Central to the new-music experience in New York.
– Time Out NY
Central to the new-music experience in New York.
– Time Out NY
TILT Brass - Quintettes
Sisters Bklyn
Part of Sam Weinberg 2024 Residency
Tuesday, June 18, 2024
8:00pm, $10-30 sliding scale
Sisters
900 Fulton St, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Sisters' Calendar
June 18 lineup
• TILT Brass
• Sam Weinberg solo
• Sam Ospovat with Peter Evans, Brandon Seabrook, and John Hebert
Part of stellar saxophonist/composer Sam Weinberg’s monthly 2024 Residency, TILT Brass samples contemporary work for the conventional brass quintet by composers such as Steve Martland, Reena Esmail, and presents the premiere of a new piece for brass and synth by TB Director Chris McIntyre. This is TILT’s first performance at the excellent bar & restaurant Sisters in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.
TILT Brass Quintet
Wayne DuMaine, Hugo Moreno - trumpet
Chris McIntyre - trombone, Kyra Sims - horn
James Rogers - bass trombone & tuba
Other guests TBA
TILT Brass photo by Stefan Raduta
Saturday, May 18, 2024
2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
RSVP for FREE tickets
EO Event Page
PROGRAM
Talib Rasul Hakim, composer
Currents (1967)
string quartet
Four (1965)
clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano
Music for Nine Players and Soprano Voice (1977)
soprano, alto flute, English horn, bass clarinet, horn, trombone, piano,
cello, double bass, percussion
Psalm of Akhnaten; ca. 1365-1348 B.C. (1978)
mezzo soprano, flutes, piano
Scope-Seven (1965)
piano solo
Either/Or (EO) and International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) co-present and collaborate on a program of works by legendary Society of Black Composers co-founder Talib Rasul Hakim. Following the performance, a panel discussion featuring three MacArthur composers— Courtney Bryan, Tyshawn Sorey, and ICE AD George Lewis — and EO’s Richard Carrick and Chris McIntyre will discuss the history and ongoing impact of Hakim’s work.
Before his untimely passing, Talib Rasul Hakim (1940-88) was already becoming a widely influential composer, one who suffused his music for chamber and orchestral forces with intense deliberation, considered improvisations, dynamic rhythmic profiles, and purposeful silences. Hakim saw his compositions as more than just music: he saw music performance as the equivalent to an almost religious awakening. In the 1978 book The Black Composer Speaks, Hakim maintained, “It is hoped that whenever [my] music is performed, both performer and listener will experience some degree of inner stirring, that they will experience some philosophical, religious, political, emotional, intellectual experience.”
In this program, ICE and Either/Or present five diverse aspects of Hakim’s artistry that consider music as an encounter with the divine. The program includes performances of Psalm of Akhnaten; ca. 1365-1348 B.C. (1978), an imposing trio work that features a searching articulation of faith, mysticism, and spirituality; Currents (1967), his masterful entry to the string quartet canon; Scope-Seven (1965), an enigmatic solo piano work recently discovered within the vast holdings of the Library for the Performing Arts; Four (1965) for quartet; and Music for Nine Players and Soprano Voice (1977), which features the combined forces of ICE and Either/Or performers.
PERSONNEL
Either/Or
Richard Carrick, conductor
Jennifer Choi, violin
Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet
Pala Garcia, violin
Madison Greenstone, clarinet
Chris McIntyre, trombone
John Popham, cello
Kal Sugatski, viola
International Contemporary Ensemble
Fay Victor, mezzo-soprano
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute
Nicolee Kuester, horn
Cory Smythe, piano
Clara Warnaar, percussion
Panel
Courtney Bryan, composer; Tyshawn Sorey, composer; Richard Carrick, Director, Either/Or ; Chris McIntyre, Curator, Either/Or; George Lewis, Artistic Director, ICE
Image of Mr. Hakim from the William A. Brown Collection, courtesy of the Archives & Special Collections at Columbia College Chicago
Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information at macfound.org.
Made possible in part through lead support from Arlene and Larry Dunn Fund for Afrodiasporic Music and the Cheswatyr Foundation.
Either/Or presents:
Time | Again
Friday Decemeber 8th, 2023, 8:00pm
University Settlement Speyer Hall
184 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002
EO Event Page
TICKETS
Either/Or continues its 2023-24 season with a concert of two longform works featuring the world premiere of a newly commissioned piece by rising star composer Victoria Cheah, and Henning Christiansen’s classic 1970 Fluxus “tape piece” Requiem of Art (fluxum organum II) Opus 50, realized for ensemble by UK artist Anton Lukoszevieze.
PROGRAM
Victoria Cheah new work (2023) [world premiere]
for violin, cello, trombone, electronics
Henning Christiansen Requiem of Art (NYC) (fluxorum organum II) (1970/2014)
Score realization & soundtrack by Anton Lukoszevieze
Detail from Joanna Ward's London plane tree hid me from the sun (2022)
Either/Or presents:
Sowings & Affinities
Wednesday, November 15th, 2023, 8:00pm
University Settlement Speyer Hall
184 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002
EO Event Page
TICKETS
On November 15th, Either/Or returns to University Settlement’s historic Speyer Hall with an expansive program of works created by an international group of individual compositional voices. Comprised primarily of pieces written since 2000, the concert introduces new voices to the EO fold (Hannah Kendall, Leroy Jenkins), deepens several recently established relationships (Inga Chinilina, Joanna Ward, Jō Kondō), and pays homage to the great Kaija Saariaho. This event also features a special guest appearance by Downtown legend Kathleen Supové.
PROGRAM
Hannah Kendall Tuxedo: Crown; Sun King (2021) violin solo
Jō Kondō Forme semée (1982)* trombone & piano
Inga Chinilina Wear And Tear (2020) percussion solo
Kaija Saariaho Dolce Tormento (2004) piccolo solo
Leroy Jenkins Thar He (2002) violin & piano
Joanna Ward A London plane tree hid me from the sun (2022)* tutti
* US Premieres
PERFORMERS
Jennifer Choi, violin; Russell Greenberg, percussion; Christopher McIntyre, trombone; John Popham, cello; Special guest - Kathleen Supové, piano
Either/Or Ensemble presents Perspectives and Disclosures, an evening of solo, duo, and ensemble music assembled by EO Curator and trombonist Chris McIntyre at historic Speyer Hall at University Settlement House in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Works by Toshi Ichiyangi, George E. Lewis, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Mendi+Keith Odabike, Diderik Wagenaar, and Joanna Ward.
Either/Or Event Page
Ticket Purchase
Program
Toshi Ichiyangi Perspectives (1986)
for solo violin
Diderik Wagenaar La Caccia (1996)
for trombone solo
Dorothy Rudd Moore Moods (1969/2020)
for viola & cello
Paula Matthusen forgiveness anthems (2010)
for solo flute & fixed media
Mendi+Keith Odabike Selections from Big House/Disclosure (2007)
tutti
Joanna Ward I AM HOPING I DON'T MISS YOU (2020)
tutti
Personnel
Pala Garcia - violin
Margaret Lancaster - flute
Christopher McIntyre - trombone, synth, curator
John Popham - cello
Kal Sugatski - viola
EO plays Infrequent Seams Festival
Monday, December 19, 2022
8:00 PM 9:00 PM
Roulette event page
Either/Or folds into the evening-length Infrequent Seams Festival at Roulette with Profiles, a wide ranging program of works by a multi-generational group of composers. Its set includes chamber music rarities by Talib Rasul Hakim (1940-88) and Jō Kondō, a recent solo cello work by James Díaz, and an evocative graphic score by Kathernine Yo.
