Julius Eastman: That Which Is Fundamental
An interdisciplinary, multi-artist project on the life, work and resurgent influence of composer and performer Julius Eastman (1940–1990), curated by Tiona Nekkia McClodden and Dustin Hurt.
On this page: About Julius Eastman 2015 research Philadelphia 2017 New York 2018 From the archive Press Curatorial team Credits
About
Julius Eastman: That Which Is Fundamental was an interdisciplinary, multi-artist project that examined the life, work, and resurgent influence of Julius Eastman, a gay African American composer and performer who was active internationally in the 1970s and 80s, but who died homeless at the age of 49, leaving an incomplete but compelling collection of scores and recordings.
The project grew out of more than three years of research, beginning with a concert and public workshop in Philadelphia in October 2015. Its first full iteration took place in Philadelphia in May 2017, in collaboration with The Rotunda and Slought, with four major concerts, including several modern “premieres” of recently recovered works, and a two-part exhibition featuring archival materials and work by contemporary artists who engage with Eastman and the fragmented nature of his legacy. An expanded edition was presented in New York City in January and February 2018 in collaboration with The Kitchen.
That Which Is Fundamental was the first comprehensive examination of Eastman’s legacy to work alongside the Eastman Estate, an organization led by Gerry Eastman to gather together, organize, preserve, disseminate, and generally further the work of his brother, Julius.
Julius Eastman (1940–1990)
Julius Eastman was born in New York City and raised in Ithaca, New York. He studied piano and composition at the Curtis Institute of Music, graduating in 1963. In the late sixties, he moved to Buffalo, New York, where he was invited by composer-conductor Lukas Foss to join the prestigious university-based new music group, the Creative Associates, eventually becoming a member of the University of Buffalo music faculty. In Buffalo, his colleagues at the new music center included Petr Kotik, Gwendolin Sims, James Fulkerson, Jan Williams, and Morton Feldman. During his highly productive years in Buffalo, he composed Thruway; a ballet score, The Moon’s Silent Modulation; Macle; Trumpet; Colors; and Stay On It; among other pieces.
In the summer of 1976, Eastman moved to New York City where he became part of the “downtown” New York music scene. During this period he performed with Arthur Russell, Meredith Monk, Peter Zummo, and others in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall and the Brooklyn Academy of Music to downtown lofts and disco clubs. From 1976 until his death in 1990, Eastman’s “model of musicianship,” as music historian Ryan Dohoney terms it, “expanded to include free Jazz, improvisation, new wave rock, disco, as well as his own composed music that is marked by intense repetition and political aggressiveness.” This “political aggressiveness” is evident in the series of multi-piano pieces that Eastman wrote with provocative titles such as Crazy Nigger, Evil Nigger, and Gay Guerrilla. Following a series of personal struggles and misfortunes such as eviction from his apartment for non-payment of rent and the confiscation of his possessions including his musical scores, Eastman returned to Buffalo, where he died in 1990 at age 49.
By Renée Levine Packer, co-editor (with Mary Jane Leach) and contributor, Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music (University of Rochester Press, 2015).
2015: Research
With support from a Pew Center for Arts & Heritage discovery grant for In Search of Eastman, Bowerbird began its research with two public events in October 2015: a rare performance of one of Eastman’s works for four pianos, led by Joseph Kubera, who performed the work with Eastman in 1980, and a public workshop at Slought bringing together scholars, artists and musicians.
Fri, Oct 16, 2015 · 8pmJulius Eastman’s █████ ██████Joseph Kubera, Adam Tendler, Michelle Cann and Dynasty Battles, pianos, with Tracie MorrisThe Rotunda
Sat, Oct 17, 2015 · 7pmIn Search of EastmanRyan Dohoney, Jace Clayton, and a panel with Mary Jane Leach, Tracie Morris and Kyle Gann, moderated by Tiona Nekkia McCloddenSloughtParticipants in the October 2015 workshop included Thomas Choinacky, Renée Levine Packer, Ryan Wayne Dohoney, Kyle Gann, Mary Jane Leach, Jace Clayton, Tracie Morris, Kimberly Drew, Jerrell Jackson, James Ijames, chukwumaa, Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, André Carrington, Chris McIntyre, Kyle Austin and Stanford Thompson.
October 16, 2015 at The Rotunda
Photos by Ben Tran.
Philadelphia, May 2017
The first full iteration of That Which Is Fundamental took place in Philadelphia in May 2017, with four Friday-night concerts at the Sanctuary of The Rotunda and a two-part exhibition at Slought, with public programs. The music program was curated by Dustin Hurt, and the exhibition by Tiona Nekkia McClodden.
Exhibition: A Recollection. + Predicated.
