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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260220T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260220T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20260117T165738Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260213T133023Z
UID:10001309-1771617600-1771624800@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Screening: Variations V and RainForest
DESCRIPTION: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 John Cage\, Gordon Mumma\, Christian Wolff\, and Takehisa Kosugi\, Tudor helped pioneer a radical approach to the relationship between sound and movement—one in which music and dance coexisted independently yet in the same time and space.  This screening\, the first of two film programs dedicated to Tudor’s work with the Cunningham company\, presents “Variations V” (1965) and “RainForest” (1968). \n\nPROGRAM: \nVariations V (1966) | 49:05\, black & white\, sound\, 16 mm film on video\nChoreography: Merce Cunningham. Director: Arne Arnbom. Music: John Cage\, “Variations V.” performed by Cage\, David Tudor\, and Gordon Mumma. Distortion of TV images: Nam June Paik. Film images: Stan VanDerBeek.  \nRainForest (1968) | 28 min\, color\, sound\, digital transfer\nFilmed by D.A. Pennebaker (Leacock and Pennebaker) as part of the 1968 Buffalo Arts Festival’s program “Who’s Afraid of the Avant-Garde.” Choreography: Merce Cunningham. Music: David Tudor\, “Rainforest.” Costumes: Jasper Johns. Sets: Andy Warhol. \n\n\n\nABOUT THE FILMS \nFirst composed and performed in 1965\, Variations V is a true testament to 1960’s experiments with “intermedia”—a coexistence and cutting across of artistic genres that profoundly informed Cunningham’s choreographic practice. Video is materially integrated into the performance\, with projections by Stan VanDerBeek and overlaid TV distortions by Nam June Paik enveloping the dancers. Twelve sound-sensitive electronic poles dot the stage; sound is triggered by the dancers’ movements and then altered or delayed by the musicians. Variations V predates Cunningham’s “video-dances\,” demonstrating a different moment in his relation to the technology. \nA kind of explicit\, corporeal engagement with video as medium is reflected in the performance’s sound component. Sound\, like video\, exists in this dance visually and even kinetically. The viewer of this 1966 archival performance gains access to the locus of sound production\, seeing John Cage and David Tudor perched over a wide spread of electronic equipment. Cunningham pays attention to the musicians’ movements in his 1968 book Changes: Notes on Choreography\, their “constant scuttling” moving “back and forth on the platform to fix things\, wiring that came out\, a plug\, etc.” The performance moves dialectically between its phenomenological whole and the “varied” elements of sound\, video and dance that constitute it. \nUnlike most of Cage and Cunningham’s collaborations\, sound and movement are more technically codependent than autonomous in Variations V. Cunningham writes in Changes\, “John decided to find out if there might not be ways that sound could be affected by movement\, and he and David Tudor proceeded to find out that there were.” \n\n\nThis event is part of DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE\, an exhibition at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery from January 15 to March 21\, 2026. \n\n\nMajor support for DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage\, with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/screening-variations-v-and-rainforest/
LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Tudor
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Feb-20_-Tudor-Cunningham.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260218T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260218T190000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20260107T165032Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260216T180434Z
UID:10001303-1771437600-1771441200@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:David Tudor at Gate Hill
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present an online talk with Mark Davenport\, hosted by exhibition co-curators You Nakai and Dustin Hurt. \nDavid 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 co-founded in 1954. The Gate Hill Cooperative\, established with Cage and others who had emerged from the experimental environment of Black Mountain College\, became Tudor’s home for over forty years—the place where he produced practically his entire compositional oeuvre. Tudor was only 28 when he moved to Gate Hill\, and it was there that he developed the electronic and collaborative practices for which he continues to garner international recognition. Musicologist and cultural historian Mark Davenport\, who grew up at Gate Hill\, will draw on his decade-long research project and forthcoming book Community\, Art\, Education and the Search for Meaning: From Black Mountain College to the Gate Hill Cooperative to provide rare access and insight into Tudor’s life during the formative early years of the community. This conversation offers a unique personal and scholarly perspective on the environment that shaped Tudor’s artistic evolution. \nPhoto: David Tudor at the Gate Hill Cooperative (c. 1960). Photograph by Betsy (Epstein) Williams. Courtesy of Mark Davenport/Landkidzink Image Collection. \n\nThis online program starts at 6:00pm Eastern US time as a Zoom Webinar. Registration is required\, but free. \n\n\nThis event is part of DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE\, an exhibition at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery from January 15 to March 21\, 2026. \n\n\nMajor support for DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage\, with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/david-tudor-at-gate-hill/
LOCATION:Zoom Webinar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Feb-18_-Tudor-Talk_-Gate-Hill.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260213T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260213T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20251215T163437Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260615T151347Z
UID:10001292-1771012800-1771020000@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Postal Pieces 2.0
DESCRIPTION: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. \nTenney’s “Postal Pieces\,” composed between 1954 and 1971\, are a series of ten concise works each printed on a postcard. These pieces capture Tenney’s exploration of sound and form\, focusing on minimalist structures\, intonation\, and what he called “Swell” forms—gradual crescendos and decrescendos that create a unique auditory experience. Conceived originally as musical “letters” to friends and collaborators\, such as Pauline Oliveros and La Monte Young\, these works reflect Tenney’s deep connections within the avant-garde music scene and his penchant for inviting listeners into meditative states of listening. \nSets of the these newly commissioned postcard works will be available for purchase at the concert\, with all proceeds benefiting the Arcana New Music Ensemble. Previous postcard sets will also be available and are available to purchase online. \nPROGRAM \nAndrew Burke: This One Time\nCynthia Folio: Neural Disarray\nElijah Daniel Smith: A Little\nEvan Kassof: A Note From The Future\nJay Fluellen: Arcana Variances\nMeredith Gilna: Meeting\nPaul Schuette: Building Blocks\nSarah Hennies: As Long As Possible \nARCANA NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE \nAlize Rosznyai\, voice\nCarlos Santiago\, violin\nDavid Hughes\, piano\nTom Kraines\, cello\nJonathan Leeds\, clarinet\nAaron Stewart\, saxophone\nTessa Ellis\, trumpet\nAndy Thierauf\, percussion \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nJames Tenney (1934–2006) was an American composer\, theorist\, and performer renowned for his innovative contributions to experimental and electronic music. A student of notable figures such as Carl Ruggles\, Edgard Varèse\, and John Cage\, Tenney was a central figure in the development of post-war avant-garde music. His work often explored concepts of indeterminacy\, microtonality\, just intonation\, and the physics of sound\, integrating mathematical and acoustical theories into his compositions.\nTenney’s diverse output includes works for computer-generated sound\, instrumental ensembles\, and unconventional notations that challenge traditional musical forms. He was also a significant educator\, teaching at the California Institute of the Arts and York University\, influencing a generation of composers with his boundary-pushing ideas. His collaborations and associations with artists such as Steve Reich\, La Monte Young\, and Philip Glass positioned him as a vital connector in the experimental music scene. Tenney’s legacy is marked by his relentless curiosity and his ability to blend rigorous theoretical frameworks with an intuitive approach to sound\, profoundly shaping the landscape of contemporary music. \nFounded in 2015\, the Arcana New Music Ensemble is a group of Philadelphia-based musicians dedicated to presenting interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional music in interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional places.\nThe Arcana New Music Ensemble is a Philadelphia-based chamber ensemble dedicated to contemporary classical music. Its mission is to perform works by living composers and to reexamine music from the past\, often focusing on composers whose work has been overlooked. A hallmark of Arcana’s programming is its frequent use of portrait concerts\, which allow the ensemble to explore a composer’s work in depth. These programs balance music by widely recognized composers with works by those who are less well known or historically underrepresented. \nFounded in 2015 by musicologist Thomas Patterson\, harpist Elizabeth Huston\, and curator Dustin Hurt\, Arcana was created to provide a platform for Philadelphia’s many skilled performers interested in exploring both new works and important compositions from the past hundred years. Since 2020\, the ensemble has been co-directed by Andy Thierauf and Dustin Hurt.\nIn 2016\, Arcana partnered with Pig Iron Theatre Company to present Samuel Beckett\, Words and Music by Morton Feldman and began a multi-year project devoted to the music of Moondog (Louis Hardin). The following year included a portrait concert of Galina Ustvolskaya\, collaborations with Variant 6 and Prometheus Chamber Orchestra\, and performances of works by Julius Eastman\, including Stay On It\, Femenine\, and Thruway. \nIn 2018\, Arcana presented rare works by Pauline Oliveros and portrait concerts of Tom Johnson\, James Tenney\, and Ben Patterson\, along with a second Moondog program. In 2019\, the ensemble presented concerts focused on Claude Vivier and Johanna Beyer and participated in a program of George Crumb’s chamber works. From 2020 onward\, the ensemble’s programming has included a retrospective of David First\, collaborations with the Wildflowers Composer Festival\, and concerts highlighting Iranian and Iranian-American composers. Recent seasons have featured portrait concerts of Sarah Hennies\, Raven Chacon\, and George Walker\, the launch of the annual Postal Pieces project\, and performances of Pauline Oliveros’s The Well and the Gentle and Lucia Dlugoszewski’s Black Lake. \n\nFunding provided in part by New Music USA
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/postal-pieces-2-0/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-12-15T112654.671.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260211T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260211T190000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20260107T164447Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260209T220833Z
UID:10001302-1770832800-1770836400@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Rainforest & Composers Inside Electronics
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present an online talk with John Driscoll and Phil Edelstein\, hosted by exhibition co-curators You Nakai and Dustin Hurt. \nJohn 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 works. In this conversation\, they trace the remarkable trajectory of Rainforest from its origins as a 1968 sound score for Merce Cunningham’s dance to its transformation into Rainforest IV\, a groundbreaking performed installation where each collaborator designs and constructs sculptural loudspeakers that become instruments in themselves. Driscoll and Edelstein will discuss the collaborative workshop in New Hampshire that birthed Rainforest IV\, the research into rotating speakers and directional sound that emerged from their work together\, and how they have continued to develop Tudor’s vision in the decades since his passing. This includes their creation of Rainforest V\, a self-running installation version that has been acquired by institutions including MoMA and has introduced Tudor’s radical approach to sound sculpture to new audiences worldwide. The conversation offers rare insight into what it means to sustain and evolve a collaborative artwork across generations while honoring its original spirit of experimentation and shared discovery. \n\nThis online program starts at 6:00pm Eastern US time as a Zoom Webinar. Registration is required\, but free.  \n\n\nThis event is part of DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE\, an exhibition at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery from January 15 to March 21\, 2026. \n\n\nMajor support for DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage\, with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/rainforest-composers-inside-electronics/
LOCATION:Zoom Webinar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Feb-11_-Tudor-Talk_-Rainforest-CIE.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260204T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260204T190000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20260107T162443Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260209T220711Z