PROGRAM
Talib Rasul Hakim - Duo (1963) for flute & clarinet
James Díaz - en tiempos de voz pasiva (2019) for cello & elec.
Jo Kondo - A Scribe (1985) for flute, trombone, piano, perc
Talib Rasul Hakim - Profiles (1964) for clarinet, trumpet, trombone, cello
Katherine Young - For Autonauts, For Travelers (2012) - tutti
PERSONNEL
Richard Carrick - piano; Jonthan Finlayson - trumpet; Madison Greenstone - clarinet; Margaret Lancaster - flute; Chris McIntyre - trombone; Chris Nappi - percussion; John Popham - cello
Intimacy of Detail: The Music of Chiyoko Szlavnics
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 2 AT 9:00PM
TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF NEW YORK
43A WEST 13TH STREET NEW YORK, NY, 10011
On Wednesday, November 2, 2022, at Tenri Cultural Institute, Either/Or presents Intimacy of Detail, a special performance centered on the singular sound world of Canadian-born, Berlin-based composer Chiyoko Szlavnics. The program retrospectively focuses on Szlavnics’ work from the mid-Aughts forward. From the year 2000 onward, she “developed a compositional approach based on self-generated drawings. The drawings enabled her to conceive and realise a kind of music, which promotes the perception of certain psychoacoustic phenomena (beating and combination tones), through her sensitive setting of ratio-related pitch material in sustains and extended glissandi, and her careful orchestration.” The string quartet Gradients Of Detail (2005/6) is a prime example of this method of transliteration which the stellar string players of Either/Or will bring to life within the assiduously close listening space of Tenri. Paired with the larger ensemble work (a)long lines… (2004/rev. 2017) and Constellations I-III (2011) for piano & sine tones, EO’s local audience will gain meaningful access to Szlavnics' involving aural environments.
PROGRAM
Chiyoko Szlavnics, composer
(a)long lines: we'll draw our own lines (2004/rev. 2017)
flute, trombone, violin, violoncello, percussion, sine tones
Constellations I-III (2011)
piano and sine tones
Gradients Of Detail (2005/6)
string quartet
PERSONNEL
Richard Carrick - piano (EO Director); Jennifer Choi - violin; Pala Garcia - violin; Margaret Lancaster - flute; Hannah Levinson - viola; Alex Lough - electronics & sound; Chris McIntyre - trombone (curator); Chris Nappi - percussion; John Popham - cello
GRADIENT OF DETAIL (2005) - DRAWINGS BY THE COMPOSER
Pioneer Works: False Harmonics #12
TILT Brass & Zeena Parkins
7:00p Doors
8:00p Performance
$20 adv. $25 day-of
PW Event Page
Performing music by Julius Eastman, Phill Niblock, and Zeena Parkins
Featuring compositions & solo set by Ms. Parkins (harp)
Special guests James Fei (analog electronics) and Josh Henderson (violin)
Brooklyn’s own TILT Brass presents a program of works by legendary New York composers including the premiere of a new transcription of Julius Eastman’s brutalist If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich? (1977) for a 13 piece orchestra of brass, strings, and chimes (featuring violinist Josh Henderson), the premiere of TILT’s massed brass version of Phill Niblock’s Exploratory (2019), and Zeena Parkins’ Whistling in the Dark Wind (2019) for TILT Brass sextet and two improvisers (Parkins on harp & polymath musician James Fei on analog electronics.) Ms. Parkins will also present a solo harp set of two new works, one of her own creation, the other by her Mills College composer colleague John Bischoff.
Images: TILT Brass by Stefan Rudata; Zeena Parkins by Jeff Preiss; Julius Eastman by ©David Oliver; Phill Niblock by Ramin Talaie; Josh Henderson by Kristofer Bergman
On Thursday May 19, 2022 at 8:30pm in Tenri Cultural Institute (new time and location!), EO presents Variegates & Reactivities, a program of solos, duos, and ensemble works from an expansive group of creative perspectives. This cohort of composers represents continuing musical dialogs (Grisey, Hakim, and Chacon) and newly initiated investigations (Bland, Da Costa, and Lou) for the group.
Featuring EO flutist Margaret Lancaster and stellar guest performer Madison Greenstone on clarinet, Talib Rasul Hakim’s (1940-88) Duo is a special addition to EO’s growing TRH repertoire (initiated in Nov ‘21). This work introduced Hakim’s music (then Stephen A. Chambers) to the NYC music community during a Music In Our Time concert at Town Hall in 1965. Greenstone’s learned performance of Gérard Grisey’s classic Deux Pièces pour Clarinette Contrebasse builds on previous EO presentations from the Frenchman’s oeuvre including "Solo pour Deux" (1981) and Périodes (1974). In December ‘21, EO took its initial step into the idiosyncratic creative world of composer, performer, and current Whitney Biennial artist, Raven Chacon with Whisper Trio, a brief, barely audible recitation in Diné (Chacon is a citizen of the Navajo Nation.) In the program note for his 2004 graphic score …lahgo adil’i… (the full title translates to “acting differently in the presence of strangers'') Chacon says the piece is “a reaction to some listeners (or performers of my early works) believing that they should be hearing some kind of ‘Native American influence’ in my music. Whatever that meant (to them). So this piece puts that burden into the hands of white performers, as that is who is the majority in music institutions in this country.” For EO’s realization, Chacon will visually guide the group through the score while the individual players consider their own interpretive paths.
Each of the three composers on the program that are new to the EO fold use very personal, distinctive languages in their compositions. Noel Da Costa (1929-2002) was a Jamaican-American artist and educator born in Nigeria. In 1967, Da Costa co-founded the Society for Black Composers with Mr. Hakim and a number of others. He was also deeply involved in the important Symphony for the New World as a performer, composer, and organizer. Trombonist and event Curator *Chris McIntyre* recently retrieved Da Costa’s 4 Preludes from the Library of Congress and he’ll be joined by EO’s Director Richard Carrick on piano in its first performance in decades. Ed Bland’s (1926-2013) career was also quite diverse, straddling the various worlds of concert music, literary criticism, filmmaking, film and TV composing, and beyond. He made a number of flute pieces, of which For Flute (to be performed by Ms. Lancaster) is the most virtuosic and visceral. Finally, EO delves into the singular realm of 2018 Rome Prize winner Michelle Lou’s music. Lou’s bio states that her work “studies the possibilities of how strange form(s), functioning as behavior/as odd containers of strange objects/material can shape experiential time.” Outlines for bass flute (Lancaster), bass clarinet (Greenstone), and horn (Nicolee Kuester) articulates these preoccupations by using audio phone apps, tone generators, wine glasses, and more to alter and skew static instrumental sounds, along with time and listening itself.
PROGRAM
Talib Rasul Hakim Duo (1963) for Flute and Clarinet
Gérard Grisey Deux Pièces pour Clarinette Contrebasse (1983)
Ed Bland For Flute (1980)
Noel Da Costa 4 Preludes (1973) for Trombone and Piano
Michelle Lou Outlines (2017, rev. '22) for Bass Flute, Bass Clarinet and Horn
Raven Chacon …lahgo adil’i dine dooyeehosinilgii yidaaghi (2004) open instrumentation
PERFORMERS
Margaret Lancaster - Flutes
Madison Greenstone - Clarinets
Nicolee Kuester - Horn
Christopher McIntyre - Trombone
Richard Carrick - Piano
Raven Chacon - conductor
Eithere/Or is proud to present Process and Potentiality, a celebration of new and historic works exploring the limits of interpretation, notation, and musical communication.
The program includes the world premieres Wereds for solo flute (2019) by Jessie Cox (with whom E/O premiered his experimental opera As a Song of the World in 2020), and Graphic Series:Lead Sheets #50 by Artistic Director Richard Carrick. In addition, EO presents performances of works by Katherine Young, Raven Chacon, Roman Haubenstock-Ramati, Roland Kayn, and Tom Johnson.
Performers
Richard Carrick - piano; Jennifer Choi - violin; Margaret Lancaster - flute; Chris McIntyre - trombone; John Popham - cello
Program
Jessie Cox Wereds - solo bass/piccolo flute (2019)
World Premiere
Tom Johnson Sequenza Minimalista (1992)
> CJM solo trombone
Richard Carrick Graphic Series: Lead Sheets Selections (2019)
World Premiere
Raven Chacon Whisper Trio (2008)
Roland Kayn Inerziali (1964)
Katherine Young For Astronauts, For Travelers (2012)
Roman Haubenstock-Romati Konstellationen, selections (1971)
Roland Kayn, detail from Inerziali (1964)
Either/Or (EO) initiates its 2021-22 Season with a special concert at Tenri Cultural Institute in Manhattan. On Tuesday, November 23, the group is proud to present a portrait concert of extremely rare music by African-American composer, educator, and community organizer Talib Rasul Hakim (1940-88) (né Stephen A. Chambers). This event is the opening salvo of an extensive investigation by Either/Or and its Curator Chris McIntyre into the life and music of Mr. Hakim.
Press Release
EO Event Page
Performers
Narek Arutyunian - clarinet; Jennifer Choi - violin; Jonathan Finlayson - trumpet; Pala Garcia - violin; Margaret Lancaster - flute; Hannah Levinson - viola; Chris McIntyre - trombone; John Popham - cello; Adam Tendler - piano
Program
Talib Rasul Hakim Prelude (ca. 1966)
trombone & piano
TRH Four (1965)
clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano
Tania León Alma (2007)
flute, piano
TRH Profiles (1964)
clarinet, trumpet, trombone, cello
TRH Sound-Gone (1967)
solo piano
TRH Currents (1967)
string quartet
Either/Or: 2021 Spring Festival
June 21, 3:00pm EST
LIVE at Seaport District Pier 17 [Part of Make Music New York]
June 24, 8:00pm EST
Streamworks: Part 1 [online event]
June 26, 8:00pm EST
Streamworks: Part 2 [online event]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York experimental music ensemble Either/Or emerges from the pandemic hiatus with the 2021 iteration of its acclaimed Spring Festival programming. The Festival features three events during the last week of June.
First, on Monday, June 21, EO presents an in-person, outdoor concert on the Upper Square of the Seaport District’s Pier 17. As part of the annual Make Music New York extravaganza, tellar EO members (Margaret Lancaster, Richard Carrick, and Chris McIntyre) are joined by special guests Jonathan Finlayson and Zeena Parkins to perform works by renowned composers Anthony Braxton, Ms. Parkins, EO Director Carrick, and Julius Eastman. The closeness of EO to these creators’ music adds to the auspiciousness of the group’s return and is a heartfelt offering of joy to all citizens of our beloved city.
Either/Or - Live at Seaport District Pier 17
Part of Make Music New York
June 21, 3:00pm
Location:
Pier 17 - 89 South St, New York, NY 10038 [map]
Program:
Anthony Braxton - No. 40(O) (1975)
Zeena Parkins - Selections from Lace Pieces (2008 - ongoing)
Richard Carrick - Graphic Series:Lead Sheets (2021)
Julius Eastman - Joy Boy (1974)
Personnel:
Richard Carrick - e. guitar & keyboard; Jonathan Finlayson - trumpet; Margaret Lancaster - flute; Chris McIntyre - trombone; Zeena Parkins - harp & electronics
EO’S Spring Festival continues with two internet presentations on June 24th and 26th, featuring two of Either/Or’s most adventurous players, Vasko Dukovski (clarinets) and Margarget Lancaster (flute). Both artists have explored the possibilities of the online context during the pandemic period, developing videographic skills along the way. These events feature the results of this research, offering wide swath of musical and visual thought: Lancaster gathering several works created in collaboration with composer colleagues, Dukovski (along with EO Director Carrick) assaying and selecting newly discovered works from an international call-for-scores in April, both deeply involved in each video realization. That call gives these two online experiences their title: Streamworks Vols. 1 & 2.
Each of the two events will be followed by a live discussion of the music with the composers and performers. Carrick and EO Curator Chris McIntyre will host, taking and directing questions from the audience. A Zoom link will be distributed at the end of each presentation.
Streamworks - vol. 1
June 24, 8:00pm EST [online event]
Inga Chinilina (Providence, Moscow) sky every day [Dukovski - bass clarinet]
Nina Fukuoka (NYC, Japan/Poland) 13<x & x<11 [Dukovski - bass clarinet]
Elizabeth Hoffman (NYC) for margaret: bloom back brighter [Lancaster - flute]
Elizabeth Hoffman (NYC) deep dark dive (world premiere) [Lancaster - flute]
Ryan Carraher (Seattle) i wanted to fly from the roof and i fell, monodrama for solo clarinetist [Dukovski - clarinet]
Streamworks - vol. 2
June 26, 8:00pm EST [online event]
Yuma Uesaka (NYC, Detroit) Dual Duel [Dukovski - clarinet]
Jacob TV (Netherlands) Farewell Feathered Friends [Lancaster - piccolo]
Irene Tanuwidjaja (Indonesia) Stocks [Dukovski - bass clarinet]
Juraj Kojš (Miami, Slovakia) The Foyer from The Apartment of Earthly Delight [Lancaster - flute] Tianyu Zou (Beijing) two shameful moments of my day [Dukovski - bass clarinet]
Both Streamworks programs are free and will be broadcast on Either/Or’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/eitherorensemble
Either/Or's Concert Seasons are made possible by the generous support of the BMI Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts (a New York State agency), and by our private donors. Either/Or is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Photo: Suzanne Fiol, February 2006 outside ISSUE Project Room Carroll Street Silo; for use on Ne(x)tworks' 2006 SILOMUSIC Artists-In-Residence brochure.
Thursday, October 24th, 2019, New York’s long-running creative music ensemble Ne(x)tworks presents its final performance at ISSUE Project Room, taking place during the exhibition Suzanne Fiol: TEN YEARS ALIVE which presents visual works by ISSUE’S founder Suzanne Fiol. The career-spanning program nods in many of the directions explored since the group’s first concert in June 2003, showcasing graphic and hybrid scores that expose the conceptual root elements of the Ne(x)tworks project.
