachers where David Geringas, Mario Brunello and Amedeo Baldovino and for the composition studies Salvatore Sciarrino. Beside his solo activity (with Orchestra nazionale della RAI, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana,Orchestra Haydn among the others) he’s very active as cellist of the Quartetto Prometeo (wich tours regularly in Europe, Japan and South America). His deep interest in contemporary music led him to collaborate closely and regularly with some of the most important composers of today such as Gavin Bryars,Philip Glass,Vinko Globokar,Jonathan Harvey,Toshio Hosokawa,Giya Kancheli,David Lang,Henri Pousseur,Kaja Saariaho,Salvatore Sciarrino and with well renowned electronic musicians such as Matmos,Pansonic,Scanner,Midaircondo.
As a member of the internationally acclaimed group AlterEgo he has performed in all the major contemporary music festivals (Stockholm New Music, MaerzMusik, Festival Archipel, Ircam, Romaeuropa Festival, Ultima Festival Oslo, Wien Modern, Gaida Festival, Huddersfield Festival, Nous Sons Barcellona, Taktlos Berna, Musica Electronica Nova Wroclaw,Temporada Buenos Aires,Milano Musica,Biennale Venezia among others). He regularly plays chamber music with partners such as I.Arditti,G.Carmignola,M.Campanella,P.Farulli,V.Hagen,A.Lonquich,A.Lucchesini,E.Pace,R.Schmidt (Hagen string quartet),P.Vernikov. He won several competitions and with the quartet prizes at Pague spring (1st prize 1998), ARD Munich, Bordeaux. His performances were broadcasted by the German ARD, Saarländischer Rundfunk and Bayerische Rundfunk, the English BBC, Radio France, the Austrian ORF, Australian ABC and regularly for the Italian RAI Radio 3. He recorded for the labels Aulos,Dynamic,Ricordi,Stradivarius and Touch. His next releases will be the first world recordings of Variazioni for cello and orchestra by Salvatore Sciarrino and the Ballata by Giacinto Scelsi with the Italian National Radio Orchestra. He teaches at the Scuola di musica di Fiesole.
Søren Kjærgaard, Andrew Cyrille duo & Søren Kjaergaard plus friends including Kato HIdeki, Zach Layton, Bruce Tovsky
There is a somnambulant quality to Optics, a kind of waking-life feeling. Søren Kjærgaard, a 29-year-old Danish pianist, recruited bassist Ben Street and the phenomenal drummer Andrew Cyrille for this trio, and, boy, do they listen to one another.
Cyrille, known for his work with the likes of Cecil Taylor and Oliver Lake, is the senior member, and much of what happens revolves around him. The 14-minute title track that opens the CD demands patience from its musicians. Kjærgaard plots out deep, serious chords, employing dramatic pauses as the rumble of mallets on skins establishes the tone. Street picks deliberately on the upper neck of his bass as Kjærgaard then lays down an ascending series of minor chords. A quiet snare roll, a repeated three-key phrase played lightly—this is minimalist bliss. On “Cyrille Surreal,” icy, detached chords play against a reluctant swing rhythm, but things evolve, as they always do, and rowdiness finally replaces inertia.
Some of the song titles are unfortunate (including the aforementioned one). “Mallets”? No, the tune is cleverer, and more fun, than that. Kjærgaard’s staccato notes and chords conjure a movie scene: How about calling it “Gene Hackman chases Tom Cruise through the streets of Memphis”? This idea, piano as percussion, informs much of the album. “Work of Art” has the pianist playing melody and rhythm, despite the fact that it’s a duet—a percussive duet—with Cyrille. The disc ends with the funereal “Radio House Requiem,” an elegy for Danish Radio, which ceased most of its jazz programming last year because of budget cuts. We hope that doesn’t mean Kjærgaard has lost an outlet in his homeland.
Shelley Burgon + Michael Wilhelmi
Shelley Burgon (harp & computer) is a member of the collaborative chamber ensemble Ne(x)tworks and the band Stars Like Fleas. She has spent the last six years improvising as a soloist and with many legendary people associated with the New York downtown avante-garde music scene. Currently, she is spending her time composing and songwriting. She received a BA in Jazz Studies from SFSU and and MFA in Electronic Music from Mills College. She can be heard on many labels including Hometapes, Ipecac and Tzadik.
www.myspace.com/starslikefleas
Berlin Based Pianist, Michael Wilhelmi presents new works for interactive electronics and Piano.