UID:10001301-1770228000-1770231600@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Curating David Tudor
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present an online talk with Nancy Perloff and Ron Kuivila\, hosted by exhibition co-curators You Nakai and Dustin Hurt. \nNancy 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 Wesleyan University and performer of Tudor’s work\, is custodian of the David Tudor instrument collection and has spent decades studying\, reconstructing\, and performing Tudor’s electronic systems. Together\, they offer unique perspectives on the challenges and insights of preserving\, interpreting\, and presenting Tudor’s legacy—from navigating complex archival materials to understanding the physical instruments and circuits that defined his work. This conversation explores what it means to curate an artist whose practice resisted fixed documentation\, and how institutions can make Tudor’s elusive but transformative work accessible to new generations of artists and scholars. \n\nThis online program starts at 6:00pm Eastern US time as a Zoom Webinar. Registration is required\, but free.  \n\n\nThis event is part of DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE\, an exhibition at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery from January 15 to March 21\, 2026. \n\n\nMajor support for DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage\, with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/curating-david-tudor/
LOCATION:Zoom Webinar
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Feb-4_-Tudor-Talk_-Ron-Nancy.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260131T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260131T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20260109T184929Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260615T151329Z
UID:10001307-1769889600-1769896800@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:AT 100 - Earle Brown and Morton Feldman
DESCRIPTION: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. \nBrown’s selections represent his most radical period of graphic notation. December 1952 and Four Systems present performers with abstract visual fields rather than traditional staff notation\, inviting spontaneous decisions about pitch\, duration\, and intensity. One Through Five continues this exploration of open form\, where the score becomes a framework for collective improvisation rather than a fixed composition. \nFeldman’s early pieces chart his move toward what he called a “physical sound-world.” Only\, from 1947\, predates his meeting with John Cage and the artistic breakthrough that followed. His graph notation works like Projection 1 and King of Denmark give performers freedom within defined registers and time frames\, creating fields of shimmering color and texture. A Very Short Piece for Trumpet\, though composed later in 1986\, distills his aesthetic into concentrated form. \nThe performance is part of Icebox Project Space’s Light and Sound Series. \n\nPROGRAM \nEarle Brown: Four Systems (1954) \nEarle Brown: December 1952 from Folio I (1952) \nEarle Brown: One Through Five from Folio II (1970) \nMorton Feldman: Only (1947) \nMorton Feldman: A Very Short Piece for Trumpet (1986) \nMorton Feldman: King of Denmark (1964) \nMorton Feldman: Projection 1 (1950) \nARCANA NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE: \nCarlos Santiago\, violin\nMelinda Rice\, viola\nTom Kraines\, cello\nDavid Middleton\, electric bass\nTessa Ellis\, trumpet\nJay Krush\, tuba\nAaron Stewart\, saxophone\nNoa Even\, saxophone\nNicholas Handahl\, flute\nJonathan Leeds\, clarinet\nAnne Ishii\, percussion and electronics\nTara Middleton\, voice\nAndy Thierauf\, percussion \n\nThis program is supported by the Penn Treaty Special Services District\n \n\nFunding provided in part by New Music USA
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/at-100-earle-brown-and-morton-feldman/
LOCATION:Icebox Project Space\, 1400 N. American St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19122\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2026-01-09T134535.949.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260117T190000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260117T210000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20260107T153658Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260220T201547Z
UID:10001299-1768676400-1768683600@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Tudor Piano
DESCRIPTION: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. \nBefore 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 1950s and 1960s\, Tudor served as the primary champion of the New York School composers and works associated with the Fluxus movement\, premiering scores that challenged every convention of notation\, performance\, and the relationship between composer and interpreter. His performances transformed indeterminate works and event scores into vivid sonic experiences\, treating open-ended instructions not as puzzles to solve but as frameworks for spontaneous decision-making and physical engagement. \nThis concert honors Tudor’s legacy as a performer by presenting a diverse program of works he premiered during this formative period—pieces that blur the boundaries between composition and improvisation\, notation and action\, music and theater. Adam Tendler brings his own adventurous spirit and deep expertise in experimental repertoire to these historically significant works\, continuing the tradition of radical interpretation that Tudor embodied. \n\nPROGRAM \nChristian Wolff — Suite I (1954) \nToshi Ichiyanagi — Music for Piano No. 4 (1960) \nMorton Feldman — Three Pieces for Piano (1954) \nEarle Brown — Forgotten Piece (c.1954) \nBo Nillson — Schlagfiguren (1978) \nHenry Cowell — The Fairy Bells (1929) \nJohn Cage — Solo from Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1957-8) with Indeterminacy (1959) \nJohn Cage — 4’33” (1952) \n\n\nThis event is part of DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE\, an exhibition at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery from January 15 to March 21\, 2026. \n\n\nABOUT THE ARTIST \nA “daring pianist” praised for his “adventurousness and muscular skill” (The New York Times)\, 2026 Grammy-nominated artist Adam Tendler has been called “the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)\, “relentlessly adventurous” (Washington Post)\, a “remarkable and insightful musician” (LA Times)\, an “intrepid… maverick pianist” (The New Yorker)\, and “one of contemporary classical music’s most intentional and daring pianists” (Seven Days). “If you’re a cutting-edge composer these days\,” said CBS Sunday Morning’s Lee Cowan\, “you want Adam to perform your pieces.” A pioneer of DIY culture in classical music\, at age 23 Tendler performed solo recitals in all fifty states as part of a grassroots tour called America 88×50\, and has since become one of classical music’s most recognized and celebrated artists\, receiving Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award\, the Yvar Mikhashoff Prize\, and appearing as soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra\, LA Phil\, Sydney Symphony\, Toronto Symphony Orchestra\, NJ Symphony\, Vermont Symphony Orchestra\, as well as on the main-stages of Carnegie Hall\, the Barbican Centre\, Sydney Opera House\, BAM\, David Geffen Hall\, Walt Disney Concert Hall\, Milan Fashion Week\, and other leading series and stages worldwide. His Inheritances album is a 2026 GRAMMY® for Best Classical Instrumental Solo and a New York Times Critic Pick\, which wrote\, “You will be moved\, profoundly and intensely.” Tendler has commissioned major works from composers ranging from Christian Wolff to Devonté Hynes (aka Blood Orange)\, Nico Muhly and Laurie Anderson. He is featured on Wild Up’s Grammy-nominated third volume of Julius Eastman’s music\, and has also released albums of music by Franz Liszt\, Robert Palmer\, and of his own original work. He is the author of two books\, a Yamaha Artist\, and serves on the piano faculty at NYU. \n\nMajor support for DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage\, with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/tudor-piano-adam-tendler/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Jan-17_-Tudor-Piano.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260117T160000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260117T180000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20260107T161620Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260120T213800Z
UID:10001300-1768665600-1768672800@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:David Tudor: Bandoneon!
DESCRIPTION: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. \nBandoneon! 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 thirty engineers from Bell Telephone Laboratories. Tudor played the bandoneon as input into a complex sound and visual modification system that moved sound between speakers and controlled lights and video images\, animating the entire 69th Regiment Armory space. This documentary reconstructs the original performance through archival film and vintage photographs\, featuring interviews with the performers\, engineers\, and Tudor’s fellow composers. The film offers rare insight into one of the most ambitious experiments in live electronic performance and interdisciplinary collaboration of the 1960s. Julie Martin\, who directed the film and worked closely with Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) co-founder Billy Klüver\, will discuss the project and answer questions following the screening. \n\n\nThis event is part of DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE\, an exhibition at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery from January 15 to March 21\, 2026. \n\n\nMajor support for DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage\, with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/david-tudor-bandoneon-screening/
LOCATION:URBN Annex screening room\, 3401 Filbert Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Jan-17_-Bandoneon.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260116T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260116T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20251219T202600Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260220T201038Z
UID:10001291-1768593600-1768600800@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Tudor & Cage
DESCRIPTION: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 a feedback system where acoustic actions continuously shape and destabilize the electronics. The result is a dense\, evolving sound environment in which percussion and electronics become inseparable. Jackson developed his version of Coefficient through extensive archival research and hands-on experimentation with Tudor’s materials. Because no fixed score exists\, his realization emerged through an iterative process of reconstruction and refinement—treating Tudor’s materials not as instructions to reproduce\, but as a framework to activate. Jackson will perform the work and discuss his research process\, offering insight into how this materially elusive piece can be brought into the present through practice. \n\nPROGRAM \nPresentation on the reconstruction of Tudor’s Coefficient: Frictional Percussion and Electronics \n– pause – \nJohn Cage: Solo for Cymbal (1960) \nDavid Tudor: Coefficient: Frictional Percussion and Electronics (1991) \n\n\nThis event is part of DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE\, an exhibition at Drexel’s Pearlstein Gallery from January 15 to March 21\, 2026. \n\n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nStuart Jackson is a percussionist and uilleann piper from Virginia\, currently based in Montréal\, Canada. As a researcher\, he specializes in reconstructing poorly documented and unpublished electroacoustic works from the 20th century. This project on reviving experimental compositions has received support from the Fonds de recherche du Quèbec and the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel\, Switzerland. \nHe has presented solo percussion concerts at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) and Ausgang Plaza in Montréal\, and performed as an uilleann pipe soloist with the Soho Rep Theatre and the Wordless Music Orchestra. With the Montréal percussion ensemble Sixtrum\, he has performed at the Timespans Festival in New York City\, Semaine du Neuf in Montréal\, and the Musica Festival (with Les Percussions de Strasbourg) in Strasbourg\, France. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Université de Montréal working with Jonathan Goldman and Guillaume Boutard. \nco-presented with The Rotunda \n\nMajor support for DAVID TUDOR: A VIEW FROM INSIDE has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage\, with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/stuart-jackson-plays-tudor-and-cage/
LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
CATEGORIES:Tudor
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Jan-16_-Tudor-Cage.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251212T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251212T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20251124T155854Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251215T161119Z
UID:10001290-1765569600-1765576800@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:In The Mirror of Maya Deren
