BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//BOWERBIRD ::: MUSIC, DANCE, FILM ::: Philadelphia, PA - ECPv6.15.17.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://www.bowerbird.org X-WR-CALDESC:Events for BOWERBIRD ::: MUSIC, DANCE, FILM ::: Philadelphia, PA REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20220313T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20221106T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20230312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20231105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20240310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20241103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20250309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20251102T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240417T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240417T210000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20240401T144939Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240421T175449Z UID:10001228-1713380400-1713387600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Opening Day: Baseball in Experimental Film and Video DESCRIPTION:”It’s a paradise of balls and bats” — George Kuchar \n  \nWhat does baseball mean to the experimental filmmaker? In the great taxonomy of American archetypes\, the jocks and the artists don’t tend to sit together at the same proverbial table. So it’s unsurprising that although baseball was the most popular American sport from the days of early cinema through at least the Vietnam War and an unquestionable symbol of Americanism\, film outside of the mainstream paid little attention to the sport. But it was only a matter of time until filmmakers would begin mining baseball and its iconography to tackle subjects that have always been near and dear to the American avant-garde: nationalism\, nostalgia\, masculinity\, identity\, and celebrity. \nIn honor of the beginning of the baseball season\, Opening Day presents five very different films and videos which use baseball as raw material. Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Brady Lewis playfully works with his town’s obsession with the Pirates and much more in a dense collage of references. Robert Breer\, one of the legends of hand drawn animation\, incorporated his youthful love of baseball into Bang!\, a kaleidoscopic hybrid of drawings\, animation\, film\, and video. In Breer’s hands baseball takes a role as a symbol of nostalgia and American boyhood. Sharon Couzin similarly uses baseball as a marker of nostalgia and boyhood but to very different effects. Cousin’s OdilonOdilon looks back at the swirl of cultural and political forces surrounding young Odilon coming of age in World War II. Vanalyne Green’s A Spy in the House that Ruth Built is a quintessential work of 1980s feminist video art\, deconstructing the male-dominated sport and desire for their bodies with a confessional edge. With Joe Dimaggio 1\, 2\, 3\, Anne McGuire takes the obsession with the icons Green intellectualizes and turns it pure Id as she stalks and sings to the elderly Hall of Famer around San Francisco. Without any knowledge that McGuire is following him and McGuire’s performative total lack of self-awareness\, Joe Dimaggio 1\, 2\, 3 is the missing link between the earlier generation of videography and the current “weirdo” strain of YouTube and Vine video art. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nPROGRAM\nBang! / Robert Breer / 1986 / 10 min / 16mm\nOdilonOdilon / Sharon Couzin / 1984 / 21 min / 16mm\nQuick Opener / Brady Lewis / 1987 / 5 min / 16mm\nA Spy in the House that Ruth Built / Vanalyne Green / 1990 / 29 min / Digital\nJoe Dimaggio 1\, 2\, 3 / Anne McGuire / 1991 / 11 min / Digital URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/opening-day/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Shiraz-Main-Bowerbird-Main-Img-1.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240410T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240410T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20240117T154612Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240415T141134Z UID:10001220-1712779200-1712786400@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Bennardo-Larson Duo DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present the Bennardo-Larson Duo – violin and piano – at UniLu performing works by Anthony Vine and Maya Bennardo. \n\nPROGRAM \nAnthony Vine: Worshipful Company \nMaya Bennardo: dormant gardens \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nMaya Bennardo (she/her) is an active performer and composer living in Stockholm\, Sweden. Maya is interested in opening the dialogue and blurring the boundaries between composers and performers\, and is devoted to performing music of the present. She is a founding member of the violin/viola duo andPlay\, described by I Care If You Listen as “enthusiastic champions for new music and collaboration.” She is a member of the internationally acclaimed Mivos Quartet and also performs new and traditional repertoire for violin and piano with pianist Karl Larson in their Bennardo/Larson Duo. Maya’s compositions are characterized by slow\, unfolding timbral movements–exploring the co-existence of pitch and noise. Her compositions have grown naturally out of her improvisational practice on the violin\, and the two continue to inform each other. This season Maya is composing new works for NoExit + andPlay\, Lamnth\, Alkemie + Amanda Gookin\, Bennardo/Larson Duo\, and a new long-form piece for solo violin. \nKarl Larson is a Brooklyn-based pianist and specialist in the music of our time. A devoted supporter of contemporary composers and their craft\, Larson has built a career grounded in commissioning and long-term collaborations. He frequently performs in a variety of chamber music settings\, most notably with his trio\, Bearthoven\, a piano / bass / percussion ensemble focussed on cultivating a diverse new repertoire for their instrumentation. As a soloist\, Larson is known for championing the works of his peers and the recent canon alike\, often gravitating towards long-form\, reflective works of the 20th and 21st centuries. Through his work with Bearthoven\, collaborations with a wide variety of chamber musicians\, and his solo projects\, Larson has helped to generate a large body of new work\, resulting in world premiere performances of pieces by notable composers including David Lang\, Sarah Hennies\, Chris Cerrone\, and Michael Gordon. \nAnthony Vine is a composer and guitarist living in Brooklyn. He creates music about spirituality\, beauty\, and acoustics. His work across different media—performance\, installation\, and sound sculpture—is minimal yet acoustically rich and deeply emotive. Currently his imagination is most at ease with medieval liturgical and devotional music. His recent work has been inspired by medieval motets\, church acoustics\, the sound of prayer\, and how medieval notation communicates to the eye and ear. These projects range from hagiographic concertos to archaeoacoustic research. His music has been presented by Blank Forms\, Carnegie Hall\, Gaudeamus Muziekweek\, Lévy Gorvy\, The Metropolitan Museum of Art\, Musiikin Aika\, Pioneer Works\, Transit Festival\, and Ultima Festival\, and performed by Alarm Will Sound\, AndPlay\, Quatuor Bozzini\, Bearthoven\, Dudok Kwartet\, Gareth Davis\, Duo Axis\, Madison Greenstone\, Hotel Elefant\, Mari Kawamura\, The La Jolla Symphony and Chorus\, David Lackner\, Will Lang\, Karl Larson\, loadbang\, longleash\, The Minnesota Orchestra\, Ensemble Modelo62\, Palimpsest\, The Rhythm Method\, Steven Schick\, Trio SurPlus\, and Yarn/Wire. Recordings of his music have been released on Cantaloupe\, Galtta Media\, and Yarn/Wire’s imprint. \n\n URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/bennardo-larson-duo/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Bowerbird-Main-Img-59.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240330T160000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240330T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20240108T165707Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240401T145018Z UID:10001217-1711814400-1711836000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Shiraz Panorama DESCRIPTION:TICKET PRE-SALES HAVE ENDED. TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR. \nThe Shiraz Arts Festival was a platform for cultural exchange that brought together artists from around the world to share and celebrate their diverse artistic expressions. One notable event from the festival was the “Stockhausen Panorama” in 1972\, which celebrated the work of the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen through a series of multiple concerts. Our “Shiraz Panorama” celebrates that legacy through the rich lens of Philadelphia’s vibrant performing arts community. Mina Zarfsaz & Eugene Lew will present a new work inspired by the Persian poem “The Conference of the Birds\,” followed by a gallery tour with curator Vali Mahlouji. Traditional Indian classical Bharatanatyam dance will be performed by USILOQUY DANCE\, and the evening will include a cultural debate with special guests. Jupiter Blue\, featuring members of Sun Ra Arkestra\, will captivate with guitar and vocals\, leading to traditional Balinese music and dance by Gamelan Gita Santi x Modero & Company\, and a striking performance of Luciano Berio’s “Sequenza III per voce” (1965) by Alize Rozsnyai. Experimental percussion by Shakoor Hakeem & Pete Angevine\, Toshi Makihara’s unique fusion of percussion and dance\, and traditional Korean percussion by Uriol우리얼 will round out this vibrant celebration of world arts. \nThis event runs from 4pm to 10pm\, and the exhibition will be open this day from 2pm to 10pm.   \n\nSCHEDULE\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\nTIME\nTHEATER\nGALLERIES\n\n\n4:00 PM\n7 VALLEYS: REWIND/REWILD\nMina Zarfsaz & Eugene Lew perform a new work inspired by the Persian poem “The Conference of the Birds”\n\n\n\n\n\nGALLERY TOUR\nwith “A Utopian Stage” curator Vali Mahlouji\n\n\n5:00 PM\nUSILOQUY DANCE\ntraditional Indian classical Bharatanatyam dance\n\n\n\n\n\nA CULTURAL ATLAS DEBATE\nwith Vali Mahlouji and Peter Crimmins\n\n\n6:00 PM\nJUPITER BLUE\nguitar and vocals from members of Sun Ra Arkestra\n\n\n\n\n\nBREAK\n\n\n7:00 PM\nGAMELAN GITA SANTI x MODERO & COMPANY\ntraditional Balinese music and dance\n\n\n\n\n\nALIZE ROZSNYAI\nperforming Luciano Berio “Sequenza III per voce” (1965)\n\n\n8:00 PM\nUNIVERSAL RHYTHM\nExperimental rhythm & drone with percussion & electronics – Pete Angevine and Shakoor Hakeem\, percussion\, Chris Powell  and Manna Pourrezaei\, drones\n\n\n\n\n\nTOSHI MAKIHARA\nsolo drum improvisation\n\n\n9:00 PM\nURIOL우리얼\ntraditional Korean percussion ensemble\n\n\n\n\n\nADDITIONAL INFORMATION: \nEach performance will be approximately 30mins.  All start times are approximate and subject to change. Only one act will be performing at a time. \nPerformances will take place in the Theater and Galleries and audiences will be asked to move to different spaces through out the event. \nA single general admission ticket is good for one individual for the whole day.  Audiences may arrive or depart at any time they wish.  Re-entry (with provided wristband) will be permitted. \n  \n\nThis event is part of A UTOPIAN STAGE\, an exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative from February 9 to March 30\, 2024. \nPictured above: Mantra\, for two Pianos\, Karlheinz Stockhausen (composer)\, Alfons Kontarsky\, Aloys Kontarsky (pianists) – Saray-e Moshir\, 1972; Courtesy Stockhausen-Stiftung für Musik / Archaeology of the Final Decade Archives \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS\n  \n\n\n\n \n\n\n7 Valleys: REWIND/REWILD\nInspired by the Seven Valleys of Attar of Nishapur’s “Conference of the Birds\,” a renowned Persian literary masterpiece\, and the conservation concept of “Rewilding\,” this collaborative performance by Mina Zarfsaz & Eugene Lew synthesizes a multi-sensory space that revolves around the semiotics of social interactions among multi-species.\n\n\n\nUSILOQUY\nUsiloquy Dance Designs creates traditional and contemporary cross-cultural works rooted in the technique of Indian classical dance style Bharatanatyam. Founded in 2008 by Artistic Director Shaily Dadiala\, Philadelphia-based Usiloquy applies Bharatanatyam embracing new modalities of an ancient arts form.\nDancers: Aney Abraham\, Ankita Reddy\, Asavari Scarff\, Meghna Gummadi\, Shaily Dadiala.\n\n\n\nJupiter Blue\nFrom the Sun Ra Arkestra’s engine room\, Jupiter Blue’s tone scientists DM Hotep and Jupiter Girl (Tara Middleton) emerge to reveal elements and precepts of another kind of language\, another tomorrow. Their collaboration is interstellar and unique\, granting passage through spacious\, jazz textured sonorties informed by Ra’s ever necessary mission of saving the world.\n\n\n\nGamelan Gita Santi x Modero & Company\nGamelan Gita Santi is a community-based music ensemble and class led by Gapura\, the Indonesian community non-profit. The group offers free weekly classes for the Indonesian community in South Philadelphia\, catering to individuals aged 6 years and older. Tom Whitman of Swarthmore College leads the group\, which also collaborates with Modero & Company\, a dance company founded by Sinta Penyami Storms. Gita Santi hosts spring and fall concerts for the public and performs at the annual Indonesian Festival\, The Island Country.