TILT Brass at 2012 New Music Bake Sale

On Sunday, March 11th at 10pm, TILT Brass joined the fray as a performing ensemble during the 3rd Annual New Music Bake Sale at Roulette new Brooklyn home. Works on the 20 minute program included Selections from Mauricio Kagel's Ten Marches (to miss the victory) [1978/9] (listen to an excerpt of No.4 here!) and local NYC hero Jon Gibson's Multiples [1972].

Bake Sale Personnel:
Gareth Flowers, Tim Leopold - trumpet
Chris McIntyre, James Rogers - trombone
Matt Marks - French horn
Ben Stapp - tuba
Dave Shively - percussion

New Music Bake Sale Website

Park Avenue Armory Events
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Choreography by Merce Cunningham
Arranged by Robert Swinston
Music by David Behrman, John King, Takehisa Kosugi, and Christian Wolf
Décor by Daniel Arsham

TILT Brass helps brings 2 of the 4 world premiere compositions to life during the historic final performances of MCDC. John King and David Behrman's new works feature a 6-piece ensemble of trumpets and trombones, filling the enormous Drill Hall space with live and digitally processed sound.

TILT Brass w/ MCDC
Russ Johnson, Gareth Flowers, Tim Leopold - trumpets
Chris McIntyre, Jen Baker, Will Lang - trombone

Event Page on PAA site

Personnel
Ne(x)tworks: Joan La Barbara (voice), Shelley Burgon (harp, electronics), Miguel Frasconi (glass, electronics), Stephen Gosling (piano), Chris McIntyre (trombone)

JACK Quartet: Chris Otto, Ari Streisfeld (violin), John Pickford Richards (viola), Kevin McFarland (cello)

Zeena Parkins - composer, live electronics
Preshish Moments (Michael Carter) - creative technical director, live electronics
Cynthia Madansky - visual artist


Members of the "new music all-stars" (Time Out NY) ensemble Ne(x)tworks join forces with the "thrillingly vital" (Wash. Post) JACK Quartet to present the world premiere of composer and "renowned player and stretcher of boundaries" (Dusted) Zeena Parkins' Spellbeamed. Commissioned by Ne(x)tworks, Spellbeamed takes inspiration from literary critic Walter Benjamin’s vast Archive. Each musician collects their own archive of quotidian materials then utilized in an animated score developed in collaboration with visual artist collaborator Cynthia Madansky. The resultant sound is further enhanced with live-processing by Preshish Moments and the composer, creating an ecology of inter-relationships developed between improvisers and readers, sound and score, objects and instruments.

Both evenings begin with the premiere of three additional works by Ne(x)tworks composers Joan La Barbara, Miguel Frasconi, and Chris McIntyre. La Barbara's Persistence of Memory explodes with "hammering rhythms, angular jolts, and jagged slashes of percussive attacks", all within an expansive, haunted electronic "atmosphere." Frasconi's Sitting & Standing: A Memoir employs "a physical activity we do without much thought… as the compositional DNA that allows each performer to construct a soundscape unique to their instrument and their own body." Smithson Project: Sites & Nonsites by McIntyre is a set of works ranging in style from ambient/concreté states to brutal, irregular structures. Each segment is a meditation on artist Robert Smithson's "nonsite" concept and the dialectical relationship to the origin "site."

Ben Stapp & the Zozimos Collective perform Eight Houses
Mon Nov 28 - 8:00 PM

$15 General Admission
$10 Members/Students/Seniors

Composer Ben Stapp, leads his ensemble, the Zozimos Collective in the premier of Eight Houses(2011). Eight Houses is a large multi movement work based on the 8 core hexagrams of the I-Ching. It is written for a brass quintet, two guitars/pedals and percussion & piano with electronics. Sonically, Ben Stapp's work is based on his harmonic theory - micro-functional tonality. Noticeable influences by era are Post-Romantic, Impressionist, Minimalist and Spectralist composers. Separate from John Cage's use of the I-Ching, this piece resolves to musically represent the core elements of the I-Ching, NOT the way in which the elements of the oracle were practiced. As the piece progresses each instrumentalist as well as specific formations will be featured as soloists, therein lie moments of chance.

Featuring:
Satoshi Takeishi, Shoko Nagai, Sebastian Noelle, Dustin Carlson, Chris McIntyre, Bryan Drye, Tim Leopold, Nate Wooley and Ben Stapp

Although trained as a classical/orchestral tubist with legendary pedagogues, Tommy Johnson and Roger Bobo, Ben Stapp began his professional career recording for the improvised music label Clean Feed with the likes of Herb Robertson, Alipio Neto, Ken Filiano and Michael T.A. Thompson. His first project as leader took him on tour in Portugal and then finally to New York to record with Tony Malaby and Satoshi Takeishi. With the self release Mr. Stapp was quickly recognized by All About Jazz, as "most certainly one to watch" and "the debut of a fresh new voice." The Village Voice gave it an Honorable mention and the New York Times greeted it as a "rugged trio." Since his move to New York he has been composing and performing with his new mixed ensemble projects - Zozimos, and has played at the Stone, the Tea Lounge and Cornelia Street cafe among others.

http://www.benstapp.com/

Photo by Peter Gannushkin
 

More details soon!