May 4 to 28, 2017 · Slought, 4017 Walnut Street
A Recollection. and Predicated. featured archival traces and work by ten contemporary artists that engage with Eastman and the fragmented nature of his legacy. A Recollection. approached a historical exploration and remembrance of Julius Eastman as a master of artifice. The audio, artifacts, and ephemera in the exhibition examined the music, literature, and choreography of Eastman’s life through the people who knew him best. The archive of Eastman that emerges after his death is fractured, partially by his own hand; the artifacts of his life remain spread among friends, family, and lovers, resisting traditional forms of centralization under the roof of a single institution. Using this shape-shifting as a conceptual framework, A Recollection. mapped archival matter as a way of inviting viewers to discover new pieces and forge relationships between ephemera held by different informal archivists.
Predicated., an exhibition in conversation with the work of Julius Eastman, explored notions of absence, trace presence, duration, and the politics of exhaustion, and the interplay between composition and improvisation through video, sculpture, and photography. It considered Eastman’s lived experience as an experimental artist during his time as a member of the Creative Associates, and while living in New York’s Lower East Side. Artists: Carolyn Lazard, Beau Rhee, James Maurelle, Sondra Perry, Wayson Jones, Ash Arder, Jonathan Gardenhire, Courtney Bryan, Texas Isaiah and Yulan Grant.
Installation views at Slought
Photos by Ben Tran.
Exhibition programs
May 4 to 28, 2017A Recollection. + Predicated.Exhibition curated by Tiona Nekkia McCloddenSlought
Thu, May 4, 2017 · 6:30pmOpening receptionPredicated. + A Recollection.Slought
Sat, May 13, 2017 · 6pmCo-Curators in ConversationDustin Hurt and Tiona Nekkia McCloddenSlought
Thu, May 18, 2017 · 6pmThe Music of Julius EastmanA presentation by Dustin HurtSlought
Sat, May 20, 2017 · 6pmArtist TalkModerated by Tiona Nekkia McCloddenSloughtConcerts
Fri, May 5, 2017 · 8pmStay On It + FemenineGerry Eastman, and Arcana New Music Ensemble with Christopher McIntyreThe Rotunda
Fri, May 12, 2017 · 8pmMacle, Thruway, Buddha + Moor MotherEkmeles, the Eastman Community Choir and Arcana New Music EnsembleThe Rotunda
Fri, May 19, 2017 · 8pmCrazy, Evil, Gay GuerrillaJoseph Kubera, Dynasty Battles, Michelle Cann and Adam Tendler, pianos, and the Sonora Guitar EnsembleThe Rotunda
Fri, May 26, 2017 · 8pmThe Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc + ThruwayDavóne Tines, the Bowerbird Cello Ensemble with Stanford Thompson, and Jeremy Toussaint-BaptisteThe RotundaVideo
Femenine (excerpt)
Arcana New Music Ensemble with Christopher McIntyre, excerpt from Femenine, The Rotunda, May 5, 2017. Audio and video by Christopher McDonald.
The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc (excerpt)
The Bowerbird Cello Ensemble (Mirjam Ingolfsson, Thomas La Forgia, Ezgi Yargici, Eric Coyne, Agnes Kline, Erin Busch, Arlen Hlusko, Lucia Strother, Carolina Diazgranados and Rachel Icenogle), conducted by Stanford Thompson, The Rotunda, May 26, 2017. Transcription by Clarice Jensen. Video and audio by Christopher McDonald, additional cinematography by Stacey McDonald, recording engineered by Eric Carbonara.
May 5: Stay On It + Femenine
Photos by Ben Tran.
May 12: Macle, Thruway, Buddha + Moor Mother
Photos by Ryan Collerd.
May 19: four pianos and electric guitars
Photos by Ben Tran.
May 26: The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc + Thruway
Photos by Ben Tran.
New York, January–February 2018
An expanded edition of That Which Is Fundamental was presented in New York City in collaboration with The Kitchen, with an expanded version of the exhibition and six programs at The Kitchen and the Knockdown Center, including the New York debut of Thruway, a program on Eastman and dance, and the modern premiere of Trumpet, newly transcribed by Christopher McIntyre.
Jan 19 to Feb 10, 2018A Recollection. + Predicated.Expanded exhibition curated by Tiona Nekkia McClodden, with fourteen artistsThe Kitchen
Fri–Sat, Jan 19–20, 2018Jeremy Toussaint-BaptisteA 24-hour interpretive cycle with LaMont HamiltonThe Kitchen
Thu, Jan 25, 2018 · 8pmFemenine + Joy BoyS.E.M. Ensemble with Christopher McIntyre, and Tracie Morris + HprizmThe Kitchen
Sat, Jan 27, 2018 · 8pmThruway + Gerry EastmanArcana New Music Ensemble and the Eastman Community ChoirThe Kitchen
Sun, Jan 28, 2018 · 8pmCrazy, Evil, Gay GuerrillaFour pianos and electric guitar ensembleKnockdown Center
Tue, Jan 30, 2018 · 8pmJulius Eastman and DanceMolissa Fenley’s Geologic Moments and archival footage of Andy de GroatThe Kitchen
Sat, Feb 3, 2018 · 8pmMacle, Trumpet, Joan d’ArcEkmeles, TILT Brass, Julian Otis and ACMEThe KitchenThe New York exhibition added work by Chloë Bass, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Raúl Romero and Shawné Michaelain Holloway to the artists shown at Slought.
From the archive
Press
“Festivals of his music presented by the Philadelphia cutting-edge organization Bowerbird gave Eastman the kind of electric performances they deserved.” David Patrick Stearns, WQXR
- Hammered Into Clouds: Nine Beginnings for Julius Eastman, Village Voice (May 2, 2018)
- Same Difference: Malik Gaines on Julius Eastman, Artforum (April 2018)
- Miscellany, Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise (January 2018)
- A Critic’s Pick for That Which Is Fundamental in New York, The New York Times (January 29, 2018)
- That Which Is Fundamental comes to The Kitchen, The New York Times (January 19, 2018)
- National Sawdust previews That Which Is Fundamental at The Kitchen, The Log (January 18, 2018)
- Philadelphia’s musical future, The Philadelphia Inquirer (November 9, 2017)
- Hyperallergic on That Which Is Fundamental (May 17, 2017)
- That Which Is Fundamental, on WHYY (May 9, 2017)
- Philadelphia Gay News on That Which Is Fundamental (May 4, 2017)
- Metro looks back at Julius Eastman (May 3, 2017)
- Julius Eastman’s Guerrilla Minimalism, Alex Ross, The New Yorker (January 2017)
- Eastman crashes the canon, The New York Times (October 28, 2016)
- Julius Eastman: the groundbreaking composer America almost forgot, The Guardian (September 14, 2016)
- Reviving Julius Eastman’s music, on WHYY (October 16, 2015)
- Our search for Julius Eastman, in The Inquirer (October 13, 2015)
- WRTI on resurrecting Julius Eastman (October 12, 2015)
After the project
- Eastman’s catalog finds a publisher, Music Sales / Wise Music (February 22, 2018)
- Gay Guerrilla for 16 electric guitars opens MaerzMusik’s Eastman project, Berlin (March 2018)
- Our Femenine score in Austin, Sightlines (July 5, 2018)
- Curating Contemporary Music Festivals, Brandon Farnsworth (transcript Verlag, 2020)
- Hearing What We Wouldn’t Have Before, David Patrick Stearns, WQXR (October 7, 2020)
- Femenine at Harlem Stage, Pride Index (October 2, 2021)
Curatorial team
Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Exhibition curator
Tiona Nekkia McClodden is a curator, visual artist, and filmmaker whose work explores and critiques issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and social commentary. Themes examined in McClodden’s films and works have been re-memory and, more recently, narrative biomythography, and shared ideas, values, and beliefs within the African Diaspora, what she calls “Black mentifact.” Her work is interested in exploring intersubjectivities within Blackness and Black communities as a tool for creating insider perspectives within film, time-based works, and objects. McClodden was awarded a 2016 Pew Fellowship.
Dustin Hurt
Music curator
Dustin Hurt is a curator, composer, researcher, and founding director of Bowerbird whose work engages with experimentalism as a timeless and recurrent artistic practice by presenting Euro-American experimental music alongside other types of rarely heard and little understood music (folk, world music, and early music). Prior to his research on Julius Eastman, he curated and produced large multi-event retrospectives of the composers John Cage, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Morton Feldman.
Mary Jane Leach
Special advisor
Mary Jane Leach is a composer, researcher, and author who has spent nearly two decades leading the charge to find the music of Julius Eastman. Her early efforts culminated in the landmark 2005 release of Unjust Malaise, a three-CD set of archival recordings of Eastman’s music. She co-edited, with Renée Levine Packer, the book Gay Guerrilla, the first book dedicated to Eastman’s life and work.
Credits and thanks
Julius Eastman: That Which Is Fundamental was a project of Bowerbird, presented in conjunction with the Eastman Estate, in collaboration with Slought and The Rotunda in Philadelphia and The Kitchen in New York.
Thank you to Mary Jane Leach for leading the search for Eastman’s lost work, and for generous sharing of time and information. Thank you to Renée Levine Packer for the deeply researched biography and the personal accounts of Julius in Buffalo. Thank you to Jan Williams for his insights into the music and showing us around Buffalo. Thank you to Gerry Eastman and Peter Thall of the Eastman Estate for believing in the work we are doing and allowing us unparalleled access to research and source materials. And an enormous thank you to Dr. John Bewley, music librarian and archivist at the University at Buffalo (SUNY) music library, whose tireless work with the Eastman archive ensures that generations will have access to this extraordinary artist.
Thank you to Gina Renzi and the staff of The Rotunda, Aaron Levy and the team at Slought, Petr Kotik of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Tim Griffin of The Kitchen, Paul Tai of New World Records, the Bowerbird team (Heather Mease, Colin Manjoney, Angus MacDonald, Kyle Blessing), Arin Ahlum Hanson, and countless others who contributed in so many ways to this project. And most of all, thank you to Julius.
Support
Major support for That Which Is Fundamental was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the Presser Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Pianos for the 2015 concert were provided by Cunningham Piano Company.
