The beauty behind Cages Number Pieces is the simplicity and directness of their artistic intention, and their ability to be realized in an abundance of ways. Led by Michael Pisaro, this hands-on workshop reveals the ingenuity of Cages scores by allowing participants to create their own versions of the Number Pieces.
"One7" (1990), for a solo performer, was written to celebrate the birthday of Cages friend Pauline Oliveros. It is one of a few Number Pieces in which there is no specific content whatsoever other than the time brackets. Cage instructs his performer to fill the brackets by any means of producing sounds. One can perform…
The internationally acclaimed JACK Quartet performs three of Cages late works for string quartet, Music for Four (1984), Four (1989) and the exceptionally rarely heard Five3 (1991) for string quartet and trombone. Unlike the chaotic, multi-centered works of the 1960s and 70s, these pieces reflect a more restrained and nuanced aspect of Cage's compositional voice,…
A once in a lifetime event. Four preeminent post-Cagean composer-performers join together on the stage for a performance of Cages Four6 (1992), a work dedicated to musician and composer Pauline Oliveros on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday. Scored for a quartet with any way of producing sounds, Four6 is perhaps the most open of…
New Yorks Either / OR performs three of Cages final works, Four3 (scored for one or two pianos, twelve rain sticks, violin or oscillator and silence) and Two6 (for violin and piano), both based on a chance-derived score called Extended Lullaby, based on Erik Saties Vexations, as well as One5 for solo piano. Periodic performances…
Curtis 20/21 and the Curtis Percussion Studio present a portrait of John Cage. The program will focus exclusively on his percussion works from the 1940s, including Third Construction, Amores, Living Room Music, In a Landscape, and arrangements of his Sonatas and Interludes, interspersed with video recorded interview segments with the composer himself.
Laurel Karlik Sheehan gave the Canadian premiere of Two2 with Jack Behrens in 1990. Rob Haskins is a respected Cage expert and scholar. Together they bring an authority and expertise to this performance of Two2.
The PRISM saxophone quartet and the Curtis Institute of Musics 20/21 Ensemble join forces for a program that includes a selection of Freeman Etudes for solo violin (1977-80), Sonata for Two Voices (1933), Music for Nine (1984-87), Four5 for saxophone quartet (1991), and to close the festival Thirteen (1992), Cages final composition.
ALASH ENSEMBLE wth beat boxer Shodekeh, double bassist Garth Stevenson, and vocalist/guitarist Annie Lynch ALASH are masters of Tuvan throat singing, a remarkable technique for singing multiple pitches at the same time. Masters of traditional Tuvan instruments as well as the art of throat singing, Alash are deeply committed to traditional Tuvan music and…
SOUND POETRY EFFECTS CATALOG curated by Danny Snelson, with live performances by Caleb Beckwith, Mark Johnson, Timothy Leonido, Kate McGuire, John Paetsch, and Danny Snelson Join Bowerbird for its first event exploring sound poetry, an artistic form that bridges literary and musical composition. As Joan La Barbara reminds us, voice is the original instrument. Already…
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…