Anthony Coleman + Huang Ruo’s Future in REverse (FIRE)
Huang Ruo’s Future in REverse (FIRE)
Three Pieces for Piano (1999-2005)
Stephen Buck, Piano
Tree Without Wind (2004)
Stephen Buck, Piano
Four Fragments (2006)
Judy Kang, Violin
Five Lights, Ten Colors (2008)
Stephen Buck, Piano
String Quartet No.1: The Three Tenses (2005)
Judy Kang, Violin I, Aaron Boyd, Violin II
Erin Wight, Viola, Charles Tyler, Cello
About the Composer:
Huang Ruo (Composer & Conductor)
Recently awarded both the First Prize and the Audience Award from the prestigious Luxembourg International Composition Prize 2008, Huang Ruo is Hailed by the New Yorker as “one of the most intriguing of the new crop of Asian-American composers.” Hailed by the New Yorker as “one of the most intriguing of the new crop of Asian-American composers,” Huang Ruo’s music has been premiered and performed by, among others, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Asko Ensemble, the Nieuw Ensemble, the Dutch Vocal Laboratory, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, under conductors such as Wolfgang Sawallisch, James Conlon, Dennis Russell Davies, Ed Spanjaard, and Ilan Volkov. In 2003, Miller Theatre featured him on its Composer Portraits series. New York Times critic Allan Kozinn hailed the concert as the second on the list of his “Top Ten Classical Moments of 2003.” In February 2007, Naxos Records released his Chamber Concerto Cycle on its acclaimed American Classics series, and his orchestral lyric Leaving Sao was released on Albany Records in 2008. Planned CD releases include Divergence on Koch Records and The Three Tenses on Summit Records. His future commissions and premieres include chamber concerto MO for the Luxembourg Sinfonietta (Luxembourg), a chamber opera for the Dutch Vocal Laboratory (Netherlands), String quartet No.2 for the Carducci Quartet (Great Britain), and String Quartet No.3 for the Quartuor Diotima (France), chamber works for UMS ´N JIP (Switzerland), the Continuum Ensemble, Camerata Pacifica, the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, and a documentary film sound tracks for the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). Huang Ruo’s past film credits include sound tracks to the films Jian-Fu Garden as well as Stand Up. His works are published by the Huang Ruo Publishing and Recording Company, which he founded in 2000. Also noted as an author, he published Selection of Classic Chinese Folk Songs (Zhong Shan University Press). In 2006, the National Committee on United States–China Relations selected him as a Young Leader Fellow. Huang Ruo was born in Hainan Island, China, in 1976, the year the Chinese Cultural Revolution ended. His father, who is a well-known composer in China, began teaching him composition and piano when he was six years old. Growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, when China was steadily opening up its gates to the Western world, he received both traditional and Western education at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He was admitted into its composition program, studying with Deng Erbo when he turned twelve. As a result of the dramatic cultural and economic changes in China following the Cultural Revolution, his education expanded from Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky, and Lutoslawski to include the Beatles, rock and roll, heavy metal, and jazz. Huang Ruo was able to absorb all of these newly allowed Western influences without inhibiting factors. As a member of the new generation of Chinese composers, he clearly knows that his goal and task is not just to simply mix both Western and Eastern elements, but to go beyond that to create a seamless synthesis and a convincing organic unity, drawing influences from various genres and cultures. After winning the Henry Mancini Award at the 1995 International Film and Music Festival in Switzerland, he moved to the United States to further his education. Since then, he has earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in composition from the Juilliard School. His composition teachers have included Randolph Coleman and Samuel Adler. Huang Ruo is currently a member of the composition faculty at SUNY Purchase. For more information about Huang Ruo, please visit his website at www.huangruo.com.
About the Performers:
Future In REverse (FIRE)
Future In REverse (FIRE) is dedicated to the future of music. Specializing in multi-media and cross-genre projects, FIRE is widely praised for its innovative programming and performances. Founded in 2005 by composer and conductor Huang Ruo, FIRE has performed at Lincoln Center, Time Warner Center, Rubin Museum of Arts, Aspen Summer Music Festival, and the Greenwich Music Festival. FIRE’s diverse collaborations include visual music with kinetic painter Norman Perryman and ballets with choreographers James Sewell from the James Sewell Ballet and Charlotte Griffin from the New York Choreographic Institute. In 2008, FIRE recorded sound tracks for two films (Emperor’s New Garden and Stand Up), which will be released in 2009. FIRE’s upcoming projects including a U.S. tour in Fall, 2009, as well as concerts at Austrian Cultural Forum, Issue Project Room, and Lincoln Center. Comprised of both Eastern and Western instruments and some of today’s most gifted and promising young musicians, FIRE advocates music in a wide variety of styles, ranging from avant-garde modernism to world music, visual arts, and experimental music. For more information about FIRE, please visit: www.myspace.com/futureinreverse
Aaron Byod (Violin)
Violinist Aaron Boyd enjoys a versatile career as an established chamber musician, soloist and teacher. Since making his debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony at the age of 17, Mr. Boyd has been heard in concert across the United States, Europe and Asia. As a chamber musician, he as collaborated with members of the Beaux Arts Trio, the Juilliard, Guarneri and Orion Quartets, Phillippe Entremont, Mitsuko Uchida, Anner Bylsma and Gerard Poulet. Mr. Boyd has played as a member of the Metamorphosen, Prometheus and Orpheus chamber orchestras and toured internationally as a member of the Sejong Soloists. Mr. Boyd has participated in the Marlboro, Tanglewood, Fontainbleau, IMS Prussia Cove, Great Mountains (Korea) and La Jolla festivals and has been a prizewinner in numerous competitions including the Klein Violin Competition, the Tuesday Music Society and the Pittsburgh Concert Society.
Mr. Boydصs passionate interest in contemporary music has led to numerous premiers in concert and on record, including Milton Babbittصs 6th String Quartet and Babbittصs Clarinet Quintet. Mr. Boyd is currently first violinist and a founding member of the Zukofsky Quartet, Quartet-In-Residence at New Yorkصs Bargemusic series. With interests ranging beyond the classical genre, Mr. Boyd has played and recorded in collaboration with Jazz legend Dick Hyman, Chanteuse Badomi DeCesare, and appeared in concert on the mandolin with flutist Paula Robison. Highlights of the upcoming season include an appearance on Lincoln Centerصs زGreat Performersس series with Midori, the premier of David Gommperصs Violin Concerto with the Manhattan Sinfonietta, and at the invitation of Columbia University and The University of Chicago the Zukofsky Quartet will present all of Milton Babbittصs String Quartets in one concert. Born in Pittsburgh, Mr. Boyd began playing the violin at age 7 and graduated from The Juilliard School where he studied with Sally Thomas and coached extensively with Harvey Shapiro. As a recording artist, Mr. Boyd can be heard on the Tzadik, Furious Artisans, North/South and Naxos labels. Mr. Boyd recently joined the Violin Faculty of Columbia University and plays a violin crafted in 1995 by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.
Stephen Buck (Piano)
Stephen Buck, pianist, has performed solo and chamber works around the world. His most recent projects include joining the piano quartet Ensemble Argos and the co-founding new music ensemble Hammer/Klavier. Currently serving on the faculties of SUNY Purchase and the Hoff-Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale, NY, Dr. Buck was recently awarded his doctoral degree from Yale University. Recent engagements have included work with So Percussion at Columbia University’s Miller Theater, a concert of works by composer Huang Ruo, four-hand recitals and a performance of Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos with pianist and wife Tanya Bannister and the Westchester Philharmonic, vocal collaboration with soprano Heather Buck, and a lecture on the commedia dell’arte in piano repertoire at the Casa Italiana of NYU. An avid chamber musician and collaborative pianist, Mr. Buck has taught and performed for several summers at the Adriatic Chamber Music Festival in southern Italy. In 2006 he co-founded theAlpenKammerMusik Festival in Austria, an intensive 9-day course for musicians of all ages. He has studied at many prestigious summer music festivals, including Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and Kneisel Hall in Blue Hill, Maine. A firm believer in the value of new music, Mr. Buck has performed works of George Crumb, Steve Reich, and Alvin Singleton for the composers, as well as many works by his own contemporaries, including Marcus Maroney, Sebastián Zubieta, Roshanne Etezady, and others.
Judy Kang (Violin)
This charismatic violinist, born and raised in Canada, is establishing a career filled with diversity in musical style and artistic flair, and a continuous innnovation in performance. Judy burst onto the classical music scene at age ten, in a nationally acclaimed televised performance as soloist with the National Arts Center Orchestra. At 17, Judy captured the Grand-Prize as well as the “Best Interpretation” prize at the CBC Competition for Young Performers, Canada’s most honoured competition. Judy has performed throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean Islands and has performed in recital and with all of the major orchestras of Canada. She gave a solo performance for former Canadian prime-minister Brian Mulroney when she was nine and has also had the privilege of performing for former US president Bill Clinton. She made her debut in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall to critical acclaim, and has performed at Lincoln Center, Tokyo Suntory Hall, and Wigmore, as well as at the Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums in New York. Judy has worked closely with notable composers, Leon Kirchner, Richard Danielpour, Alexander Goehr, and Pierre Boulez, with whom, after an intense week of collaboration, lead to a successful culminating concert. Canadian composer, Michael Matthews, has written a violin concerto for her. A founding member of the piano quartet ‘Made In Canada’, formed at the Banff Center in 2006, the group immediately earned recognition in their native Canada and have received scholarships and awards including the eminent 2006 Galaxie Rising Stars Award. They were featured in Chatelaine Magazine for Women as one of 80 women to watch. At the age of 19, Judy was granted the Lily Foldes Scholarship from the Juilliard School, and graduated with a Masters Degree. She became the first graduate, with high honours, of the prestigious Artist Diploma at the Manhattan School of Music. Her mentors include Sylvia Rosenberg, Robert Mann, and Lorand Fenyves, Aaron Rosand, and Gary Graffman.She won top prizes at the Nielsen, Dong-A, Kreisler, and Naumburg International Violin Competitions. Judy has appeared on CBC, CNN, and MTV. She released two critically acclaimed CDs on the CBC Records label. She is also frequently heard live and through broadcasts on CBC (Canada), BBC (London), and on WQXR (New York). She won the ‘Sylva Gelber’ Prize given to the most talented musician under 30. In recognition of her outstanding achievement and contribution to the arts, Judy is featured as an accomplished artist and inspiration in a book entitled Korea and Canada: A Shared History. Judy is a mentor and artist for Young Audiences (YA), the nation’s largest nonprofit arts in education organization. She is also an artist and ambassador for WorldVision, a Christian relief and development organization dedicated to helping children and their communities worldwide reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty. She currently plays on the 1689 “Baumgartner” Stradivarius on generous loan from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Erin Wight (Viola)
Violist Erin Wight, a Midwestern transplant to New York City, is an active chamber musician and avid performer of new music. She performs frequently as a member of the Red Light New Music Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, and Future In Reverse (FIRE), all ensembles with a dedication to exploring contemporary repertoire. Ms. Wight has also played with the New Juilliard Ensemble, Axiom, the Juilliard Electric Ensemble, and worked closely with members of Ensemble Modern. In addition, Ms. Wight is a founding member of the Toomai String Quintet, 2007 winners of the 92nd St. Y’s Music Unlocked! competition for emerging ensembles dedicated to educational outreach. Ms. Wight is deeply committed to community engagement and is on the teaching artist faculty of the New York Philharmonic’s School Partnership Program, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and the Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall. Ms. Wight completed her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School where she studied with Paul Neubauer.
Charles Tyler (Cello)
Having been named winner of the 2006 Cleveland Institute of Music’s Concerto Competition and the 2007 Cleveland Cello Society Competition, Charles Tyler is a rising musician who has performed live on radio stations of Cleveland and Chicago and with orchestras around the country as soloist. Most recently Tyler acted as principal cellist for the National Repertory Orchestra’s 2008 summer season in Breckenridge Colorado. There he performed Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme and Bernstein’s Three Meditations from Mass as soloist under conductors Andres Moran and Kristjan Järvi. In previous summers, Tyler attended the Meadowmount School of Music in 2002 and 2003 and the Encore School for Strings in 2005 and 2006 where performed works of Rachmaninoff, Martinu, and Brahms. In the summer of 2007 he attended Villefavard, an intensive master class session lead by Maurico Fuks and Michel Strauss in central France. He then continued his studies with Strauss at the Conservatoire National Superior de Musique de Paris for the fall of 2007. In addition to performing more traditional repertoire, Tyler has also performed George Crumb’s innovative electric string quartet Black Angels on a live radio broadcast on Cleveland’s WCLV. Being an advocate of new music, he has premiered and performed numerous new works in orchestral, chamber and solo settings. Tyler has performed in masterclasses for Paul Katz, Steven Doane, Eleonore Schoenfeld, Zvi Plesser, Peter Salaff, the Cavani String Quartet, and the Osiris Piano Trio and has previously studied with Tanya Carey and Jeanne Johannesen. In the spring of 2008 he received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music graduating with honors. There he was a student of Richard Aaron, Melissa Kraut, and Richard Weiss and will continue his studies in the fall of 2008 at The Juilliard School with Joel Krosnick.
