1

The Sixth Annual

avant mUSICFESTIVaL

Curated by RANDY GIBSONand MEGAN SCHUBERT

FEBRUARY 27th to MARCH 7th, 2015 Wild Project, 195 E. Third Street, New York

Randy GibsonMegan Schubert

Kryssy WrightOscar H Scott

Caley Monahon-WardStephen Bruckert

Steven PisanoDotdotdotmusic

What can theyhave to do with one another?

Composing’s one thing, performing’s another, listening’s a third.

Conceived and produced by

curatorcurator

production manager / lightinggraphic designsoundvideo documentation photographypress

—John Cage, Experimental Music: Doctrine

The Sixth Annual

aVaNT mUSICFESTIVaL

Curated by RANDY GIBSONand MEGAN SCHUBERT

FEBRUARY 27th to MARCH 7th, 2015 Wild Project, 195 E. Third Street, New York

FRI Feb 27th 8 pm Paula Matthusen

SAT Feb 28th 4 pm Roundtable discussion Randy Gibson, Paula Matthusen, and Imani Uzuri in discussion — moderated by 2013 festival composer Nick Hallett

8pm John Cage Choral Works performed by Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble

Week One

FRI Mar 6th 8 pm IMANI UZURI Conjure Woman

SAT Mar 7th 7 pm randy gibson

Apparitions of The Four Pillars in The Midwinter Starfield under The Astral 789 Duet

Week two

free

5

protected by a world of dry leaves and furtive paths[2014]

for double bass and live-electronics Eleonore Oppenheim, double bass

eden's arch of promise bending, movement I[2012]

pre-recorded sounds

on the imagined relations of night sounds (and silent darkness)[2014]

for trumpets and electronics Andy Kozar, trumpet

showing and hiding / showing and vanishing[2015]

WORLD PREMIERE

for percussion, guitars, electronics and reel-to-reel players

Mantra Percussion Ensemble Joe Bergen, Al Cerulo, Chris Graham, Jude Traxler, Mark Utley, Owen Weaver

Dither Electric Guitar Quartet Taylor Levine, Joshua Lopes, James Moore, and special guest Nick Didkovsky

Philip White, electronics

of an implacablesubstraction[2014]

for bassoon and live-electronics Dana Jessen, bassoon

Total running time: approx 70 minutes, no intermission.

protected by a world of dry leaves and furtive pathsprotected by a world of dry leaves and furtive paths was originally commissioned by the Sounds of Stockholm Festival, and was written specifically for the extraordinary improviser and double bassist Nina de Heney and a multi- channel surround environment. Within this surround environment, I was interested in forging an interloping sonic presence between the double bass and speakers, both of which create vibrations but are interpreted differently within the physical space. For this reason, two transducers are attached to two differently sized tam-tams (inspired by David Tudor’s work), as well as contact microphones, in part to generate feedback as well as to explore the relationship between the acoustic instrument and speakers as powerful, albeit differently, resonating bodies. I am extremely grateful for Nina’s input throughout the development of this work, and whose improvisations and recordings served as the basis for this piece.

eden's arch of promise bending, movement Ieden's arch of promise bending eavesdrops on the hidden infrastructures within the Old Croton Aqueduct. Completed in 1842, the Old Croton Aqueduct brought fresh water to a thirsty New York City, enabling its enormous growth. Closed in the middle of the twentieth century, elements of the Old Croton Aqueduct punctuate New York's landscape, from its origin point in Westchester to its journey into Manhattan through the Bronx. Drawing its title from the Old Croton Ode, written to celebrate the opening of the aqueduct, eden's arch of promise bending examines the vastness of such

hidden infrastructures and how they persist by using a combination of field recordings and an exploration of the resonant frequencies of different parts of the Old Croton Aqueduct. Many thanks to the Friends of the Old Croton Aqueduct, whose generous support of this project has made these recordings possible, and in particular to Mavis Cain, Robert Kornfeld. Many thanks as well to Nestor Prieto, whose assistance during recording was invaluable.

on the imagined relations of night sounds (and silent darkness) I have long been intrigued by the double nature of parks, particularly in New York City, as places of play and exploration by day and sites to be avoided at night. The Great Lawn in Central Park proved doubly interesting, as it was once a reservoir for the Old Croton Aqueduct (which I recorded over the past two years). Its vastness is now perceivable through the wide open field – a host to numerous baseball games, picnics near Turtle Pond, joggers, and a range of birds and insects.

Drawing from the imagined soundscape of the park at night “before the combustion engine and radio monopolized the earth and air" conjured by Charles Ives in Central Park in the Dark, the source material for on the imagined relations of night sounds (and silent darkness) is drawn from field recordings conducted overnight at the Great Lawn, beginning at the start of summer in June, and ending in early September. Each overnight recording session began with Andy intoning the recording, performing musical lines derived from Ives’ original work. As such, the piece is interested in the present soundscape of the city that never sleeps, and listens in on the various states of

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27thpaula matthusen

7

activity as they transition gradually from sunset to sunrise, as well as early to late summer.

showing and hiding / showing and vanishing My longstanding interest in the historical infrastructures of cities and their resonance with contemporary life was recently exponentially expanded with the opportunity to record paths of the eleven ancient aqueducts of Rome as they came into the city. The vastness of the system, and massiveness of the structures that do still exist and weave in and out of contemporary Rome, has led me to areas far outside the area that I would have never encountered otherwise. Recording has become both an act of discovery and eavesdropping on the sonic activities that now inhabit these paths long after Rome has been sacked, burnt, flooded, and rebuilt over and over. The field recordings capture the tiniest fraction of a fraction of the routes and structures’ livelihoods.

showing and hiding / showing and vanishing acts a bit like a meditation on the act of field recording. Each of the eleven performers draws on material from the paths of each of the eleven aqueducts, and plays with the malleability of the material, articulating four broad sections – the sources, entry points, destinations, and exit points for the aqueducts’ water. Mantra performs on a range of percussive instruments, as well as switching mechanisms that modulate the original source material. Dither works in conjunction with this, taking advantage of the electromagnetic nature of their instruments. Philip White performs a series of interludes between each section, and at times jumps in with the rest of the ensemble. It has been my great fortune to work with this combination of players not only because of their musicality and technical virtuosity, but also because

each musician uniquely mediates an already mediated sonic experience. The title is drawn from William Kentridge’s conversations with Rosalind C. Morris in That Which Is Not Drawn.