\n\n\n\nAlize Francheska Rozsnyai\nAlize Francheska Rozsnyai coloratura soprano and graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music “displaying profound imagination and control” (Philadelphia Inquirer)\, building a diverse and exciting performance career as a classical soprano with a “superb voice” (Harrogate News) which is “sparkling” (ArtBlog)\, all while serving up “deliciously diva performances” (I CARE IF YOU LISTEN). This season she appears with St. Petersburg Opera as an Emerging Artist and cover for Morgana in Handel’s Alcina\, is part of the development as Five Ways to Die with Experiments in Opera NYC\, and makes her role debut as Frasquita in Carmen with Boheme Opera NJ. Ms. Rozsnyai has performed with Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro\, Den Nye Opera in Bergen\, Norway\, Opera Philadelphia\, San Diego Opera\, Chautauqua Opera\, Seattle Symphony [Untitled 3] Series\, Carnegie Hall\, The Kennedy Center\, Opera Fayetteville\, Center for Contemporary Opera\, The Cape Cod Symphony\, and favorite role credits include Adina (l’elisir d’amore)\, Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare)\, Hilda (Elegy for Young Lovers-Henze)\, and Ilia (Idomeneo).\n\n\n\nUniversal Rhythm\nUniversal Rhythm is the catchall title for the always-in-flux musical expression of brothers in percussion\, Shakoor Hakeem and Pete Angevine.\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.Pete Angevine works independently as a creative producer with a constellation of individuals and organizations in fields such as life sciences\, farmer cooperatives\, public art\, and experimental music.He has helped to develop and create many creative projects including musical albums\, experimental theater\, Ice Cream dreams\, public history themed augmented reality apps\, art exhibitions\, a Wide Range of Popular and Avant Garde Musics\, free food for the people\, murals\, watershed science infused walking tours\, two beloved children\, interactive sound sculptures\, historically interpretive artist-designed miniature golf holes\, psychedelic ceremonies\, gongs\, and more.\n\n\n\nToshi Makihara\nToshi Makihara’s performance utilizes traditional percussion with a variety of discovered sound media\, everyday objects and toys. Through a rigorous\, systematic\, and practiced process of experimentation\, Makihara seeks out sounds that have never been heard before\, experimenting with touch\, force\, and speed\, and always remaining aware of sound’s relationship to the body. Makihara studied drums and percussion with Sabu Toyozumi\, a renowned improvising percussionist in Tokyo. He has also studied butoh with dance master Kazuo Ohno and others.\n\n\n\nURIOL우리얼\nFounded in 2018\, URIOL(우리얼) is a traditional Korean percussion ensemble based in Philadelphia. URIOL began as a Samulnori group and continues to explore and create new music for traditional percussion instruments. Hyunjin Cha\, artistic director of URIOL\, has been a performer and director of programming & operations for Dulsori\, a world-renowned Korean world music ensemble that has appeared in over 54 countries and prestigious festivals such as WOMAD\, Edinburgh Fringe Festival\, and Roskilde Rock Festival. URIOL’s music is for anyone and everyone\, based on the traditional Korean performance of ‘Pungmul’\, ‘Minyo’\, and ‘Chukjae’. During the performance\, we play and dance to wish for our happiness and hopes to be fulfilled. As you become one with the performers\, enjoying and applauding\, you will feel a magical sensation.\n\n\n\nPeter Crimmins\nPeter Crimmins has been reporting on arts and culture for WHYY News since 2010\, reporting stories on a wide variety of cultural topics\, from artist profiles to community initiatives to philanthropic funding trends. He started his career in the San Francisco Bay Area\, cutting his teeth at community station KALX and producing syndicated radio programming for Ben Manilla Productions. He lives in Fishtown with his wife and dogs.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMajor support for A Utopian Stage has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.. Presented in collaboration with Asian Arts Initiative and Fire Museum Presents URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/shiraz-panorama-a-utopian-stage/ LOCATION:Asian Arts Initiative\, 1219 Vine Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19107\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Bowerbird-A-Utopian-Stage-PANORAMA-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240329T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240329T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20240108T164524Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240517T202451Z UID:10001216-1711742400-1711749600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Contemporary Persian Poetry and Music DESCRIPTION:Composer/performers Mahya Hamedi and Sepehr Pirasteh unite their talents with the Shiraz Ensemble and the Arcana New Music Ensemble to craft an enchanting evening celebrating Contemporary Persian Poetry and Music. With poems curated by Fatemeh Shams\, the event will immerse audiences in the depth of Iran’s poetic legacy while capturing the spirit of the contemporary moment. \nHarking back to the inception of the Shiraz Arts Festival in 1967\, the platform played a pivotal role in showcasing Iran’s vibrant community of poets and musicians. A recital of “Contemporary Persian Poetry\,” the inaugural year paid homage to literary giants Hafez and Sa’di and living poets took the stage to recite their own verses.  The venerable Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar\, Iran’s eldest living poet\, debuted a new poem in honor of the Festival. The poetic event took place at Hafeziyeh\, the final resting place of the esteemed Persian poet Hafez. \nParallel to the poets’ engagement with both historical and contemporary themes\, composers at the Shiraz Arts Festival drew inspiration from a fusion of past and present elements. Noteworthy figures from the Euro-American avant garde\, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen\, Iannis Xenakis\, Olivier Messiaen\, Bruno Maderna\, John Cage\, David Tudor\, and Morton Feldman\, were featured at the festival.  Proposals for a significant arts center\, encompassing electronic music and recording studios\, were planned but were thwarted by the onset of the Revolution. Nevertheless\, the festival left an indelible mark on Iran’s contemporary and experimental music scene\, shaping its trajectory in enduring ways. \n\nPROGRAM \nFarzia Fallah (b. 1980): Posht-e Hichestan for solo flute \nAida Shirazi (b. 1987): ephemera for clarinet and percussion \nAnahita Abbasi (b. 1985): Situation IV/Io E iO for solo violin \nArcana New Music Ensemble\nNicholas Handahl\, flute\nJonathan Leeds\, clarinet\nAndy Thierauf\, percussion\nCarlos Santiago – violin \n~ INTERMISSION ~ \nMahya Hamedi\nShiraz Ensemble\nNooshin Nowrouzi\, kamancheh\nSepehr Pirasteh\, alto kamancheh\nSina Homaee\, santoor \nperforming new works based on poetry selections by Fatemeh Shams. \n  \n\nThis event is part of A UTOPIAN STAGE\, an exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative from February 9 to March 30\, 2024. \nPictured above: Shahr-e Qesseh (City of Tales)\, Bijan Mofid (playwright & director); from left: Soheil Souzani\, Mehdi Ali Beigi\, Jamileh.Nedai\, Mahmood Ostad Mohamad\, Rashid Kanaani\, commissioned by the Festival\, University Hall\, 1968. Courtesy of Dariush Hajir / Afshin Mofid / Archaeology of the Final Decade Archives. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nMahya Hamedi (born 1999) is an Iranian vocalist\, pianist\, and composer from Tehran. Singing and playing the piano since the age of nine\, Mahya realized quickly that music was her lifelong passion. Her early compositions for theatre won local and national awards\, and she has performed in groups across Iran and in Greece before university. Unable to pursue studies in vocal performance in her home country due to a national ban on women singing\, she studied classical piano at the University of Tehran for two years before traveling to Berklee to focus on voice and composition. Mahya’s recorded works are highly syncretic\, fusing Iranian folk music with contemporary jazz pop\, and classical music showcasing her powerful and versatile voice. \nSepehr Pirasteh is a composer and conductor born in Shiraz\, Iran. His compositions draw on Persian classical and folk as well as contemporary classical music vocabularies to express his concerns and fears about the political and social realities of the world we are living in. Sepehr’s works have been performed by ensembles such as Argus String Quartet\, PRISM saxophone quartet\, Pushback Ensemble\, Unheard-of Ensemble\, Orquestra Criança Cidadã\, Hole in the Floor\, fivebyfive\, and members of the Fifth House Ensemble. He has been commissioned by Susan Horvath Chamber Music\, ENA chamber opera ensemble\, Philadelphia Student Composers Project\, Detroit Composers’ Project\, YInMn project\, Pushback Collective\, Fresh Inc. Festival\, Yara Ensemble\, Central Michigan University’s (CMU) Percussion Ensemble\, and the CMU Saxophone Ensemble. His music has been performed in Argentina\, Brazil\, Iran and the United States. Sepehr has also been a fellow in festivals and residencies such as Harvard University’s Fromm Foundation Fellowship (Composers Conference)\, CCI Initiative\, and Fresh Inc Festival. \nDr. Fatemeh Shams is a Persian poet\, literary scholar\, and translator. She currently teaches Persianate literature and history at the University of Pennsylvania and is a core faculty member of the Gender\, Sexuality\, and Women’s Studies Program. Her work focuses on the intersection of literature\, politics\, and society. Fatemeh is interested in the evolution of poetry and patronage in the Persian literary tradition and the representation and transformation of this relationship in modern Iran. She previously taught poetry at Oxford and SOAS Universities in the UK. She has published three award-winning poetry collections in Persian and English. In her academic research\, she concentrates on the intersection of poetry and politics in past and present Iran. Her book\, Revolution in Rhyme: Poetic Co-Option Under Islamic Republic (Oxford University Press)\, explores the role of poetry and poetics in the political ideology of the Islamic Republic. \nShiraz Ensemble embodies a global perspective\, combining their roles as citizens of the world and passionate artists to shed light on crucial socio-political matters through art. Drawing inspiration from their personal journeys as immigrants from Iran to the United States\, they channel their experiences into a transformative musical narrative. Blending contemporary classical music with the rich traditions of Iran\, Shiraz Ensemble aims to engage audiences and promote cultural understanding by fusing different musical aesthetics. Founded in Philadelphia\, Shiraz Ensemble takes its name from the ancient city of Shiraz in Iran\, a place of birth and upbringing for both its founders\, Sina Homaee (santoor and tombak) and Sepehr Pirasteh. \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\, 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\, and Pig Iron Theater Company. \n\n\n  \n\n\n\n\nMajor support for A Utopian Stage has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.. Presented in collaboration with Asian Arts Initiative\, Fire Museum Presents and Philly Iranians URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/contemporary-persian-poetry-and-music-a-utopian-stage/ LOCATION:Asian Arts Initiative\, 1219 Vine Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19107\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/A-Utopian-Stage-Shahr-e-Qesseh-City-of-Tales.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240320T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240320T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20231120T183747Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240318T150451Z UID:10001212-1710964800-1710972000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:POSTPONED: Ensemble Pamplemousse DESCRIPTION:Photo by Joe Lamberti \nTHIS CONCERT IS POSTPONED. STAY TUNED FOR A NEW DATE \n  \nBowerbird is thrilled to bring Ensemble Pamplemousse back to UniLu featuring new works performed and composed by David Broome\, Natacha Diels\, Andrew Greenwald\, and Bryan Jacobs. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS:\nComposer/performer collective Ensemble Pamplemousse was founded in 2003 to provide a focal point for like-minded creators with a thirst for sonic exploration. The ensemble is a close-knit group of divergent artistic personalities\, emergent from training in disparate musical fields. Their collective love for the exquisite in all sonic realms leads the ensemble to persistently discover new vistas of sound at the frayed edges of dissective instrumental performance technique. Compositions aggregate each member’s unique virtuosic talents into extraordinary magical moments. In the flexible moments of performance\, the ensemble weaves together shapes of resonance\, clusters of glitch\, skitters of hyper action\, and masses of absurdity into impeccable structures of unified beauty. \nwww.pamplemoussies.bandcamp.com/album/shadows \n\n\n\n  \n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/ensemble-pamplemousse/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Bowerbird-Main-Img-57.