ANTHONY COLEMAN – NEW WORKS
Six Short Pieces For Solo Piano (2008)
Flat Narrative (2008)
And More!
Anthony Coleman is a composer-keyboardist who has performed and recorded throughout the world. His projects include the piano trio Sephardic Tinge, which has released three discs: Sephardic Tinge, Morenica, and Our Beautiful Garden Is Open (all Tzadik) and has performed at the Sarajevo Jazz Festival (with support from Arts International), North Sea Jazz Festival, Saalfelden Festival, and the Krakow and Vienna Jewish Culture Festivals. His Selfhaters Orchestra has issued two CDs: Selfhaters and The Abysmal Richness of the Infinite Proximity of the Same (both Tzadik).
His compositions for other ensembles include Latvian Counter-Gambit for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Crosstown Ensemble, Mise en Abime, commissioned by the Bang On A Can All-Stars/Jerome Foundation, Goodbye and Good Luck, commissioned by Neta Pulvermacher and Dancers/Meet The Composer, as well as commissions from Relche, Aspen Woodwind Quintet, and David Krakauer/Concert Artists Guild. Coleman’s compositions can also be heard on the following CDs: Carol Emanuel’s Tops of Trees (Koch); Guy Klucevsek’s Manhattan Cascade (CRI); A Guide For The Perplexed (Knitting Factory Works); A Conspiracy of Dances (Einstein); and Polka From the Fringe (Wave/Eva). Coleman’s other major projects have included by Night, a series of pieces based on experiences in the ex-Yugoslavia (Disco by Night [Avant]) and the duo Lobster and Friend, with saxophonist Roy Nathanson (The Coming Great Millennium, Lobster and Friend [both Knitting Factory Works] and I Could’ve Been A Drum [Tzadik]). He has also produced several recordings for other artists, including Marc Ribot, Basya Schecter and Pharoah’s Daughter, Romanian singer Sanda, as well as the acclaimed With Every Breath – the Music of Shabbat at BJ [Knitting Factory Works]. Anthony Coleman has received grants and residencies from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Djerassi Colony, the Civitella Ranieri Center, the Frei und Hansestadt Hamburg Kulturbehrde and the Yellow Springs Arts Center.
In the last year, Coleman has been the subject of a three-day festival, Abstract Adventures, in Brussels, Belgium. He presented a concert of his music as part of the Interpretations series at Merkin Concert Hall, NYC. He spent the spring semester of 2003 teaching theory and composition at Bennington College in Vermont and toured Europe with his new trio, Professionales, featuring Brad Jones and Roberto Rodriguez. He has degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music and the Yale School of Music and attended Mauricio Kagel’s seminar at Centre Acanthes in Aix-en-Provence, France.
Emily Manzo & Daisy Press perform Erik Satie’s SOCRATE + VEXATIONS for Toy Pianos
Emily Manzo & Daisy Press perform Erik Satie’s SOCRATE + Flux Quartet
ISSUE Project Room is pleased to host a special performance of Erik Satie’s masterpiece, “Socrate” based on the life and death of Socrates, featuring a libretto by Jean Cocteau, performed by soprano Daisy Press and pianist Emily Manzo.
A specialist in the field of contemporary music, Daisy Press, vocalist, was born into a performing family as the daughter of two musicians. In addition to her solo and ensemble vocal work, she also plays the violin and guitar and has appeared as an actor in an upcoming Adam Goldberg independent film. Most recently, she was praised by the New York Times for her “winning subtlety and understatement” in her rendition of George Crumb’s new folk-based song cycle “Unto the Hills” at Miller Theater with the acclaimed group So Percussion. Previously, she has sung with them the works of Steve Reich, including “Music for 18 Musicians” and “Drumming,” which she has also performed as a guest artist at Juilliard.
Additional credits include being the featured soloist for the New York premiere of Phillipe Leroux’s “Voi(rex)” at Miller Theater alongside IRCAM; “Apparition” by George Crumb at the Bang on a Can Marathon, where Ms. Press was for two years singer-in-residence; “Attila-Joszef Fragments” by Kurtag at Symphony Space; and excerpts, with the composer in attendance, for Elliot Carter’s “Of Challenge and of Love.” She has also appeared in Ireland with the Argento Ensemble in Earl Kim’s “Exercises en Route” and was hailed for her “calm naturalness” by The New York Times for her performance of early and late Webern song cycles.
Ms. Press has performed Morton Feldman’s “Three Voices” (the studio recording of which is soon to be released) and has appeared with the renowned VOX vocal ensemble. She is currently on faculty at Manhattan School of Music, where she received her Masters degree. She also holds academic degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and Oxford University, and she has studied voice in the studios of Trish McCaffrey and Hilda Harris, and North Indian ragas with Michael Harrison.
VEXATIONS for toy pianos
with
Andrea LaRose (antisocial music)
Barry London (from Oneida)
Nick Hallett
Tom Chiu
Katie Young
Emily Manzo
till by turning + folds ensemble
Till by Turning is the collective effort of Amy Cimini, Erica Dicker, Emily ManzoSarah Biber, and Katherine Young.
Working as performers, educators, improvisers, scholars, composers, and song-writers — Till by Turning performs new chamber music by established and emerging artists and develops creative educational programs.
“There’s an old Shaker dance number, written in 1848 by Elder Joseph Brackett, that likely serves as inspiration for…Till by Turning. It’s called “Simple Gifts,” and what it describes is a kind of serendipitous joy in movement through time and space: “When true simplicity is gain’d / To bow and to bend we shan’t be asham’d / To turn, turn will be our delight / Till by turning, turning we come round right.”
The group belongs to a new generation of adventurous musicians bringing contemporary music to clubland….the players dip into the modern canon…and give breath to new works by their peers.” – Steve Dollar, Time Out Chicago
The members of Till by Turning met while studying instrumental performance at Oberlin Conservatory. Inspired in part by a unique instrumentation (violin, viola, cello, bassoon, and piano), our first concert was a program of Sofia Gubaidulina’s music.
Since then, we have commissioned and premiered music by Jessica Pavone, Aaron Siegel, Sabrina Schroeder, Alex Ness, and Katherine Young. Our repertoire also includes pieces by Morton Feldman, Olivier Messiaen, Harold Meltzer, James Tenney, and Christian Wolff. Our dedication to challenging and experimental new music goes hand in hand with our commitment to educational programs.
Jason Brogan (director), Michael Hanf (performance), Nathan Koci (horn), David Linaburg (electric guitar), Dave Ruder (clarinet) and Sam Sfirri (piano)
“A fold is always folded within a fold, like a cavern in a cavern. The unit of matter, the smallest element of the labyrinth, is the fold, not the point which is never a part, but a simple extremity of the line.” (4)
“[E]very contour is blurred to give definition to the formal powers of the raw material, which rise to the surface and are put forward as so many detours and supplementary folds.” (17)
Gilles Deleuze, The Fold
folds ensemble:
experimental music and performance
Jason Brogan, electric guitar (director)
Kieran Daly, laptop/activities
Sam Sfirri, piano/melodica
shawn onsgard + maguire x clearvor x halvorson
January 10, 2008
Shawn Onsgard
shawn onsgard
Piano & Organ
Brooklyn pianist and composer Shawn Onsgard presents fresh selections
from his avant jazz compositions arranged for solo piano and Hammond
organ.
Through composition and performance Onsgard seeks an epistemology in
music practice which might inform new and meaningful life
experiences. He is currently developing an improvisatory solo piano
repertoire that explores imbalanced harmonic structures inspired by
Alexander Scriabin and Vijay Iyer. When not at the piano, he composes
for all sound-producing things from ice cream trucks, to hundred
meter piano wires, to snoring grandparents, and everything in between
exploring politics, metaphor, narrative, and perception of space
through sound.
His work has been performed and exhibited internationally, and he has
worked with composers Anthony Braxton and Alvin Lucier; film makers
Pierre Huyghe, and Jane & Louise Wilson; choreographer Mollie
O’Brien; and media artists Aaron Davidson & Melissa Dubbin, and Woody
Vasulka. He has received grants from Meet the Composer, NYSCA
Independent Media Artist award, NYFA Special Opportunity Stipend; and
he received his MA in experimental music composition from Wesleyan
University, CT.