Many thanks as well to the American Academy in Rome, and the numerous fellows and residents who have accompanied me on these excursions, in particular: Andy Akiho, Nicole Brown, Nathan Dennis, Rob Giampietro, Frederick Hodder, Monroe Hodder, Kim Karlsrud, Adam Kuby, Krys Lee, John Maciuika, Abinadi Meza, and Daniel Philips. Special thanks to Terri Hron and Robert Normandeau for assisting me in finding some hard to reach areas. Additional thanks to Kim Bowes, Cristina Puglisi, Simonetta Serra, Giulia Barra, Gianpaolo Battaglia, and Pina Pasquantonio for allowing me access to cisterns, tunnels, drains, and spaces that would otherwise be inaccessible. Additional thanks to Mark Robbins, Peter Benson Miller, and Shawn Miller. Finally, thank you to the work of Peter J. Eicher, whose maps have been invaluable, Katherine Rinne, whose work The Waters of Rome is as inspirational as it is informative, and Roma Sottorranea.

of an implacable subtraction The idea of working with self-imposed constraints as a creative strategy has often been appealing to me, especially as the technologies enabling sonic transformation have become increasingly flexible and available. of an implacable subtraction grew out of a series of improvisations with Dana Jessen. The title is drawn from Julio Cortázar’s landmark work, Hopscotch. The piece does not so much follow the structure or thematic content of the book, but moreover engages with the idea of defining various points of focus and the salient nonlinearities that may emerge between them.

— Paula Matthusen, 2015

Performed by Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble

Ear for EAR (antiphonies)[1983]

full ensemble

Four2 (1990)

full ensemble

Four Solos for Voice (93-96) [1988]

R Calloway, T Cruz, J Gavett, J Sheldon electronics by Randy Gibson

Five [1988]

R Calloway, T Cruz, P Fennig, J Gavett, J Sheldon

Hymns and Variations [1979]

full ensemble

Ekmeles is: Sarah Brailey, soprano Charlotte Mundy, soprano Jane Sheldon, soprano Rachel Calloway, mezzo soprano Elisa Sutherland, mezzo soprano Patrick Fennig, countertenor Nathaniel Adams, tenor Tomás Cruz, tenor Brian Giebler, tenor Kelvin Chan, baritone Jeffrey Gavett, baritone Steven Hrycelak, bass

“If you look at nature, for instance, it often seems to be wasteful: the number of spores produced by a mushroom in relation to the number that actually reproduce… I hope that this shift from scarcity to abundance, from pinch-penny mental attitudes to courageous wastefulness, will continue to flourish.”

— John Cage

The music of John Cage contains a thread that tends towards sensory overload through abundance and density. Whether through the simultaneous performance of several different works in the mode of his Musicircuses, or the use of extreme amplification to the edge of feedback used in several works, these works are large, they contain multitudes.

Four Solos for Voice falls under this umbrella. The other works on the program are in a totally opposing style. Five and Four² are gentle, spacious ‘number pieces’, full of harmony and silence alike. Ear for EAR references the structure and modality of liturgical music. Hymns and Variations works as a kind of erasure of the music of early American composer William Billings.

These pieces have a fascinating variety of styles and idioms that follow no clear boundaries or 'periods'. Even the more austere works help to establish an oeuvre that itself is courageously wasteful.

— Jeffrey Gavett, 2015

Total running time: approx 70 minutes, no intermission.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28thJohn cage

9

Do you love this world? Do you cherish your humble and silky life… to be wild and perfect, for a moment [2013]

text: Mary Oliver (Excerpt from Peonies) arranged for voices, flute, and violins

Imani Uzuri, contralto Steven Herring, baritone Ann McCormack, soprano Keith Doelling, tenor Trina Basu, violin Pala Garcia, violin Kaoru Watanabe, flute

Evenly Yoked [2013]

from Placeless [2013]

arranged for cello, viola, contralto and soprano

Marika Hughes, cello Dana Lyn, viola Imani Uzuri, contralto Ann McCormack, soprano

Evenly Yoked is a meditation on a provocative mixture of emotions; hope, uncertainty, desire

Stay Present, Stay Clear, Stay Open, Stay Grateful[2013]

text: Imani Uzuri arranged for chorale

Imani Uzuri, contralto Ann McCormack, soprano Keith Doelling, tenor Steven Herring, baritone

Conjure Woman [2015]

WORLD PREMIERE

text: Imani Uzuri, Toni Morrison, traditional Navajo prayer

Imani Uzuri, contralto Steven Herring, baritone Ann McCormack, soprano Keith Doelling, tenor Kaoru Watanabe, flute Pala Garcia, violin Trina Basu, violin Dana Lyn, viola Marika Hughes, cello

Total running time: approx 60 minutes, no intermission.