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240315T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240315T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20240205T160435Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240318T150351Z UID:10001222-1710532800-1710540000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Kaffe Matthews DESCRIPTION:Photo: Katharina Hauke \nBowerbird is pleased to present Berlin-based British music maker Kaffe Matthews at The Rotunda with opening set by Spectral Forces. \n  \nABOUT THE ARTIST \nKaffe Matthews is a pioneering music maker who works live with space\, data\, things\, and place to make new electroacoustic composition. Site\, accessibility and the physical experience of this music has always been central to her approach and so she has also invented some unique interfaces – the sonic armchair\, the sonic bed and a variety of sonic bikes which enable new paths into composition for makers\, and ways in to listening for wide ranging audiences. In 2021 she developed the breathing Enviro Bike to enable riders to hear music made by the pollution of the air as they ride. Summer 2022 saw the Buzz Bike in street compositional research in Berlin\, now ready to make new vibrational composition. Today\, she is back live on stage with no laptop. Instead a new DIY instrument the Ripley\, a noise filter system designed on alchemical discoveries made by G.Ripley\, a 15th British alchemist\, flanked by 2 processing ipads. \nSpectral Forces\, a Philadelphia based trio of Pete Dennis (bass)\, Julius Masri (drums)\, and Alex Smith (keys and words)\, brings triangulated octohedronal hysteria\, wired nexus and timpanic atom bathe! the new wave in mystic sonic structure. \n\n \nKaffe Matthews · Finding Languages URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/kaffe-matthews/ LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Bowerbird-Main-Img-63.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240309T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240309T180000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20240214T022647Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240311T143005Z UID:10001223-1709992800-1710007200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:A Utopian Stage Film Marathon DESCRIPTION:Beginning in its inaugural year in 1967\, the Shiraz Arts Festival treated audiences to daily film screenings\, drawing enthusiastic crowds\, particularly among the younger demographic. Initially held at the Paramount and Capri cinemas\, the festival later found its home at the Ariana Theatre\, a state-of-the-art venue owned and operated by filmmaker Shahrokh Golestan\, a native of Shiraz. The festival’s diverse lineup encompassed both classic and contemporary works\, ranging from retrospectives of esteemed directors like Brook\, Bergman\, Buñuel\, and Satyajit Ray to screenings of cutting-edge films by emerging Iranian talents and international auteurs. \nOne of the festival’s defining features was its thematic programming\, which showcased a wide array of genres and topics. In 1970\, for example\, the festival delved into the theme of ‘theatre and ritual\,’ presenting unfiltered glimpses of African rituals through the lens of French filmmaker Jean Rouch. Similarly\, thematic showcases such as the 1975 presentation of musicals from Hollywood’s Golden Age and the 1977 exploration of Japanese cinema’s historical significance enriched the festival’s offerings and expanded its cultural impact. \nOf particular note in the festival’s history was the premiere of Sergei Parajanov’s masterwork\, “The Color of Pomegranates\,” which took place amid significant anticipation and defiance of Soviet censorship. This groundbreaking film\, along with other daring and thought-provoking selections like “Grass” and “Heir to Genghis Khan\,” solidified the Shiraz Arts Festival’s reputation for showcasing groundbreaking cinema from around the world. Through its bold programming choices and pioneering spirit\, the festival played a pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of Iranian cinema and leaving a lasting mark on the global film landscape. \nThis program features three films shown back to back. Opening the afternoon is William Greaves’ “The First World Festival of Black Arts”\, a documentary film that celebrates a Shiraz-like festival that took place in the Senegalese capital of Dakar in 1966. Next shown will be a film shown at the Shiraz Arts Festival: Sergei Parajanov’s “The Color of Pomegranates”\, a visually stunning exploration of the life and work of the Armenia poet Sayat-Nova. And closing the afternoon will be another film shown at the Shiraz Arts Festival – “Dayereh-ye Mina”\, a film by Dariush Mehrjui\, an Iranian filmmaker who was assassinated in October 2023. \n\n  \nPROGRAM \n2:00pm: The First World Festival Of Negro Arts (Dir. William Greaves\, American\, 1966\, 40min)\n2:45pm: The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov\, 1969\, Armenian\, Georgian\, 78 min)\n4:00pm: Dayereh-ye Mina / The Mina Cycle (Dariush Mehrjui\, 1975\, Iran\, 101 min) \n\nThis event is part of A UTOPIAN STAGE\, an exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative from February 9 to March 30\, 2024. \n\nABOUT THE FILMS \nThe First World Festival of Negro Arts (1968) 40 minutes  \nWriter/Director: William Greaves\nProducer: Motion Picture and Television Service of the United States Information Agency\nCinematographer: Georges Bracher\, William Greaves\nCourtesy William Greaves Productions  \nWilliam Greaves (1926 – 2014) was a Harlem-born American documentary filmmaker\, writer\, producer and a pioneer of African American filmmaking. His film The First World Festival of Negro Arts is a Black history treasure and documents the landscape of the seminal performance festival held in Dakar\, Senegal\, in 1966\, one year prior to the inauguration of Shiraz-Persepolis. The festivals at Dakar and Shiraz-Persepolis shared a similar decolonising ethos. The film was officially commissioned to document the events that attracted over two thousand writers\, artists and performers from Africa and the African diaspora\, including: Duke Ellington\, Langston Hughes\, Alvin Ailey\, Aime Cesaire\, Leopold Senghor and other artists\, performers and dignitaries from thirty countries.  \nGreaves began his career as a Broadway actor and a member of The Actor’s Studio. He later served as executive producer and co-host of the Black Journal television programme for which he was awarded an Emmy in 1970. His recent film\, Ralph Bunche:  An American Odyssey (2001)\, documents the life and historic achievements of Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche (1903-1971) the legendary African American Nobel prize-winning\, scholar turned statesman who contributed to international diplomacy\, decolonization\, peacekeeping\, and human rights in pre-civil rights America. His film From these Roots (1974) provides an in-depth study of the Harlem Renaissance. \n  \n\nThe Color of Pomegranates (1969) 78 minutes \nWriter/Director: Sergei Paradjanov\nEditors: Sergei Parajanov\, M. Ponomarenko\, S. Yutkevich\nCinematographer: Suren Shakhbazyan\nCourtesy Parajanov-Vartanov Institute. \nSergei Paradjanov (1924 – 1990)was a Soviet film director of Armenian descent who made a substantial contribution to Soviet cinematography through Ukrainian\, Armenian and Georgian cinema. He pioneered his own cinematic style by stepping outside socialist realism\, which was the only sanctioned art style within the USSR. His filmmaking and controversial lifestyle meant he was persecuted with his films regularly banned by Soviet authorities between 1965 and 1973.  \nThe Color of Pomegranates is based\, in part\, on the life and poetry of the eighteenth-century Armenian poet\, Sayat Nova (‘The King of Song’). Sergei Parajanov writes\, directs\, edits\, choreographs\, designs and creates every aspect of the film. It remains a masterpiece of cinema on account of being devoid of dialogue or camera movement and for its alluring imagery. The film was not seen internationally until 1977 due to Soviet censorship. It was screened at the Festival of Arts\, Shiraz-Persepolis in 1976 and subsequently smuggled to Paris where it was received to great acclaim. \n  \n\n  \n\nDayereh-ye Mina / The Cycle (1975) 101 minutes \nWriter/Director: Dariush Mehrjui \nDariush Mehrjui (1939 – 2023) was an Iranian filmmaker and a member of the Iranian Academy of the Arts. Mehrjui was a founding member of the Iranian New Wave movement of the early 1970s\, which also included directors Masoud Kimiai and Nasser Taqvai. His second film\, The Cow (1969)\, is considered to be the first film of this movement. Most of his films are inspired by literature and adapted from Iranian and foreign novels and plays. \nDayereh-ye Mina / The Cycle\, a harrowing tale of poverty and drug addiction in the slums in which people desperately sell their blood to survive\, is based on Gholam-Hossein Sa’dei’s short story “Garbage Dump.” Banned due to objections from the Iranian Medical Association\, The Cycle was shelved for three years before it was eventually shown at the Shiraz Arts Festival. The left saw the story of the poor selling contaminated blood for injection into new veins as a metaphor for the corruption of Pahlavis. For Mehrjui\, however\, this was more a candid investigation of a real problem\, and it eventually helped inspire the formation of the Iranian Blood Transfusion Organization. The casting of the popular filmfarsi star Forouzan was controversial\, but her fine performance proved the versatility of Iranian actors. \n\n\n\nMajor support for A Utopian Stage 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/a-utopian-stage-film-marathon/ LOCATION:Asian Arts Initiative\, 1219 Vine Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19107\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Bowerbird-Main-Img-11.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240308T180000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240308T210000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20240214T022830Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240309T183326Z UID:10001225-1709920800-1709931600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Moniro Ravanipour and Fatemeh Shams DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird and Philly Iranians\, a volunteer-led\, non-partisan\, multi-faith coalition of Iranians and allies in the greater Philadelphia area advocating for a free Iran\, are pleased to co-present an evening with Moniro Ravanipour and Fatemeh Shams in celebration of International Women’s Day. Join us for an event where Ravanipour and Shams\, two esteemed Iranian authors\, will share excerpts from their work and engage in discussions about the profound role of literature in offering unique perspectives on resilience and compassion through the lens of the Iranian identity\, especially amidst today’s challenging social landscape. This event aims to create a space that fosters unity and empathy while reflecting on the uncertainties facing the Iranian people. \n Please note the early start time. All proceeds from this event support Philly Iranians and their work. \n\nThis event is happening on the occasion of A UTOPIAN STAGE\, an exhibition about the Shiraz Arts Festival on view at Asian Arts Initiative from February 9 to March 30\, 2024. \n\nABOUT THE SPEAKERS \nMoniro Ravanipour is an Iranian American internationally acclaimed\, innovative writer\, activist\, and poet currently living in Nevada. Ravanipour was among seventeen activists to face trial in Iran for their participation in the 2000 Berlin Conference\, where she was accused of taking part in “anti-Iran propaganda”. Copies of her current work have in fact been stripped from bookstores in Iran. Ravanipour is the author of many novels\, short stories and memoirs such as The Drowned\, Heart of Steel\, Gypsy by Fire\, These Crazy Nights\, and An Angel on Earth\, to name a few. With much of her writing fueled by her Iranian identity and imaginative mind\, her work ranges from children’s stories\, short stories\, novels\, and screenplays. Her short stories have been published in various anthologies\, including the PEN International Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature. With several of her works translated into multiple languages\, Ravanipour’s bestselling short fiction collections include Kanizu and Satan’s Stones. \nFatemeh Shams is a poet\, intersectional feminist activist\, and associate professor of Persian literature at the University of Pennsylvania. An internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet\, her work engages the fundamental struggles of her era: tyranny\, sexual violence\, bodily autonomy\, alienation\, forced displacement\, and loss of the mother tongue. Writing in a wide range of forms from classic styles to prose poetry\, Shams constantly moves beyond rigid boundaries of form and language to write about hunting memories of childhood and coming of age in her hometown and the experience of living in exile and her struggle for gender justice. Her literary honors and awards include Jaleh Esfahani Poetry Award in 2013\, Latifeh Yarshater Prize in 2016\, Poetry International Chapbook Prize in 2023 among others. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/moniro-ravanipour-and-fatemeh-shams/ LOCATION:Asian Arts Initiative\, 1219 Vine Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19107\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Bowerbird-Main-Img-16.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240214T193000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240214T213000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20231127T182321Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240219T152101Z UID:10001211-1707939000-1707946200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Alash Ensemble DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present Philadelphia favorites Alash at The Rotunda for a FREE concert. Alash are masters of Tuvan throat singing (xöömei)\, a remarkable technique for singing multiple pitches at the same time. Masters of traditional Tuvan instruments as well as the art of throat singing\, Alash are deeply committed to traditional Tuvan music and culture. At the same time\, they are fans of western music. Believing that traditional music must constantly evolve\, the musicians subtly infuse their songs with western elements\, creating their own unique style that is fresh and new\, yet true to their Tuvan musical heritage. \nPresented with The Rotunda. \n*Please note: The performance starts at 7:30pm. Seating and admission to the building for the performance will be on a first come first served basis. Doors will open at 6:45pm.