MATA Interval 2.1 - Grúpat/Jenny Walshe & Object Collection

MATA Interval 2.1
Music of the Dublin collective Grúpat
Performed by Object Collection and curator Jennifer Walshe
Doors Open at 8PM

MATA kicks off the second season of its bi-monthly series Interval with a program of music by the radical and enigmatic South Dublin collective Grúpat. Curated by Irish vocalist and composer Jennifer Walshe, Grúpat's greatest champion, Interval 2.1 features the collective's eclectic blend of textural and playful music, performed by Ms. Walshe and up-and-coming New York interdisciplinary group Object Collection

Grúpat collective
“So what is sound? Is it stillness? Does it shock flesh, the drums, the mind squealing? Is it the resolution or the tension? The silence or the not silent? So we sit or stand and even to hear the wildest anti-musical noise or nothing—it is still a creature in a jar. We want to free the creature. This is the point of everything you’ve heard before. The point, the sharpness of it, the moment where the idea takes shape and enters the flesh, drawing blood, opening bodies to air, not a penetration but a commingling, an embrasure, a knitting together, spillage and contamination—to set the creature free. Sound is the creature. Sound is a thing with feathers.” — Grúpat

For individual Grúpat Composer bios, please visit http://www.matafestival.org/interval/?p=31

Jennifer Walshe was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1974. She studied composition with John Maxwell Geddes at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Kevin Volans in Dublin and graduated from Northwestern University, Chicago, with a doctoral degree in composition in June 2002. Her chief teachers at Northwestern were Amnon Wolman and Michael Pisaro. In 2003-2004 Jennifer was a fellow of Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart; during 2004-2005 she lived in Berlin as a guest of the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm. From 2006 to 2008 she is the composer-in-residence in South Dublin County for In Context 3. In 2007 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York. She frequently performs as a vocalist, specialising in extended techniques. Many of her recent compositions were commissioned for her voice in conjunction with other instruments, and her works have been performed by her and others at festivals such as RTÉ Living Music (Dublin), Donaueschinger Musiktagen, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Composer’s Choice (Dublin), SoundField (Chicago) the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt, Stockholm New Music, and BELEF (Belgrade). Jennifer is also active as an improviser, performing regularly with musicians in Europe and the U.S.

For a more extensive biography of Walshe, please visit www.matafestival.org/interval/?p=32

Object Collection was founded in 2004 by director/writer/designer Kara Feely and composer/instrumentalist Travis Just as a collaborative theater-music performance group solidly rooted in the experimental tradition. Dedicated to new artistic work in hybrid forms, Object Collection constructs performances using a unique palette of live sound, composed music, and found text. Based in New York City, the group presents collaborative projects and curated series both at home and abroad using an expanding network of local and international affiliated artists.

Began during the 2007-08 season, MATA Interval is a bi-monthly series produced in conjunction with Issue Project Room (IPR). Interval features emerging composers and performers in programs developed and produced by young participants in MATA’s Curatorial Associate program. Presented at IPR in Gowanus, Brooklyn, the series is committed to presenting various streams of thought and aesthetics from the field, mapping areas in which the traditional and the experimental coexist.