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present a special screening of In The Mirror of Maya Deren at The Rotunda. \n“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 \nWith In The Mirror of Maya Deren\, documentary filmmaker Martina Kudlacek has fashioned not only a fascinating portrait of a groundbreaking and influential artist\, but a pitch-perfect introduction to her strikingly beautiful and poetic body of work. Crowned “Fellini and Bergman wrapped in one gloriously possessed body” by the L.A. Weekly\, Maya Deren (née Eleanora Derenkovskaya) is arguably the most important and innovative avant-garde filmmaker in the history of American cinema. Using locations from the Hollywood hills to Haiti\, Deren made such mesmerizing films as At Land\, Ritual in Transfigured Time\, and her masterpiece\, Meshes of the Afternoon\, which won a prestigious international experimental filmmaking prize at the 1947 Cannes Film Festival. Starting with excerpts from these films\, In The Mirror of Maya Deren seamlessly and effectively interweaves archival footage with observances from acolytes and contemporaries such as filmmakers Stan Brakhage and Jonas Mekas\, dance pioneer Katherine Dunham\, and Living Theater founder Judith Malina. With an original score by experimental composer John Zorn. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nOne of the most important American experimental filmmakers and entrepreneurial promoters of the avant-garde in the 1940s and 1950s\, Maya Deren was also a choreographer\, dancer\, film theorist\, poet\, lecturer\, writer and photographer. \nThe function of film\, Deren believed\, like most art forms\, was to create an experience; each one of her films would evoke new conclusions\, lending her focus to be dynamic and always-evolving. She combined her interests in dance\, Haitian culture and subjective psychology in a series of surreal\, perceptual\, black and white short films. Using editing\, multiple exposures\, jump cutting\, superimposition\, slow-motion and other camera techniques\, Deren created continued motion through discontinued space. She abandoned the established notions of physical space and time turning her vision into a stream of consciousness. \nPerhaps one of the most influential experimental films in American cinema was her collaboration with Alexander Hammid on Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). She continued to make several more films of her own\, including At Land (1944)\, A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945)\, and Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946) – writing\, producing\, directing\, editing\, and photographing them with help from only one other person\, Hella Heyman\, as camerawoman. She also appeared in a few of her films but never credited herself as an actress\, downplaying her roles as anonymous figures rather than iconic deities. \nJohn Zorn is an American avant-garde composer\, arranger\, record producer\, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn’s recorded output is prolific with hundreds of album credits as a performer\, composer\, or producer. His work has touched on a wide range of musical genres\, often within a single composition\, but he is best-known for his avant-garde\, jazz\, improvised and contemporary classical music. Zorn has led the punk jazz band Naked City\, the klezmer-influenced quartet Masada and composed the associated ‘Masada Songbooks’\, written concert music for classical ensembles\, and produced music for film and documentary. Zorn has stated that “I’ve got an incredibly short attention span. My music is jam-packed with information that is changing very fast… All the various styles are organically connected to one another. I’m an additive person – the entire storehouse of my knowledge informs everything I do. People are so obsessed with the surface that they can’t see the connections\, but they are there.” \nAfter releasing albums on several independent US and European labels\, Zorn signed with Elektra Nonesuch and attracted wide acclaim in 1985 when he released ”The Big Gundown” with his interpretations of music composed by Ennio Morricone. This was followed by the album ”Spillane” in 1987\, and the first album by Naked City in 1989 which all attracted further worldwide attention. Zorn then recorded on the Japanese DIW label and curated the Avant subsidiary label before forming Tzadik in 1995\, where he has been prolific\, issuing several new recordings each year and releasing works by many other musicians. \nZorn established himself within the New York City downtown music movement in the early 1980s but has since composed and performed with a wide range of musicians working in diverse musical areas. By the early 1990s Zorn was working extensively in Japan\, attracted by that culture’s openness about borrowing and remixing ingredients from elsewhere\, where he performed and recorded under the name Dekoboko Hajime\, before returning to New York as a permanent base in the mid 1990’s. Zorn has undertaken many tours of Europe\, Asia\, and the Middle East\, often performing at festivals with varying ensembles to display his diverse output. \n\n\n\nCo-presented with The Rotunda
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/in-the-mirror-of-maya-deren/
LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-11-24T105406.979.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251206T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250804T153846Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260615T151254Z
UID:10001279-1765051200-1765058400@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Blackbox Ensemble
DESCRIPTION: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. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nThe 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 time. Founded in 2018\, our upcoming 2024-2025 season includes concerts at home in New York and around the country\, including the season-opening performance of the Southern Exposure Series at the University of South Carolina\, a performance at the Timucua Arts Foundation\, and residencies at the University of Chicago\, University of Florida\, and University of Central Florida. Our 2023-2024 season included major performances in New York City and beyond\, including touring engagements in Washington\, DC\, Florida\, Michigan\, and throughout the Northeast. Our season began with The Sound of Space Between Us\, a site-specific\, outdoor music and dance performance at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown\, Massachusetts. We then presented the live premiere of Borrowed Landscape\, a radio play by German playwright duo tauchgold with music by Dai Fujikura\, at the Noguchi Museum\, in a program that also features music by Anna Thorvaldsdottir\, inti figgis-vizueta\, and Toru Takemistu. We then reprised our performance of Borrowed Landscape at the Smithsonian Institute of Asian Art as part of a two-concert series. In addition\, we celebrated our 5-year anniversary with our inaugural BlackBox Festival\, including our debut at Roulette Intermedium. Finally\, our season included residencies at University of Florida\, University of Michigan\, NYU\, and the Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School. \nOur 2022-2023 season included a season-opening performance marathon on Pier 45 in Manhattan\, a portrait concert of Jessie Cox\, and performances at Culture Lab LIC and the Columbia University Sacred Music Series. Throughout the season\, the ensemble was supported by the Chamber Music America’s Ensemble Forward grant for emerging ensembles\, through which they received coaching and mentorship from Alan Pierson\, Conductor and Co-Artistic Director of Alarm Will Sound. Past projects include world premieres by Paul Novak (for the 2021 New Music Gathering Conference)\, Annie Nikunen\, Erich Barganier\, and composer-vocalist Tanner Porter; Gallery of Sound” a performance of solo pieces performed in isolated rooms at an underground bar and record store in Midtown Manhattan; a performance of Julius Eastman’s “Femenine” on the Brooklyn waterfront; and “Elegy\,” a video concert featuring music by Juhi Bansal\, Carlos Simon\, Yaz Lancaster\, Brittany J. Green\, and Jessica Mays. Reviewing this program\, I Care If You Listen wrote” “the 45-minute chamber music program showcased five worthy contemporary composers\, with earnest performances that did justice to the extramusical connotations.” \nOur name\, BlackBox\, is inspired by this term’s meaning in other fields. In theatre\, a Black Box is a type of performance space – usually a square room with black walls – that offers flexible staging and seating arrangements\, creating an environment ripe for creative experimentation and intimate human connection. Meanwhile\, in science\, computing\, and the humanities\, a “black box” is a system with defined inputs and outputs whose inner workings are unknown. We believe that music\, as a cultural medium\, fills the role of the black box\, enacting an ambiguous but vital relationship between artistic expression and social life. In doing so\, we follow the inspiration of the theatrical definition – to foster experimentation\, innovation\, and human connection. In all of our programs\, we aim to present contemporary classical music in a format that is approachable\, innovative\, and impactful. \n\n\n\nFunding provided in part by New Music USA
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/blackbox-ensemble/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-08-04T113454.192.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251205T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251205T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250723T170449Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251206T230230Z
UID:10001280-1764964800-1764972000@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Sova
DESCRIPTION:We are pleased to present Sova in a solo set at University Lutheran Church with an opening set by Koof Ibi. \n\nABOUT THE ARTIST \n“Ghostly\, delicate\, elegant…” (Independent Clauses) \nFor 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 a deep reverence for her collective history\, coupled with an exploratory ear\, and moves quietly between musical worlds. Over the years\, her intuitive playing style — rooted in tenderness\, improvisation\, and classical training — has evolved into a dynamic\, cinematic sound. \nDescribed as performing with “passion and profound tenderness” (Second Inversion) and “serene strokes and lyrical beauty” (Brooklyn Rail)\, her music is quietly devastating\, blossoming into ambient-inspired soundscapes that range from whisper-soft echoes to expressive cascades.  \nHer most recent LP\, In Our Softening\, produced by Sam Torres (Polymouth Music)\, features nine of her own beguiling piano compositions\, each track a part of a thoughtfully woven tapestry. Recorded entirely on an upright piano built in 1902 – complete with a giant crack in the soundboard – the album draws listeners in with its vulnerable and vibrant intimacy. Exploring themes of loss\, rebirth\, and finding softness within an increasingly hard world\, the album has been called “a tender and revelatory balm” by editors at I Care If You Listen\, “heaven on earth” (Sun 13)\, and “one of the very best things I’ve heard all year” by longtime music journalist Steve Smith (Night After Night). The record also made it onto Bandcamp’s All-Time Best Selling Solo Piano list. \nHer music has been released on OPIA\, the record label founded by Ólafur Arnalds\, Innova Recordings\, and more. Her debut album\, Histories (2017)\, was produced by Grammy-winning engineer Adam Abeshouse\, and described as “a beautiful mosaic of the larger cultural intersections of our world” (Second Inversion). She has also released an EP of the complete solo piano works by composer Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)\, entitled Lili (2020\, reissued 2023).  \nEqually important to the music itself are the spaces in which Sova’s music exists. Whether she is performing or presenting\, she is dedicated to creating musical experiences that are grounded in care and intentional gathering. In that spirit\, she is a co-curator of the popular Lift Series at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall\, which finished its sold-out fifth season. She also hosts concerts in her home – a converted church-space in Troy\, NY called Troy Listening Room – that highlight risk-taking\, independent musicians.  \nIn 2022\, Sova was recognized as a composer by the New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation For the Arts (NYSCA/NYFA) as a Music/Sound Fellow\, a statewide program focused on the evolution of contemporary art. Her music has been featured on NPR\, BBC\, and KEXP\, and she has performed across three continents. \nKoof Ibi is a multi-instrumentalist in the Philadelphia area. On any given day you could find him strolling down Broad Street straight into the Kimmel Center with brass bands like The West Philadelphia Orchestra\, sharing the big stage with Japanese Breakfast\, or performing in the Philadelphia Museum of Art with poet/musician Moor Mother. Koof effortlessly blends his diverse musical influences into his own distinct style. At his solo shows Koof combines live instruments\, loops\, and effects pedals to create surprising soundscapes\, re-invented covers\, and sonic liberation.\nwww.koof.bandcamp.com\nwww.koofibi.com \n\n
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/sova/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-07-23T125159.760.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251121T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251121T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20251029T165641Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260615T151235Z
UID:10001288-1763755200-1763762400@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Cornelius Cardew: Treatise