* \n\n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/alash-ensemble-2024/ LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Bowerbird-Main-Img-54.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240210T183000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240210T200000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20240108T170958Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240821T153554Z UID:10001218-1707589800-1707595200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Xenakis: Persepolis DESCRIPTION:In 1971\, the Greek-French composer Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001) was commissioned to create a piece for the opening day of the fifth edition of the Shiraz Arts Festival. The event commemorated the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire and took place at the ruins of Persepolis\, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (~550 – 330 BCE)\, situated about 45 miles northeast of the modern city of Shiraz. Xenakis created a site-specific\, open-air spectacle called “Polytope de Persepolis”. The original performance included a 55-minute long 8-track electroacoustic composition distributed over 59 speakers\, two laser beams\, army searchlights\, a choreography of 150 children carrying torches and several large bonfires on the surrounding hills facing the ruins. \nFor this event we have collaborated with the LA-based listening non-profit BLACK HOLE to present a special new rendering of “Persepolis”. This event\, under the sound direction of Micah Silver\, offers a rare chance to hear Xenakis’ original source audio material in a multi-speaker arrangement specifically devised for the Asian Arts Initiative Theater. \n\nLISTENING SESSIONS \nApproximate 60 min run time. Limited space available. Advanced tickets required. \nSaturday\, February 10th @ 6:30 pm: Buy Tickets\nSaturday\, February 10th @ 8:00 pm: Buy Tickets \n\nThis event is part of A UTOPIAN STAGE\, an exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative from February 9 to March 30\, 2024. \nPictured above: Iannis Xenakis in preparations for the premiere of “Persepolis” music and light spectacle\, at the ancient ruins of Persepolis\, 1971. (World Premiere\, festival commission for the opening event); Courtesy Les Amis de Xenakis / Archaeology of the Final Decade Archives \n\nA NOTE ABOUT THIS PROJECT \nAs is true with much of Xenakis’ “Polytopes”\, this ritualistic\, site-dependant and intersensory performance fully resists documentation\, substantive “re-presentation” or interpretation. In spite of this\, and with almost nobody alive having experienced it directly\, it remains an influential work of art\, more legend than anything else. \nThis is not unique to this work or Xenakis\, but is a common problem with audio works that can’t be distributed easily as stereo media products by the record industry since the 1950s. For pieces like this\, how can we extend the research invested in these practices into the present without confusing them with more familiar tropes? How can we share the insights into music\, listening\, and composing with those looking to account for and build on this history? \nIn the case of “Persepolis”\, much can be learned from listening with and imagining through the fragmented partiality carried by the audio components of the work\, even absent the torchbearers\, lasers\, and tens of loudspeakers in an ancient ruin. This is especially true in the context of this exhibition\, where visitors are given tools to imagine its context of creation. \nBLACK HOLE takes as its point of departure that “listeners are the performers” – to emphasize that audio is not a carrier for a real or an original but a vehicle for our own projections and imagination\, to reflect on the way our attention is structured in time and space by this technology. Audio is a technology of representation not recreation. \nIn presenting a new rendering of audio from the work “Persepolis” we invite the audience to imagine the expanded possibilities of what audio can do – how it can alter a landscape and engage in the feelings and tactics of history\, myth\, and the pressures of the present. \n  \n\n\n\nMajor support for A Utopian Stage has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. Presented in collaboration with Asian Arts Initiative. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/xenakis-persepolis-a-utopian-stage/ LOCATION:Asian Arts Initiative\, 1219 Vine Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19107\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Bowerbird-A-Utopian-Stage-XENAKIS-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240209T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240209T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20240108T162934Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240326T005249Z UID:10001215-1707508800-1707516000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Traditional Music from Korea and Iran DESCRIPTION:Inspired by the Shiraz Arts Festiva’s curatorial vision\, “Traditional Music from Korea and Iran” brings togethers two duos: Jung-Hee Oh\, a Korean music artist of “Gayageum Byeong-chang” (Solo zither performance with song) with Song Eun Shin\, who performs the 25 String Gayageum; and Mehrnam Rastegari\, a Persian master of the Kamancheh (an Iranian bowed string instrument\, with Jalal Kimia\, who performs the Iranian percussion instruments Daf and Tombak.   Iranian traditional music held a central role in the Shiraz Arts Festival’s programming. Prior to the festival\, large\, high-profile\, live performances of Iranian traditional music were rare – with performances primarily confined to private homes and small gatherings.   The inaugural 1967 festival showcased Iranian master musicians in multiple concerts at the picturesque Hafezieh (a memorial garden in Shiraz\, Iran\, housing the tomb of Hafez\, a 14th-century Persian poet).  By the following year\, Iranian music was also being featured alongside music from other cultures.  Programs such as “Traditional Music from India & Iran” or “Traditional Music from Morocco & Iran” invited audiences to hear connections and interplay between musical styles and instrumentations in ways that are still rare today. \n\nThis event is part of A UTOPIAN STAGE\, an exhibition at Asian Arts Initiative from February 9 to March 30\, 2024. \nPlease join us for the opening reception of “A Utopian Stage” before this concert (February 9th at 6pm). \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nMs. Jung-Hee Oh is a Korean traditional music artist in ‘Gayageum Byeong-chang’ (singing with self-accompaniment of the Gayageum instrument) and ‘Pansori’ (a traditional story-telling performed by a solo vocalist). Ms. Oh is recognized as a Korean government cultural ministry’s intangible cultural property No. 23 in Gayageum with song and ‘Sanjo.’ She had performances in numerous significant musical events and was featured as the main guest in many Korean Cultural events in prominent institutions. She received her master’s degree in Korean music from Chung-Ang University in Seoul Korea. She currently serves as the music director of the music band G-Hwaja and performing artist based in NY & NJ metropolitan area. \nSong Eun Shin has established her reputation for her outstanding performance and detailed expressions of the unique musical language. In addition\, she has been a pioneer in spreading across the world the sound of Gayageum\, traditional Korean string instrument. She started to play Gayageum when she was 10 years old. She graduated from Korean National Traditional Arts High School and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Chung-Ang University with top honors. She won Seoul Gayageum Competition and has continued to advance her career through great concerts and performances\, including Shanghai Expo\, the G20 Summit\, and Hong Kong national holiday events. \nMehrnam Rastegari is a well-established Iranian music and film score composer\, singer\, violinist\, and master Kamancheh player. She has performed in concerts in more than ten countries\, including the United States\, Germany\, Switzerland\, France\, Finland\, Iran\, and Kazakhstan\, and music festivals such as the WOMEX World Music Expo\, Tampere\, Finland\, and the Fajr International Music Festival\, Tehran\, Iran. Mehrnam’s main instrument is the Kamancheh\, for which she has been recognized by some of the best Kamancheh performers and instructors globally\, who certified her as a master Kamancheh player. She was a guest speaker at the TEDx event Oasis: Existence in Nothingness. Additionally\, she composed the score for multiple award-winning films\, including Dispirited\, for which she won the Best Original Score Award at the Melbourne City Independent Film Awards (MCIFA)\, A Poetess\, presented at the Cannes Film Festival 2022\, and the Rotten\, nominated for the original score in Japan Kadoma Festival. \nJalal Kimia\, a talented Persian Percussionist\, was born and raised in Iran. He embarked on his musical journey by learning the famous Iranian frame drum\, Daf\, at an early age\, guided by Meysam Afshin and Behzad Mahjoobi. Later\, he felt compelled to learn the other main Persian percussion instrument\, Tombak\, and continued his training under Master Dariush Eshaghi and later continued his training with Master Pejman Hadadi\, further developing his skills as a percussionist. \n\n\n  \n\n\n\n\nMajor support for A Utopian Stage has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage with additional support from the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia.. Presented in collaboration with Asian Arts Initiative\, Fire Museum Presents and Philly Iranians URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/traditional-music-from-korea-and-iran-a-utopian-stage/ LOCATION:Asian Arts Initiative\, 1219 Vine Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19107\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Bowerbird-A-Utopian-Stage-TRADITIONAL-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240121T140000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240121T160000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230817T165438Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240821T153514Z UID:10001199-1705845600-1705852800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Bartok's Monster DESCRIPTION:The 7pm performance of “Bartok’s Monster” has been sold out. A 2pm performance has been added. \nInspired by Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in Two Movements\, by Jay Kirk \nThe “insightful and vibrant” (The New York Times) Daedalus Quartet returns to our stage with Bartok’s Monster\, a collaboration with Dan Rothenberg\, Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of Pig Iron Theatre Company\, and Sebastienne Mundheim\, Founder/Artistic Director of White Box Theatre. A musical investigation into a missing string quartet\, this world premiere program by Penn’s exceptional quartet-in-residence takes inspiration from Penn English professor Jay Kirk’s Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in 2 Movements\, a book Gideon Lewis-Kraus described as “a vividly funny Gothic picaresque…and a dark\, self-consuming act of memoiristic alchemy.” \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nPraised by The New Yorker as “a fresh and vital young participant in what is a golden age of American string quartets\,” the Daedalus Quartet has established itself as a leader among the new generation of string ensembles. Since winning the top prize in the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2001\, the Daedalus Quartet has impressed critics and listeners alike with the security\, technical finish\, interpretive unity\, and sheer gusto of its performances. The New York Times has praised the Daedalus Quartet’s “insightful and vibrant” Haydn\, the “impressive intensity” of their Beethoven\, their “luminous” Berg\, and the “riveting focus” of their Dutilleux. The Washington Post in turn has acclaimed their performance of Mendelssohn for its “rockets of blistering virtuosity\,” while the Houston Chronicle has described the “silvery beauty” of their Schubert and the “magic that hushed the audience” when they played Ravel\, the Boston Globe the “finesse and fury” of their Shostakovich\, the Toronto Globe and Mail the “thrilling revelation” of their Hindemith\, and the Cincinnati Enquirer the “tremendous emotional power” of their Brahms. \nJay Kirk is the author of Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in 2 Movements (Harper Perennial)\, which Helen Macdonald (H is for Hawk) said “truly seems to push nonfiction memoir as far as it can go without it collapsing into a singularity and I am at a loss for words. You are just going to have to read it.” His first book\, Kingdom Under Glass\, was picked by the Washington Post as one of the “Best Nonfiction Books of 2010.” His work has appeared in Harper’s\, GQ\, and The New York Times Magazine\, and has been widely anthologized in the Best American series. He is a recipient of a 2017 Whiting Writing Award\, a 2005 Pew Fellowship in the Arts\, and a finalist for the 2013 National Magazine Award for his story “Burning Man.” He is the founder and faculty adviser for Penn’s experimental nonfiction journal\, Xfic. \n\nBartok’s Monster is a co-presentation with Penn Live Arts and the Pig Iron School. \n\nSupport for Bartok’s Monster has been provided by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation and the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/bartoks-monster/ LOCATION:Annenberg Center\, Harold Prince Theater\, 3680 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-48.