On Conjure WomanConjure Woman is a three movement cantata inspired by my rural North Carolina roots, embodied within the coded, polyphonic and revelatory legacy of Black American quilt making tradition found within my larger culture and within my family’s personal tradition. The composition, featuring string quartet, four voices and flute, takes as its main text memoir poetry that I’ve written reflecting on my Southern childhood playing in the woods, eating wild berries and picking plums, running through dirt fields and dreaming under pecan trees; a traditional Navajo prayer; and an excerpt from a passage from American novelist Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon: “The singing woman... wrapped herself up in an old quilt...her eyes fixed... she sang in a powerful contralto.”

Thank YouSpecial thanks to curators Randy and Megan and the entire Avant Music Festival team; special thanks to all the amazing musicians who joined me on this special journey; special thanks to my family and friends; special thanks to the poets, the angels, the sinners and the saints; special thanks to the handmade quilts of family members that have held me and still cover me; and special thanks to the conjure women in my life- young, old, ancestors and those to come.

— Imani Uzuri, 2015

FRIDAY, MARCH 6thIMANI UZURI

11

Apparitions of The Four Pillars in The Midwinter Starfield under The Astral 789 Duet[2012-2015]

avant PREMIERE

Randy Gibson, voice and sine waves Jen Baker, trombone and voice Drew Blumberg, violin Mariel Roberts, cello Meaghan Burke, cello

Video by Oscar H Scott Lighting by Kryssy Wright

Apparitions of The Four Pillars (2009-present) is an evolving work based on pure overtones of the D fundamental at 72hz.

On Apparitions of The Four Pillars

This version of Apparitions of The Four Pillars presents a major evolution in my work. For Apparitions of The Four Pillars in The Midwinter Starfield under The Astral 789 Duet the drone truly acts as a static element, albeit with a life of its own, in the same way the tambura is used in traditional Indian music.

The full drone is heard continuing before and after the performance, and contains all of the pitches we will play. The static sine waves act as the fabric from which we pull our improvisations, in addition to two subliminal processes at work: one that outlines The Midwinter Starfield Theme and one that uses a technique I developed for my 2008 composition Shiver to continuously and subtly restructure the 7:8:9 Harmony throughout the performance near the highest audible range in a system reminiscent of the plucking of tambura strings.

Whereas most of my early work with The Four Pillars had been concerned with density, as I began work on what would become this version in 2012, I knew I wanted to carefully consider every element of the performance to insure that everything was working in harmony to bring the work to the heart of where it needs to be, to nestle into the drone. This year we have removed what was once a key aspect of the work: delay structures. When we sat down to begin rehearsing with this ensemble (the first time we had done so where every single performer had already performed the work in some iteration) it became clear that delays, and layers, were not necessary. By removing our delay structures we are better able

Incense will be burned. If you need to exit the space, please do so quietly.

Total running time: approx 200 minutes, no intermission.

to focus on the immediate relationships we are creating and have greater control over the long-form trajectory of the composition.

In 2003 I began studying with La Monte Young, the grandfather of Minimalism and a driving force behind uncompromising music of long duration and exact tuning. His mentorship encouraged tendencies already present in my work, and when, in 2005, I began studying Rāga singing with him and Marian Zazeela, and later also with Jung Hee Choi, my life was changed forever. My interest in sine waves and purely generated electronic sound is long-standing, but through his example, I have come to develop my own artistic language rooted in the tradition he has pioneered.

Beginning in 1964, Young’s work on The Theatre of Eternal Music, and Dream House, revolved around a single, sprawling, composition he calls The Tortoise, His Dreams and Journeys. Nearly all of his subsequent output could be considered a subset of this larger work. It was also around this time that he set out perhaps his most famous tenet: “Tuning is a function of time. Since tuning an interval establishes the relationship of two frequencies in time, the degree of precision is proportional to the duration of the analysis.” This example led me to create The Four Pillars as a guiding set of instructions for my own compositions. The Four Pillars continues to develop its own life, the more we perform the work, and works of its family, the more we learn about its mysteries and can create a higher and higher codification of what can be developed and presented using these intervals. By sustaining the tones for long periods of time, we are better

able to experience the complex feeling created through even the most simple of intervallic relationships.

The visionary example set by Young has been instrumental to my development as a composer. I work with a small number of musicians who have been performing my work for years and whose judgment I absolutely trust. They improvise within the guidelines I set up, giving each performance its own character and feeling dependent on the time and place of performance.

This performance is dedicated to my guru, Khan Sahib La Monte Young, and is accompanied by a video sculpture created by my long-time collaborator Oscar H Scott that takes as its inspiration the aurora borealis, and a special Tibetan incense created by The Sakyong, Jamgön Mipham Rimpoche, for the consecration of the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya in the Colorado mountains. Many years ago, I would ascend the beautiful Trail Ridge Road in these mountains, stand out in the cold and peer up at the great black sky, and the stars shimmering in the night air.

— Randy Gibson, II.vi.2013 revised IX-xix-2014, II-i-2015

SATURDAY, MARCH 7thrandy gibson

13

JEN BAKER trombone, voice

Jen Baker, trombonist/composer/improviser, collaborates with dozens of artists through solo commissions in site-specific performance, concert halls, and in theatrical/mixed media settings. She has appeared in festivals internationally and nationwide with new music ensembles S.E.M., TILT brass, and the mobile ensemble Asphalt Orchestra. A sought-after improviser, her work in multimedia and contemporary chamber music has led her to performances with Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Karole Armitage, Brooklyn Ballet, art gallery performances at the Met and the Guggenheim, and High Zero - an international festival of improvised music. As a composer, Baker often writes modular pieces, including First Nation's Ley - a concerto for multiphonic trombone (co-composed with instrument- maker David Samas), performed as a telematic piece and as a duo. She is particularly interested in assisting the body's (as well as the Earth's) natural ability to heal itself and composes for this purpose. She is featured on the soundtrack to Werner Herzog's Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World, and appears on New World, Innova, Cantaloupe Music, Rastascan, and her own label, Dilapidated Barns.

jenbakersounds.com

TRINA BASU violin

Trina Basu is a multifaceted violinist and teacher living in Brooklyn. Trained in western classical violin, the Miami native began exploring improvisation and creativity on her instrument in college. While based in Montreal, she was awarded an Artist Fellowship from the Indo-Shastri Canadian Institute to

study Carnatic Classical violin in South India. Upon her return, Trina’s experience in India became a springboard for many more musical adventures, one of which was the formation of Karavika, a chamber quartet that draws from classical and folk inspired music of the Indian Subcontinent. All About Jazz praised their debut album, Sunrise, saying, “It is a liquid and organic brew that sounds inevitable, as if it’s existed forever… A dynamic sonic blend of uncommon mesmeric beauty.” Trina has performed with artists such as Adam Rudolph’s Organic Orchestra, Mos Def, Urban Bush Women and Malini Srinivasan Dancers. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center and festivals such as the Newport Jazz Festival, Sinaloa Music Festival and the Florida Folk Festival. With a BM in Music Therapy and a Suzuki teaching certification, Trina is a passionate teacher to many children in the New York area.

DREW BLUMBERG violin

Drew Blumberg is a classical violinist with a degree in performance from the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music, but no amount of training could have prepared him for the technical and artistic challenges of Randy Gibson’s Apparitions of The Four Pillars. Blumberg has been performing Gibson’s music for over 15 years, collaborating closely on works such as Separate Haven and I Am Slowly… He has performed in every performance of Apparitions of The Four Pillars at the Avant Music Festival since its inception in 2010.

MEAGHAN BURKE cello

Meaghan Burke is a cellist who loves new, weird sounds and any music that keeps people from ossifying. Equally at home

interpreting the music of contemporary titans, improvising freely, or singing and playing her own grunge-cabaret songs, Meaghan has been honored to work with composers such as John Zorn, Philippe Manoury, Georg-Friedrich Haas, Muhal Richard Abrams, and Butch Morris. She plays regularly with string quartet The Rhythm Method, bi-hemispherical trio Dead Language, avant-rock band Forever House, and more, and has been a guest artist with Fred Sherry, Erik Friedlander, and the FLUX Quartet. Meaghan has performed under Sir Simon Rattle, Matthias Pintscher, and Peter Eötvös as a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy. She holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music (Contemporary Performance), Konservatorium Wien University, and Yale; her principal teachers have included Fred Sherry, Bernard Greenhouse, Christoph Stradner, and Ole Akahoshi. She is currently at work on a translation of the collected writings of Peter Ablinger for Wolke Verlag, and is recording her second album of her own music in New York and Vienna.

meaghanburkemusic.com

JOHN CAGE composer

John Cage was born on September 5, 1912 in Los Angeles, California and died in New York City on August 12, 1992. He studied liberal arts at Pomona College. Among his composition teachers were Henry Cowell and Arnold Schoenberg. Cage was elected to the American National Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and received innumerable awards and honors both in the United States and in Europe.

He was commissioned by a great many of the most important performing organizations throughout the world, and maintained a very active schedule.

It would be extremely difficult to calculate, let alone critically evaluate, the stimulating effect and ramifications that Cage’s work has had on 20th century music and art, for it is clear that the musical developments of our time cannot be understood without taking into account his music and ideas. His invention of the prepared piano and his work with percussion instruments led him to imagine and explore many unique and fascinating ways of structuring the temporal dimension of music.

He is universally recognized as the initiator and leading figure in the field of indeterminate composition by means of chance operations. Arnold Schoenberg said of Cage that he was an “inventor – of genius”.

johncage.org

DITHER electric guitar quartet

Dither, a New York based electric guitar quartet, is dedicated to an eclectic mix of experimental repertoire which spans composed music, improvisation, and electronic manipulation. Formed in 2007, the quartet has performed across the United States and abroad presenting new commissions, original compositions, multimedia works, and large guitar ensemble pieces. The quartet’s members are Taylor Levine, Joshua Lopes, James Moore and Gyan Riley.

Dither has worked with a wide range of artists, including Eve Beglarian, Fred Frith, David Lang, Phill Niblock, Larry Polansky, Lee Ranaldo, Elliott Sharp, Lois V. Vierk, and John Zorn. Past performances include the Performa Biennial, The MATA Festival, the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Amsterdam Electric Guitar Heaven Festival, Hong Kong's Fringe Theater,

about the artists

14

and the Bang on a Can Marathon. Dither produces their annual Extravaganza, a raucous festival of creative music and art, which has been called an “official concert on the edge” by the New Yorker. Their critically acclaimed debut album was released on Henceforth Records, and latest record Dither plays Zorn, a recording of the composer’s improvisational game pieces, was released on Tzadik in January 2015.

ditherquartet.com

KEITH DOELLING tenor

Keith Doelling is, by day, a neuroscientist who studies interactions between music, speech and the brain. His work is informed by his love of music which has manifested itself in many different ways over the past 20 years: ranging from classical music performances on the acoustic bass to jazz/funk piano and singing. He currently plays and sings with R&B and funk cover band DeBunk and occasionally gigs around the city when he’s not in the lab.

EKMELES vocal ensemble

Ekmeles—praised for their “extraordinary sense of pitch” by The New York Times, and called a “promising addition to the New York scene” by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross—is a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works, and gems of the historical avant garde. New York is home to a vibrant instrumental new music scene, with a relative paucity of vocal music. Ekmeles was founded to fill the gap by presenting new a cappella repertoire for solo voices, and by collaborating with these instrumental ensembles.

