THE WIDOW'S JOY listening & talk with Ian Nagoski Join us for Ian Nagoski's new lecture, titled The Widow's Joy: Pride, Genius, Grief & Lies from International 78rpm Recordings, seamlessly presents recordings from the the mid-1910s to 1950 across a wide geographic area. Musicians, famous and obscure, "classical" and "folk" alike are presented side-by-side as…
The internationally acclaimed JACK Quartet returns for a concert featuring masterworks by Witold Lutoslawski, Helmut Lachenman, and the world premiere of Philadelphia based composer Adam Berenson's String Quartet No. 3. In addition to the new work, JACK will perform Lachenmann's own String Quartet No. 1 "Gran Torso" (1972), and Lutoslawski's radical aleatoric contribution to the…
Flutist Claire Chase, "the young star of the modern flute" (The New Yorker) and a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, celebrates the release of her third solo album, DENSITY, featuring tour de force flute works by Steve Reich, Alvin Lucier, Philip Glass, Marcos Balter, Mario Diaz de Leon, and the seminal 1936 flute solo Density 21.5 by…
International Ensemble N_JP (featuring Sho master Ko Ishikawa and live electronics from Toshimaru Nakamura) will give the Philadelphia premiere of new works by composer and director Gene Coleman. The program includes his new music and film piece "Sendai Transmissions" and "Bairo", a new work made in collaboration with contemporary Indian choreographer Shaily Dadiala.
Bowerbird is pleased to present a rare screening of Werner Herzog's peculiar 1995 documentary film Death in Five Voices about the troubled life of eccentric sixteenth century composer Don Carol Gesualdo. Shot on location in Italy and featuring interviews with Gesualdo Consort director Gerald Pace, Il Complesso Barocco musical director Alan Curtis. From his sexual deviance…
Bowerbird is very excited to present Trefoil, a trio of singer-instrumentalists that specialize in European Medieval music, performing works by Guillaume Dufay, Gilles Binchois, and others from their new CD Fleur de Valeur: A Medieval Bouquet. Like poets of all ages, medieval songwriters invoked the imagery and natural magic of flowers in the service of…
Bowerbird is pleased to present this concert portrait of the early electronic music of composer Andrew Rudin. The concert will feature Rudin’s Tragoedia performed with a live video accompaniment and Il Giuoco (1966), which Robert Moog said to be the first large-scale, original, serious composition created on his synthesizing instruments. Il Giuoco is accompanied by…
The powerhouse JACK Quartet returns to Philadelphia for a concert featuring the hypercomplex string quartets by Iannis Xenakis. A leading figure in twentieth century music, Xenakis (1922 - 2001) was trained as a civil engineer, then became an architect and developed revolutionary designs while working with Le Corbusier. Utilizing his technical background, Xenakis approached composition…
Bowebird and Crane Arts are pleased to present "Rushes", an evening length work for seven bassoons by composer Michael Gordon. Performed by the Rushes Ensemble - with bassoonists Dana Jessen, Michael Harley, Jeffrey Lyman, Rachael Elliott, Saxton Rose, Lynn Hileman and Maya Stone - this unique septet of bassoonists is dedicated to expanding and diversifying…
Sound and text. Food and drink. This intimate evening brings together Nmperign, the experimental improvisation duo of trumpeter Greg Kelley and soprano saxophonist Bhob Rainey, a rare home-city appearance by pianist-composer Matt Mitchell, and writer-performer Corinna Burns reading from a new solo work. The night takes place at the Biello Martin Studio, a fanciful space…
Built upon shared interests in technology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, Axon Ladder is a multimedia performance installation by Bhob Rainey and Catherine Pancake. Combining algorithmic electronic composition with real-time video manipulation, this world premiere evening length work offers a timely view into the intersection of advancing technology and human intuition. The performance features footage…
NAKATANI GONG ORCHESTRA - ten gong ensemble + TATSUYA NAKATANI - solo percussion set Vibrating metal. Glacial ambiance. Percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani returns to Philadelphia for a solo set and to lead a performance of the Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO) - an ensemble of 10 gongs played by local musicians and conducted by Natakatani. Anyone who…
ALL SOUND IS QUEER curated by Catherine Pancake, featuring artists Keir Neuringer, Alex Smith, Megan McShea, John Eaton, Jules Gimbrone, and Drew Daniel. ABOUT THE EVENT "Queerness abides in the refusal to preserve, in the willingness to end the space of ruinous, risky anonymity, to let sound pull us with it into the…
ABOUT THE EVENT Bowerbird, Philly Sound Forum, and International House Philadelphia are proud to present Kevin Drumm (in his first ever Philadelphia appearance) and Jason Lescalleet, in celebratation of the recent release of their epic double CD 'The Abyss' on Erstwhile Records. In addition to the duo of Drumm and Lescalleet, the evening will also…
SHOW TIMES: Thursday, Sept.18, 2014 - 7pm Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 - 7pm Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014 - 12pm ABOUT THE EVENT An exceptionally rare opportunity for any daring listener. Lucino Berio's unsparingly difficult Sequenzas (14 in total, each one for a different solo instrument) are widely acclaimed as essential repertoire of the 20th…
ABOUT THE EVENT The Rotunda and Bowerbird are proud to present SANCTUARY, a series of sound based & site specific works created for The Rotunda's rarely seen main sanctuary. This space - which is covered by a massive 4 story, 80-foot diameter dome - will house new works by seven Philadelphia based artists - John…
Assemblage is a recently rediscovered lost film featuring Merce Cunningham and his early dance company: Carolyn Brown, Sandra Neels, Valda Setterfield, Meg Harper, Susana Hayman-Chaffey, Jeff Slayton, Chase Robinson, and Mel Wong. A collaboration with director and former dancer Richard Moore, Assemblage features Cunningham dancing with his company in a public happening in San Francisco's…
Carol Robinson & Nate Wooley: Works of Eliane Radigue & Denis Dufour Werner Dafeldecker & Valerio Tricoli: Williams Mix Extended ABOUT THE EVENT Clarinetist Carol Robinson and trumpeter Nate Wooley give performances of new works by iconoclastic French composers Eliane Radigue and Denis Dufour. The program opens with Dufour's fascinating Cinq forms d'appel for…