Bowerbird and Nightletter are pleased to present the four-part documentary series On The Edge: Improvisation in Music written and produced by Derek Bailey. For more than four decades, Derek Bailey was one of musical improvisation’s foremost apostles. The English guitarist and experimental musician not only has a litany of classic improvised recordings to his name…
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…
Bowerbird is pleased to present Ensemble Terrain (Theo Bleckmann*, Jodie Landau, Ashley Bathgate, and Jacob Cooper) performing selections from Jacob Cooper's acclaimed album "Terrain" (Amsterdam Records, 2020). "Terrain" displays Cooper’s passion for kinetic collaboration. He worked intensively with three poets who created original text for each work, and developed the music alongside vocalists Theo Bleckmann…
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…
Bowerbird is pleased to bring Laraaji back to our home venue at University Lutheran performing for a second improvised solo piano set this season. ABOUT THE ARTIST Philadelphia-born, New Jersey-raised polymath Laraaji has maintained a pursuit of spiritual transcendence through music since the mid-70s. After several years of studiously developing an aesthetic informed by Eastern…
Bowerbird is pleased to present pianist Karl Larson performing work from the recently released album Dark Days featuring solo piano compositions of Scott Wollschleger. Dark Days chronicles Scott's solo piano repertoire written between 2007 and 2020. Aspects of style that are heard on his first album Soft Aberration are present again, but now filtered through…
Bowerbird is pleased to present the TAK Ensemble in Philadelphia. Painting a portrait of new American composition through intensely virtuosic and visceral works TAK Ensemble will perform works by Tyshawn Sorey, Natacha Diels, Ashkan Behzadi, Erin Gee, Golnaz Shariatzadeh, and David Bird. PROGRAM Natacha Diels: Second Nightmare for KIKU Ashkan Behzadi: Arqueros Erin Gee:…
Bowerbird is pleased to present Ikue Mori and Charmaine Lee at The Rotunda for an evening featuring solos from each artist as well as a duo performance. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Since her emergence in New York’s No Wave scene in the late 1970s as a percussionist in DNA, Japanese native Ikue Mori has used…
Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control, this event is unable to take place as previously planned. We hope to reschedule it for the Fall. Please stay tuned. Bowerbird is pleased to present musicians Nate Wooley and Carol Robinson performing several works from Éliane Radigue's Occam, a series of pieces developed directly with the musicians for…
Bowerbird is pleased to present vocal group Variant 6 at University Lutheran performing "Sacred & Profane" - madrigals in a kaleidoscope of texts and sounds: medieval prayers set by Benjamin Britten, fables and fairy-tales conjured by Maurice Ravel, solemn meditations by Pablo Ortiz, and excerpts from Gian Carlo Menotti’s strange and beautiful The Unicorn, the…
Dedicated to Daphne Oram On a celluloid film print, even sound is made of light. Running alongside the picture is the optical soundtrack, an image in itself. A beam of light penetrates it, exciting a photoelectric cell with its sound determined by the pattern of black and white. Ever since sound first joined film, artists…
Bowerbird is excited to present Philadelphia's Arcana New Music Ensemble performing a portrait concert of Raven Chacon. PROGRAM Whisper Trio Tessa Ellis, Andy Thierauf, Chelsea Meynig Quiver Tom Kraines, cello Tááʼtsʼáadah Tessa Ellis, trumpet Lats’ aadah Carlos Santiago, violin Biyan Jonathan Leeds, clarinet; Chelsea Meynig, flute; Carlos Santiago, violin; Tom Kraines, cello; Andy Thierauf, percussion…
Bowerbird is pleased to present the Berlin-based trio Sawt Out at the Rotunda with an opening set by Philadelphia-based musician Julius Masri. ABOUT THE ARTISTS Since its foundation in 2015 the Berlin-based trio Sawt Out has shaped and refined its profile as a prominent improvisational unit. With their unusual acoustic instrumentation of trumpet and two…
Bowerbird is pleased to present interdisciplinary artist eddy kwon and the Philadelphia-based trio Totally Automatic at The Rotunda. ABOUT THE ARTIST eddy kwon (b. 1989) is violinist/violist and interdisciplinary artist based in Lenapehoking (Brooklyn, NY). Her practice connects composition, performance, improvisation, dance, and ceremony to explore transformation & transgression, ritual practice as a tool to…
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 --…
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…
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…
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,…