Bowerbird is pleased to present saxophonist, composer, and improviser Cole Pulice in a solo set at The Maas Building. ABOUT THE ARTIST Saxophonist, composer and improviser Cole Pulice traffics in shimmering, otherworldly beauty. On Land’s End Eternal, their first album for Leaving Records (releasing May 9th), the Oakland-based artist expands their compositional palette beyond signal-processed…
Bowerbird is pleased to present American traditional music trio Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, and Cleek Schrey performing music from their recent album Beehive Cathedral. Joseph Decosimo, Luke Richardson, and Cleek Schrey, three of the most compelling musicians in the American traditional music scene, explore traditional repertoires from Appalachia and the broader South, gleaned from visits…
Bowerbird is pleased to present composer-clarinetist Stuart Bogie and composer-keyboardist Buck McDaniel performing two concerts in one day, continuing their acclaimed collaboration that began with the 2024 project November Variations. At Stoneleigh: a natural garden, the duo performs a completely improvised set for clarinet and organ, melding contemporary American minimalism, drones, and rapturous melodies. McDaniel’s…
Bowerbird is pleased to present composer-clarinetist Stuart Bogie and composer-keyboardist Buck McDaniel performing two concerts in one day, continuing their acclaimed collaboration that began with the 2024 project November Variations. At University Lutheran, performing as a clarinet and piano duo, the more percussive pairing invites rhythmic nuance and spontaneous turns showcasing both composed works and…
Bowerbird is pleased to present a morning birdwalk at the Schuylkill Center led by Jayla Clark, an experienced bird watcher with interspersed performances by Samantha Kochis, flute, and Sarah Cunningham, viola da gamba. Meet in front of the Visitor Center Please take note of the weather and dress accordingly with appropriate footwear. Estimated event time:…
Bowerbird is pleased to present the Arcana New Music Ensemble performing Cornelius Cardew’s groundbreaking work Treatise at The Rotunda. Composed between 1962-1967, Treatise employs an entirely graphic score with symbols that at times looks like traditional music notation then morphs into beautiful esoteric shapes, curved lines, and large black dots. Without any instruction for performance…
We are pleased to present Sova in a solo set at University Lutheran Church with an opening set by Koof Ibi. ABOUT THE ARTIST "Ghostly, delicate, elegant..." (Independent Clauses) For Sova – the stage name of New York-based pianist/composer Sophia Subbayya Vastek – the piano has always been home. A second generation pianist, she holds…
Bowerbird is pleased to present the Blackbox Ensemble performing contemporary chamber works by Annie Nikunen, Ileana Perez-Velazquez, Baldwin Giang, and James Diaz at University Lutheran Church. ABOUT THE ARTISTS The BlackBox Ensemble is a collective of contemporary music performers based in New York City dedicated to exploring the wide-ranging world of the music of our…
Bowerbird is pleased to present a special screening of In The Mirror of Maya Deren at The Rotunda. “More than anything else, cinema consists of the eye for the magic—that which perceives and reveals the marvelous in whatsoever it looks upon.” –Maya Deren With In The Mirror of Maya Deren, documentary filmmaker Martina Kudlacek has fashioned…
Bowerbird is pleased to present percussionist Stuart Jackson performing David Tudor's Coefficient: Frictional Percussion and Electronics (1991). This late electro-acoustic work, originally composed for percussionist Michael Pugliese, exists not as a traditional score but as a set of materials, circuits, and performance practices developed through experimentation. Frictional gestures—scraping, rubbing, sustained contact—activate microphones and transducers, creating…
Bowerbird is pleased to present a free screening of Bandoneon! (a combine), a documentary about David Tudor's groundbreaking 1966 performance, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Julie Martin. Bandoneon! was Tudor's first full concert work as a composer, performed as part of 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering—a legendary collaboration between ten New York artists and…
Bowerbird is pleased to present pianist Adam Tendler in a solo performance of works by Christian Wolff, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Henry Cowell, Morton Feldman, John Cage, and others. Before David Tudor became renowned for his pioneering electronic compositions, he was celebrated as one of the most fearless and virtuosic interpreters of experimental piano music. Throughout the…
Bowerbird presents the Arcana New Music Ensemble in a centenary celebration of Earle Brown and Morton Feldman, two pioneering American composers born in 1926 whose radical experiments in the 1950s and 60s transformed how music could be notated, performed, and experienced. Brown's selections represent his most radical period of graphic notation. December 1952 and Four…
Bowerbird is pleased to present an online talk with Nancy Perloff and Ron Kuivila, hosted by exhibition co-curators You Nakai and Dustin Hurt. Nancy Perloff, curator at the Getty Research Institute, oversees the David Tudor Papers, one of the most significant archives of experimental music in the 20th century. Ron Kuivila, Professor of Music at…
Bowerbird is pleased to present an online talk with John Driscoll and Phil Edelstein, hosted by exhibition co-curators You Nakai and Dustin Hurt. John Driscoll and Phil Edelstein are founding members of Composers Inside Electronics (CIE), a collaborative group formed in 1973 that has been central to the evolution and continuation of David Tudor's Rainforest…
Bowerbird is pleased to present the Arcana New Music Ensemble performing Postal Pieces 2.0, the second iteration of “Postal Pieces,” a concert featuring living composers in Philadelphia and beyond composing postcard-sized works inspired by James Tenney’s unorthodox set of compositions. Tenney’s “Postal Pieces,” composed between 1954 and 1971, are a series of ten concise works…
Bowerbird is pleased to present an online talk with Mark Davenport, hosted by exhibition co-curators You Nakai and Dustin Hurt. David Tudor is largely remembered for his performances of mid-twentieth-century avant-garde piano music and his close association with John Cage, but much less is known about his personal life or the intentional artist's community he…
David Tudor's musical partnership with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company spanned nearly five decades, from the company's founding in 1953 until Tudor's death in 1996. As a founding member, Tudor served not only as a virtuoso performer of revolutionary piano works but also as an essential collaborator in shaping the company's sonic identity. Working alongside…