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present the Arcana New Music Ensemble performing Cornelius Cardew’s groundbreaking work Treatise at The Rotunda. \nComposed 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 and almost 200 pages long\, the work requires careful discussion and interpretation by the musicians to realize the work. \nARCANA NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE \nNicholas Handahl – flute\nNoa Even – saxophone\nMelinda Rice – violin\nCarlos Santiago – violin\nAlyssa Almeida – cello\nAndy Thierauf – percussion \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nCardew was born into a family of artists in 1936. He grew up in Cornwall\, England where until his admittance\, at age 17\, to the Royal Academy of Music in London. Trained as a pianist and cellist\, Cardew had a great interest in the new ideas that were beginning to bloom around contemporary music at that time. He taught himself guitar so that he could take part in the British premiere of Pierre Boulez’s early complex masterwork Le marteau sans maître. As a young composer\, Cornelius immersed himself in the hyper-serialist works of Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen\, while also exploring the emerging discipline of composition for electronics. This latter interest led to his attendance of the Studio for Electronic Music in Köln where he began his relationship as Stockhausen’s assistant\, most notably working with the German on the score to his massive work for four orchestras and choirs: Carré. \nAfter hearing a concert of John Cage and David Tudor in 1958 Cardew turned away from the structure of Boulez and Stockhausen toward the new languages of indeterminate music being explored by Cage\, Christian Wolff\, Morton Feldman\, and Earle Brown. It is arguable that Cardew took the graphic score and performer weighted composition of the New York school to a logical conclusion with works like the text based composition The Great Learning and Treatise. These compositions\, by withholding interpretation of the signs that make up the scores\, removed the expectation in performance to a much greater degree than most of his peers and predecessors. \nIn 1966\, he joined AMM\, an experimental improvising group in London with an instrumentation that grew around the central figures of Eddie Prévost\, John Tilbury\, and Keith Rowe. Even though the group maintained a strict improvisatory ideal\, it featured Christian Wolff at one point\, as well as Cardew. This relationship seems to have had a hand into leading Cardew further away from traditionally notated composition toward his graphic notation work of the 1960s. \nIn 1969\, as a result of The Great Learning\, Cardew formed The Scratch Orchestra with like-minded composers Michael Parsons and Howard Skempton. This group favored a populist approach to performance\, featuring a combination of trained and untrained musicians\, professed a “reverse seniority” hierarchy (or anti-hierarchy) and relied on graphic rather than traditional notation so that anyone could participate. The group operated until about 1974 at which time the politics of the group were leading to new avenues and a third period of activity and redefinition for Cardew. \nBeginning in the early 1970s\, Cardew concentrated his musical efforts on the political by creating music whose purpose was simultaneously populist\, Marxist\, Maoist\, and also critical of the excesses of the avant-garde tradition represented by Stockhausen and Cage. Moving from hyper-serialism to the new rigor of graphic notation\, Cardew’s music from this last period took English folk music tradition as the delivery system for populist political statements such as We Sing for the Future and Smash the Social Contract. Cardew was a co-founding member of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain starting in 1979 and his political commitment began to overtake his musical output\, culminating in controversial text Stockhausen Serves Imperialism. He died on December 13\, 1981; the victim of a mysterious hit and run car accident. The driver was never located. \nFounded in 2016\, the Arcana New Music Ensemble is a group of Philadelphia-based musicians dedicated to presenting interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional music in interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional places. Built on a flexible roster of 25 musicians\, Arcana is able to perform a broad range of repertoire in numerous configurations. Composers featured in recent programs include Julius Eastman\, Sarah Hennies\, Raven Chacon\, Anahita Abbasi\, Morton Feldman\, Galina Ustvolskaya\, Pauline Oliveros\, Tom Johnson\, Moondog\, and James Tenney. Arcana has performed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art\, Fleisher Art Memorial\, The Rotunda\, The Kitchen (NYC)\, and collaborated with Variant Six\, Prometheus Chamber Orchestra\, Pig Iron Theater Company\, and Wildflower Composers. \n\nFunding provided in part by New Music USA
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/cornelius-cardew-treatise/
LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251115T100000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251115T120000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20251020T144155Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T175738Z
UID:10001285-1763200800-1763208000@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Follow The Sound
DESCRIPTION: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. \nMeet in front of the Visitor Center \nPlease take note of the weather and dress accordingly with appropriate footwear.\nEstimated event time: 120 minutes\nDistance: approximately 1.25 miles\nTerrain: partially paved\, all flat\nFree admission – reservations are encouraged \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nJayla Clark is a Philadelphia based artist and educator that focuses on environmental science and sustainability. She is a self taught birder with 2+ years of experience teaching and leading birding hikes and activities at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. As an illustrator she likes to focus on small details of different species that make them unique\, spending a lot of time doing onsite field research. \nSamantha Kochis is a Brooklyn-based flutist\, improviser\, and composer who explores various creative environments as an artist of experimental music. In her creative works\, Samantha draws from the tradition of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation to engage in sonic conversations with listeners and collaborators alike. Her playing is described as “deeply intentioned” and “sensitive yet powerful”. Samantha is the co-founder of Phonotonic\, an artist collective dedicated to building community among experimental and improvising artists who share the experience of gender-based oppression. Her collaborations have included artists such as Luke Stewart\, gabby fluke-mogul\, and Laura Cocks\, and has also been featured at the Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art in Pittsburgh\, Pennsylvania.\nwww.samanthakochis.com \nSarah Cunningham began her viola da gamba studies in Boston\, where viol player Gian Lyman Silbiger\, as well as legendary teacher and director Marleen Montgomery\, were formative influences\, as were further studies with Wieland Kuijken in the Netherlands. After her move to London in 1981\, she co-founded the ensemble Sonnerie with Monica Huggett and recorded and toured around the world with ensembles including Fretwork\, Phantasm\, Sequentia\, Les Arts Florissant\, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. She has performed as a soloist under Simon Rattle\, John Elliott Gardiner\, Trevor Pinnock\, and Gustav Leonhart\, and has recorded on ASV\, Virgin/EMI\, Harmonia Mundi\, Erato\, and Decca. A former faculty member at Hochschule fuer Kuenst in Germany\, the Guildhall School in London\, and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki\, Cunningham has presented workshops and master classes throughout the world. She was founder and first artistic director of the East Cork Early Music in Ireland and is a founding member of Les Filles de Sainte Colombe. Cunningham has been on the faculty at Juilliard since 2011.\nwww.juilliard.edu/music/faculty/cunningham-sarah \n\nOrganized in collaboration with World Askew and funded in part by PECO\, Team Pennsylvania\, and Pennsylvania Creative Industries
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/follow-the-sound-november-2025/
LOCATION:Schuylkill Center\, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Road\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19128\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-08-04T121346.043.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251114T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251114T213000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20251003T144509Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251116T221020Z
UID:10001287-1763148600-1763155800@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Stuart Bogie & Buck McDaniel
DESCRIPTION: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. \nAt University Lutheran\, performing as a clarinet and piano duo\, the more percussive pairing invites rhythmic nuance and spontaneous turns showcasing both composed works and improvisations highlighting each composer’s individual voice and another view of their shared improvisational language. \nFirst conceived in 2024\, November Variations began as a series of five improvised 9 a.m. concerts at New York’s Church of Our Saviour\, recorded live to capture each composition as it unfolded. The resulting five-part album is being released in parts leading up to the 2025 five-concert residency in Manhattan\, November 17 – 21. \nThe November 14 performances in Philadelphia offer an opportunity to experience the duo’s ethos of stillness\, connection\, and sonic exploration in two distinct instrumental settings. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nComposer and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Bogie was born in Evanston\, Illinois. He studied for 6 Years with Gary Onstad and at the Music Center of the North Shore before attending Interlochen Art Academy and the University of Michigan where he studied with Debra Chodacki. He is the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant and he composed the score for the Oscar nominated documentary How To Survive a Plague\, featuring performances by the Kronos Quartet. He has written for film\, television\, commercials\, and the stage. He has released 9 albums as a leader. \nDuring the pandemic lock-down\, Bogie performed a daily series of improvised solo clarinet pieces using the accompaniment drone tracks sent to him by over 50 different collaborators including Arcade Fire\, Richard Reed Parry\, Colin Stetson\, Sam Cohen\, Josh Kaufman\, Peter Murray\, E Dan\, Craig Finn\, Ryan Sawyer\, Dave Harrington\, Yuka Honda\, and James Murphy. Began in the second week of lock-down\, the series ran for over 150 days consecutively and has been collected into four volumes\, with more volumes in the works. An LP\, Morningside\, presenting 2 of the pieces made with James Murphy was released on October 27 on DFA records. This music is featured in a worldwide exhibition of photographs by Gregory Crewsden\, and can be heard in the documentary accompanying the exhibit. In July of 2023 Bogie premiered Morningside at Les Recontres d’Arles\, live scoring the documentary by Harper Glantz. His latest release is Patient Music\, a collaboration with longtime friends Josh Kaufman & Sam Cohen available now from Historical Fiction Records. \nBuck McDaniel is a composer\, conductor\, keyboardist\, and improviser based in New York City. His music blends the American Minimalist tradition with a personal storytelling practice. McDaniel’s work often explores site\, text\, and memory\, engaging both concert\, sacred\, and non-traditional spaces with equal depth and curiosity. \nHis compositions have been performed and broadcast internationally\, including on NBC’s Saturday Night Live\, BBC Radio 3\, WQXR\, and NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour. His work appears in Oliver Hermanus’s film The History of Sound\, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor\, which premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. A frequent collaborator\, McDaniel has worked with artists including Sam Smith\, Nico Muhly\, Sam Amidon\, and Stuart Bogie. \nMcDaniel is a former Kulas Composer Fellow at Cleveland Public Theatre\, and his projects have been supported by institutions such as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA)\, the Mississippi Museum of Art\, and the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. His work has been presented by the Boston University Tanglewood Institute\, the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn\, and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony\, among others. \nHis music and interdisciplinary projects have been covered by The New York Times\, Time Out New York\, and Relix. Recordings of his work are available on Etymology\, Gold Bolus\, and Telarc labels. He serves as Artist-in-Residence at The General Theological Seminary and Director of Music at the Church of Our Saviour\, Murray Hill and Chapel of the Sacred Hearts\, Kips Bay. \n\n
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/stuart-bogie-buck-mcdaniel/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-10-13T132551.014.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251114T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251114T140000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20251003T143751Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251114T175834Z
UID:10001286-1763121600-1763128800@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Stuart Bogie & Buck McDaniel