The October 24th program includes historical graphic works by John Cage (Selections from Song Books [1970]) and Cornelius Cardew (selections from Schooltime Compositions [1968]) and spatialized works by Netherlands-based Australian composer Kate Moore (Sensitive Spot [2005] for solo piano and multi-channel audio, featuring group co-founder Steven Gosling) and co-founder Chris McIntyre (Sigmar [from 0] [2004], re-sited for ISSUE’s Boerum Place location from the original E. 6th St. space). Developing work by its composer-performer membership has been a foundational idea for Ne(x)tworks from its inception. In addition to McIntyre’s piece this concert highlights work by long-time members Miguel Frasconi (selections from his photographic score series Ne(x)traits [2009, rev 2019]), Shelley Burgon (the free flowing, through-composed glass trees [2007]), and Words on Water (shimmer) by esteemed vocalist and co-founder Joan La Barbara, progenitor (with co-founder Cornelius Dufallo) of the composer-performer ensemble concept that became Ne(x)tworks.
Ne(x)tworks’ relationship with ISSUE Project Room began early in both organizations’ histories. A number of seminal concerts in the group’s development were staged at ISSUE’s original East 6th Street and subsequent Carroll Street silo locations, including a collaborative festival event (with Whitney Museum) in 2005 presenting the music of James Tenney that brought new attention to the still-fledgling presenter. A strong bond grew between these musicians and ISSUE Founder Suzanne Fiol. This creative and interpersonal energy led to ISSUE enlisting Ne(x)tworks as one of its first official Artists In Residence (AIR) during the first half of 2006. Taking place in and around the silo on the Gowanus Canal, the group’s four residency concerts were artistically and creatively pivotal and provided focus that led Ne(x)tworks toward much of the acclaimed work they have pursued to this day.
PERSONNEL:
Joan La Barbara - voice, Co-Founder
Shelley Burgon - harp/elec., Member since 2006
Yves Dharamraj - cello, Member since 2006
Cornelius Dufallo - violin, Co-Founder
Miguel Frasconi - glass/elec., Member since 2006
Stephen Gosling - piano/synth, Co-Founder
Stephanie Griffin - viola, long-time collaborator
Ariana Kim - violin, Member since 2006
Chris McIntyre - trombone/elec., Co-Founder
Danny Tunick - percussion, long-time collaborator
PROGRAM (details on IPR Event Page)
John Cage Selections from Song Books (1970) [pre-concert]
Kate Moore Sensitive Spot (Music Out of The City) (2005)
Miguel Frasconi Ne(x)traits (2009, rev 2019)
Chris McIntyre Sigmar [from 0] (2004/19)
Shelley Burgon glass trees (2007)
Cornelius Cardew Selections from Schooltime Compositions (1968)
Joan La Barbara Words on Water (Shimmer) (2008, rev 2019)
25 September, 2019: Miller Theatre
COMPOSER PORTRAITS: Anthony Braxton
Either/Or returns to Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts to present COMPOSER PORTRAITS: Anthony Braxton. In collaboration with JACK Quartet and in celebration of Braxton’s 75th year, EO perform a range of this iconoclastic composer and virtuoso performer’s compositions that span 40 years of his illustrious career as a creator. Visit Miller’s Event Page for more details on the Sep. 25 program, and Tri-Centric Foundation website for information about Anthony’s musical world.
EO Personnel:
Conductor/Piano - Richard Carrick; Clarinet - Vasko Dukovski; Perc - Russell Greenberg; Bass - James Ilgenfritz; Horn - Nicolee Keuster; Flute - Margaret Lancaster; Trombone - Chris McIntyre; Bass Trombone - James Rogers
EO Guests:
Electronics/Reeds - James Fei; Trumpet - Jonathan Finlayson; Bassoon - Sara Schoenbeck; Sax/Clarinets - Josh Sinton
Facebook Event
Either/Or
Score detail from Merche Blasco's Bardenas
Curated by Chris McIntyre, Either/Or presents Interactions, a program of works that focus on essentialized forms of communication. Compositions include graphic scores by Merche Blasco (Bardenas) and Zeena Parkins (Lace Pieces), Gérard Grisey’s ecstatic Solo pour Deux for bass clarinet and trombone (Vasko Dukovsky and McIntyre respectively), and the US Premiere of Johan Svensson’s Marionette for cello (John Popham) and electro-mechanical devices.
Facebook Event
IPR Event Page
FB Event Page
SYNCRETICS SERIES:
HPRIZM: PRESSURE WAVE / JOSH SINTON: KRASA
Fri 15 Mar, 2019, 8pm
($15 - 12) ALL-ACCESS
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Friday, March 15th, ISSUE continues its Syncretics Series with acclaimed composer and performer Hprizm (Kyle Austin) performing PRESSURE WAVE, an evening length audio/visual piece. Saxophonist, bass clarinetist, and creative musician Josh Sinton also presents krasa, a series of investigations exploring the amplification and sound magnification of the contrabass clarinet.
Curated by Chris McIntyre, Syncretics Series is a programming platform that unites differentiated musical practices on each concert event. Comprised primarily of solo and duo performances by artists culled from a wide swath of the field, Syncretics presents a manifold range of work including virtuosic improvisations, immersive audio/visual environments, and keenly focused programs of recent and contemporary repertoire.
Recently staged in Philadelphia by Bowerbird, Hprizm’s PRESSURE WAVE uses the amplified resonance of urban spaces and the intersectional place between Sonic Activism, Musique Concrète, and Rap’s early roots to examine the dense environments and circumstances that birthed Hip Hop. Scored with generative programming and degenerative tape loops PRESSURE WAVE is the magnetic memory of era long past.
Hprizm adds:
“Nam June Paik, Steve Reich, and Public Enemy were all working with burgeoning tape-based technologies to make overtly political statements. Most of my remembrances of the Black Nationalists struggle are also informed by the tape medium. Building on the works of my chief influences helped me to re-contextualize the sounds and images of Black Nationalism and present them in a nuanced, non-linear form.”
Josh Sinton provides context for his work, krasa:
“krasa is the name I’ve applied to a series of investigations… of the creative potential of the electric amplifier... I decided right away that this work would be done with a contrabass clarinet, an instrument I rarely play and have limited facility on... I deliberately wanted to use an instrument that I was familiar with but not overly so… [to avoid] habits built from muscle memory and over-familiarity… I immediately discovered [that] I was able to put very, very small sounds under a kind of audio microscope… Small inhalations of breath, a key click, tiny perturbations in an expelled air stream, all these things could be magnified and therefore distorted… Inconsequential, “boring” sounds could be made the center of my imaginative focus. The detritus of my musical practice became the very stuff I used for extended, improvised performances.
I’ve used this Rube Goldberg of a biofeedback system (to quote Evan Parker) as a springboard for extended improvisations… I alternate between barren, Beckett-esque soundscapes and walls of sound that seem to be conjuring some kind of Jungian archetypes from our collective unconscious. In fact, all I am doing is examining the sounds that spontaneously occur. It is very much like Isaac Newton’s boy on the beach diverting himself with the vast quantity of pebbles he finds before him.”
Because of the “draconian conditions” Sinton places on the process (i.e. a purposefully unfamiliar amplifier, limited mic-ing, etc.), he characterizes the krasa material as:
“…a methodical and deliberate act of boxing myself into a tight corner and seeing what spontaneous creative solutions occur when asked to perform."
Hprizm (Kyle Austin) is a American composer/performer hailed as an innovator by the likes of TIME, NY TIMES and Rolling Stones. His pioneering synthesis of Hip Hop, Avant Jazz and Electronic Composition often draws comparison to Afrofuturist visionary Sun Ra. As the founder of the seminal collective [Antipop Consortium] he has shared the stages and spaces with the like of Public Enemy, Radiohead, Ornette Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell and many more. His pieces have been presented in the Met, The Whitney, Lincoln Center, The Philadelphia Museum Of Modern Art, The African American Museum, Venice Biennale, Sharjah UAE, The Walker Museum, The Penn ICA, & Theatre Du Chatelet.
Josh Sinton is a creative artist, composer and musical performer. Based in Brooklyn since 2004, he has collaborated with some of the brightest lights of the current NYC creative music scene including Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock, Anthony Braxton, Jon Irabagon, Mary Halvorson and Tom Rainey to name just a few. He has worked as a composer, sound designer and actor in Chicago with Steppenwolf Theater, Bailiwick Theater and the choreographer Julia Mayer and traveled throughout the world performing in small villages in Western India as well as on large stages in Amsterdam, Rio de Janeiro and Milan. His current research has led him to investigate the creative potential of the baritone saxophone as well as contemplating the various cul de sacs of improvised music here in New York City. He has led the bands Ideal Bread, musicianer and holus-Bolus and currently leads his Predicate Trio as well performing regularly with the trio What Happens in a Year and clarinetist and composer Guillermo Gregorio. His most recent projects are the albums “making bones…,” the essay “Four Hypotheses” for SoundAmerican.org and the solo document, “krasa.” You can find out more about Sinton and his work at joshsinton.com
TILT Brass premieres Vertical Motion, a new site-responsive acoustic work for brass octet composed by Lea Bertucci, amongst sculptures by Alexander Calder and paintings by Ellsworth Kelly at Lévy Gorvy Gallery’s landmarked building at 73rd and Madison in Manhattan.
TILT Brass personnel on 11/28
Trumpet - Jonathan Finlayson, Gareth Flowers, Tim Leopold
Trombone - Jen Baker, Will Lang, Chris McIntyre
Tuba - John Altieri, Dan Peck
LEFT: Alexander Calder. Red Maze III, 1954. Sheet metal, wire, and paint, 56 x 72 inches (142.2 x 182.9 cm). Courtesy Calder Foundation, New York / Art Resource, New York. © 2018 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Tom Powel Imaging. RIGHT: Ellsworth Kelly. Red White, 1962. Oil on canvas, 83 1/2 x 67 inches (212.1 x 170.2 cm). Courtesy San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Photo: Katherine Du Tiel.
FONT Event Page Page
Mannes website
TILT Brass returns to the annual FONT Festival to present an all-trumpet program featuring Julius Eastman’s recently realized work Trumpet from 1970 and Lois V. Vierk’s rarely heard sextet Cirrus (1987), along with compositions by Jon Gibson and TILT Director Chris McIntyre, and Eastman’s Joy Boy (1974). The performance takes place at Mannes School of Music at The New School. Brass students from the school will participate in a workshop with members of TILT and will join the group in performing Joy Boy and Gibson’s Multiples (1972.)
TILT Brass Trumpets performing Julius Eastman's Trumpet (1970) at The Kitchen[/caption]
TILT Brass Trumpets:
Jaimie Branch
Chris Bubolz
Wayne du Maine
Jonathan Finlayson
Gareth Flowers
Sam Jones
Tim Leopold
Hugo Moreno
Chris McIntyre, conductor & musical director
PROGRAM
Julius Eastman - Joy Boy (1974)
Chris McIntyre - Presencing Piece No.1 (Mannes Siting) (2014/18)
Julius Eastman - Trumpet (1970)
Lois V. Vierk - Cirrus (1987)
Jon Gibson - Multiples (1972)
Ron Hammond's 1970 image of Eastman and the first page of the original score for Trumpet
PRESS for Trumpet
NY Times Review of 2/3/18 performance
"On Saturday, May 5th, ISSUE Project Room continues its recently inaugurated Syncretics Series with solo performances by renowned Irish pianist Isabelle O’Connell and legendary drum-set master Pheeroan akLaff. Curated by Chris McIntyre, Syncretics Series presents artists at the highest level of their craft performing music ranging from virtuosic improvisations to keenly focused programs of recent and contemporary repertoire.
The May 5th concert represents this stylistic sweep by pairing two esteemed musicians from varied points on the musical spectrum. O’Connell is a stalwart of the contemporary concert music scene having premiered numerous works throughout her career, most notably championing Irish colleagues in performances around the world. Her program at ISSUE features several works by Irish composers (Donnacha Dennehy, Karen Power, Joan Tower) as well as selections from iconic American composer Frederic Rzewski who turns 80 in April.
akLaff is one of the premiere percussion artists in creative music. The list of his collaborators since the mid 1970’s charts the history of the field. It includes such luminaries as Wadada Leo Smith, Anthony Davis, Amina Claudine Myers, Sonny Sharrock, Henry Threadgill, and Cecil Taylor. His performance on May 5th is a rare occasion to experience his work as a soloist on the drum-set. Entitled Amen Sparks Soul Knowing Eternal Being, the audience is engaged to be part of the sound making while akLaff coaxes his drums and cymbals, drawing out their orchestral and rhythmic possibilities. By channelling the “ethos of being a medium for music while refraining from any attempt to extract praise,” akLaff imbues his work with ancient belief systems that address creativity as received rather than generated. ISSUE’s 22 Boerum space provides the reverberative space best suited to such an intimate approach."
PROGRAM:
Pheeroan akLaff - solo percussion
Amen Sparks Soul Knowing Eternal Being (part of The Amen Project)
Isabelle O’Connell - solo piano
Donnacha Dennehy - Reservoir (2007)
Karen Power - loaded silence (2015)
Joan Tower - Ivory and Ebony (2009)
Frederic Rzewski - Miles 5,6, and 7 from The Road (1995-2003)
SYNCRETICS SERIES: ERIC WUBBELS / ADAM TENDLER
Chris McIntyre, curator
Sat 17 Feb, 2018, 8pm
Tickets
($15 - 12) ALL-ACCESS
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Saturday, February 17th, ISSUE presents the second evening of our recently inaugurated Syncretics Series, a series of concerts featuring solo and duo performances by artists at highest level of their craft curated by Chris McIntyre. The evening features Eric Wubbels, acclaimed composer, pianist, and co-director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, performing his own compositions including the premiere of a new solo piano work and a recent duo for trombone and piano, as well as pianist Adam Tendler performing a repertoire of works from David Lang, Elodie Lauten, Frances Rose White, and Tom Johnson.
Eric Wubbels presents the first work in a major new project of music for the piano, which will eventually encompass ten to fifteen virtuosic works written for a cohort of some of the most forward-thinking, technically adept, and creative pianists currently working in New York City (including Conor Hanick, Conrad Tao, Kris Davis, Craig Taborn, and Matt Mitchell). He also presents his 2016 piece contraposition for trombone and piano. Written for and performed here by trombonist Weston Olencki, the work explores concerns of virtuosity, synchronization, and hybridization using unique languages developed through Wubbels’ and Olencki’s intensive long-term collaboration.
Adam Tendler presents a selection of unique works chosen especially for ISSUE. Tendler explains, “When [curator] Chris McIntyre invited me to participate in this concert, I felt grateful and honored. But mostly relieved. It's true. I explained at the time that I had accrued a virtual lagoon of pieces that I’d either learned or wanted to learn, but that seemed to only fit a platform like ISSUE, and that I found myself only gently nudging for opportunities to present but mostly waiting for the right one. Finally, with this February 17th concert, a couple of them will have a home.”
He continues, “these works, I felt, required a certain intimacy space-wise, but also austerity in the environment. They themselves must fill the space—not a grand concert hall, but not a house salon, either. They have a darkness, or perhaps need darkness. They pulse with a raw, hungry, ambitious immediacy. They are seminal. Young. A little reckless. They pull from the world around them and demand a lot from the performer and listener. They’re anomalies. Islands. At once extroverted and yet also cerebral and intensely personal. Even if in retrospect these works appear unique in each composer’s output, or “of a time,” it is precisely that time and feeling that I want to capture in this brief set of works for piano, and piano/tape from the 70s and 80s.”
Tendler’s notes on his presented repertoire are shown below, highlighting the idiosyncratic character of each piece:
David Lang: while nailing at random (1983)
I think of this as Lang’s Sequenza, his Piano Variations. His “ten minute monster,” to borrow Copland’s term.The only work on the program without a tape element, the piece (I think, importantly) shows a younger Lang composing music with the tenderness of a buzzsaw. And yet one can still hear glimpses of the understated, obsessive, often melancholy work that would later, some might argue, come to define the composer’s unique sound.
Elodie Lauten: Imaginary Husband (c.1983)
I hope that this realization will represent the first of several to follow. A lovely, haunting chord progression blends with ghost voices and drones from a subtle tape part. I will attempt to track down any sketches or a possible surviving tape, however I think the piece can be effectively recreated while capturing the energy of Lauten’s legendary live performances and fluid compositional approach.
Frances Rose White: Still Life with Piano (1989)
For over two years I've stared at White's Still Life with Piano hoping to play it. She wrote the work for her now-husband, James Pritchett, during the beginning of their relationship, and he premiered it. Spare but feisty pointillistic piano gestures flit above a bed of warm electronica. Ahead of its time and seldom performed, this is the kind of piece my mind conjures when I think of what I want a tape/piano piece to sound and look like. And I adore Frances Rose White.
Tom Johnson: Triple Threat (1979)
This is a barn-burner of a piece that is truly for tape and piano, with the performer using a 4-track cassette recorder to overdub spoken text and an interlocking piano texture. As one might expect from Johnson, the text is about the piece, and namely about how difficult it is to perform, with memorized text to be recited during the rewinding portions. If it works, it works! If it doesn't, well... then the piece proves itself right. But I think this will serve as a fun, cheeky and quite-perfect postcard from the loft-concert era, where composers emerged from the watershed freedoms of minimalism to push, blur and destroy concert-hall boundaries and expectations, exploring new horizons of sound and technology.
Eric Wubbels (b.1980) is a composer, pianist, and Co-Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble. His music has been performed throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the U.S., by groups such as Wet Ink Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, yarn|wire, Kupka's Piano (AUS), Berlin PianoPercussion, Ensemble Linea (FR), New York New Music, SCENATET (DK), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, and Talea Ensemble, and featured on festivals including Huddersfield Festival, Chicago Symphony MusicNOW, New York Philharmonic CONTACT, MATA Festival, and Zurich Tage für Neue Musik. The recipient of a 2016 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Wubbels has been awarded commissioning grants from Chamber Music America's Classical Commissioning Program, ISSUE Project Room, MATA Festival, Barlow Endowment, Jerome Foundation, New Music USA, and Yvar Mikhashoff Trust, and residencies at the MacDowell Colony (2011, 2016), Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Civitella Ranieri Center. As a performer, he has given U.S. and world premieres of works by major figures such as Peter Ablinger, Richard Barrett, Beat Furrer, George Lewis, and Mathias Spahlinger, as well as vital young artists such as Rick Burkhardt, Francesco Filidei, Erin Gee, Bryn Harrison, Clara Iannotta, Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Katharina Rosenberger, and Kate Soper.He has recorded for Carrier Records, hatART, Spektral (Vienna), New Focus, Albany Records, and Quiet Design and has held teaching positions at Amherst College and Oberlin Conservatory.
Adam Tendler has been called “a virtuoso pianist” by The Village Voice, "exuberantly expressive" by the Los Angeles Times, a "modern music evangelist" by Time Out New York, "musical mastermind" by the Houston Press, and a “quietly charismatic... intrepid... outstanding... maverick pianist” by The New Yorker. He has performed solo recitals in all fifty states, including engagements at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Kitchen, (le) poisson rouge, National Sawdust, Rubin Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rothko Chapel, Joe’s Pub, The Fisher Center at Bard College, Maverick Concert Hall, and James Turrell's Skypace in Sarasota, Florida. His memoir, 88x50, was a 2014 Kirkus Indie Book of the Month and a Lambda Literary Award Nominee. 2015 saw the release of Tendler's premiere recording of Edward T. Cone’s “21 Little Preludes” for piano, and he will record an album of works by Robert Palmer for New World Records in 2018. He also appears on the Tido digital music app, produced by Edition Peters. Adam Tendler lives in Brooklyn, serves on the faculty of Greenwich House Music School and Third Street Music School Settlement, and performs in the radical new music collective, Tenth Intervention. He is working on his second book.
Photo: Eric Wubbels’ being-time, released in November 2017.
Yamaha CFX concert grand piano graciously provided by Yamaha Artist Services, New York.
SYNCRETICS SERIES: CRAIG TABORN & KRIS DAVIS
Chris McIntyre, curator
Thu 15 Feb, 2018, 8pm
Tickets
($15 - 12) ALL-ACCESS
ISSUE Project Room
22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Thursday, February 15th, ISSUE presents the debut of its new Syncretics Series, a series of concerts featuring solo and duo performances by artists at highest level of their craft curated by Chris McIntyre. The opening event features two of the most revered and sought-after pianists in the experimental improvisation scene, Craig Taborn and Kris Davis. In addition to kicking off the new series, the Feb. 15 concert celebrates the release of Davis and Taborn’s forthcoming live duo piano recording Octopus. The concert features individual solo sets and culminates with a duo performance of both new compositions as well as several included on the record.
As soloists, collaborators, and composers, Ms. Davis and Mr. Taborn have both received accolades from across the critical spectrum. Hailed by Downbeat Magazine in 2016 as “one of most critically acclaimed players in jazz,” Davis’ various projects as performer and composer have situated her as a leading voice in the creative music scene. In her solo and ensemble recordings, Davis consistently demonstrates both composure and intensity. Of her solo recording Aeriol Piano, Ben Ratliff of the NY Times boasts that “it’s seriously good, a kind of logical crossing of Morton Feldman and [Keith] Jarrett, with her own touch and strong sense of compositional organization framing the soloing.”
Mr. Taborn’s illustrious career led the NY Times to say that he is “revered by other pianists and considered by many to be one of jazz music’s few contemporary innovators.” Of his recent quartet record on ECM entitled Daylight Ghosts, The Guardian states that “however far from familiar paths… Taborn strays, he sounds surefootedly convinced of his route, and however private his music, it emits a vivid intensity.”
As a duo, Taborn and Davis evince a nearly telepathic connection, moving through constantly evolving sonic contours with impressive interactive virtuosity. Their collective language (compositional and improvisational) ranges from uncanny levels of quicksilver linear density to states of near motionlessness, never overstaying their welcome within these pianistic microenvironments. Their collaborative relationship is at times fully oppositional and others in magnetic heterophony. Davis’ occasional use of preparation of the strings inside her instrument generates otherworldly textures while Taborn layers ethereal tapestries of sound. These are master musicians searching for a shared liminal space within the confines of the equally tempered modern piano.
Pianist-composer Kris Davis has blossomed as one of the singular talents on the New York jazz scene, a deeply thoughtful, resolutely individual artist who offers “uncommon creative adventure,” according to JazzTimes. Reviewing one of the series of albums that Davis has released over the past decade, the Chicago Sun-Times lauded the “sense of kaleidoscopic possibilities” in her playing and compositions. Davis’ 2013 album as a leader is the quintet set Capricorn Climber (Clean Feed). She made her debut on record as a leader with Lifespan (Fresh Sound New Talent, 2003), followed by more for the Fresh Sound label: the quartet discs The Slightest Shift (2006) and Rye Eclipse (2008), and the trio set Good Citizen (2010). Her 2011 solo piano album on Clean Feed, Aeriol Piano, appeared on Best of the Year lists in The New York Times, JazzTimes and Artforum. Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in Jazz Piano from the University of Toronto and a master’s degree in Classical Composition from the City College of New York. She currently teaches at the School for Improvised Music. Regarding her art, JazzTimes declared: “Davis draws you in so effortlessly that the brilliance of what she’s doing doesn’t hit you until the piece has slipped past.”
Craig Taborn is an American pianist, keyboardist and composer who also dabbles in organ and Moog synthesizer. Taborn began playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early stage by the freedom expressed in the recordings of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Sun Ra, and Cecil Taylor. While still at university, Taborn toured and recorded with saxophonist James Carter. He went on to play with numerous other musicians in electronic and acoustic settings, while also building a reputation as a solo pianist. Taborn had released five albums under his own name and appeared on more than 70 as a sideman.
The Kitchen Event Page
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On February 3rd, 2018, TILT Brass gives the modern premiere of Julius Eastman's Trumpet (1970), a work for trumpet septet not heard since 1971, at The Kitchen during That Which Is Fundamental, a multi-event festival focused on the work of this now-revered composer and performer. The program on 2/3 includes Ekmeles performing Macle (1971), Prelude to The Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc (1981), a solo by Julian Otis, and ACME playing the 10 cello piece The Holy Presence of Joan D'Arc (1981).
Personnel for Eastman's Trumpet at The Kitchen:
Trumpet - Gareth Flowers, Jaimie Branch, Wayne du Maine, Mike Gurfield, Tim Leopold, Hugo Moreno, Nate Wooley
Director - Chris McIntyre
Julius Eastman: Femenine + Joy Boy with the SEM Ensemble
The Kitchen
512 W 19th St, New York, New York 10011
The Kitchen Event Page
Facebook Event Page
Tickets $25 General / $20 Members
In the early 1970s, while still living in Buffalo, Julius Eastman began his long association with Petr Kotik's S.E.M. Ensemble. As a composer-performer with the ensemble, Eastman toured internationally. Femenine and Joy Boy, important transitional works, were performed frequently by the Ensemble, including at The Kitchen in 1975. The evening also includes a performance by poet Tracie Morris and electronic musician Hprizm.
PROGRAM:
Julius Eastman: Joy Boy (1974)
S.E.M. Ensemble
Petr Kotik, Director; Kamala Sankaram, Soprano; Jeffrey Gavett, Baritone; Nate Repasz, Baritone; Petr Kotik, Flute; Sara Schoenbeck, Bassoon; Chris McIntyre, Trombone / Synthesizer; David Miller, Vibraphone / Marimbaphone; Robert Boston, Piano; Pauline Kim Harris, Violin; Conrad Harris, Viola
A New Work (2017)
Tracie Morris + Hprizm
Julius Eastman: Femenine (1974)
S.E.M. Ensemble with Christopher McIntyre
Petr Kotik, Director; Kamala Sankaram, Soprano; Jeffrey Gavett, Baritone; Nate Repasz, Baritone; Petr Kotik, Flute; Sara Schoenbeck, Bassoon; Chris McIntyre, Trombone / Synthesizer; David Miller, Vibraphone / Marimbaphone; Robert Boston, Piano; Pauline Kim Harris, Violin; Conrad Harris, Viola
The performance is part of Julius Eastman: That Which Is Fundamental curated by Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Dustin Hurt, organized by The Kitchen with the Eastman Estate and Bowerbird.
EITHER/OR: TOMBEAU FOR ANA-MARIA AVRAM
From IPR Event Page:
"Romanian composer, pianist, and conductor Ana-Maria Avram (1961-2017) died at the age of 55 on Tuesday, August 1st, 2017. Avram was a truly gifted idiosyncratic composer and musician, co-conductor of The Hyperion Ensemble, and Artistic Director of the Spectrum XXI festival (which she founded to showcase innovative Romanian music).
In tribute and commemoration of her artistic contributions, ISSUE presents a “tombeau” program of Avram’s works performed by Either/OR, who produced a week-long festival of Romanian Spectralism in 2016 which brought Ana-Maria Avram and Iancu Dumitrescu to New York City for the first time. The ensemble features Mario Diaz de Leon (Electric Guitar), Vasko Dukovski (Clarients), Yarn/Wire member and former ISSUE Artist-In-Residence Russell Greenberg (Percussion), Margaret Lancaster (Flutes), and Zach Rowden (Bass).
Since 1988, Ana-Maria Avram had been a member and co-conductor of Hyperion Ensemble with her husband Iancu Dumitrescu, who together pushed the Romanian avant-garde into the hyper-spectral realm. She has composed somewhere around 150 works and over 300 combined with Dumitrescu, including compositions for soloists, orchestras, and chamber ensembles, as well as works based in electronics and computers.
Avram explained the concept of spectralism to Philip Clark in The Wire 308: “Spectralism is not just a trend but a specific attitude towards sound,” she told Philip. “There isn’t one spectral approach, but many different viewpoints. Radulescu’s sound plasma, the music of the French spectralists, and our music are often defined as post-spectral or hyperspectral: but above anything it is transformational music.”
PROGRAM:
Penumbra (III) (2016) for bass clarinet
Quatre études d’ombre (1992) for bass flute
Axe VII (2004) for double bass
Intermission
Metalstorm (IV) (2016) for ensemble and computer sounds
Textures Liminales (I) (2013) electronic music
Post-concert panel moderator with the stellar participating artists (Stephan Moore, Suzanne Thorpe, and Scott Smallwood) along with Anne Guthrie (wearing her Arup hat) and Risha Lee (curator of Rubin Museum of Art's "The World Is Sound" exhibit.)
3D Sound Object
WORLD LISTENING DAY 2017: LISTENING TO THE GROUND WITH STEPHAN MOORE, SCOTT SMALLWOOD & SUZANNE THORPE
"ISSUE Project Room and Harvestworks are pleased to present two performances featuring acoustician Paul Geluso’s immersive 3D Sound Object, a speaker system capable of reproducing complex directional sound radiation. As part of a series of commissions and outreach activities that feature the operation of the 3D Sound Object, these performances highlight key techniques and listening strategies in approaching sound within unique acoustic spaces.
Tuesday, July 18th sees Stephan Moore, Scott Smallwood and Suzanne Thorpe each presenting new work as a part of World Listening Day, which pays homage to the experimental legacy of Pauline Oliveros. Together, these artists “sound out” the sonic qualities of ISSUE’s historic McKim, Mead and White Theater at 22 Boerum Place using Geluso’s invention. Developed by Geluso while in residence at Harvestworks, the Object has become a platform for new experimental compositions by contemporary composers, specifically exploring the model radiation of acoustic instruments, the spatialization of existing recorded sound, and the creation of synthesized sound in three dimensions. Described as “painting with sonar,” the Object catalyzes the collaborative construction of a 3D soundscape as well as the scanning and exploring of ISSUE’s unique sonic environment."
From ISSUE Event Page
From ISSUE Project Room's Event Page
"Drawing its participants from the first 10 years of ISSUE Project Room’s Artists-In-Residence Program, AIR Alumni Collaborations is a performance that brings together former ISSUE resident artists in striking new combinations. Eccentric, interdisciplinary, and deeply experimental, the new collaborations showcase the wide-range of approaches found within the ISSUE community, amplifying each artist’s personal aesthetics while drawing unexpected parallels between their work.
Thursday, January 19th, ISSUE presents three first-ever collaborative performances by former ISSUE Artists-In-Residence focusing on highlighting their parallel and divergent performance strategies. Cellist, vocalist, and electronics producer Audrey Chen performs alongside two key members of the collaborative ensemble Ne(x)tworks: renowned vocalist Joan La Barbara and composer, improviser and electro-acoustician Miguel Frasconi. Berlin-based composer and synthesist Doron Sadja pairs his particular style of multi-channel spatialized sound, pristine electronics, dense noise, and immersive light projections with multimedia artist Rauel De Nieves’ encompassing narrative and multimedia performance style. MV Carbon performs a new collaboration with media artist Bradley Eros sharing the role of manipulating sound and image on a new project called The Mystery of Spiders -- a sound & projection performance conceptualizing scores based on spider webs.
Curated by Lea Bertucci and Chris McIntyre
Co-organized by Chris McIntyre & Lauren Rosati
From IPR's Festival Page
"From September 25th to October 1st, 2016 ISSUE Project Room presents After 9 Evenings: A 50th Anniversary Celebration, a dynamic series of performances, talks, screenings, and workshops to mark the 50th anniversary of 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering (1966). This historic project, organized by Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) at the 69th Regiment Armory in Manhattan, featured collaborations among avant-garde artists, dancers, and musicians and engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories. After 9 Evenings considers the event’s impact on contemporary performance and explores E.A.T. as an important prototype for integrating new technologies into current artistic practices."
TILT Brass Sextet
l to r: Tim Leopold, Mike Gurfield, Will Lang, Jen Baker, Gareth Flowers, Chris McIntyre
POP-UP CONCERTS
Wild Ones - TILT BRASS
Tuesday, December 8, 2015, 6pm
Miller Theatre at Columbia University
FREE
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From Miller Theater's Event Page:
"Brooklyn’s “always fun and forward-looking” (The New Yorker) TILT Brass ensemble takes the stage for the final Pop-Up of the fall. TILT presents new works by contemporary composers Anthony Coleman, TILT co-founder Chris McIntyre, and Catherine Lamb, whose “vivid, evocative orchestral colours” (Guardian) have begun to earn her international acclaim. TILT will also provide their interpretations of existing works, such as an all-brass version of James Tenney’s Swell Piece and Australian composer Liza Lim’s Wild Winged One—an aria for trumpet and (aptly-named) wacky whistle.
All concerts start at 6 p.m. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5:30 p.m."
PERSONNEL
TILT Brass Sextet
trumpet – Gareth Flowers, Mike Gurfield, Tim Leopold
trombone – Jen Baker, Will Lang, Chris McIntyre
PROGRAM
James Tenney Swell Piece for Alison Knowles (1967)
Sextet
Liza Lim Wild Winged One (2007)
Gareth Flowers, solo trumpet
Anthony Coleman A Fistful of Footfalls (2015) World Premiere
Sextet
Catherine Lamb overlay/smear (2015) World Premiere
Sextet
Chris McIntyre Dedifferentiation for Brass No. 3 (2015) World Premiere
Sextet and sound score
TILT Brass, 2014 Look & Listen Festival, Invisible Dog Arts Ctr
TILT Brass presents the 2015 installment of To TILT, its on-going series of concerts and recordings that feature work created for the organization's specific forces and skills. The program at University Settlement includes newly commissioned works written for TILT Brass Sextet by Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, and trombonist/composer and long-time TILT performer Jacob Garchik.
The Sextet will also premiere an expanded version of TILT Director Chris McIntyre's multi-movement work Fabrics (2014-15) and his transcriptions from Arthur Russell's Tower of Meaning, composed in the early 1980's.
This event takes place during a set of concerts co-organized by TILT and our stellar colleagues at Either/Or (performing on June 10th and 13th.) Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the excellent acoustics of University Settlement's Speyer Hall is a perfect venue for these not-to-be-missed concerts during NYC's busy Summer season.
Either/Or at Miller Theater
TILT Brass kicks off its Spring 2015 season at JACK, an intimate neighborhood multi-arts venue located in Clinton Hill. The program revisits TILT's creative music origins with work highlighting the improvisational skill and experience of its players. The program features a wide range of recent and classic graphic and strategic scores. Composers include Berlin-based English composer and electronic musician Richard Barrett, an early composition by legendary composer and multi-instrumentalist Anthony Braxton, and selections from Cornelius Cardew's touchstone graphic score Treatise.
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PURCHASE TICKETS
[$12.50 advance, $15 door]
Detail from Braxton's "Comp. 18" (1971)
PERSONNEL
Chris McIntyre - Music Director, trombone
trumpet Timothy Leopold, Andrew Kozar, Tom Verchot
trombone Jen Baker, Jacob Garchik, Will Lang, James Rogers (bass)
Nathan Koci - horn, accordion
PROGRAM
Anthony Braxton 8KN-(J-6) [aka Comp. 18] (1971)
1
R10
Cornelius Cardew Selections from Treatise (1963-67)
Richard Barrett Codex XII (2013)
Other works TBA