Their recent concert performances include appearances on the MATA Festival and on Miller Theatre’s Pop-Up Concerts series, as well as a performance of Stockhausen’s Stimmung. Among their collaborations with instrumental groups are the U.S. premieres of Luigi Nono’s Quando Stanno Morendo with AMP New Music, and Beat Furrer’s FAMA with Talea Ensemble, for which the New York Times praised their “singing with flawless pitch and precise ensemble even when dispersed.”

Director Jeffrey Gavett brings a hybrid vision to the group: he is both an accomplished ensemble singer and solo performer of new works. He has assembled a virtuoso group of colleagues with diverse backgrounds, which they bring to the unique challenges of this essential and neglected repertoire.

ekmeles.com

PALA GARCIA violin

Violinist Pala Garcia is a critically acclaimed performer, dedicated to adventurous chamber music programming, community projects, and interdisciplinary collaborations with artists from other musical genres and artistic fields. She explores avant-garde piano trio works in the ensemble Longleash; celebrates her love of symphonic repertoire as a frequent guest performer in ensembles like Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and others; and contributes musical experiences to the community through Carnegie Hall’s Musical Connections program. She received BM and MM degrees from The Juilliard School.

palagarcia.com

RANDY GIBSON curator, producer, composer, voice, electronics

Randy Gibson is a composer and performer based in Brooklyn, but originally from Boulder, Colorado. He works with structure, naturalistic compositional models, and improvisation to create enveloping and ritualistic works in Just Intonation. His music has been called “an hypnotic mass of slowly mutating sound” (Textura on Apparitions of The Four Pillars) and “a gorgeously expansive dronescape” (Aquarius on Analog Apparitions.)

Since 2003, Gibson has studied with seminal Minimalist pioneer La Monte Young which has brought great clarity and devotion to his work. Through his studies of rāga singing in the Kirana tradition with La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, and Jung Hee Choi he has begun to glimpse universal sound. By presenting his work with visual and ritualistic elements (incense, video, lighting), Gibson offers the audience a way into the frame of mind to embrace stillness and become absorbed in the visceral sonic experience of his drone world.

In late 2009, inspired by Young’s systemic and eternal approach to pitch and Vertical Hearing, Gibson wrote a set of tuning theories called The Four Pillars which has provided the harmonic and tonal language for all of his subsequent work.

Gibson’s music has been presented around the world including at festivals in Germany, Korea, and Mexico. His works have been commissioned by choreographers - 2004-2005’s Separate Haven commissioned by Kim Olson / Sweetedge; record labels - 2010’s Analog Apparitions commissioned by The Tapeworm and 2014’s The First Pillar Appearing In Supernova commissioned by

Important Records; ensembles - 2010-2012’s Circular Trance Surrounding The Second Pillar with The Highest Seventh Primal Cirrus, The Utmost Fundamental, and The Ekmeles Ending from Apparitions of The Four Pillars commissioned by Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble; and individual performers - 2013’s Nine Minutes for The Four Pillars in duet with The Paris Drones recalling The Midwinter Starfield commissioned by violinist Erik Carlson and 2014’s The Four Pillars Appearing from The Equal D under Resonating Apparitions of the Eternal Process in The Midwinter Starfield commissioned by pianist R. Andrew Lee.

In 2010, under a grant from the American Music Center, Gibson traveled to London to premiere The Third Analog Pillar. The performance was hailed by Liminal’s Scott McMillan as “a moment of relative calm, of stillness, and of pleasingly soporific and mind-emptying purity.” His solo just intonation piano album, Aqua Madora V-ii-2008 21:07:26” - 21:54:40” (NYC), was selected by Textura as one of the top 10 albums of 2011.

Gibson is the artistic director of Avant Media, a non-profit organization dedicated to collaborative artistic endeavors, and, since 2010, has curated the annual Avant Music Festival with Megan Schubert, celebrating composer’s singular visions in dedicated concerts.

randy-gibson.com

STEVEN HERRING baritone

American baritone Steven Herring has performed Sacristan in Puccini’s Tosca, Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata, the title role in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Belcore in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore, to name a few.

16

Additional performances include Agwe in Once on This Island; Wandering Son in Bubblin’ Brown Sugar; Obatala in God’s Trombones; Doc in West Side Story, as well as the baritone love interest in Alicia Hall Moran’s Motown Project. As an educator, Mr. Herring has developed and conducted art-based teaching and learning workshops for The Metropolitan Opera Guild, Lincoln Center Education, and The Learning Arts.

MARIKA HUGHES cello

Marika Hughes, cellist and vocalist, is a native New Yorker. Long before graduating from Barnard College with a BA in political science and the Juilliard School in cello performance, Marika was a regular kid on Sesame Street. While in San Franciso after college, Marika was a member of Quartet San Francisco, joined Jewlia Eisenberg’s Charming Hostess, founded 2 Foot Yard with Carla Kihlstedt and Shahzad Ismaily and toured extensively with Vienna Teng. Marika returned to NYC in 2006 and has lent her low-end to some of her favorite NY based musicians including, Toshi Reagon, Charles Burnham, David Byrne, Valerie June, Whitney Houston, Lou Reed, Ani DiFranco, Mary J Blige, and Imani Uzuri. Marika self- released two debut CDs as a band-leader: The Simplest Thing and Afterlife Music Radio - 11 New Pieces for Solo Cello and performs regularly with her band, Bottom Heavy. Marika has enjoyed being a guest host for Terrance McKnight’s show All Ears on WQXR and has been a featured storyteller on The Moth.

marikahughes.com

DANA JESSEN bassoon

Praised for her diverse talents, bassoonist Dana Jessen is active as a soloist, chamber musician, improviser and new music specialist. Dana is the founder of Splinter Reeds and has performed with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Ensemble Dal Niente, Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, and Callithumpian Consort, among others. As the founder of the New Music Bassoon Fund, Dana led the commission of Rushes, an hour-long composition for seven bassoons by Michael Gordon. Her recordings can be heard on Cantaloupe, RIOJA, Evil Rabbit, Oberlin Music and the New World record labels. Dana holds a M.M. in bassoon performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and a M.M. in improvisation from the Artez Hogeschool voor de Kunsten. She lived in Amsterdam for three years as the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and Huygens Fellowship researching contemporary and improvised music. Dana is currently the Director for Professional Development at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

danajessen.com

ANDY KOZAR trumpet

Pittsburgh native Andy Kozar is a New York City based trumpeter, improviser, composer and educator whose playing has been said to be “agile as he navigated leaps and slurs with grace...he shifted between lyricism and aggression deftly” by the International Trumpet Guild Journal, “polished and dynamic, with very impressive playing” by the Baltimore Sun, that he “coaxed the ethereal and the gritty from [his] muted instrument...and revealed a facility for shaping notes and color” by the San Francisco Classical Voice and called a

“star soloist” by TimeOutNY. A strong advocate of contemporary music, he is a founding member of loadbang which has been called “inventive” by the New York Times, “cultivated” by The New Yorker, and “a formidable new-music force” by TimeOutNY. As an educator, Andy is on faculty at the North Carolina Governor’s School and the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Boston.

andykozar.com

DANA LYN viola

Dana Lyn is at home in multiple musical worlds as a keyboard player and violinist, ranging from classical/contemporary classical to folk, electronica and improvisatory music. Selected theater credits as an onstage musician include Hamlet (2008, Public Theater), A Winter’s Tale and The Cherry Orchard (2009, BAM, directed by Sam Mendes), and Clive (2013, The New Group, directed by Ethan Hawke). Most recently, she music-directed Family Album (2014, Oregon Shakespeare Festival), a new musical by Tony Award-winning collaborators Stew and Heidi Rodewald. As a composer, Lyn has received commissions from Brooklyn Rider, the New Orchestra of Washington and the Apple Hill String Quartet. Lyn leads her own quintet Mother Octopus, which released its first album Aqualude via Ropeadope Records in October of 2013. Upcoming releases include her collaboration with actor Vincent D’Onofrio, entitled Slim Bone Head Volt, on March 3, 2015. She is also an esteemed Irish fiddle player and has three albums of traditional Irish music under her name.

MANTRA PERCUSSION percussion ensemble

Committed to honoring the deep past and expanding the far-flung future of percussion music, Mantra Percussion brings to life new works for percussion by living composers, we collaborate with artists from diverse genres and styles, and we question what it means to communicate by making music with and on percussive objects. We devote our collective energy toward engaging new audiences by challenging the standard concert format through evening-length events that look toward a grander artistic vision.

We strive for each performance to be a significant moment — our mantra.

Since forming as an ensemble in 2009, we have been thrilled to be featured at festivals, venues, and universities throughout North America and in Europe including BAM, the MATA Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, NPR, Make Music New York, the Drogheda Festival, Fast Forward Austin, the Carlsbad Music Festival, Ear Heart Music, Wesleyan University, CalArts, SUNY Buffalo and many others.

After co-commissioning Michael Gordon’s evening-length percussion sextet Timber, we gave the work’s United States premiere in October 2011 and subsequently toured the work throughout North America, and gave the New York premiere at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Next Wave Festival in December 2012. Additionally, through our 3Nights series we have commissioned Ted Hearne, Daniel Wohl, Tristan Perich, Paula Matthusen, Eric Wubbels, Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Zs, Xiu Xiu, and Ian Williams.

Mantra Percussion has been hailed by The New York Times as “finely polished...a fresh source of energy” and by TimeOut

19

New York as “forward thinking”; the group was praised by The New Yorker and TimeOut New York for presenting one of the ten best classical performances of 2012.

mantrapercussion.org

PAULA MATTHUSEN composer

Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. In addition to writing for a variety of different ensembles, she also collaborates with choreographers and theater companies. She has written for diverse instrumentations, such as run-on sentence of the pavement for piano, ping-pong balls, and electronics, which Alex Ross of The New Yorker noted as being “entrancing”. Her work often considers discrepancies in musical space—real, imagined, and remembered.

Her music has been performed by Dither, Mantra Percussion, the Bang On a Can All-Stars, Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), orchest de ereprijs, The Glass Farm Ensemble, the Estonian National Ballet, James Moore, Kathryn Woodard, Todd Reynolds, Kathleen Supové, Margaret Lancaster and Jody Redhage. Her work has been performed at numerous venues and festivals in America and Europe, including the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the MusicNOW Series of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Ecstatic Music Festival, Other Minds, the MATA Festival, Merkin Concert Hall, the Aspen Music Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Institute of Music at MassMoCA, the Gaudeamus New Music Week, SEAMUS, International Computer Music Conference and Dither’s Invisible Dog Extravaganza. She performs frequently

with the electroacoustic duo ouisaudei, Object Collection, and through the theater company Kinderdeutsch Projekts.

Awards include the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fulbright Grant, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers’ Awards, First Prize in the Young Composers’ Meeting Composition Competition, the MacCracken and Langley Ryan Fellowship, the “New Genre Prize” from the IAWM Search for New Music, and recently the 2014 Elliott Carter Rome Prize. Matthusen has also held residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, create@iEar at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, STEIM, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Matthusen completed her Ph.D. at New York University – GSAS. She was Director of Music Technology at Florida International University for four years, where she founded the FLEA Laptop Ensemble. Matthusen is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Wesleyan University, where she teaches experimental music, composition, and music technology.

paulamatthusen.com

ANN MCCORMACK soprano

For over a decade Ann McCormack has honed in on her love of creating and producing her own work. Early in her artistic development, she also learned the importance of extending this passion into her artistic community, through collaboration and innovation with other giving, open artists. Credits include 50th Anniversary World Tour of West Side Story as Maria where the Leipziger Volkszeitung caller her voice “versatile and angelic,” Yanni (World Tour), Sweetie at Signature Theatre-Pershing Square (Sweetie), Wynton Marsalis Abyssinian: A Gospel

Celebration (US tour). Ann has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), Leipzig Opera, Festspielhaus (Baden-Baden) and many theaters and arenas across the globe.

CALEY MONAHON-WARD sound design

Caley Monahon-Ward is an audio engineer specializing in on-location recording. His experience has included broadcast sound mixing for megachurch-style gospel productions, sound reinforcement for celebrity panel discussions, ad hoc orchestral film score recording, and free jazz festival production management. As an instrumentalist, Caley has recently focused on a drums-less sludge-prog band called Feast Of The Epiphany. He plays stringed instruments and percussion, and produces records.

ELEONORE OPPENHEIM double bass

“Quietly virtuosic” (Allan Kozinn, the New York Times) double bassist and electric bassist Eleonore Oppenheim is quickly gaining a reputation as both a valued ensemble player and an engaging soloist. Her “…subtle expressivity” and “…particular eloquence” (Joshua Kosman, the San Francisco Chronicle) have made her a muse for composers of her generation, and she has built a rich repertoire of solo pieces, some of which will be featured on her forthcoming debut album, Home (Innova Recordings, Spring 2015). Eleonore has appeared nationally and internationally at festivals and venues including Carnegie Hall, BAM, Lincoln Center, the Barbican Centre, and the Sydney Opera House, with a variety of different artists and groups, among them the Philip Glass Ensemble, Tyondai Braxton, Bang on a Can, Wordless Music

Orchestra, My Brightest Diamond, Signal Ensemble, Steve Reich, Jonny Greenwood, and the “All-star, all-female quintet” Victoire, of which she is a member.

eleonoreoppenheim.com

MARIEL ROBERTS cello

“Trailblazing” cellist Mariel Roberts (Feast of Music) is a deeply dedicated interpreter and performer of contemporary music. Recent performances have garnered praise for her “technical flair and exquisite sensitivity” (American Composers Forum), as well as her ability to “couple youthful vision with startling maturity”. (InDigest Magazine). Mariel performs internationally as a member of the Mivos String Quartet, and has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in venues around the world, striving to expand the technical and expressive possibilities of her instrument through close relationships with other innovative performers and composers.

marielroberts.com

MEGAN SCHUBERT curator

Schubert, co-curator and co-founder of the Avant Music Festival, revels in the wide variety of musical ideas explored in an environment that fosters taking creative risks.

Schubert has performed music by Stockhausen for an audience under umbrellas in a torrential downpour for Make Music New York; world premieres at Carnegie Hall; with robots while locked inside a Van de Graaff Generator at Boston’s Museum of Science; on a bike flying by the audience in an installation piece at McCarren Park Pool, Brooklyn; in a giant potato sack while video was projected onto her frontside at Webster

21

Hall; for inmates at a maximum security prison in Ossining, NY; With puppets at E 4th Street Fab Fest; while sprinting and screaming down Wall Street for River to River Festival, for Elliot Carter at a celebration of his 100th birthday; shared the stage on multiple occasions with such luminaries as Meredith Monk, Bang On a Can, and with many ensembles championing art music and experimental jazz of today.

In recent years, Schubert sang in the premieres of large works by Sasha Zamler-Carhart, Robert Ashley, Luigi Nono (with Ekmeles), Georges Aperghis, Bernard Rands, James Ilgenfritz, Sonia Megias, Jenny O. Johnson, Cally Spooner, Nick Hallett, Kitty Brazelton, Inhyun Kim, Kristen Volness, Guy Barash and Christian Frederickson, and in new productions of operas by Denman Maroney and Jason Cady. She performed music with/by Nate Wooley for Anna Sperber’s The Superseded Third; as soloist/musical accompaniment of Wally Cardona and Jennifer Lacy’s The Set Up with master of classical Cambodian dance, Proeung Chhieng and later in The Set Up with Indonesian master performer I Nyoman Catra with music by Jonathan Bepler; solo sets including her own compositions two years in a row for the brand new Resonant Bodies Festival. Schubert played small roles and sung for the soundtrack of the new Matthew Barney/Jonathan Bepler film, River of Fundament, in the Bessie Award-winning Within Between by John Jasperse and Jonathan Bepler, and sung in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with New York City Ballet. She recently opened Jazztopad in Poland premiering Nate Wooley’s Psalms from Hell. Upcoming projects include Judd Greenstein’s Moses Jacobs opera.

She assists Moog synthesizer pioneer Gershon Kingsley and opera director Rhoda Levine, and holds degrees from Bennington College and Manhattan School of Music. She studies with tenor/actor Anthony Laciura (Boardwalk Empire, MET opera).

meganschubert.com

OSCAR H SCOTT graphic design, video sculpture, projections

Oscar H Scott is a graphic designer and visual artist living and working in London. He is a graduate of The Cooper Union where he received a BFA from The School of Art. In 2004 the Art Directors Club named him one of the Top Young Designers in New York. He is interested in the intersection of video, photography and his main passion: graphic design. Professionally Oscar has worked in the fields of publishing, advertising and academia. H Scott has been a member of Avant Media since 2004, collaborating with Randy Gibson in many projects including Anger, Shiver, Doleo Æternus, and the Apparitions of The Four Pillars series.

oscarhscott.com

IMANI UZURI composer, contralto

Imani Uzuri is an eclectic composer, vocalist and performer. The Village Voice says, “With a voice that would sound equally at home on an opera stage or a disco 12-inch, Imani Uzuri is a constant surprise...seamlessly combining jazz, classical, country and blues motifs into highly personalized compositions.” Uzuri’s music highlights her affinity for her African-American cultural musical practices such as antiphony, polyrhythms, multi-layered harmonies and the use

of melisma. Her compositions for rock combos, acoustic ensembles, choral ensembles, chamber orchestra, musical theater, sound installations and solo voice are also influenced by her travels to places like Hungary, Morocco, Ethiopia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Japan.

Uzuri has collaborated as a composer and performer with a wide range of noted artists across various artistic disciplines including avant-garde composer Robert Ashley; jazz luminaries Herbie Hancock and Vijay Iyer; acclaimed visual artists Wangechi Mutu, Carrie Mae Weems, Sanford Biggers and award winning choreographer Trajal Harrell. Her first orchestral composition, Placeless, premiered at the Ecstatic Music Festival; she was subsequently named by The New Yorker as one of the emerging “female composers edg[ing] forward.” Time Out New York says, “[Uzuri] never fails to mesmerize with her narcotic blend of...ethereal sounds.”

imaniuzuri.com

KAORU WATANABE flute

Kaoru Watanabe is a New York based composer and musician who specializes in the Japanese shinobue flutes and taiko drums. His performance combines the visceral intensity of Japanese festivals and the esoteric musics of traditional theater with complex improvisational and rhythmic elements of jazz and other musics of the world. Kaoru was a member and artistic director of the iconic Japanese taiko ensemble Kodo for close to a decade and has collaborated with such varied artists as Jason Moran, Sō Percussion and kabuki actor Tamasaburo Bando.

PHILIP WHITE electronics

Composer, performer and improviser Philip White works with electronics at the intersection of noise, jazz and contemporary concert music. Current projects include R WE WHO R WE (with Ted Hearne), Colonic Youth (with James Ilgenfritz, Kevin Shea and Dan Blake) and duos with Chris Pitsiokos, Bob Bellerue and Taylor Levine.

His music has been released on Carrier Records, New Focus Recordings, Infrequent Seams and Tape Drift Records. It has been described as “utterly gripping” (Time Out Chicago), “bona fide evocative music” (Brooklyn Rail), and a “vibrant textural tapestry” (Wall Street Journal).

prwhite.net

KRYSSY WRIGHT lighting design

Kryssy Wright is a lighting designer celebrating over ten years in Brooklyn. Since relocating to Brooklyn she has designed and built sets, designed and hung light plots, stage managed, set up audio and video systems, production managed, tech directed, and swept a lot of floors. While in NYC, Kryssy has worked with the Esemble Studio Theater, Columbia University, INTAR, Noemie LaFrance, PS122, and many others. Outside of NYC she went on tour with The Civilians. Currently Kryssy is on staff at the Abrons Art Center, Wild Project, 14 StreetY and Danspace Project at St. Marks. She is an Associate Artist with Third Rail Projects, whom with she was awarded a Bessie, Avant Media, and LABA. Her degree is from Bennington College.

The Avant Music Festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; by generous grants from The Foundation For Contemporary Arts, The Amphion Foundation, and The Aaron Copland Fund; and by the support of our members and donors.

Special Thanks to MELA foundation for additional video equipment.

melafoundation.org

COLLABORATORS

Kamal Ackarie Ana Baer-Carrillo Drew Blumberg Robyn Cohn Suzanne Herko Michelle Itano John King Mark Langlois Richard Nordin Leslie Nowinski Lucy Shelton Craig Shepard

ENTHUSIASTS

Phil Backhouse Eve Beglarian Hans Buetow Josie Gibson Jeremy Grainger Holly Hickman Lindsay Hoffman Alan Howie Eric Hubel George John Jackson Joseph Leighly Philip Marshall Sandy Meier Eleonor Sandresky Michael Smith

PREMIERE

Stephen Bruckert Filip Cleynen Nicholas Croft Kenny Cupers D. Edward Davis Michiel De Vreede David Drexler Christie Finn Helen Forde Leslie Getz Angela James Dean Johnson David Lackner Robert Miller Christiane Pluer Sean Sakamoto

CHAMPIONS

The Aaron Copland Fund for Music

Amphion Foundation

Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Incorporated / Adam Rolston

Sally Gibson

New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs

New York State Council on the Arts

Resolute Digital

PILLARS

Anonymous

Matthew Beckemeyer

Theresa Beckemeyer

Eunice Cone

Randy Gibson

Brian O'Keefe Architect

Mike Rugnetta

PARTNERS

Kornhaber Brown

Gerard Forde

Malcolm Kaye Architecture

Robbie Rettmer

Kaitsen Woo

To become a memberavantmedia.org/membership

Thanks to all our SUPPORTERS

Your generosity makes this remarkable season of events possible,

supporting over 100 artists and performers

The Foundation for Contemporary Art

$1000+

$100+ $50+

$500+ $250+

The Avant Music Festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; by generous grants from The Foundation For Contemporary Arts, The Amphion Foundation, and The Aaron Copland Fund; and by the support of our members and donors.

avantmedia.org

See you next year at Wild Project,FEBRUARY 19th-27th for the

Join us in spring for the rest of our 2014-15 season and the continuation of our new TANGENTS SERIES with

TANGENT TRIOTANGENT BLOWBACK

April 12may 12

Three new Gesamtkunstwerk trios from Megan Schubert, Gelsey Bell and Kjersti Kveli

The World Premiere of Jude Traxler’s mind-bending sprawling work for computer controlled percussionists

JOHN

CAG

E

FEAT

URIN

G TH

E MUS

IC O

F

RAND

Y GI

BSON

INHY

UN K

IM

JOHN

KIN

G