Maguire x Cleaver x Halvorson
“Then I reflected that all things happen to oneself, and only in the
present; countless men in the air, on the land and sea, yet everything
that truly happens, happens to me….”
This decidedly unbalanced trio of drums, electric guitar, and exposed
Rhodes integrates extended sections of exact notation with
improvisational passages to create a vivid aural landscape of textural
diversity and rhythmic sensuality.
Mary Halvorson is a guitarist, composer and improviser living in
Brooklyn. She grew up in Boston and studied jazz at Wesleyan University
and the New School. Since 2000 she has been performing regularly in New
York with various groups and has toured Europe and the U.S. with the
Anthony Braxton Quintet (Live at the Royal Festival Hall, Leo Records)
and Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant (Sister Phantom Owl Fish, Ipecac
Recordings). She has also performed alongside Joe Morris, Nels Cline,
John Tchicai, Elliott Sharp, Andrea Parkins, Marc Ribot, Tony Malaby,
Oscar Noriega and Jason Moran. Current projects which Mary composes for
and performs with include a chamber-music duo with violist Jessica
Pavone ( On and Off, Skirl Records, 2007); The Mary Halvorson Trio with
John Hebert and Ches Smith; and the avant-rock band People (Misbegotten
Man, I & Ear Records, 2007). She also performs regularly in ensembles
led by Taylor Ho Bynum, Ted Reichman, Tatsuya Nakatani, Jason Cady,
Matthew Welch, Brian Chase and Curtis Hasselbring.
Gerald Cleaver, born and raised in Detroit, is a product of the city’s
rich music tradition. Inspired by his father, John Cleaver, also a
drummer, he began playing the drums at an early age. He also played
violin in elementary school and switched to trumpet during junior high
and high school. While in his teens, he gained early working experience
with Ali Muhammad Jackson, Lamont Hamilton, Earl Van Riper, and Pancho
Hagood and later with Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, Rodney Whitaker,
A. Spencer Barefield and Wendell Harrison. Cleaver earned a B.A. in
music education from the University of Michigan. During his studies he
was awarded an National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Fellowship to
study with drummer Victor Lewis. After graduating he began teaching in
Detroit, and later joined the jazz faculty at the University of
Michigan and Michigan State University. He relocated to New York in
2002. Cleaver has worked with Roscoe Mitchell, Henry Threadgill, Jacky
Terrasson, Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Mario Pavone, Charles Gayle,
Matthew Shipp, Reggie Workman, Joe Morris, Craig Taborn, Ralph Alessi,
Eddie Harris, and Miroslav Vitous, among others.
Carl Maguire grew up in Madison, Wisconsin where his early piano
teachers included Jacquelyn Patricia, Ellsworth Snyder, and Joan
Wildman. He continued on to the University of Wisconsin, studying
improvisation with Roscoe Mitchell. Moving to New York in 1995, Carl
engaged in a curriculum of liberal arts at Hunter College, Schenkerian
analysis at Mannes, and post-tonal theory at CUNY Graduate Center. He
studied piano with Fred Hersch, Marilyn Crispell, and Ursula Oppens,
and of particular importance, composition with Mark Dresser. Carl
performs on piano and Rhodes, with both traditional and
less-traditional techniques, and sometimes on accordion. He has
performed or recorded with the Carter Thornton Assembly; Brett Sroka’s
Ergo; Tyshawn Sorey Quartet; The Wau Wau Sisters; Laura Andel
Orchestra; Barbez; Ben Gerstein Collective; Momenta Quartet; and was a
featured soloist in Butch Morris’ New York Skyscraper.Since 2001, Carl
has led Floriculture with Chris Mannigan, John Hebert, and Dan Weiss.
The band plays exclusively Maguire’s compositions. Donald Elfman says
“These are exceptional players, but each man’s every note is at the
service of making brilliant, involving music.” In 2006, Floriculture
released its first album on Between The Lines, to critical acclaim.
8pm $10
On January 25, ISSUE Project Room will inaugurate its new space at 110 Livingston with Gaudeamus Muziekweek, a four-day festival celebrating groundbreaking and challenging new music by emerging composers from around the world. Working in partnership ...
ISSUE is starting off the New Year with a change of scenery. That's right, Issue Project Room is moving out of our space at the Old American Can Factory and into 110 Livingston in Downtown Brooklyn. We've had a great run at the Can Factory,...