DESCRIPTION: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. \nAt 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 expansive organ voicings and deft melodic interplay provide a dynamic landscape for Bogie’s clarinet\, creating an immersive\, horizonless sound. \nFirst conceived in 2024\, November Variations began as a series of five improvised 9 a.m. concerts at New York’s Church of Our Saviour\, recorded live to capture each composition as it unfolded. The resulting five-part album is being released in parts leading up to the 2025 five-concert residency in Manhattan\, November 17 – 21. \nThe November 14 performances in Philadelphia offer an opportunity to experience the duo’s ethos of stillness\, connection\, and sonic exploration in two distinct instrumental settings. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nComposer and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Bogie was born in Evanston\, Illinois. He studied for 6 Years with Gary Onstad and at the Music Center of the North Shore before attending Interlochen Art Academy and the University of Michigan where he studied with Debra Chodacki. He is the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant and he composed the score for the Oscar nominated documentary How To Survive a Plague\, featuring performances by the Kronos Quartet. He has written for film\, television\, commercials\, and the stage. He has released 9 albums as a leader. \nDuring the pandemic lock-down\, Bogie performed a daily series of improvised solo clarinet pieces using the accompaniment drone tracks sent to him by over 50 different collaborators including Arcade Fire\, Richard Reed Parry\, Colin Stetson\, Sam Cohen\, Josh Kaufman\, Peter Murray\, E Dan\, Craig Finn\, Ryan Sawyer\, Dave Harrington\, Yuka Honda\, and James Murphy. Began in the second week of lock-down\, the series ran for over 150 days consecutively and has been collected into four volumes\, with more volumes in the works. An LP\, Morningside\, presenting 2 of the pieces made with James Murphy was released on October 27 on DFA records. This music is featured in a worldwide exhibition of photographs by Gregory Crewsden\, and can be heard in the documentary accompanying the exhibit. In July of 2023 Bogie premiered Morningside at Les Recontres d’Arles\, live scoring the documentary by Harper Glantz. His latest release is Patient Music\, a collaboration with longtime friends Josh Kaufman & Sam Cohen available now from Historical Fiction Records. \nBuck McDaniel is a composer\, conductor\, keyboardist\, and improviser based in New York City. His music blends the American Minimalist tradition with a personal storytelling practice. McDaniel’s work often explores site\, text\, and memory\, engaging both concert\, sacred\, and non-traditional spaces with equal depth and curiosity. \nHis compositions have been performed and broadcast internationally\, including on NBC’s Saturday Night Live\, BBC Radio 3\, WQXR\, and NPR’s The Moth Radio Hour. His work appears in Oliver Hermanus’s film The History of Sound\, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor\, which premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. A frequent collaborator\, McDaniel has worked with artists including Sam Smith\, Nico Muhly\, Sam Amidon\, and Stuart Bogie. \nMcDaniel is a former Kulas Composer Fellow at Cleveland Public Theatre\, and his projects have been supported by institutions such as the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA)\, the Mississippi Museum of Art\, and the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. His work has been presented by the Boston University Tanglewood Institute\, the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn\, and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony\, among others. \nHis music and interdisciplinary projects have been covered by The New York Times\, Time Out New York\, and Relix. Recordings of his work are available on Etymology\, Gold Bolus\, and Telarc labels. He serves as Artist-in-Residence at The General Theological Seminary and Director of Music at the Church of Our Saviour\, Murray Hill and Chapel of the Sacred Hearts\, Kips Bay. \n\n
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/stuart-bogie-buck-mcdaniel-stoneleigh/
LOCATION:Stoneleigh: a natural garden\, 1829 County Line Road\, Villanova\, PA\, 19085\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251108T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251108T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250814T213057Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251110T151129Z
UID:10001283-1762632000-1762639200@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Beehive Cathedral
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present American traditional music trio Joseph Decosimo\, Luke Richardson\, and Cleek Schrey performing music from their recent album Beehive Cathedral. \nJoseph 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 with older players\, field recordings\, vintage 78s\, and archival tune collections. Working with fiddle\, hardanger d’amore (a fiddle with sympathetic strings)\, banjos\, and a 19th-century pump organ\, the trio conveys both the sonic details of their instruments and a generous musical interplay rooted in a dozen years of collaboration. Their 2024 debut album Beehive Cathedral\, released on Dear Life Records\, presents resonant\, thoughtful\, and expansive explorations of Appalachian and American music. Irish fiddle luminary\, Martin Hayes\, declares it “a hypnotic recording that is grounded\, subtle and refined.” The trio departs from the string band format that has defined the genre\, especially since the Old-time music revival of the 1970s made guitar\, bass\, and chordal accompaniment features of the music. Untethering the music from chord patterns and guitars\, they reimagine older approaches to the music filled with tonal ambiguity\, drone\, and dissonance. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nThe members of the trio are veteran performers in the Old-time scene\, where they’ve worked with renowned string bands The Bucking Mules and Bigfoot. Beehive Cathedral draws on the group’s experiences making music together at Southern fiddlers’ conventions\, in the back of NYC pubs\, on stages\, and in their homes. It also sources energy from their broader musical lives\, including Schrey’s participation in NYC’s experimental sound community and Decosimo’s collaborations with Durham\, NC projects Wye Oak\, Hiss Golden Messenger\, and Jake Xerxes Fussell. \n\nBeehive Cathedral by Joseph Decosimo\, Luke Richardson\, Cleek Schrey \n\n\n
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/beehive-cathedral/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251030T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251030T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250707T160111Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251031T155537Z
UID:10001274-1761854400-1761861600@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Cole Pulice
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present saxophonist\, composer\, and improviser Cole Pulice in a solo set at The Maas Building. \n\nABOUT THE ARTIST \nSaxophonist\, 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 saxophone to include layers of electric guitar and lush choral arrangements. The result is a prismatic collection of pastoral chamber jazz in six parts. Cole’s previous release\, a 22-minute electroacoustic odyssey titled If I Don’t See You in the Future\, I’ll See You In the Pasture (Longform Editions\, 2023)\, was named ‘Best New Music’ by Pitchfork and included in the publication’s Best Songs Of The 2020s. Cole has also released a smattering of solo and collaborative work on beloved labels including Moon Glyph\, Aural Canyon and Cached Media. Their performance history includes appearances at Pitchfork Music Festival (UK)\, Rewire (NL)\, ÜBERJAZZ (DE)\, Drone Not Drones (US)\, & Noise Pop Festival (US). \n\nIf I Don’t See You in the Future\, I’ll See You in the Pasture by Cole Pulice \n\nOrganized in collaboration with World Askew
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/cole-pulice/
LOCATION:Maas Building\, 1325 N Randolph St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19122\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251024T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251024T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250804T151641Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260615T151215Z
UID:10001281-1761336000-1761343200@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Nexus
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present vocal sextet Variant 6 performing NEXUS\, a program featuring a wide expanse of a capella repertoire for three treble voices\, featuring Jessica Beebe\, Rebecca Myers\, and Elisa Sutherland. From rarely performed works of the Medieval era to contemporary works by some of our favorite composers\, this concert will showcase a dazzling display of virtuosity performed by long-time collaborators: the founding trebles of Variant 6. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nVariant 6 explores the expressive potential of the human voice through vocal chamber music that is at once virtuosic\, poignant\, and approachable. Composed of artists with a diverse set of skills and a wide range of expertise\, we seek out repertoire that embodies this potential. We collaborate with artists of many disciplines\, creating refreshing interpretations of music of the past and innovative premieres of new works. Our concerts are unique and intimate musical experiences that foster deep conversation between artists and audience. Variant 6 shares our unique take on vocal chamber music with people all over the city of Philadelphia. Our approachable and collaborative projects create an environment where audiences of different backgrounds will feel inspired to attend our events\, respond to our music\, and get to know us as individuals.\nvariantsix.com \n\n\n\n\n\nFunding provided in part by New Music USA
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/nexus/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251018T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251018T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250908T151851Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251019T191753Z
UID:10001284-1760817600-1760824800@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:David Grubbs Duo
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present a duo performance featuring films about and sonic work by Brunhild Ferrari. \nPROGRAM: \nTwo films by LF:\n     N’Importe Quoi (for Brunhild) (2023\, 9 min.)\n     N’Importe Quoi (Extérieur-Jour) (2024\, 11 min.) \nErrant Ear\, Brunhild Ferrari (fixed media) \nJ’ai pensé sans paroles\, duo performance\, sound material provided by Brunhild Ferrari \n(note: Brunhild Ferrari will not be present for the concert) \nNOTES: \nN’Importe Quoi (for Brunhild) (2023\, 9 min.)\nThe film N’Importe Quoi (for Brunhild) in many ways stands in the tradition of Fowler’s impressionist portraits of persons who have made an impact on his personal and artistic life. Quite often\, the person being portrayed remains unseen\, with Fowler concentrating instead on their voice and traces of their presence in the form of personal ephemera or the atmosphere of their room. Yet\, in this new film\, the performativity of his subject Brunhild Meyer-Ferrari is self-evident. Composer Brunhild Ferrari\, born 1937 in Frankfurt a.M.\, Germany moved to Paris in 1959 where she would meet and marry the composer Luc Ferrari. Brunhild Meyer\, who produced a number of works of radio art in the 70’s and 80’s for SWF\, slowly began to emerge as a composer in the last decade (adopting her husband’s surname only after his death). Luc Ferrari\, was a pioneer of musique concrète and a founding member of Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM) with Pierre Schaeffer in Paris. Fowler’s film provides peripheral glimpses into their collaborative life and work but resists a traditional biographic narrative. \nN’Importe Quoi (Extérieur-Jour) (2024\, 11 min.)\nPart 2 of N’Importe Quoi. Filmed with Brunhild Ferrari at her home in Montreuil and in several locations in Paris\, with sound recordings by Eric La Casa and music by Brunhild Ferrari. Cinema didn’t quite begin with the face\, but its role quickly became central. From as early as the research of Vertov and Epstein\, the face in motion was understood as uniquely compelling\, capable of betraying a whole new range of expressive possibilities too subtle for stillness to capture. It’s odd\, then\, how rarely artists have produced filmed portraits free of any narrative framework. There are\, of course\, by now thousands of biographical documentaries—many based around the oft-derided ‘talking head’—but with the towering exception of Warhol’s Screen Tests\, cinema’s most sophisticated and accomplished pure portraits have tended to work obliquely\, drawing together fragments around the empty centre of their subject\, whose face appears rarely\, if at all. Luke Fowler’s two decades of work comprise\, I think\, the most significant body of cinematic portraiture produced to date. He has fashioned a canon of eccentric\, obscure\, or under-recognized artists and thinkers out of the sediment of their lives\, the documents of their archives\, the places they passed through. Biography is absent; anecdote\, even\, is minimal. If classical portraiture attempts to pluck its subject from the world and refashion them as a symbol of it (Goldin’s work depends on showing just how unwilling the world is to let go of its subjects)\, Fowler works by the inverse\, beginning with the world at large and searching out the tiniest traces that might speak to a single\, specific path through it. N’importe quoi. Anything goes\, it’s all game\, as the world forever is before the camera. And so finally we arrive at his remarkable new film\, N’Importe Quoi (for Brunhild)\, a portrait of Brunhild Meyer-Ferrari\, who\, alongside her husband Luc\, did as much as anyone to realize the post-Cagean whatever of musical composition\, to test the thin line between the form of the world and the forms of art. Fowler begins in Meyer-Ferrari’s charmingly cluttered studio\, catching glimpses of her amidst endless stacks of tapes and analog devices for the recording and manipulation of sound. “Je pense sans parole\,” she says—“I think without words”—and Fowler cuts to a pair of glasses upon a tabletop in burnished\, golden light: some think with microphones\, others with lenses. Meyer-Ferrari departs the studio with her microphone to collect the sounds of Parisian parks and train stations. At the moment of this transition from studio to city\, she recounts her earliest meetings with the man who would become her husband and collaborator\, “He engaged me for work that was really interesting to me: it was research on [the] relationship between sound and image.” The final image we see of the studio in this opening passage is a tape box labeled presque rien—next to nothing—then\, after a rhythmic cut to black\, Meyer-Ferrari alone in the dusty bowl of a park as urban ambience fills the soundtrack. Fowler holds on thismedium shot for 10 seconds or so\, before moving into one of his typical series of quick reframings\, culminating in another cut to black which leads on to an instance of his other recurring gesture: rotating the Bolex’s turret mid-shot\, drawing a curved image down as the lens pops into place. The sound\, previously continuous\, changes abruptly at this last cut; where we heard chatter and sporting thwacks that might have seemed appropriate to a park on a sunny day\, there is only sparse birdsong and the rustle of leaves. This layering of potential realities is\, I’ll suggest\, the ground of Fowler’s practice. (Text by Phil Coldiron) \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nDavid Grubbs is a musician and writer based in Brooklyn. He was a founding member of the groups Gastr del Sol\, Bastro\, and Squirrel Bait\, and has performed with the Red Krayola\, Will Oldham\, Tony Conrad\, Pauline Oliveros\, Loren Connors\, Susan Howe\, and many others. His books include Good night the pleasure was ours\, The Voice in the Headphones\, Now that the audience is assembled\, and Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage\, the Sixties\, and Sound Recording (all published by Duke University Press). Grubbs is a 2024-25 Berlin Prize recipient from the American Academy in Berlin as well as Distinguished Professor of Music at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center\, CUNY. \nBrunhild Ferrari: “Like most of my fellow human beings\, I was born\, I grew up\, I attended schools\, I passed exams\, I failed\, I loved\, I worked hard sometimes\, I enjoyed life; I continue. I worked with Pierre Schaeffer in the ORTF research department on the relationship between sound and image. Of German origin\, I have had an activity as an interpreter and translator. Following Luc Ferrari’s advice in matters of life\, music\, and composition\, and working with him over the course of our 40 years together\, I made my own Hörspiele and radio plays broadcast on France Culture\, in the United States\, and the main German radio stations. Since Luc left us in 2005\, I have taken care of the preservation of his vast archives; founded the Association Presque Rien—Friends of Luc Ferrari—initiated and organized the biennial competition PRESQUE RIEN Prize by providing artists with original sound material from Luc’s sound recordings; and edited a book of his writings and documents (Musiques dans les spasmes\, published by les Presses du Réel\, France) as well as one more book in English together with Catherine Marcangeli (Luc Ferrari: Complete Works\, published by Ecstatic Peace Library). I composed music; I continue.” \n\n
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/david-grubbs-duo/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251017T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250716T173115Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251018T143529Z
UID:10001278-1760731200-1760738400@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Don Slepian
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present Don Slepian celebrating the forty-fifth anniversary of his album Sea of Bliss\, which has been reissued on Numero Group. Opening the evening will be sound artist Saapato. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nDon Slepian\, a composer\, performer\, and music technologist\, is celebrated as a pioneer in the ambient and new age music movement\, blending classical influences with cutting-edge electronic techniques. From serving as artist-in-residence at Bell Laboratories and Synthesizer Soloist with the Honolulu Symphony to performing at esteemed venues like Lincoln Center\, WNYC’s New Sounds\, and the Centre Pompidou\, his career spans decades of innovation and acclaim. Recently\, he has sold out shows at the Philosophical Research Society\, accompanied therapeutic psychedelic ceremonies\, lectured at Stanford University\, appeared on Dublab radio\, and is preparing a tour celebrating the forty-fifth anniversary of his seminal record Sea of Bliss. Now based in the Pocono Mountains\, Slepian continues to compose\, perform\, and build innovative instruments\, cementing his legacy as a visionary in the field.\ndonslepian.com\nSea of Bliss \nSaapato is the music project of upstate NY based sound artist Brendan Principato. His work focuses on the intersection of ecology and music\, using a distinct blend of manipulated field recordings and lush electronic soundscapes to encourage listeners to reconsider their place within nature. He spent August 2023 in residence with the Alaska State Park Service recording bird migrations and the salmon run outside of Juneau. In September of 2022 he was in residence with the National Park Service on Fire Island\, NY documenting “shoulder season” in rare and rapidly disappearing swale and dune habitats.\nsaapato.com \n\nMars by Don Slepian \nDecomposition: Fox on a Highway by Saapato
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/don-slepian/
LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251004T170000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251004T190000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250716T170706Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260615T151135Z
UID:10001277-1759597200-1759604400@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Explorations
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present the New Thread Quartet performing their program Explorations. The ensemble invites the audience to a reception following the performance. \nNew Thread Quartet presents Explorations\, Vol. 8: Energy Flows\, featuring music by Marilyn Shrude\, Georg Friedrich Haas\, Hannah Kendall\, James Tenney\, and a world premiere by Hong-Da Chin. The quartet’s annual Explorations Series\, now in its 8th iteration\, is dedicated to programming important works of our time. The unifying element that brings these works together is the undulation of sonorities. \nWishing doesn’t make it so was inspired by the same phrase from Stephen King’s Heart of Atlantis. Hong-Da Chin is intrigued by these words\, because they point to how our “minds can run like a child in a world full of winter\,” but it’s not until we take action that our ideas become real and hold meaning. This transfers to the action a composer takes when they engrave the ideas they have in their mind. Chin takes the trill\, a standard technique used for centuries\, to a whole new level. \nenergy flows nervously . . . in search of stillness is seeped in the chromatic motion and harmony typical of Marilyn Shrude’s music. Pulsating\, churning\, and thickly layered\, the intensity waxes to its loudest\, most dissonant sonorities\, finally waning to calmness and silence. \nHannah Kendall’s Gilt was inspired by Hew Locke’s 2022-2023 Facade Commission of the same name\, created for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Kendall represents Locke’s four shimmering\, golden sculptures with each voice in the quartet. The extreme saturation of sound and layered texture mirrors the meaning and symbolism behind Locke’s piece. \nSaxophonquartett is a spectral motor of microtones\, swelling and rubbing against each other until they explode into wailing overtones. The piece is a masterful display of Georg Friedrich Haas’ ability to take musicians to the edges of their instruments. \nJames Tenney\, American music theorist and composer\, included Swell Piece in his collection entitled Postal Pieces\, short works that could fit on a postcard. Instrumentation is not specified and the instructions are simple. Players swell from nothing to as loud as they can play and return to nothing with as little timbre and intonation shift as possible. The piece demonstrates Tenney’s interest in harmonic perception\, minimal material\, meditation\, among other parameters. \nNew Thread Quartet Program Notes \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nNew Thread Quartet was formed with the mission to develop and perform impactful new music for the saxophone\, and to provide high level ensemble playing to feature today’s compositional voices. In 11 seasons\, the quartet has commissioned and premiered over 45 new works by composers such as Amy Beth Kirsten\, Richard Carrick\, Ben Hjertmann\, Ebun Oguntola\, Scott Wollschleger\, Kathryn Salfelder\, Taylor Brook and Emily Koh. \nBased in New York City\, New Thread has performed at Carnegie Hall\, Roulette\, Dance Theatre of Harlem\, Morgan Library\, Bang on a Can Summer Festival Benefit\, and Monadnock Music. The quartet has performed\, toured and recorded more than 30 important works for saxophone quartet including Kati Agócs’ Hymn in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall; Marilyn Shrude’s Evolution V and energy flows nervously… in search of stillness\, as part of a 75th Birthday Celebration Concert at the Dimenna Center featuring Lost Dog Ensemble and the Momenta Quartet; Erin Rogers’ Urban Composites at the World Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews\, Scotland; and the premiere recording of Elliott Sharp’s seminal work Approaching the Arches of Corti for 4 soprano saxophones\, recorded with Grammy-winning engineer\, Judith Sherman\, now available on New World Records. New Thread released its debut album Plastic Facts in 2018 on New Focus Recordings and in 2020 recorded three works on [word]plays\, an album by Emily Koh now available from Innova Recordings. \nNew Thread has a track record of working closely with composers in a workshop environment during the formation of new works. The quartet strives for multiple performances of newly commissioned works in an attempt to bring new music to different audiences as often as possible. New Thread’s annual self-presented Explorations Series showcases works by emerging composers\, adding exciting new voices to the saxophone canon. \nNew Thread has conducted masterclasses\, residencies\, and performances for student saxophonists and composers at Peabody Conservatory\, University of Virginia\, Berklee Conservatory\, Bronx Community College\, Aaron Copland School (Queens College)\, Montclair State University\, and New York University. A strong community supporter\, New Thread attends NASA Regional and Biennial conferences across the US. The quartet encourages young composers to create new works for saxophones through an open submission policy\, conducting reading and feedback sessions throughout the year. New Thread is a presenting partner of Composers Now. \nEnsemble members are Jonathan Hulting-Cohen (soprano saxophone)\, Noa Even (alto saxophone)\, Erin Rogers (tenor saxophone)\, and Zach Herchen (baritone saxophone). \nwww.newthreadquartet.com/ \n\n\n\nFunding provided in part by New Music USA
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/explorations/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250919T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250919T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250716T163654Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260220T200117Z
UID:10001276-1758312000-1758319200@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Moondog on the Keys
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to bring back Julian Calv\, Sarah Penna\, and Alex Stewart to perform the music of Moondog at University Lutheran. Also on the program will be organist Gavin Black\, who collaborated with Moondog on his organ and harpsichord works. \nThe concert features piano works\, vocal canons\, and other songs by the maverick composer Moondog performed by trimbist/vocalist Julian Calv\, pianist Alex Stewart\, and vocalist/percussionist Sarah Penna joined by two guest vocalists for the vocal rounds – Emma Bockrath\, and Liam Mulligan. Louis Hardin AKA Moondog composed music creating an unexpected link between the resurgent science of counterpoint\, Arapaho\, Navajo\, Blackfoot\, and Sioux rhythms and song forms\, the art of jazz improvisation\, and the beginnings of a repetitive and minimalist aesthetic. The concert spans Moondog’s career with selections from The Last Concert\, Moondog: Piano Trimba\, In Europe\, A New Sound Of An Old Instrument\, Moondog (1956); and includes background about the music from Julian- who studied with Moondog’s only student\, Stefan Lakatos. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nLouis T. Hardin AKA Moondog was an American composer\, musician\, performer\, music theoretician\, poet and inventor of musical instruments. Largely self-taught as a composer he composed music with an unexpected link between the resurgent science of counterpoint\, Arapaho\, Navajo\, Blackfoot\, and Sioux rhythms and song forms\, the art of jazz improvisation\, and the beginnings of a repetitive and minimalist aesthetic. His strongly rhythmic\, contrapuntal pieces and arrangements were recognized by Igor Stravinsky and other contemporaries; and influenced American minimalist composers Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Due to an accident\, Moondog was blind from the age of 16. He lived in New York City from the late 1940s until 1974\, during which time he was often found on Sixth Avenue\, between 52nd and 55th Streets\, selling records\, composing\, and performing poetry. He briefly appeared in a cloak and horned helmet during the 1960s and was hence recognized as “the Viking of Sixth Avenue” by passersby and residents who were not aware of his musical career. \nJulian Calv is an American composer\, singer\, and trimbist. Born February 18 1999 in New Brunswick\, NJ\, Julian grew up in Bethlehem Township\, NJ. He graduated from Moravian University in 2021 with a Bachelor’s of Music focusing on composition\, education\, and classical piano. While there he studied piano with Barbara Thompson and Dan DeChellis. In 2021 he completed an independent study of 20th c. American composer Louis T. Hardin\, AKA Moondog’s\, creative life. Throughout the course of this impactful project he established an apprenticeship with Stefan Lakatos. Self proclaimed as Moondog’s grand-student\, Julian is the sole prodigy of Stefan Lakatos– who is “the leading [and only] exponent of the Moondog method of drumming.” Quote Moondog himself. Calv traveled to Stockholm\, Sweden\, in 2022 to meet Stefan and understand this tradition first hand. Through both this mentorship and dedicated study of Moondog’s creative life\, he upholds Louis’ dying wish to “please take care of my music.” Following Stefan’s death in 2023\, Julian continued through 2024 with projects featuring solely the music of Moondog and himself. \nAlex Stewart is a musician\, architect\, and man about town. This year’s musical projects include: Darkness to Light\, a recital in January with violinist Charlotte Perkins. In April 2024\, he led the Kearsarge Community Band in regional premieres of Carmen Fantasy for Symphonic Band (Bizet/Suzuki) and Howl’s Moving Castle Fantasy (Hisaishi/Kojima). He’s played in “MOONDOG: On The Keys” since November 2024. \nSarah Penna is a dynamic artist who feels most at home deep in the intersection of education\, the arts\, and the natural world. She synergizes her love of Nature\, Music\, and Community in all corners of her life\, professionally and personally. With her heart and eyes wide open\, she savors every new experience\, collecting them each like tiles in the game of Life. Sarah is many things; a New Englander\, lover\, daughter\, poet\, singer\, park ranger\, Girl Scout\, forest bather\, herbalist\, gardener\, and more\, but above all she is unabashedly herself. \nGavin Black is best known for his recordings of seventeenth-century keyboard music on the PGM label. He studied organ and harpsichord with Paul Jordan and Eugene Roan\, and conducting with Jahja Ling and Otto-Werner Mueller\, and attended Princeton University and Westminster Choir College. He served as Associate University Organist at Princeton from 1977 to1979\, while a student there\, and was Organist and Senior Choir Director at Hillsborough Reformed Church\, Millstone\, New Jersey\, from 1988 until 1994. He has been a teacher of organ\, harpsichord\, clavichord and continuo-playing since 1979\, teaching from time to time at Westminster Choir College and at the Westminster Conservatory of Music. He currently writes a monthly column on organ and harpsichord teaching for The Diapason. \nAs a performer\, Gavin Black has focused on 17th-century keyboard music\, especially music of Dutch\, German\, or Italian origin\, and on the organ music of Bach\, which he has performed in its entirety. In the year 2002 he performed Bach’s Art of the Fugue on the new organ at the Princeton Theological Seminary\, and elsewhere. His recording of harpsichord music of Sweelinck\, played on a Philip Tyre copy of a Ruckers transposing double was released in 2006 by Centaur Records and his recording of music of Frescobaldi played on a 17th century Italian harpsichord will be released soon. Gavin Black has also specialized in the music of the 20th-century American composer Moondog\, recording a selection of his harpsichord music for the Musical Heritage Society in 1978. He has made a specialty of Bach’s Art of the Fugue\, and has recently recorded that work in a version for two harpsichords\, with George Hazelrigg (see The Art of the Fugue.com). In 2023 and beyond Gavin will be performing The Art of the Fugue in concert as a solo harpsichord work. \nGavin Black has also been a founding member of several chamber ensembles\, including the Princeton Baroque Ensemble\, Whitechapel Baroque\, Channel Crossings\, and Col Legno. \n
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/moondog-on-the-keys-2025/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-07-16T122752.895.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250907T103000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250907T120000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250804T162527Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260506T175852Z
UID:10001282-1757241000-1757246400@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Follow The Sound
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present a morning birdwalk at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum with birding by ear guide Gregg Gorton interspersed with two performances by Will Fredendall\, flute\, and Carolyn Zaldivar Snow\, synthesizers. \nPlease take note of the weather and dress accordingly with appropriate footwear.\nMeet at the Environmental Education Pavilion\, to the right of the visitor center\, near the parking lot\, there are toilets and a water fountain nearby. Map \nEstimated run time: 90 minutes\nDistance: less than one mile\nTerrain: ADA accessible\nFree admission – reservations are encouraged\n \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nGregg Gorton\, a musician since he was 5 years-old\, grew up on the edge of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona\, where he fell in love with the natural world. Listening to music of all kinds has always been important to him\, but not until age 40 did he discover birding and the magic of birding by ear when he attended his first birdwalk at the Heinz Refuge. He has led such walks at Heinz for 30 years and is a past President of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (founded in 1890). \nWill Fredendall is a flutist\, improviser\, and composer from Philadelphia\, Pennsylvania. While attaining his Bachelor’s of Music degree at the New England Conservatory\, he had the opportunity to study with renowned flute soloist Renee Krimsier as well as profound improvisers Joe Morris\, Jason Moran\, Frank Carlberg\, Jerry Bergonzi\, and Ran Blake. Through these influences\, Will has developed a unique sound that reaches the furthest extremes of each musical parameter without sacrificing musicality and expression. Drawing from many improvised and composed styles as well as contemporary extended techniques\, Will weaves a vivid story that transports listeners to a world outside our own—one that can be reached only with the flute. \nCarolyn Zaldivar Snow is a field recordist and journalist whose work explores the textures of tape\, water\, and place. Her sound installations have been presented at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden\, as well as in more ephemeral settings—abandoned chocolate factories\, geodesic domes\, and overgrown Victorian gardens. She leads editorial at the electronic music label Mystery Circles\, where she helps shape conversations around experimental sound\, and contributes to Tape Op Magazine\, writing about recording\, listening\, and the spaces in between.\nthiselectricspace.com \n  \n\nOrganized in collaboration with World Askew and funded in part by PECO\, Team Pennsylvania\, and Pennsylvania Creative Industries
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/follow-the-sound-sept-2025/
LOCATION:John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum\, 8601 Lindbergh Blvd\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19153\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-08-04T121346.043.png
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250824T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250824T170000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250425T170356Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260217T142510Z
UID:10001266-1756047600-1756054800@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:C. Lavender
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present Liminal States\, an ongoing series of in-person performances designed for deep listening and relaxation. Intended to guide audiences to that magic space between wakefulness and sleep\, these performances invite listeners to lie down\, close their eyes\, and immerse themselves in sound. Sink in\, bliss out. \nThis edition features C. Lavender in a solo set at the Maas Building\, blending sound healing and electronic music for a “sound bath” experience—creating a space for calm\, reflection\, and rest. \nPlease bring a blanket\, yoga mat\, or other similarly comfortable option. Chairs will be limited. \n\nABOUT THE ARTIST \nC. Lavender (Lavender Suarez) is a New York-based interdisciplinary sound artist\, sound healing practitioner\, and educator. Bandcamp describes her music as having “curative powers” while also being “confrontational\, primed to change you whether or not you want it to.” She is the author of Transcendent Waves: How Listening Shapes Our Creative Lives and has released recordings on Editions Mego\, Ecstatic Peace!\, and RVNG Intl. Her latest album\, Rupture in the Eternal Realm (iDEAL Recordings)\, explores meditative soundscapes through Buchla synthesizer\, gongs\, and field recordings. For more info: www.clavender.net \n\nRUPTURE IN THE ETERNAL REALM by C. LAVENDER \n\nOrganized in collaboration with World Askew
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/c-lavender/
LOCATION:Maas Building\, 1325 N Randolph St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19122\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Bowerbird-Main-Img-88.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250812T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250812T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250714T143509Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260220T195323Z
UID:10001275-1755028800-1755036000@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:TRANSCENDENCE
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present TRANSCENDENCE\, a duo performance by master percussionists Kweku Sumbry and Shakoor Hakeem at The Perch. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nGrounded in the traditions of the Djembe Orchestra\, Kweku Sumbry is a multi-percussionist from Washington\, DC. With the djembe\, drumset\, and a multitude of West African Percussion instruments\, Kweku is bringing forth a new sound to the jazz world. He began his studies as a toddler under the tutelage of Mahiri Fadjimba Keita\, Mamady Keita\, and Djiali Djimo Kouyate.\nKweku is a member of the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet\, and has performed alongside Ambrose Akinmusire\, Yosvany Terry\, Cyrus Chestnut\, Solange\, Shabaka Hutchings\, and Reggie Workman\, to name a few. \nFearless percussionist Shakoor Hakeem\, a prolific up-and-coming talent\, has a gift for making experimental\, Afro-diasporan\, rhythmic improvisational music immediately enjoyable. Hakeem’s unique old soul has him adhering to the cultural traditions of mysticism and folklore\, within which are contained the secrets of his elders. The mythical experience of his stage presence evokes feelings that you are witness to a ceremonial gathering\, of an ancient rhythmic history. In building this\, he has long supported many of the most forward-thinking legendary improvisers\, including Graham Haynes\, Immanual Wilkins\, Maria Grand\, Joel Ross\, Adam Rudolph\, Bobby Zankel and Wallace Roney. Performing live with these great artists\, he refrains from overplaying and prefers minimalism\, playing with the musical and compositional contexts of colors and texture\, delivering limited solos\, all while occupying the eye of the hurricane. \n\n\nOrganized in collaboration with World Askew
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/transcendence/
LOCATION:The Perch\, 2321 Emerald St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19125\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-07-14T102356.174.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250802T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250802T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250523T163341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260220T195136Z
UID:10001272-1754164800-1754172000@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Sahba Motallebi and Reza Mohsenipour
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird along with Philly Iranians and Fire Museum Presents\, are pleased to present Grammy Award winner Sahba Motallebi joined by fellow countryman and Tar virtuoso Reza Mohsenipour. Sahba and Reza will illuminate us on the history behind their musical selctions which are deeply rooted in Persian culture. Their lives and careers have been profoundly influenced by the deep history of their homeland\, Iran. Through their musical selections they will demonstrate\, explore and discuss how sound\, frequency and vibration are important in our lives. There is healing to be found through the experience of live music when there are also shared intentions such as seeking peace\, health and positive relationships. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nMesmerizing with her command of the tar\, setar and shoorangiz\, Sahba Motallebi captivates audiences globally with music born from centuries of Iranian tradition\, interpreted through a contemporary lens\, creating brand new music rooted in the past. She takes the listener on a journey of enchanted song\, through a flurry of rhythmic chord hits and punctuated finger-work. Her hands dance across the strings\, agile and flexible\, effortless even at lightning speed. Known as “Queen of the Tar\,” or “Jimi Hendrix\, but on Tar\,” Sahba invites us into a terrain of perfected sound with nuanced harmonics and siren-like whispers. \nBorn into a Baha’I family in Tehran and later relocating to Sari near the Caspian Sea\, Sahba began her musical career at age 11 by learning the setar. Three years later\, her talent earned her a place at the prestigious Tehran Conservatory of Music. She defied societal norms by moving to Tehran in 1992 where she lived independently and studied music despite the fact that women were not allowed to be seen carrying instruments in public. She experienced a life-altering moment when she was introduced to the tar at age 15 which led her to study with Master Fariborz Azizi and Master Ostad Hossein Alizadeh. She began practicing 8hours a day\, learning the “radif\,” systems of Persian music. At the Conservatory\, she earned the award of Best Tar Player from 1993 – 1996. Then Sahba surpassed all expectations and won first prize for all levels\, ages\, and genders as the “Best Tar Player” in all of Iran for four years in a row in all festivals and competitions\, from 1995 – 1998. In 1999\, Sahba was invited to join the Iranian National Orchestra and began her international career. She also founded the first all-female Iranian band ever called “Chakaveh” despite the rule that women were not allowed to perform without men in Iran. At the time\, women weren’t even allowed to perform with men in the main concert hall. Since then she has played concerts all over the world as a soloist and with renowned musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma\, Keyhan Kalhor\, Rahim AlHaj\, and Arturo O’Farrill. \nReza Mohsenipour is a leading Iranian musician having studied at the Tehran Conservatory and later from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and La Sapienza University in Rome. He performed with the Tehran Symphony and the Iranian Television Orchestra in addition to founding The Barbad musical project with his brothers Hamid and Navid Mohsenipour. \n\n\n  \n\n\nPresented in collaboration with Fire Museum Presents and Philly Iranians
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/sahba-motallebi-and-reza-mohsenipour-2025/
LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Bowerbird-Main-Img-66.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250717T193000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250717T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250611T175638Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260220T194919Z
UID:10001273-1752780600-1752789600@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:SQUANDERERS
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present SQUANDERERS\, the glowingly new trio of guitarists Wendy Eisenberg and David Grubbs alongside multi-instrumentalist and legendary producer Kramer. The evening will open with a solo set by Jason Calhoun. \n7:00pm Doors\n7:30pm Show \nTheir debut LP If a Body Meet a Body appeared on Shimmy-Disc in November 2024\, and the group performed at the 2025 Big Ears festival. A second album\, Skantagio\, is forthcoming from Shimmy-Disc in August 2025. Squanderers first sprung into action as the duo of Kramer and Grubbs with the single “Congress of Poodles” b/w “Lendrick Muir Bible Study Weekend\,” part of Kramer’s 2023 Shimmy-Disc box set Rings of Saturn. SQUANDERERS now enter the arena of live performance with the addition of bona-fide guitar slayer Eisenberg\, a dream of a foil to Grubbs’s grubbslike guitarisms\, setting the scene for Kramer to follow his musical divining rod. Divining urges not dirges. In Grubbs’s book-length poem\, The Voice in the Headphones\, “Squanderer” is the nickname that most deeply troubles of the book’s unnamed protagonist: “Hang your head\, Squanderer. You’ll never darken the doorway of Studio A.” Will this trio of inveterate SQUANDERERS redeem themselves? \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nWendy Eisenberg is an improviser and songwriter who uses guitar\, pedals\, the tenor banjo\, the\ncomputer\, the synthesizer\, and the voice. Their work spans genres\, from jazz to noise to avant-\nrock to delicate songs; their performances span venues\, from international festivals to intimate\nbasements. Though often working solo as both a songwriter and improviser\, with acclaimed\nreleases on Tzadik\, Ba Da Bing\, VDSQ\, Out of your Head\, and Dear Life\, they also perform in\nthe rock band Editrix\, and in endless other combinations of their heroes and peers including Bill\nOrcutt\, Caroline Davis\, Carla Kihlstedt\, John Zorn\, Billy Martin\, and Allison Miller. They also\nwrite about music and other things\, with published essays on music in Sound American\, Arcana\nXIII\, and the Contemporary Music Review. \nDavid Grubbs has released sixteen solo albums and was a member of the groups Gastr del Sol\,\nBastro\, and Squirrel Bait. He has performed with Tony Conrad\, Pauline Oliveros\, Luc Ferrari\,\nSusan Howe\, Will Oldham\, the Red Krayola\, and many others. Grubbs is Distinguished\nProfessor of Music at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center\, CUNY\, and author of books\nincluding Good night the pleasure was ours\, The Voice in the Headphones\, Now that the\naudience is assembled\, and Records Ruin the Landscape: John Cage\, the Sixties\, and Sound\nRecording. \nKramer is a composer/musician/filmmaker and multi-instrumentalist who has worked with\nartists as diverse as John Zorn\, Butthole Surfers\, Bill Frisell\, Ween\, The Fugs\, Thurston Moore\,\nPenn Jillette\, Allen Ginsberg\, Jad Fair\, and Laraaji\, to name but a few. He is also a renowned\nrecord producer (Galaxie 500\, Low\, Daniel Johnston\, Will Oldham\, etc.) and the founder of the\niconic NYC record label\, Shimmy-Disc. He rarely performs onstage\, and Squanderers is his first\nlong-term recording project to include live performances since 1999. He currently lives and\nworks in the Appalachian Temperate Rainforest. \nThe hallmark of jason calhoun’s music–either under his given name or under the naps alias–is an emotional resonance that allows fragility and perseverance to occupy the same space. Though humble in his approach\, calhoun has done something quietly extraordinary in building a body of work that\, unlike so much music that seeks to transport you elsewhere\, instead asks you to check in with yourself. \nIf A Body Meet A Body by SQUANDERERS \na four part cure by jason calhoun + foresteppe
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/squanderers/
LOCATION:The Perch\, 2321 Emerald St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19125\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Bowerbird-Main-Img-2025-06-11T135242.222.png
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250713T150000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250713T170000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250514T155100Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250713T201155Z
UID:10001269-1752418800-1752426000@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:Stuart Bogie
DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present Liminal States\, an ongoing series of in-person performances designed for deep listening and relaxation. Intended to guide audiences to that magic space between wakefulness and sleep\, these performances invite listeners to lie down\, close their eyes\, and immerse themselves in sound. Sink in\, bliss out. \nThis edition features Stuart Bogie in a solo set at the Maas Building\, blending sound healing and electronic music for a “sound bath” experience—creating a space for calm\, reflection\, and rest. \nPlease bring a blanket\, yoga mat\, or other similarly comfortable option. Chairs will be limited. \n\nABOUT THE ARTIST \nComposer and performer Stuart Bogie was born in Evanston\, Illinois. He studied for 6 Years with Gary Onstad and at the Music Center of the North Shore before attending Interlochen Art Academy and the University of Michigan where he studied with Debra Chodacki. He is the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant and he composed the score for the Oscar nominated documentary How To Survive a Plague\, featuring performances by the Kronos Quartet. He has written for film\, television\, commercials\, and the stage. He has released 9 albums as a leader. \nIn the section week of November\, 2024\, Bogie collaborated with organist Buck McDaniel and producer Fritz Myers to create November Variations: a daily series of improvisations performed for a free and open audience of New Yorkers at 9am in the morning Monday through Friday. Held at Church of Our Saviour\, a few blocks from Grand Central Station\, the project garnered universal praise for its emotional potency and began a fruitful collaboration between Buck\, Fritz and Bogie. \nDuring the pandemic lock-down\, Bogie performed a daily series of improvised solo clarinet pieces using the accompaniment drone tracks sent to him by over 50 different collaborators including Arcade Fire\, Richard Reed Parry\, Colin Stetson\, Sam Cohen\, Josh Kaufman\, Peter Murray\, E Dan\, Craig Finn\, Ryan Sawyer\, Dave Harrington\, Yuka Honda\, and James Murphy. Began in the second week of lock-down\, the series ran for over 150 days consecutively and has been collected into four volumes\, with more volumes in the works. An LP\, Morningside\, presenting 2 of the pieces made with James Murphy was released on October 27 on DFA records. This music is featured in a worldwide exhibition of photographs by Gregory Crewsden\, and can be heard in the documentary accompanying the exhibit. In July of 2023 Bogie premiered Morningside at Les Recontres d’Arles\, livescoring the documentary by Harper Glantz. In 2024\, Bogie released Patient Music on Historical Fiction records. The live album combined the talents of producer/mixer Pat Dillett\, and long time collaborators Josh Kaufman and Sam Cohen. \nIn 2022 Bogie released The Prophets in the City\, an album of music composed for Brass and Percussion between 2019 and 2021\, featuring the drumming of friend and collaborator Joe Russo. Relix wrote “The music is a study in contrasts: at once aggressive and patient\, instrumental yet lyrical. It is also simultaneously structured and free-wheeling\, equally jubilant and foreboding.” The 10 piece ensemble debuted live at the Winter Jazzfest\, NYC\, in January of 2020 then re-emerged post-lockdown for a rousing performance at The Newport Jazz Festival (2021) which Jazztimes called “Mesmerizing waves of harmony and rhythm overlapped each other\, like a mashup of Fela Kuti\, Sun Ra\, and King Crimson—with (more) tuba! And (sometimes) multiple flutes! An energized frontman\, Bogie went from conducting the band to conducting its listeners…”. \nBogie led the collaborative group Superhuman Happiness (2008-2018) through 5 original albums of music\, and coast to coast national tours over 10 years. The group became known for their extended improvisations of dance music\, and the various musical games they would employ to develop their collective creativity and mine for fresh collaborative compositional ideas. Spin magazine wrote “their music joins buoyant call-and-response harmonies\, rippling highlife-inspired guitar leads\, !!!’s muscular funk-punk\, and the spirited pulses of Steve Reich’s Clapping Music.” \nAs a member of the group Antibalas (2001-2012)\, Bogie wrote the piece “Indictment\,” which The Village Voice called “…a fantastic Bush-era protest song\, lithe and lethal” as well as the piece “Beaten Metal” which Pitchfork named a top 100 song of 2007 and noted “quick splashes of colorful sound and some slowly building drama\, ‘Beaten Metal’ sounds brazen\, rhythmic\, and powerful – like Edgar Varese coming of age after hip-hop.” \n  \n\nMorningside by Stuart Bogie \n\nOrganized in collaboration with World Askew
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/stuart-bogie/
LOCATION:Maas Building\, 1325 N Randolph St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19122\, United States
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END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250613T200000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250613T220000
DTSTAMP:20260627T015109
CREATED:20250502T160736Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250608T181903Z
UID:10001267-1749844800-1749852000@www.bowerbird.org
SUMMARY:POSTPONED: The Elias Stemeseder\, Kris Chen Lil’Injure\, Shakoor Hakeem Trio
DESCRIPTION:DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES\, THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. STAY TUNED FOR A NEW DATE \nBowerbird is pleased to present the Elias Stemeseder\, Kris Chen Lil’Injure\, Shakoor Hakeem Trio at The Perch. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nKris Chen Lil’Injure was born 1984 in Lübben and is a drummer\, composer and representative of the modern creative style and new improvisational music. From 2000 to 2004 Lillinger studied at the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber at Dresden. He plays in the trio Gropper | Graupe | Lil’Injure\, with the saxophonist Philipp Gropper and the guitarist Ronny Graupe. \nIn 2008\, he arranged his first band Kris Chen Lil’Injure’s Grund\, whose first first two records were released in late 2009 and 2013. Since 2004 he has been working in the EUPHORIUM\, the Ensemble of Contemporary Performing Arts and Music. Since 2009 he founded several projects and bands in which he collaborated with numerous well-known artists. Kris Chen Lil’Injure published different albums in cooperation with other musicians and international jazz lables. \nElias Stemeseder is a pianist\, keyboard instrumentalist\, electronic musician and composer with an interest in synthesizing musical thought\, discipline and tools from diverse time periods and geographic origins to create original sonic ordering principles. Performing on historic and contemporary (keyboard-) instruments\, Stemeseder is part of the ensembles Stemeseder-Lillinger\, Neon Dilemma\, WRENS and the Elias Stemeseder Trio. He also works alongside luminaries such as Anna Webber\, Adam O’Farrill\, Craig Taborn\, Ingrid Laubrock\, Thomas Morgan and Peter Evans\, performs as a soloist\, and is a recording artist for Intakt Records. \nFearless percussionist Shakoor Hakeem\, a prolific up-and-coming talent\, has a gift for making experimental\, Afro-diasporan\, rhythmic improvisational music immediately enjoyable. Hakeem’s unique old soul has him adhering to the cultural traditions of mysticism and folklore\, within which are contained the secrets of his elders. The mythical experience of his stage presence evokes feelings that you are witness to a ceremonial gathering\, of an ancient rhythmic history. In building this\, he has long supported many of the most forward-thinking legendary improvisers\, including Graham Haynes\, Immanual Wilkins\, Joel Ross\, Adam Rudolph\, Bobby Zankel and Wallace Roney. Performing live with these great artists\, he refrains from overplaying and prefers minimalism\, playing with the musical and compositional contexts of colors and texture\, delivering limited solos\, all while occupying the eye of the hurricane. \n\n\n\n\nOrganized in collaboration with World Askew
URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/postponed-the-elias-stemeseder-kris-chen-lilinjure-shakoor-hakeem-trio/
LOCATION:The Perch\, 2321 Emerald St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19125\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Bowerbird-Main-Img-96.png
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR