Transpositions: Music by A. Braxton, M. & K. Obadike
Sunday, December 8, 2024
8:00 PM 9:30 PM

Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew
520 Clinton Avenue Brooklyn, NY, 11238

Either/Or presents an evening of works that situate the players and their audience in a compelling dialogic relationship between notation and improvisation, featuring Anthony Braxton's pivotal and rarely heard Composition No.98 (1981) for quartet and selections from Mendi + Keith Obdike's graphic score collection Big House/Disclosures (2007).

Composition No.98

Braxton's Composition No.98 (1981) is a pivotal work in the prolific composer/performer's oeuvre, fully realizing the total fusion of conventional and visual notation. EO brings together a special quartet to revive this rarity, featuring James Fei (long-time Braxton collaborator) on woodwinds, Jonathan Finlayson on trumpets, Chris McIntyre on trombones and euphonium, and Richard Carrick on keyboards.

Excerpt from Big House/Disclosures

At the excellent new Brooklyn venue Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew, EO is also revisiting Mendi + Kieth Obadike's Big House/Disclosures (2007), the fecundated collection of graphic scores “...inspired by Nigerian nsibidi writing, European music notation, and architectural drawings.” Big House/Disclosure was the inaugural work in the Obadike's ongoing series of multimedia works entitled The Americana Suites.

PERSONNEL
James Fei (woodwinds), Johnathan Finlayson (trumpets), Chris McIntyre (trombones, euphonium), Richard Carrick (keyboards)

Either/Or - Anthony Braxton composer portrait at Miller Theatre (Sep. 2019)
L to R: Chris Mcintyre, richard carrick, james fei, jonathan finlayson
detail of photo by Anthony creamer  

Phill Niblock Forever: A Marathon Memorial Celebration in Music, Images, Words, Movements…

Roulette Event Page
 

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

MOTOR TAPES
Floor 3, Theater

Saturday, June 8 at 2 pm and 4 pm
Event Page

As part of the performance program organized by guest curator Taja Cheek for Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing, Sarah Hennies presents Motor Tapes, a one-hour work for a large ensemble. Taking its name from neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás’s characterization of the human brain as containing innumerable “tape loops” that run continuously within the mind, Motor Tapes is composed of densely overlapping patterns of sound, with musicians representing synapses that both fire independently and work together to achieve complex activities. Llinás’s description of this phenomena is strikingly musical: “The activity in the basal ganglia is running all the time, playing motor patterns and snippets of motor patterns amongst and between themselves […] they seem to act as a continuous, random, motor pattern noise generator.” “I am interested in the motor tapes theory,” Hennies has said, “because it suggests that alongside lived experience there is a mysterious biological basis for our inclinations, talents and identities.”

Motor Tapes will be performed by Lauren Cauley, Laura Cocks, David Friend, Madison Greenstone, Judith Hamann, Tristan Kasten-Krause, Hannah Levinson, Christopher McIntyre, Erin Rogers, Brendon Randall-Myers, Bill Solomon, and Nate Wooley.

Sarah Hennies (she/her; born 1979 in Louisville, KY; lives and works in Red Hook, NY) is a composer based in Upstate New York whose work is concerned with a variety of musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues including queer and trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought. She is primarily a composer of acoustic ensemble music, but is also active in improvisation, film, and performance art. She presents her work internationally as both a composer and percussionist with notable performances at MoMA PS1 (New York), Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles), Warsaw Autumn, Ruhrtriennale (Essen), Archipel Festival (Geneva), Darmstädter Ferienkurse, Time:Spans (New York), and the Edition Festival (Stockholm). As a composer, she has received commissions across a wide array of performers and ensembles including Bearthoven, Bent Duo, Claire Chase, Ensemble Dedalus, Mivos String Quartet, Talea Ensemble, Nate Wooley, and Yarn/Wire.

She is the recipient of a 2024 United States Artists Fellowship, a 2019 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, and a 2016 fellowship in music/sound from the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has received additional support from the Fromm Foundation, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, New Music USA, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Creative Work Fund.

Ticket information will be released closer to the date of the event.

The Music of Talib Rasul Hakim

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.  

Heather Kravas overly merry
May 3, 4, & 5, 2024
5/3 – 7:00pm
5/4 & 5 – 2:00pm

Chocolate Factory Theater
38-33 24th Street, Long Island City

CFT Event Page

TILT Brass Kravas Band
Jen Baker, Terry Green II, Sam Kulik, Chris McIntyre – trombone; Kavi McIntyre – trumpet; Ryan Sawyer, Dennis Sullivan – perc.

Drawing by Valentina Starkie, inspired by Remy Charlip

Raven Chacon’s Vertical Neighbors (2024)
Large format outdoor score

Sunday, April 7, 2024
4:00pm
Free with RSVP (rsvpswissinstitute [dot] net)

Swiss Institute
38 St Marks Pl, New York, NY 10003
(SE corner, 2nd Ave)

SI Event Page

TILT Brass gives the premiere “public activation” of Diné composer/performer Raven Chacon‘s new large format outdoor score Vertical Neighbors (2024) on the roof at Swiss Institute in the East Village. This event is part of A Worm’s Eye View from a Bird’s Beak, Chacon’s first major institutional solo exhibition.

TILT personnel
Hugo Moreno, Nate Wooley – trumpet
Jen Baker, Chris McIntyre – trombone

Photo by Walter Wlodarczyk

FRIDAY, DEC 22 - ca. 9:00pm
Phill Niblock 90th Birthday Winter Solstice: 24 Hours of Music and Film

TILT Brass members CJM & hornist Nicolee Kuester perform inside PN’s Exploratory (Rhine version, “Looking for Daniel”) (2019)

Roulette Intermedium
509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn

This event run from noon to midnight on both THU, DEC 21 & FRI, DEC 22 

Roulette Event Page

ISSUE Project Room 20th Anniversary
An Improvisational Synphony: Coordinated by Suzane Langille

First Unitarian Congregational Society 
119 Pierrepont St, Brooklyn, NY

IPR event page

Saturday, December 16th at 8pm, a diverse array of twenty artists come together in An Improvisational Symphony to close ISSUE's 20th Anniversary Season, coordinated by vocalist and longtime ISSUE friend, Suzanne Langille. The celebratory concert will take place at First Unitarian Congregational Society in Downtown Brooklyn. In collaboration with the ISSUE team, Langille has invited a wide range of musicians - many with deep ties to ISSUE’s history - involving numerous master and emerging practitioners. The program is split into four movements, each representing a traditional element that will inspire groups of five musicians to present 20-minutes of improvised sounds. These include:

First movement (Earth): Allegro featuring: Daniel Carter (saxophone & trumpet), Loren Connors (guitar), William Hooker (vocal), Chris McIntyre (trombone) & Lucie Vítková (percussion)

Second movement (Water): Andante or adagio featuring: Che Buford (violin), Madison Greenstone (contrabass clarinet), James Ilgenfritz (bass), Suzanne Langille (voice & maraca) & Joanna Mattrey (viola)

Third movement (Air): Moderato featuring: Ras Moshe Burnett (flute), Nicolee Kuester (french horn), Billy Martin (percussion), Ava Mendoza (guitar) & Aliya Ultan (cello)

Fourth movement (Fire): Finale–allegro featuring: Zoh Amba (saxophone), Nava Dunkelman (percussion), gabby fluke-mogul (violin), Alan Licht (guitar) & Lee Odom (clarinet) 

LPR event page



Personnel:  Billy Martin, drums; Nels Cline, guitar; Henry Fraser, bass; Zach Layton, 17-string bass; Eszter Balint, violin; Pauline Harris, violin; Conrad Harris, violin; Jessica Pavone, viola; Joanna Mattrey, viola; Alex Waterman, cello; Matana Roberts, saxophone; Lea Bertucci, saxophone; Matt Bauder, saxophone; Catherine Sikora, saxophone; Samantha Kochis, flute; Laura Cocks, flute; Katie Porter, clarinet; Kyra Sims, French horn; Ben Neill, trumpet; Chris Williams, trumpet; Chris McIntyre, trombone; Pauline Roberts, percussion; Ben Vida, synthesizer; Cecilia Lopez, synthesizer; Marina Rosenfeld, keyboard; shahzad ismaily, synthesizer; Yuka Honda, electronics; Dafna Naphtali, voice; Nick Hallett, voice; Nicky Paraiso, voice; Shara Lunon, voice; Natalie Greffel, voice

THE QUEST: EPIC JOURNEYS
November 9, 2023, 7:30pm
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall

Vimbayi Kaziboni, conductor
Sidney Outlaw, baritone
Luke Dubois, video design

Augusta Read Thomas: Sun Dance—In memoriam Oliver Knussen (NY Premiere) 6’
George Lewis: Weathering (World Premiere/ACO Commission) 15’
Jack Hughes: Three Ways of Getting There (World Premiere/ACO Underwood commission) 10-12’
Guillermo Klein: The Kingdom (CoLABoratory/World Premiere) 10’
Nina C. Young: Out of whose womb came the ice (World Premiere, Carnegie Hall/ACO Co-commission) 28’

Tickets
ACO Event Page
 

FOREST SONG
Conceived/Originated by John Hastings

Saturday, October 14, 2023: 2pm & 4pm
Sunday, October 15, 2023: 1pm & 3pm
Each performance approx. 60 minutes

Inwood Hill Park, Manhattan, New York:
A to Inwood / 207 or 1 to 215th St. Enter at Shorakkopoch Rock [map]

Forest Song is a free music performance that takes place in the last, original site of Pre-Columbian Mannahatta: Inwood Hill Park. Nestled within a valley, near ancient glacial potholes, caves, and cold springs, musicians are spread throughout the forest, performing a variety of sonic materials. Harmonies are reflected, words appear, and the melodies from revolutionary hymns are re-cycled, all conjuring a human and arboreal conversation. A Forest Song gathers everyone together over distance, a unitary statement that underscores the fundamental relationships that foster all our existences in this world. Over the course of an hour performance, the audience is free to wander the park, to hear the musicians at a distance, while also observing them close-by.

Myths and stories swirl around our forests, some of them fanciful and fantastic, others feed into age-old tropes of colonial settlement. They have been many things to humans: a source of fuel, shelter, fear. They are a place of mystery and repose. Forest Song takes these many iterations of human conception of the forest to fashion a poly-narrative: a Native American home, a European folk drama, a technocratic “shelterbelt”, and now a conserved piece of our future. Forests are a mirror for humans: the reflection of our wants and desires throughout our years of existence.

Featuring:
TILT Brass: Christopher McIntyre - trombone, James Rogers - trombone, Nicolee Kuester - horn, Blair Hamrick - horn, Rebecca Steinberg - trumpet, Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet
with
Iván Barenboim - clarinet, Katie Porter - clarinet, Jessica Schmitz - flute, Eva Ding - flute, Casey Anderson - saxophone

The Team:
John P. Hastings - originator; Aaron Meicht - music director, trumpet; Carolina Gomez - costuming; Benjamin Mayock - design; Shannon Sindelar - producer; Michelle Tabnick - PR 

Forest Song is made possible in part with funds from Creative Engagement , a regrant program supported by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) in partnership with the City Council ,and administered by LMCC. This project is made possible in part with funds from UMEZ Arts Engagement, a regrant program supported by the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ), and administered by LMCC.

EarShot: ACO’s 2023 Working Rehearsal at New School Tishman Auditorium

ACO | SONiC Fest Event Page



 

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