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240113T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240113T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20221128T215536Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240115T185522Z UID:10001181-1705176000-1705183200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present a two night residency featuring pianist Adam Tendler. On the second evening Adam Tendler will be performing “Sonatas and Interludes”\, John Cage’s groundbreaking cycle for prepared piano. 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of the the work composed shortly after Cage’s introduction to Indian philosophy and the teachings of art historian Ananda K. Coomaraswamy\, both of which became major influences on the composer’s later work. Significantly more complex than his other works for prepared piano\, Sonatas and Interludes is generally recognized as one of Cage’s most important compositions. The cycle consists of sixteen sonatas (thirteen of which are cast in binary form\, the remaining three in ternary form) and four more freely structured interludes. \n  \nPROGRAM \nJohn Cage: Sonatas and Interludes  \n  \nABOUT THE ARTIST\nA recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists\, “currently the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)\, a “remarkable and insightful musician” (LA Times)\, and “relentlessly adventurous pianist” (Washington Post) “joyfully rocking out at his keyboard” (New York Times)\, Adam Tendler is an internationally recognized interpreter of living\, modern and classical composers. A pioneer of DIY culture in concert music who has commissioned and premiered major works by Christian Wolff and Devonté Hynes alike\, at age 23 Tendler performed solo recitals in all fifty United States as part of a grassroots tour he called America 88×50\, which became the subject of his memoir\, 88×50\, a Kirkus Indie Book of the Month and Lambda Literary Award nominee. He has gone on to become one of classical and contemporary music’s most recognized and celebrated artists\, active as a soloist\, recording artist\, composer\, speaker and educator. He has curated and performed series for the Broad Museum and Little Island\, and in 2022 alone\, appeared as soloist at BAM and Carnegie Hall\, and with the LA Philharmonic. Tendler recently released an album of Liszt’s Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses on the Steinway Label\, Robert Palmer: Piano Music on New World Records\, and published his second book\, tidepools. In 2022 he will premiere 16 newly commissioned works by composers including Laurie Anderson\, Nico Muhly\, Missy Mazzoli\, Christopher Cerrone\, Timo Andres and Pamela Z as part of a project called Inheritances. Adam Tendler is a Yamaha Artist. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/john-cage-sonatas-and-interludes/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/TendlerCage.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240112T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240112T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20221128T220554Z LAST-MODIFIED:20240115T185314Z UID:10001182-1705089600-1705096800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Wolff: Fantail + Schumann: Carnaval DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present a two night residency featuring pianist Adam Tendler. On the first evening Adam Tendler will perform the Philadelphia premiere of FANTAIL\, a new work by iconic American composer Christian Wolff. Commissioned by the pianist\, FANTAIL is a 22 movement\, unofficial response to Robert Schumann’s Carnaval\, and like Schumann’s legendary set\, a tour of Wolff’s musical laboratory and universe. Tendler will intersperse Wolff’s FANTAIL with Schumann’s Carnaval in a mash-up that puts both complete works\, and their composers\, in a fresh dialogue – reframing\, blurring\, even challenging our notions of what is classical and what is contemporary. \nPROGRAM \nRobert Schumann: Carnaval Op. 9 (1834-35)\nChristian Wolff: FANTAIL (22 pieces for a pianist) (2020) \nABOUT THE ARTIST\nA recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists\, “currently the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene” (Minneapolis Star Tribune)\, a “remarkable and insightful musician” (LA Times)\, and “relentlessly adventurous pianist” (Washington Post) “joyfully rocking out at his keyboard” (New York Times)\, Adam Tendler is an internationally recognized interpreter of living\, modern and classical composers. A pioneer of DIY culture in concert music who has commissioned and premiered major works by Christian Wolff and Devonté Hynes alike\, at age 23 Tendler performed solo recitals in all fifty United States as part of a grassroots tour he called America 88×50\, which became the subject of his memoir\, 88×50\, a Kirkus Indie Book of the Month and Lambda Literary Award nominee. He has gone on to become one of classical and contemporary music’s most recognized and celebrated artists\, active as a soloist\, recording artist\, composer\, speaker and educator. He has curated and performed series for the Broad Museum and Little Island\, and in 2022 alone\, appeared as soloist at BAM and Carnegie Hall\, and with the LA Philharmonic. Tendler recently released an album of Liszt’s Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses on the Steinway Label\, Robert Palmer: Piano Music on New World Records\, and published his second book\, tidepools. In 2022 he will premiere 16 newly commissioned works by composers including Laurie Anderson\, Nico Muhly\, Missy Mazzoli\, Christopher Cerrone\, Timo Andres and Pamela Z as part of a project called Inheritances. Adam Tendler is a Yamaha Artist. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/wolff-fantail-schumann-carnaval/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bowerbird-Main-Img-14.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231215T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231215T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230828T163956Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231220T181507Z UID:10001202-1702670400-1702677600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:The Music of Sarah Hennies DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present a portrait concert of composer Sarah Hennies performed by the Arcana New Music Ensemble with the composer. \n\nPROGRAM \nPassing\, a short film \nMonologue\, for solo trumpet\nTessa Ellis\, trumpet \nSettle\, for two players on one vibraphone\nSarah Hennies and Andy Thierauf\, vibraphone \nAbscission\, for violin\, cello\, and guitar\nCarlos Santiago\, violin; Erin Busch\, cello; Jonathan Pfeffer\, guitar \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nSarah Hennies is a composer based in upstate New York whose work engages with affective and sociopolitical issues such as queer and trans identity\, love\, and intimacy by means of psychoacoustics and an expanded field of percussion. Forced to build their own set-ups\, percussionists are\, for Hennies\, the only instrumentalists with the freedom to define themselves. A formally trained percussionist\, Hennies’s penchant for the abnormal has yielded maladroit performances of multitudinous cheap\, thrifted bells as well as ultra-minimalist poundings of woodblock and vibraphone. Hennies has composed acoustic music for ensembles and performers including Bearthoven\, Claire Chase\, Nate Wooley\, and Yarn/Wire\, while her recorded output has been released by Blume\, No Rent Records\, Astral Spirits\, and Black Truffle\, among other labels. Hennies is currently a visiting assistant professor of music at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson\, New York. \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\, 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\, and Pig Iron Theater Company. \n\n\n\n URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/sarah-hennies-with-arcana/ LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-41.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231209T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231209T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230810T151537Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231211T152028Z UID:10001198-1702152000-1702159200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Satoko Fujii + Kappa Maki DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present Japanese musicians Satoko Fujii and Kappa Maki performing at University Lutheran. The duo consists of piano and trumpet performing an improvised set. Jesse Kudler will open the evening with an improvisation on the church’s organ. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nCritics and fans alike hail pianist and composer Satoko Fujii as one of the most original voices in jazz today. She’s “a virtuoso piano improviser\, an original composer and a band-leader who gets the best collaborators to deliver\,” says John Fordham in The Guardian. In concert and on more than 80 albums as a leader or co-leader\, the globe-trotting Japanese native synthesizes jazz\, contemporary classical\, avant-rock\, and Japanese folk music into an innovative music instantly recognizable as hers alone. \nJapanese trumpeter and composer Kappa Maki is internationally recognized for a unique musical vocabulary that blends extended techniques with jazz lyricism. This unpredictable virtuoso’s seemingly limitless creativity led François Couture in All Music Guide to declare that “… we can officially say there are two Kappa Makis: The one playing angular jazz-rock or ferocious free improv…and the one writing simple melodies of stunning beauty…How the two of them live in the same body and breathe through the same trumpet might remain a mystery.” \nJesse Kudler is a musician\, composer\, performer\, and sound artist using improvisation\, collaboration\, and site-specificity to examine authorship\, intention\, agency\, ambiguous affects\, and modes and practices of listening. He works with guitar\, electronics\, recordings\, keyboards\, synthesizers\, radios\, tapes\, movement\, and text. \n\n  \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/satoko-fujii-kappa-maki/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-37.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231202T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231202T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20231009T153447Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231204T223252Z UID:10001208-1701547200-1701554400@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:The Music of Éliane Radigue DESCRIPTION:PRESALES HAVE ENDED. TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR. \nBowerbird is pleased to present Enrico M. and Nate Wooley performing The Music of Éliane Radigue for percussion and trumpet featuring OCCAM X and OCCAM XXVI plus the premiere of a new OCCAM River. \nTwo longstanding champions for the music of French composer Éliane Radigue will be performing a series of rare concerts in the United States between November 30th and December 3rd. Enrico M. is the only performer of Radigue’s percussion music\, the spectrally wild OCCAM XXVI for bowed cymbals. Although one of the last of Radigue’s chevaliers\, as she calls those who have collaborated on her solo music\, Enrico has been one of the most fervent and in-demand performers of her music\, collaborating with Wooley and others on larger pieces in Europe during the composer’s ninetieth birthday year. He will perform the US premiere of OCCAM XXVI at Blank Forms in Brooklyn\, NY on November 30th. \nNate Wooley has been performing Radigue’s music for a decade\, especially OCCAM X for trumpet and OCCAM RIVER III for trumpet and birbyne with Carol Robinson. Since 2014\, he has performed Radigue’s music dozens of times\, most recently curating a concert of her music at the Big Ears Festival in Tennessee. He is also the author and editor of an issue of his journal\, Sound American\, devoted to the chevaliers\, which came out in 2021 and featured ten interviews with some of Radigue’s closest partners in the making of OCCAM Ocean. He will perform OCCAM X for trumpet\, the first performance in New York in two years. \nTogether\, the duo will premiere a new OCCAM River for percussion and trumpet. \nPROGRAM \nOCCAM X (2014) – Éliane Radigue\nfor trumpet \nOCCAM XXVI (2018) – Éliane Radigue\nfor percussion \nOCCAM River – Éliane Radigue\nfor percussion and trumpet \nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nEliane Radigue is renowned for her electronic music\, in particular\, with the ARP Synthesizer. Her compositions are defined by micro-events due to subtle overtone shifts that dance above a seemingly static tone. The result is profoundly moving. In 2005\, Radigue began composing for acoustic instruments\, first Naldjorlak\, her grand trio for two basset horns and cello\, now the ever-expanding Occam Ocean series. These new works have been featured in important festivals: Festival d’Automne / Paris\, Huddersfield Contemporary\, Angelica / Bologna\, CTM.12 Spectral / Berlin\, Crossing the Line / NY\, Sound and Music / London\, ISEA2010 Ruhr\, E-May / Vienna\, [K] HEUTE / Hamburg\, and Impact / Utrecht. \nEnrico M. is an Italian percussionist and sound researcher active in the field of experimental music\, sound intervention and performance; his practice explores the relations between sound\, space and body\, the vitality of materials and the morphology of surfaces\, with particular attention to the percussive acts and the modes of listening. Since 2007 Enrico Malatesta has been presenting his works with tours all over Europe\, Brazil\, South Korea\, Japan\, UK\, North America and Russia\, participating in festivals and special events in venues such as Pirelli Hangar Bicocca – Milano\, Berghain – Berlin\, MAM – Rio de Janeiro. \nNate Wooley made his debut as soloist with the New York Philharmonic at the opening series of their 2019 season. Considered one of the leading lights of the American movement to redefine the physical boundaries of the horn\, Wooley has been gathering international acclaim for his idiosyncratic trumpet language. He has performed with and played music by Anthony Braxton\, Eliane Radigue\, Annea Lockwood\, Ken Vandermark\, Evan Parker\, and Yoshi Wada. He has premiered works for trumpet by Christian Wolff\, Michael Pisaro\, Annea Lockwood\, Ash Fure\, Wadada Leo Smith\, Sarah Hennies\, Martin Arnold\, and Eva-Maria Houben. He is a 2022 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow and is the 2023 composer-in-residence at Mills College in Oakland\, California. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/the-music-of-eliane-radigue-2/ LOCATION:Icebox Project Space\, 1400 N. American St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19122\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Radigue_Wooley_Robinson.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231201T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231201T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230911T175756Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231202T192637Z UID:10001204-1701460800-1701468000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Peter Evans and David Taylor DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present two brass virtuosos: Trumpeter Peter Evans and Trombonist David Taylor in a solo/solo/duo performance at University Lutheran. \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nPeter Evans is a trumpet player and composer based in New York City since 2003. Evans is part of a broad\, hybridized scene of musical experimentation\, and his work cuts across a wide range of modern musical practices and traditions. Peter is committed to the simultaneously self-determining and collaborative nature of musical improvisation as a compositional tool\, and works with an ever-expanding group of musicians and composers in the creation of new music. His primary groups as a leader are the Peter Evans Ensemble and Being & Becoming (with Joel Ross\, Nick Jozwiak\, and Savannah Harris). Evans has been exploring solo trumpet music since 2002 and is widely recognized as a leading voice in the field\, having released several recordings over the past decade. He is a member of the cooperative groups Pulverize the Sound (with Mike Pride and Tim Dahl) and Rocket Science (with Evan Parker\, Craig Taborn\, and Sam Pluta) and is constantly experimenting and forming new configurations with like-minded players. As a composer\, he has been commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)\, Wet Ink\, Yarn/Wire\, the Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival\, the Jerome Foundation’s Emerging Artist Program\, and the Doris Duke Foundation. Evans has presented and/or performed his works at major festivals worldwide and tours his own groups extensively. He has worked with some of the leading figures in contemporary music: John Zorn\, Peter Broetzmann\, Pauline Oliveros\, Brian Ferneyhough\, Kanye West\, George Lewis\, Anthony Braxton\, Mary Halvorson\, Ambrose Akinmusere\, Weasel Walter\, Ingrid Laubrock\, Jeff “Tain” Watts\, Tyshawn Sorey\, Jim Black\, Ikue Mori\, Steve Schick\, and performs with both the ICE and Wet Ink. As an interpreter of notated concert music Evans’ has performed works by Varese\, Xenakis\, Bach\, Stravinsky\, Elliott Carter\, Marcos Balter\, Agusta Read Thomas\, Roscoe Mitchell\, and many more. Peter Evans has been releasing recordings on his own label\, More is More\, since 2011. \nReceiving B.S. and M.S. degrees from The Julliard School of Music\, David Taylor started his playing career as a member of Leopold Stowkowski’s American Symphony Orchestra\, and with appearances with the New York Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez. Simultaneously\, he was a member of the Thad Jones Mel Lewis jazz band\, and recorded with groups ranging from Duke Ellington to The Rolling Stones. He has also recorded numerous solo CDs on the following labels: Koch\, New World\, ENJA\, DMP\, Tzadik\, CIMP\, PAU\, and TLB. Mr. His last releases on TLB are: And If All Were Dark\, and Atomic Bomb Blues. \nMr. Taylor performs recitals and concerti around the world: from Lincoln Center in NY to the Musikverein in Vienna and Suntory Hall in Japan. In addition to his own compositions\, he has been involved in dozens of commissioning projects for solo bass trombone collaborating with composers including Alan Hovhaness\, Charles Wuorinen\, George Perle\, Frederic Rzewski\, Lucia Dlugoszchewski\, Eric Ewazen\, Dave Liebman\, and Daniel Schnyder. He has appeared and recorded chamber music with Yo Yo Ma\, Itzhak Perlman\, and Wynton Marsalis and performed with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society\, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra\, Orpheus\, and the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra. Throughout his career\, Taylor has appeared and recorded with major jazz and popular artists including Barbara Streisand\, Miles Davis\,JJ Johnson\, Quincy Jones\, Frank Sinatra\, and Aretha Franklin. Mr. Taylor has won the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Most Valuable Player Award for five consecutive years\, and has been awarded the NARAS Most Valuable Player Virtuoso Award\, an honor accorded no other bass trombonist. He has been a member of the bands of Gil Evans\, Thad Jones-Mel Lewis\, Jaco Pastorius\, Charles Mingus Big Band\, Joe Henderson\, George Russell\, Michelle Camillo\, Bob Mintzer\, Dave Matthews\, Dave Grusin\, Randy Brecker\, the Words Within Music Trio with Daniel Schnyder\, and Kenny Drew Jr.\, B3+\, Moppa Elliot’s Mostly Other People Do The Killing\, and The Sarah Weaver Ensemble. He has performed on numerous GRAMMY Award winning recordings.\nDavid Taylor is on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music\, Mannes College\, and NYU. \n\n\n\n URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/peter-evans-and-david-taylor/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-43.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231129T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231129T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230828T170343Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231130T153732Z UID:10001203-1701288000-1701295200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Ligament DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present the acclaimed new music duo LIGAMENT. Described as “perverse and nihilistic”\, Anika Kildegaard (voice) and Will Yager (double bass) perform as LIGAMENT\, an ensemble dedicated to commissioning new music and creating work for their unique instrumentation. LIGAMENT’s performances are a fusion of standard and non-standard elements; sometimes there are high heels and sometimes there are electric toothbrushes (and sometimes both). The duo is equally at home with extended techniques as with extra-musical elements. LIGAMENT is currently based in Baltimore and Philadelphia. \nPhoto by Tina Tallon \nPROGRAM \nKatherine Balch: Vidi l’angelo nel marmo \nLilac Atassi: Ya mo* \nBrett Carson: Pyrodictium Occultum+ \nPaul Novak: not of longing* \nKatherine Balch: Phrases \nLila Meretzky: All mute things speak today* \nRuby Fulton: and if not why not* \n*written for LIGAMENT\n+world premiere \nABOUT THE ARTIST \nLIGAMENT means business: they’ve been ensemble fellows at New Music on the Point and Cortona Sessions for New Music; have performed in concert series iHearIC\, Feed Me Weird Things\, and the University of Iowa Center for New Music; have been tapped as the collaborating ensemble for dance performances not I but that which works within me (Alyssa Gersony) and Struggle for Pleasure (Armando Duarte). They’ve been featured on the Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival and Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project’s Re:Sound\, and were the 2022 ensemble-in-residence for Washington DC’s District New Music Coalition. They have premiered many new works\, and have an upcoming album of pieces written expressly for the duo. \n  \n\n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/ligament-2/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-42.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231117T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231117T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20231009T162722Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231120T155132Z UID:10001207-1700251200-1700258400@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Natacha Diels and Levi Lu DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present two solo performances by Natacha Diels and Levi Lu at The Rotunda. \n  \nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nNatacha Diels’ work combines choreographed movement\, improvisation\, video\, instrumental practice\, and cynical play to create worlds of curiosity and unease. Recent work includes Papillon and the Dancing Cranes\, for construction cranes and giant butterfly (Borealis Festival 2018); and forthcoming is a 6-part TV-style miniseries with the JACK quartet (TimeSpans Festival 2020) and a collaborative work for shadowed audience with Ensemble Pamplemousse (Darmstadt 2020). With a focus on collage\, collaboration\, and the ritual of life as art\, Natacha’s compositions have been described as “a fairy tale for a fractured world” (Music We Care About) and “the liveliest music of the evening” (LA Review of Books). \nQiujiang Levi Lu/卢秋江 (they/them) is a Beijing-born\, New Jersey-based performer\, experimental vocalist\, composer\, and certified foodie. As an improvising performer\, Lu utilizes custom-built feedback-driven electronic instruments\, voice\, and amplified muscle movements to perform in various settings. Other than performing\, Lu also writes for acoustic and electronic improvisers. Through using sound-canceling headphones and in-ear monitors\, Lu creates surreal listening environments for improvisers to explore human relationships\, audio-visual interactivity\, and the phenomenology of sound.\nLu’s works have been performed at Festivals\, Conferences\, and Venues such as DiMenna Center\, IRCAM Forum\, SEAMUS conference\, HighZero Festival\, NIME conference\, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival\, Oberlin MMG\, Spencer Museum of Art\, Rhizome DC\, and NowNet Arts conference.\nLu currently works as a lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Pennsylvania. \n\n\n  \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/natacha-diels-and-levi-lu/ LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Bowerbird-Main-Img-50.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231115T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231115T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230828T161355Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231114T200517Z UID:10001201-1700078400-1700085600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:POSTPONED Exploratorium DESCRIPTION:DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES\, THIS PERFORMANCE WILL BE POSTPONED. STAY TUNED FOR A NEW DATE \n  \nBowerbird is pleased to present a concert of Gene Coleman’s album Exploratorium. Focused on his recent compositions based on models from auditory neuroscience the album includes Coleman’s 2nd string quartet\, three works for voices and electronics and a new work for a large ensemble titled “Across Time (Transonic Symphony #1)”. The program will also include the author Lance Olsen who will read from his novel “Dreamlives of Debris” which makes an appearance in Coleman’s music video work Vidrone. \nMembers of the Transonic Orchestra:\nNaoko Kikuchi (koto\, voice and shamisen)\nAdam Vidiksis (live electronics and neuro technologies)\nNick Millevoi (electric guitar)\nKinan Abou-afach (cello)\nShinjoo Cho (bandoneon)\nCarlos Santiago (violin)\nNina Fukuoka (sho) \nAlbum available here:\nhttps://www.falsewalls.co.uk/release/exploratorium/ \nhttps://falsewalls1.bandcamp.com/album/exploratorium  \n  \nABOUT THE ARTIST \nGene Coleman is a composer\, musician and video director\, who has created over 70 works for various instrumentation and media. Central to his work is the inventive use of sound\, image and time\, and the desire to create experiences that expand our understanding of the world. Since 2001 he has explored the global transformation of culture and music’s relationship with video\, science and architecture. He began composing and performing both composed and improvised music in the late 1980s; founded the groups Ensemble Noamnesia\, Ensemble N_JP\, and Transonic Orchestra; was artistic director of the Transonic festival at the House of World Cultures (Berlin)\, Director of the American Composers Forum (Philadelphia)\, artistic director of the Public Art festival Site/Sound (Philadelphia) and a Creative Arts Fellow of the US Japan Friendship Commission. He has an extensive discography of both composed and improvised music\, including the False Walls CD Storobo Imp. with Uchihashi Kazuhisa (2004). Since 2016\, his works have explored the concepts of Neuro Music and audiovisual composition based on Neuroscience. Gene is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow and received the 2013 Berlin Prize for Music from the American Academy in Berlin.\nwww.genecolemancomposer.com \n  \nThis program is supported in part by URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/exploratorium/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-40.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231025T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231025T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230718T171516Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231030T143932Z UID:10001195-1698264000-1698271200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Max Johnson Trio DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present the Max Johnson Trio at UniLu with opening set by Arcx Quartet. \nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nFresh off the release of their 2022 album “Orbit of Sound” and their tour across Europe\, virtuoso double bassist and composer Max Johnson presents his trio with Anna Webber (saxophone\, flute)\, and Michael Sarin (drumset). Between the three of them\, they have worked with artists such as Anthony Braxton\, Mary Halvorson\, John Zorn\, Dave Douglass\, Jen Shyu\, William Parker\, and this project highlights the individual sounds and experiences of these three unique voices\, traversing tightly knit grooving composed music to patient sprawling improvised textures\, blending their unique sounds to create something truly special. \n“Combining Johnson’s compositions with well balanced improvising\, the band explores broadly while maintaining a loose sense of groove… Then there are the experimental stretches — arid expanses that revel in silence and concentration before building back into Johnson’s compositional structure.” – Craig Matsumoto\, Memory Select\nwww.maxjohnsonmusic.com \nAlbum:\nhttps://maxjohnson.bandcamp.com/album/orbit-of-sound \n  \nArcx quartet guides listeners on an audio trip through hallucinogenic trancepts\, foldable shadows and metonymic nebulae\, skirting the boundaries of Arcx’s labyrinth collective sound-mind. Arcx quartet seek to find truths/untruths within ever-present interstitial spaces. \n  \n\n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/max-johnson-trio/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Bowerbird-Main-Img-29.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20231020T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20231020T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230920T165131Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231023T163932Z UID:10001206-1697832000-1697839200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:The Lepidopterans + Anne Ishii DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present The Lepidopterans: Tom Boram (Synthesizer\, Sitar)\, Jason Willett (Electronics)\, and Toshi Makihara (Percussion)\, at The Rotunda with an opening set by Anne Ishii. \n  \nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nTom Boram and Jason Willett have been playing together for almost 25 years as ‘Leprechaun Catering.” The Baltimore-based duo makes improvised music from electronics that is strange and dark\, yet joyful and humorous. Their music reflects their influences: the outer space analog echoes of the Barron’s “Forbidden Planet” and the Solar Arkestra’s “Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow”\, or the sarcastic industrial noises of Northern England’s late 1970s\, or the inscrutable textural puzzles of Cecil Taylor’s “Unit Structures” or Incus’ “Company Week” collaborations\, and/or the child-like plasticity of the “moogsploitation”-album era\, or the vintage TV and cinema sounds of De Wolfe and Chapelle library music. \nBoram is also a harpsichordist\, organist\, filmmaker and multi-media artist. He has had his films/videos and multi-media installations featured throughout the USA\, Mexico and Europe. He is a founder of Baltimore’s 25-year old improvised music festival\, High Zero. \nWillett is also a bass player\, producer\, record store owner. He has been playing bass in the infamous art punk band Half Japanese with Jad Fair for 30 years. He is a founder of Baltimore’s Megaphone Records and the True Vine Record Shop. He has played on\, recorded and produced hundreds of albums. \nToshi Makihara studied drums\, percussion and improvisation with Sabu Toyozumi\, a prominent percussionist in Tokyo. Since arriving in the United States in the late 1970’s he has worked with various new music ensembles as well as with numerous dance and theater companies internationally. Makihara has provided original music to Arden Theater Company\, Diversions Dance Company (Wales)\, Pennsylvania Ballet\, ZeroMoving Dance Company and Leah Stein Dance Company among others\,\nand has worked with musicians including Steve Beresford\, Peter Brotzmann\, John Butcher\, Nels Cline\, Eugene Chadbourne\, Tom Cora\, Amy Denio\, Thurston Moore\, William Parker and John Zorn. He has also collaborated with poets\, visual artists\, filmmakers and performance artists widely. \nAnne Ishii is a writer and born again percussionist who leads the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. She plays in TOTALLY AUTOMATIC. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/the-lepidopterans/ LOCATION:The Rotunda\, 4014 Walnut St\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Bowerbird-Main-Img-45.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230929T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230929T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230718T173138Z LAST-MODIFIED:20231002T151421Z UID:10001194-1696017600-1696024800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Attorneys General (featuring Bill Nace and Ken Brenninger) DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present Attorneys General featuring Bill Nace and Ken Brenninger with an opening set by Andy Giles. \nCo-presented with Open Mouth Records \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nAttorneys General is a project led by Matthew Byars of DC-based band The Caribbean and NPR-distributed podcast Essential Tremors.  A formative experience for Byars as a listener was hearing the work of sound engineer Martin Swope of Mission of Burma on their seminal 1985 live record\, The Horrible Truth About Burma\, in which Swope\, using a reel-to-reel tape machine\, captured\, looped\, manipulated\, and destroyed elements of the band’s sound in spontaneous and unexpected ways.  Byars has adapted this approach to having three-four people (different players every time\, mostly) generate utterly improvised sound through a mixing board he controls\, which allows him to capture\, loop\, manipulate\, and destroy the sounds they create. Results vary from the transcendent to the disastrous\, but the inherent risk involved is\, ultimately\, the point. \nBill Nace is an artist and musician based in Philadelphia\, PA. He has collaborated with an extraordinary range of musicians\, including Michael Morley\, Graham Lambkin\, Matt Krefting\, Twig Harper\, Jooklo Duo\, chik white\, John Truscinski\, Thurston Moore\, Jake Meginsky\, Jessica Rylan\, Paul Flaherty\, Wally Shoup\, Aaron Dilloway\, and Kim Gordon\, with whom he regularly plays as one half of the duo Body/Head. In 2020 Nace released the critically acclaimed solo record “BOTH” on Drag City. A collaboration with Gordon and Dilloway — “Body/Dilloway/Head” — is out now on Three Lobed Records and his newest solo LP Through a Room was released in November on Drag City. He has been a featured musician in festivals such as ATP (curated by Jim Jarmusch and held in Monticello\, NY)\, Colour Out of Space(Brighton\, UK)\, Supersonic Festival (Birmingham\, UK)\, International Festival Musique Actuelle (Victoriaville\, QC)\, and Homegrown (Boston\, MA). He has performed in a wide variety of venues\, running the gamut from the Musee d’Art Contemporain (Strasbourg\, France) to The Stone (NYC) to Bennington College (Vermont). Nace’s range has been described as “veering from sculptural\, almost Remko-Scha-esque chime to Loren Connors-style elegance in only a few short moves.” (Mimaroglu Music\, 2010). In addition to Drag City and Three Lobed\, recordings can be found on Ecstatic Peace (Northampton\, MA)\, Ultra Eczema (Belgium)\, Holidays (Italy)\, Throne Heap (VA)\, HP Cycle (Toronto\, ON)\, as well as on Nace’s own label Open Mouth. \nBorn in North Carolina\, 1968 Andy Giles’s first electric guitar was acquired at age 15. While friends were learning chords and theory\, he was busy experimenting with various pieces of metal to alter the sound of the strings and pickups. A coworker compared what he was doing to Fred Frith’s 1974 album ‘Guitar Solos’ and that discovery eventually led to the even earlier work of AMM. Those recordings featuring Keith Rowe were essential to his development and then actually meeting him and Jim O’Rourke in 1994 gave the confidence to start performing. However it was Kevin Drumm’s 1997 self-titled CD on Perdition Plastics that exceeded what Andy thought was possible from a guitar and had him questioning whether anyone could equal it. This drove him to tear apart everything and reinvent how he approached the instrument. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/attorneys-general/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Bowerbird-Main-Img-30.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230916T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230916T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230828T155806Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230920T150417Z UID:10001200-1694894400-1694901600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Song of Disobedience DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to partner with Philly Iran in presenting Song of Disobedience\, a musical performance honoring the one year anniversary of the Woman\, Life\, Freedom Revolution. Created specifically for this day\, musicians Adib Ghorbani and Aida Shahghasemi along with local performers will be performing a heartfelt collection of music and storytelling on stage at UniLu. \nPhilly Iran is a coalition of Iranians and allies in the Philadelphia\, PA area advocating to #FreeIran alongside the #WomenLifeFreedom movement\, which began after the muder of Kurdish woman Zhina Mahsa Mini by Iranian “morality” police on September 16\, 2022. Find more information on Instagram: @PhillyIran \nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nAdib Ghorbani is an Iranian pianist\, composer\, filmmaker\, actor\, and director based in the United States. After earning a Bachelor’s degree in classical piano performance and a Master’s in music composition\, Adib left his country\, Iran\, for the US to pursue his studies as a Ph.D. student in the ICIT program (Integrated Composition\, Improvisation\, and technology) at UC Irvine. Adib developed his unique multidisciplinary style known as Silent Music or Electro-musical Mime throughout the course of five years at UCI. Silent Music combines theater\, live music performance\, sound design\, film\, and motion sensor technology. Adib’s works span various other genres\, such as theatrical music\, opera\, contemporary music\, experimental music\, podcasts\, sound design\, and free improvisation. \nAida Shahghasemi is a Minneapolis based musician with roots in Iran. She studied Psychology and Anthropology at University of Minnesota with a focus on the cultural aspects of Persian Classical Music and the restrictions imposed on the voices of Iranian female vocalists. She received her Masters degree from New York University in Arts Politics where she also served as an adjunct instructor teaching a course she developed on arts activism in Iran. She has worked with a number of different Art and Social Advocacy groups in New York and Minnesota as a musician\, graphic designer\, and developer and has served as an Assistant Program Coordinator at Hamline University’s Making Waves Social Justice Theatre Troupe. She has been a touring member of Iron and Wine and Marketa Irglova’s band while also being a recording artist on two of Glen Hansard’s albums. Her three albums are “Wind Between the Horse’s Ears\,” released in 2015\, “Cypress of Abarkooh\,” released in 2019 and “Chashmandaaze Rooydaad\,” released in August of 2022. She is a McKnight Music Fellow and serves as an adjunct faculty in the MFA program at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Aida is a mental health therapist at CAREFree counseling and works primarily with adults and couples dealing with trauma. \n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/philly-iran/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-39.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230910T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230910T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230718T180219Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230911T160040Z UID:10001193-1694376000-1694383200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Beam Splitter DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present BEAM SPLITTER – duo for amplified voice\, trombone & analog electronics \nBEAM SPLITTER have been touring globally since 2015\, playing close to two hundred concerts\nin a wide variety of spaces and contexts\, bringing their own brand of highly amplified dialog\,\nwhich is as intimate as it is equal amounts raw and entirely exposed. They join together their\ntwo individual voices into a distinct language that delves beyond the borders of the corporeal\nelements of un-processed voice and trombone\, while utilizing analog electronics to offset their\nhyper extended physical play. \nThe duo’s latest album “SPLIT JAW” was released on Nat Baldwin’s Tripticks Tapes in 2023.