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  • Either/OR: Transpositions - Music by Braxton, Obadike   map

    Sunday, December 8, 2024 - 8:00pm

    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  

  • SEM Ensemble: Preview of 12/18 Paula Cooper Gallery program // Willow Space Auditorium   map

    Monday, December 16, 2024 - 8:00pm

    Preview at Willow Place Auditorium of December 18th program at Paula Cooper Gallery

    The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble
    Joseph Kubera, Piano
    Kamala Sankaram, Soprano
    Petr Kotik, Conductor

    John Cage Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958)*
    Rudolf Komorous Olympia (1962)
    Anna Heflin The Man who Owned the Forest... (2023)
    Luboš Mrkvička Quartet, Part A (2021)
    Morton Feldman Structures (1951)
    Petr Kotik Why Melody? (2024 – premiere)*

    * CJM on trombone

    Free concert RSVP

  • SEM Ensemble: Winter Concert (Cage & Kotik) // Paula Cooper Gallery   map

    Wednesday, December 18, 2024 - 8:00pm



    The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble

    Joseph Kubera, Piano
    Kamala Sankaram, Soprano
    Petr Kotik, Conductor

    John Cage Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958)*
    Rudolf Komorous Olympia (1962)
    Anna Heflin The Man who Owned the Forest... (2023)
    Luboš Mrkvička Quartet, Part A (2021)
    Morton Feldman Structures (1951)
    Petr Kotik Why Melody? (2024 – premiere)*

    * CJM on trombone

    Tickets
    $19 in advance, RSVP
    $25 at the door

more...

Ne(x)tworks

From June 2003 to Oct. 2019, Ne(x)tworks was a collaborative ensemble of musicians that created and interpreted work featuring a dynamic relationship between composition and improvisation. In performance and recordings, the group worked to locate pathways into various types of notation systems and interfaces, striving for a meaningful dialogue with the past, present, and future of creative music. Formed in 2003 in New York City, Ne(x)tworks extended the tradition of the performer/composer ensemble by frequently presenting full programs by its members. Its repertoire also encompassed the open scores of New York School and their European counterparts, further experiments by the composer performers of the AACM and SoHo Scene of the 1970's, the so-called Downtown composers of the 80's, and commissioned works by like-minded contemporary colleagues. 

Ne(x)tworks released several recordings, including Earle Brown: Tracer on Mode Records, Ne(x)tworks Live Vol. 1: At The Stone, June 2007 and Ne​​(​​x​​)​​tworks Live Vol. 2: Music by Jon Gibson, both self-release and available at nextworks.bandcamp.com. 

McIntyre was a co-founding member of Ne(x)tworks. He composed a number of mixed ensemble works for the group and was program curator from 2006 to 2010. 

www.nextworksmusic.net


Ne(x)tworks performing Julius Eastman's Stay On It (1973)
Ecstatic Music Festival, Merkin Concert Hall, 2011
Photo by R Termine, NY Times