R. Luke DuBois: http://lukedubois.com/
Learn about Prospect.2 here: http://prospectneworleans.org/

Ne(x)tworks kicks of its 2nd season as Ensemble-In-Residence at historic West Village venue Greenwich House Music School with the premiere of SKY-EARTH FOI TREE-LEAF TALK PIECE, a new composition by legendary British clarinetist Tim Hodginkson. In adddition to the new 30-minute work, this special event will feature several small-group improvisations with Tim and members of the ensemble.

Joan La Barbara - voice, Shelley Burgon - harp, Stephen Gosling - piano, Miguel Frasconi - glass, Ariana Kim - violin, Christopher McIntyre - trombone

Special guests: Tim Hodgkinson - composition, conductor, clarinets; Ha-Yang Kim - cello

University Settlement
184 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002

Purchase Tickets ($10) at tiltbrass.org/tickets

At University Settlement on Friday and Saturday, September 30 and October 1, 2011, TILT Brass presents the World Premiere of GARDEN II: House, a newly commissioned intermedia work (music and video) by Santa Fe-based composer, performer, media artist and United States Artists Simon Fellow Chris Jonas. In addition to the integral video and installation production work by Santa Fe-based Littleglobe, GARDEN II: House features local heroes of creative music Herb Robertson on trumpet and Joe Fiedler on trombone, along with the composer on soprano saxophone and TILT Brass Director Chris McIntyre also on trombone. House is staged within the unusual set-up of a cube of transparent video screens that envelop the performing quartet. This innovative blend of acoustic musical interactivity with three dimensional video projection garnered the project a prestigious Meet the Composer Commissioning Music/USA award in 2010.

TILT House Quartet:
Chris Jonas (soprano sax), Herb Robertson (trumpet), Joe Fiedler and Chris McIntyre (trombone).

Complete Press Release for GARDEN II: House
GARDEN page at Littleglobe.org
Soundcloud playlist of GARDEN, others Jonas work

JOHN CAGE VARIETY SHOW, directed by Miguel Frasconi

Roland Auzet (percussion), Richard Carrick & Chris Cochrane (guitars), Martha Cluver (voice), Christopher McIntyre (trombone), Jovita Zähl (piano), Miguel Frasconi (toy piano, electronics, director). An evening of pieces by John Cage, performed in a Musicircus environment. Works will include In a Landscape, Music for Amplified Toy Pianos, Cheap Imitation, Variations II, solos from Concert for Piano and Orchestra, excerpts from Song Books, Cage songs and an ensemble performance of 4'33".

CJM plays trombone with MCDC Music Committee members Christian Wolf, John King and others in performing John Cage's Concert for Piano and Orchestra at Dartmouth (with Wolf on piano). This performance takes place during the final year of MCDC's Legacy Tour.

Hopkins Center
Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH

MCDC Works on the program:
Squaregame
Antic Meet
Rainforest

On June 21st, MATA presents TILT Brass performing SWELTER, a large-scale musical event in Central Park as part of Make Music New York. The performance brings together 50+ brass players positioned around Central Park Lake to play a new ambient music-scape by three Australian sound artists Julian Day, Luke Jaaniste and Janet McKay which the audience will experience from row boats on the water.

SWELTER is part of Day, Jaaniste & McKay's ongoing project Super Critical Mass (supercriticalmass.com) which has appeared in various spaces since 2008. In each event they bring together large numbers of the same kind of instrument (eg 30 clarinets, 80 flutes) and use simple instructions to create complex and beautiful site-specific works. The instructions respond to different skill levels so that a wide range of players can participate, from young performers through to world-class professionals.
 

TILT Brass is a Brooklyn-based experimental music organization dedicated to expanding the world of contemporary brass performance by producing innovative concert programs and recording projects, and by commissioning new works for its two ensembles, TILT Creative Brass Band (CBB) and TILT SIXtet. Since forming in 2003, TILT Brass has presented the work of over 50 composers, including group members and local colleagues, as well as established masters. TILT’s repertoire engages its audience with musical experiences ranging from sonorous soundscapes to the raucous strains of a street band, from freely improvised explorations to the precision and clarity of fully notated chamber music (often combining the latter two within a single work).

SUPER CRITICAL MASS (SCM) is a large-scale performance/installation project that explores spatialised masses of musicians playing identical instruments within public places. There is no conductor, scores or music stands -- instead performers execute simple ‘algorithms’ for sounds and often movement that build up complex, evolving textures. The simplicity of means allows for performers of various backgrounds and ages to participate whilst creating complex interactions. The results are immersive and often meditative performance-installations, articulating both instrument and architecture, within which audiences freely move about or simply sit back and take it in. SCM is thus a unique take on the traditional orchestra, community arts, sound installation and public arts projects.

MATA (matafestival.org) is a non-profit organization that has, for the past fourteen years, been dedicated to commissioning and presenting works by young composers from around the world. MATA’s directors are motivated by a desire to create community among young musicians, especially those whose work defies definition and doesn’t fit into existing institutions. By providing young composers with a professional performance of their work, access to first-rate performers and valuable connections to colleagues, MATA nurtures their entry into American musical life.

PROGRAM
Robert Ashley - Outcome Inevitable (1991)
George Lewis - Signifying Riffs: Unison (1998)
Richard Carrick - new work for guitars (2011, premiere)
Andrew Byrne - new work for string quartet (2011, premiere)
Steve Reich - Four Organs (1970)

PERSONNEL
Anthony Burr - clarinets, organ
Jennifer Choi - violin
Richard Carrick - guitar, organ
Michael Ibrahim - saxophones
Chris McIntyre - trombone, organ
Esther Noh - violin
Jane Rigler - flutes
David Shively - percussion
Alex Waterman - cello, organ
Erin Wight - viola

eitherormusic.org
thekitchen.org

Christopher McIntyre, trombone and synthesizer
Miguel Frasconi, glass instruments & electronics
$10

These two renowned and versatile improvising composers, and long-time members of the new music ensemble Ne(x)tworks, perform together as a duo for the very first time and explore new timbral combinations and sonic trajectories.

Miguel Frasconi is a composer and improviser who uses electronics, laptop, and an instrumentarium of glass objects to create music from a uniquely imagined tradition. His glass instruments are struck, blown, stroked, smashed and otherwise coaxed into vibration. They have been called “a beautiful menagerie of pealing contraptions” by Time Out NY. Miguel has worked closely with composers John Cage, Jon Hassell, James Tenney, Morton Subotnick, and has collaborated with many choreographers, including modern dance pioneer Anna Halprin. He was a founding member of The Glass Orchestra, the internationally renowned new music ensemble featuring all glass instruments, and presently performs with Ne(x)tworks, an ensemble of “new music all-stars” (Time Out NY). He also teaches electronic music at Bard College. More info at frasconimusic.com

Christopher McIntyre leads a multi-faceted career in the contemporary arts as a solo and ensemble performer, composer, and curator/producer. Time Out New York noted that "...with every passing week, trombonist-composer Chris McIntyre becomes more central to the new-music experience in New York." (Nov. '09) Current projects include leading TILT Brass and 7X7 Trombone Band, and collaborative efforts such as Ne(x)tworks. In his composing, McIntyre has experimented with conceptual elements such as spatialization, recontextualized notated material, and improvisative strategy, along with ideas of scale, symmetrical pitch constructions, and self-similarity. He has contributed work to the repertoire of TILT, Ne(x)tworks, 7X7 Trombone Band (for choreographer Yoshiko Chuma), Flexible Orchestra, and B3+ brass trio. Beyond performing and creating music, McIntyre is also active as a curator and concert producer, with independent projects at venues including The Kitchen, Issue Project Room, and The Stone (June 2007), and as Artistic Director of the MATA Festival (07-10).

This presentation is part of the Well Weathered Music Series.

Hans Tammen's Third Eye Orchestra

Hans Tammen uses Earle Brown's open form composition idea as a starting point to create a large multi-movement piece, thoroughly composed and purely improvised at the same time, inspired by west african roots of Jazz, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, Steve Coleman, and Stravinsky's layering or Steve Reich's phase techniques. Drawing from a repertoire of numerous pre-conceived musical units, the conductor is free to choose which one to play next, and in which instrumental combination. Merging improvisational aspects with open form composition, the conductor uses the orchestra as an instrument, while each performer shapes the music through virtuosic improvisation and the individual stylization of musical performance.

Tammen gets his thrill out of exploring the world of sounds, by utilizing technology from his hybrid guitar/computer setup to planetarium projectors, guitar robots and disklavier pianos. His Third Eye Orchestra concept was first presented in 2004 on Canada's Sound Symposium Festival, with a take on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew period. From the first original work presented on 2005's "Jazz on the Volga" Festival in Yaroslavl, Russia, numerous works for various kinds of ensembles were presented in the US, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Mexico and Germany.

Hans Tammen received composer commissions for the Third Eye Orchestra from the American Composers Forum, underwritten by the Jerome Fondation, and the New York State Council On The Arts (NYSCA). The CD was produced with funds from the New York State Music Funds.

The core ensemble in New York City consists of string quartet, wind/brass quartet, two pianos/keyboards, bass, percussion, voice and live sound processing, often enhanced by one or more guests. The ensemble released a CD of a 2006 Roulette performance as "Antecedent / Consequent" on the Innova label. All About Jazz called the music "nothing short of breathtaking", and "a masterpiece of musical evocation".

CJM joins Ne(x)tworks members Joan La Barbara and Miguel Frasconi to perform various pieces by John Cage on DJ Kurt Gottschalk's Miniature Mintaurs show on WFMU. CJM will play Solo for Sliding Trombone, Variations II, and other works simultaneously with La Barbara and Frasconi.