\nThis bite size format packs an entire universe of their crafted sputter\, breath and glitch inside its\nforty-five minute magnetic tape loop. The album is one third introspective Berlin studio\nproduction and the rest\, live from a splintering concert given at Wels Unlimited Festival in\nAustria\, their last concert of 2022 where audience and the duo alike giving it their all center of\nroom\, split open like hollow bones head to clavicle\, muscles twitching and air spewing\, breaking\nground and mending it with alien hums. \nBEAM SPLITTER have taken part in larger commissioned works at the Teatro Colon\, Buenos\nAires and largely conceptualized a theatrical adaptation of MEDEA in front of the Olympic\nStadium in Kiev\, Ukraine (for butoh dancers and musicians) produced by the Ukho Agency.\nSince 2020\, they have been organizing DEDICATED PLAY\, an ongoing concert series and\ncollaborative artistic project\, where they have invited a diverse array of artists from around the\nworld\, primarily from diasporic backgrounds. While spinning a thread through the larger story of\nmigration across continents/oceans and establishing the concept of home in shared\nrelationships\, they are seeking to bring together the commonalities of these experiences and\nexpress this communication in sonic language and music. In the past two seasons\, they have\nworked and recorded with: Mo’ong Pribadi\, Hyunhye Seo\, Elaine Mitchener\, Mariam Rezaei\, Pat\nThomas & Orphy Robinson (Black top)\, Carla Boregas\, Mauricio Takara\, Mieko Suzuki\, Pak Yan\nLau\, Eivind Lønning & Espen Reinersten (Streifenjunko)\, Hugo Esquinca and Yara Mekawei. \n\n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/beam-splitter/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Bowerbird-Main-Img-32.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230908T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230908T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230801T175255Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230910T205500Z UID:10001197-1694203200-1694210400@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Sonic Rainbow DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present Andy Thierauf performing SonicRainbow\, a kaleidoscope of acoustic and electronic sounds utilizing a wide spectrum of percussion instruments. This solo performance includes original compositions and improvisations that weave an intricate web of timbres and sonorities from roars to wisps\, drums to gongs\, and vibraphone to tin cans. Pulling from classical\, jazz\, non-Western\, contemporary and avant garde music\, the works are a unique\, postmodern blend of textures and styles. \n\nABOUT THE ARTIST \n\nAndy Thierauf is a Philadelphia based percussionist who specializes in the creation and performance of contemporary music. He is particularly interested in combining percussion with theater\, dance\, and technology. He has appeared in Philadelphia\, New York\, Boston\, Portland\, Argentina\, and across the Midwest at music festivals\, conferences\, and symposiums. In Philadelphia Andy often performs with Arcana New Music Ensemble\, NakedEye Ensemble\, Orchestra 2001\, among others and often collaborates with writers\, dancers\, actors\, choreographers\, and composers. He currently teaches at Settlement Music School and is an adjunct professor of percussion at Kutztown University. \n  \nThis performance is part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/andy-thierauf/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-36.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230824T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230824T210000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230801T172243Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230828T144423Z UID:10001191-1692903600-1692910800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:The Beauty of Moving Wind in the Trees DESCRIPTION:Every film by Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub is a challenge: to the political status quo of capitalism\, to the film industry\, even to their own audiences. The films of these married longtime-collaborators are marked by an intellectual rigor\, a purity of form and movement\, and an overriding concern with power and politics. That their ravishing films are also among the most austere in modern cinema is what led Straub to famously joke that “we make our films so that audiences can walk out of them.” D.W. Griffith presented his own challenges\, accelerating cinematic experimentation by synthesizing multiple distinct early filmmaking trends into some of the most innovative and novel films of the nickelodeon era and establishing a “classical” style still felt in contemporary films. This is to say nothing of the challenges of watching some of his films today with their reactionary politics. So what is one to make of Straub-Huillet’s worship of Griffith? \nThis program presents three films by these three giants of cinema situated where the ends of this horseshoe meet. Huillet and Straub revered Griffith’s early Biograph short A Corner in Wheat and it’s easy to see why. It is the story of greedy monopolists who instigate the immiseration of the working class by gouging the price of wheat and thus the cost of food in a way Luc Moullet described as “very close to Karl Marx”. The film is astonishing not only for its novel parallel scenes depicting the differences between the haves and have nots but for its pictographic beauty. Documentary-like shots reminiscent of French realist painting intermix with intricately blocked diagonal breadlines and cramped theatrical interior scenes. It’s a secretly modernist form Straub and Huillet take to a logical extreme in The Bridegroom\, the Actress\, and the Pimp\, which almost seems to track the entire history of film in its conflation of a theatrical staging of a play by Buchner (starring R.W. Fassbinder\, Hanna Schygulla and other members of the Munich Action-Theater before they broke out in Fassbinder’s own films)\, documentary footage\, and a second narrative. A similar trick: multiple cinematic planes intersect to tell a story of power and exploitation. Straub-Huillet’s later Introduction to Arnold Schoenberg’s “Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene” shows us another approach in the couple’s later style where their dry\, intellectual take on fascism and capitalism\, adapted from that famous modernist composer’s own words draws on the simultaneous power of immaterial ideas and the essential vivacious force of photographing and documenting the beauty of gesture\, of people\, of the world. It is no wonder then\, that despite superficial differences\, Straub was so fond of quoting Griffith’s dirge for the passing of a certain style of filmmaking\, “what the modern movie lacks is beauty—the beauty of the moving wind in the trees”. \nPrints of The Bridegroom\, the Actress\, and the Pimp and Introduction to Arnold Schoenberg’s “Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene” courtesy of the Reserve Film and Video Collection of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. \n  \nPROGRAM \nThe Bridegroom\, the Actress\, and the Pimp / Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet / 1968 / 23 min / 16mm\nIntroduction to Arnold Schoenberg’s “Accompaniment to a Cinematographic Scene” / Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet / 1973 / 15 min / 16mm\nA Corner in Wheat / D.W. Griffith / 1909 / 14 min / 16mm URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/the-beauty-of-moving-wind-in-the-trees/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Bowerbird-Main-Img-35.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230817T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230817T220000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230614T150810Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230821T155315Z UID:10001189-1692302400-1692309600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Shiraz Ensemble DESCRIPTION:We are pleased to present the Shiraz Ensemble: Sina Homaee and Sepehr Pirasteh. Shiraz Ensemble embodies a global perspective\, combining their roles as citizens of the world and passionate artists to shed light on crucial socio-political matters through art. Drawing inspiration from their personal journeys as immigrants from Iran to the United States\, they channel their experiences into a transformative musical narrative. Blending contemporary classical music with the rich traditions of Iran\, Shiraz Ensemble aims to engage audiences and promote cultural understanding by fusing different musical aesthetics. Founded in Philadelphia\, Shiraz Ensemble takes its name from the ancient city of Shiraz in Iran\, a place of birth and upbringing for both its founders\, Sina and Sepehr. \nCo-presented with Fire Museum Presents. \nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nSina Homaee (He/Him) was born in Shiraz\, Iran. He is an Iranian musician and educator currently based in Philadelphia\, PA. His primary instruments are santour (سنتور) and tombak (تنبک). He started his first music lessons at the age of nine years old. Sina’s principal mentors for tombak were Jamal Bordbar and Farbod Yadollahi. He also studied santour with Amin Rahaee\, Roozbeh Rahimi\, Alireza Sedighynasab\, Mehran Shirazi\, and Masoud Shenasa. Sina has taught a variety of music courses such as music theory\, Iranian music theory\, form and analysis in Iranian traditional music\, as well as his primary instruments\, santour\, and tombak at Fazel University of Art and music institutions in Shiraz. He was the director of the Sepidar Ensemble in Shiraz\, Iran\, and collaborated with numerous music ensembles in Iran. During his time in Iran\, Sina collaborated with Fars TV and Radio Broadcasting Channel. Sina is currently finishing his Master’s thesis in Ethnomusicology at Guilan University (Rasht\, Iran). His research interests are Qashqaei music (Nomadic people around Fars province)\, music and globalization\, women in Iranian music\, and music in the Iranian diaspora. He pursued his bachelor’s of music in Iranian music performance from the Shiraz University of Art. He currently lives in Philadelphia and plays with a variety of music ensembles. Sina is interested in integrating different musical cultures and is keen to collaborate with a variety of artists from different musical backgrounds. \nSepehr Pirasteh is a composer and conductor born in Shiraz\, Iran. His compositions draw on Persian classical and folk as well as contemporary classical music vocabularies to express his concerns and fears about the political and social realities of the world we are living in. Sepehr’s works have been performed by ensembles such as Argus String Quartet\, PRISM saxophone quartet\, Pushback Ensemble\, Unheard-of Ensemble\, Orquestra Criança Cidadã\, Hole in the floor\, fivebyfive\, and members of the Fifth House Ensemble. He has been commissioned by Susan Horvath Chamber Music\, ENA chamber opera ensemble\, Philadelphia Student Composers Project\, Detroit Composers’ Project\, YInMn project\, Fresh Inc. Festival\, Yara Ensemble\, Central Michigan University’s (CMU) Percussion Ensemble\, and the CMU Saxophone Ensemble. His music has been performed in Argentina\, Brazil\, Iran and the United States. Sepehr has also been a fellow in festivals and residencies such as Harvard University’s Fromm Foundation Fellowship (Composers Conference)\, CCI Initiative\, and Fresh Inc Festival. As a conductor\, he has been focusing on premiering new music written by young and emerging composers as well as conducting the classical repertoire. Sepehr served as the director of the CMU New Music Ensemble\, Pierrot Ensemble\, and Concert Orchestra\, and Vintage community orchestra in Mount Pleasant\, Michigan. He was also the assistant conductor of the CMU Symphony Orchestra. In 2020 he started serving as the director of Temple Composers’ Orchestra (TCO). Sepehr currently is a Ph.D. student in Music Studies at Temple University. He pursued his MM in Composition and Orchestral Conducting at Central Michigan University. Sepehr studied composition with Dr. Jose-Luis Maurtua\, Dr. Evan Ware and conducting with Dr. Jose-Luis Maurtua. He received his BA in Composition from Tehran University of Art (Iran). He plays a Persian Kamancheh and Tanbour and is currently based in Philadelphia. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/sina-homaee-sepehr-pirasteh/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Bowerbird-Main-Img-33.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230720T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230720T210000 DTSTAMP:20260425T064542 CREATED:20230706T150853Z LAST-MODIFIED:20230727T180504Z UID:10001190-1689879600-1689886800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Mohsen Makhmalbaf's "The Silence" DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird\, in collaboration with Nightletter\, are pleased to present Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s 1998 film “The Silence”. “The Silence” follows Khorshid\, a blind 10-year old living with his mother in a small Tajikistan village. Khorshid earns money tuning musical instruments\, while Nadereh — the beautiful protege of the instrument maker for whom Khorshid works — acts as his eyes\, fetching him every day at the bus stop and leading him through the streets. About to lose his job and home\, Khorshid creates a world where he can be happy — where hypnotic sounds and the music of the world shows him how to experience life. The film is banned in Iran since 1998. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nPROGRAM \nThe Silence / Mohsen Makhmalbaf / 1998 / 76 min / digital \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/mohsen-makhmalbafs-the-silence/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Mohsen-Makhmalbafs-THE-SILENCE-Bowerbird-Main-Img.png END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR