BOWERBIRD ::: MUSIC, DANCE, FILM ::: Philadelphia, PA

Cole Pulice
2025-10-30 20:00 - 22:00 (America/New_York) | Maas Building, 1325 N Randolph St, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, United States
Bowerbird is pleased to present saxophonist, composer, and improviser Cole Pulice in a solo set at The Maas Building.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Saxophonist, composer and improviser Cole Pulice traffics in shimmering, otherworldly beauty. On Land’s End Eternal, their first album for Leaving Records (releasing May 9th), the Oakland-based artist expands their compositional palette beyond signal-processed saxophone to include layers of electric guitar and lush choral arrangements. The result is a prismatic collection of pastoral chamber jazz in six parts. Cole’s previous release, a 22-minute electroacoustic odyssey titled If I Don’t See You in the Future, I’ll See You In the Pasture (Longform Editions, 2023), was named ‘Best New Music’ by Pitchfork and included in the publication’s Best Songs Of The 2020s. Cole has also released a smattering of solo and collaborative work on beloved labels including Moon Glyph, Aural Canyon and Cached Media. Their performance history includes appearances at Pitchfork Music Festival (UK), Rewire (NL), ÜBERJAZZ (DE), Drone Not Drones (US), & Noise Pop Festival (US).

If I Don’t See You in the Future, I’ll See You in the Pasture by Cole Pulice

Organized in collaboration with World Askew

C. Lavender
2025-08-24 15:00 - 17:00
Bowerbird is pleased to present Liminal States, an ongoing series of in-person performances designed for deep listening and relaxation. Intended to guide audiences to that magic space between wakefulness and sleep, these performances invite listeners to lie down, close their eyes, and immerse themselves in sound. Sink in, bliss out.
This edition features C. Lavender in a solo set at the Maas Building, blending sound healing and electronic music for a “sound bath” experience—creating a space for calm, reflection, and rest.
Please bring a blanket, yoga mat, or other similarly comfortable option. Chairs will be limited.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
C. Lavender (Lavender Suarez) is a New York-based interdisciplinary sound artist, sound healing practitioner, and educator. Bandcamp describes her music as having “curative powers” while also being “confrontational, primed to change you whether or not you want it to.” She is the author of Transcendent Waves: How Listening Shapes Our Creative Lives and has released recordings on Editions Mego, Ecstatic Peace!, and RVNG Intl. Her latest album, Rupture in the Eternal Realm (iDEAL Recordings), explores meditative soundscapes through Buchla synthesizer, gongs, and field recordings. For more info: www.clavender.net

RUPTURE IN THE ETERNAL REALM by C. LAVENDER

Organized in collaboration with World Askew

Stuart Bogie
2025-07-13 15:00 - 17:00
Bowerbird is pleased to present Liminal States, an ongoing series of in-person performances designed for deep listening and relaxation. Intended to guide audiences to that magic space between wakefulness and sleep, these performances invite listeners to lie down, close their eyes, and immerse themselves in sound. Sink in, bliss out.
This edition features Stuart Bogie in a solo set at the Maas Building, blending sound healing and electronic music for a “sound bath” experience—creating a space for calm, reflection, and rest.
Please bring a blanket, yoga mat, or other similarly comfortable option. Chairs will be limited.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Composer and performer Stuart Bogie was born in Evanston, Illinois. He studied for 6 Years with Gary Onstad and at the Music Center of the North Shore before attending Interlochen Art Academy and the University of Michigan where he studied with Debra Chodacki. He is the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant and he composed the score for the Oscar nominated documentary How To Survive a Plague, featuring performances by the Kronos Quartet. He has written for film, television, commercials, and the stage. He has released 9 albums as a leader.
In the section week of November, 2024, Bogie collaborated with organist Buck McDaniel and producer Fritz Myers to create November Variations: a daily series of improvisations performed for a free and open audience of New Yorkers at 9am in the morning Monday through Friday. Held at Church of Our Saviour, a few blocks from Grand Central Station, the project garnered universal praise for its emotional potency and began a fruitful collaboration between Buck, Fritz and Bogie.
During the pandemic lock-down, Bogie performed a daily series of improvised solo clarinet pieces using the accompaniment drone tracks sent to him by over 50 different collaborators including Arcade Fire, Richard Reed Parry, Colin Stetson, Sam Cohen, Josh Kaufman, Peter Murray, E Dan, Craig Finn, Ryan Sawyer, Dave Harrington, Yuka Honda, and James Murphy. Began in the second week of lock-down, the series ran for over 150 days consecutively and has been collected into four volumes, with more volumes in the works. An LP, Morningside, presenting 2 of the pieces made with James Murphy was released on October 27 on DFA records. This music is featured in a worldwide exhibition of photographs by Gregory Crewsden, and can be heard in the documentary accompanying the exhibit. In July of 2023 Bogie premiered Morningside at Les Recontres d’Arles, livescoring the documentary by Harper Glantz. In 2024, Bogie released Patient Music on Historical Fiction records. The live album combined the talents of producer/mixer Pat Dillett, and long time collaborators Josh Kaufman and Sam Cohen.
In 2022 Bogie released The Prophets in the City, an album of music composed for Brass and Percussion between 2019 and 2021, featuring the drumming of friend and collaborator Joe Russo. Relix wrote “The music is a study in contrasts: at once aggressive and patient, instrumental yet lyrical. It is also simultaneously structured and free-wheeling, equally jubilant and foreboding.” The 10 piece ensemble debuted live at the Winter Jazzfest, NYC, in January of 2020 then re-emerged post-lockdown for a rousing performance at The Newport Jazz Festival (2021) which Jazztimes called “Mesmerizing waves of harmony and rhythm overlapped each other, like a mashup of Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, and King Crimson—with (more) tuba! And (sometimes) multiple flutes! An energized frontman, Bogie went from conducting the band to conducting its listeners…”.
Bogie led the collaborative group Superhuman Happiness (2008-2018) through 5 original albums of music, and coast to coast national tours over 10 years. The group became known for their extended improvisations of dance music, and the various musical games they would employ to develop their collective creativity and mine for fresh collaborative compositional ideas. Spin magazine wrote “their music joins buoyant call-and-response harmonies, rippling highlife-inspired guitar leads, !!!’s muscular funk-punk, and the spirited pulses of Steve Reich’s Clapping Music.”
As a member of the group Antibalas (2001-2012), Bogie wrote the piece “Indictment,” which The Village Voice called “…a fantastic Bush-era protest song, lithe and lethal” as well as the piece “Beaten Metal” which Pitchfork named a top 100 song of 2007 and noted “quick splashes of colorful sound and some slowly building drama, ‘Beaten Metal’ sounds brazen, rhythmic, and powerful – like Edgar Varese coming of age after hip-hop.”

Morningside by Stuart Bogie

Organized in collaboration with World Askew

Neel Murgai
2025-06-08 15:00 - 17:00
Bowerbird is pleased to present Liminal States, an ongoing series of in-person performances designed for deep listening and relaxation. Intended to guide audiences to that magic space between wakefulness and sleep, these performances invite listeners to lie down and immerse themselves in sound. Sink in, bliss out.
This edition features Neel Murgai and Seema Lisa Pandya at the Maas Building. They will be performing Harmonic Infinity Loops, a performance with sitar, overtone singing, frame drums, live looping and effects with projection. Enter the raga dreamscape as psychedelic drones, subtle melodies, primal rhythms and cascading harmonics collide in a meditative sound experience. Time in the music is measured by breaths not bars, as Neel moves slowly between overtone melodies, Indian classical ragas, chords, textures and drumming. Neel will usher the audience into direct participation while teaching overtone singing fundamentals towards the end of the set.
Please bring a blanket, yoga mat, or other similarly comfortable option. Chairs will be limited.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Neel Murgai is a sitarist, overtone singer, daf player, composer and teacher from Brooklyn, NY. He is a co-founder and artistic director of the South Asian music collective, Brooklyn Raga Massive. Neel has studied sitar for 30 years from Pundit Krishna Bhatt. He is a graduate of Goddard College’s MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program. His work with the band Quadrature showcases his compositions and signature sound with effects in a psychedelic raga rock context. Neel has performed around the world with numerous artists from varying disciplines including, Bill T. Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Wyclef Jean, Andre DeShields, Karsh Kale, Vijay Iyer, Adam Rudolph, Daniel Bernard Romain, Dana Leong, Ellen Stewart, Laraaji, Yuerba Buena, Baba Israel, Raz Mesinai, Mission on Mars, Akim Funk Buddha, Loren Conners, Suzanne Langille, Louis Bellogenis and Cosmo Vinyl. He has performed at venues ranging from the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center to Late Night with David Letterman to jazz clubs such as the Blue Note and at festivals around the U.S including Art Wallah, Arts Plosure, Masala! Mehndi! Masti! and many others. Neel was the music director for Brooklyn Raga Massive’s recording of Terry Riley’s classic “In C” and co-composed their homage to the maestro, “In D”. Neel played in the orchestra for Disney’s musical theater adaptation of “The Jungle Book” directed by Mary Zimmerman. Neel has composed music for many film, TV, video, theater and dance projects including the features, “The Yes Men Fix the World”, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and “A Decent Arrangement” starring Shabana Azmi.
Seema Lisa Pandya is a Brooklyn based multidisciplinary artist, accomplished sustainability consultant, and green building educator who explores the intersection between sustainability, art, culture, and the built-environment with an aim of connecting audiences with an experiential awareness of nature and primordial forms. Her work ranges from fine art, public art, sculpture, painting, photography, video animation, wood-working, light sculptures, kinetic interactive sculptures, and building integrated installations; as well as, sustainability consulting, green building certification coordination. She also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in sustainability formally at FIT SUNY and currently at the New York School of Interior Design.
Quarantine Dreams by Brooklyn Raga Massive

Organized in collaboration with World Askew

Jules Reidy
2025-03-23 19:00 - 21:00
Bowerbird is pleased to present Jules Reidy at the Maas Building performing works from their recent album Ghost/Spirit.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Jules Reidy’s sublime music maps the human experience in glittering constellations of sound. The guitarist is a driver of Berlin’s fertile contemporary music scene, a respected polymath whose prolific output and worldwide touring has led to performances and collaborations with myriad lauded artists. Reidy’s breathtaking recordings and magnetic performances offer a truly futuristic, singular vision of guitar music. Explorations of microtonal mysticism and alternate tunings drawn from transcendental folk and minimalism color Reidy’s playful experiments with smudged pop melodics and sampling. A wide-eyed imagination combined with technical mastery guide each work in Reidy’s extensive catalog, from solo guitar albums and collaborations with innovative peers, including recent works with claire rousay, Oren Ambarchi, Andrea Belfi and Sam Dunscombe to major commissions from institutions such as JACK Quartet and Zinc & Copper. The songs of Ghost/Spirit collectively convey an astral sense of yearning and wonder, pushing towards transcendence. The album charts a deeply personal journey with love, spirituality and transformation expressed in fractal guitar figures, ethereal vocal vapors and rippling microtones.

INSTANTS & THEIR ECHOES by Jules Reidy

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Organized in collaboration with World Askew

POSTPONED: C. Lavender
2025-03-02 15:00 - 17:00
***THIS CONCERT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. STAY TUNED FOR A NEW DATE.***

Bowerbird is pleased to present Liminal States, an ongoing series of in-person performances designed for deep listening and relaxation. Intended to guide audiences to that magic space between wakefulness and sleep, these performances invite listeners to lie down, close their eyes, and immerse themselves in sound. Sink in, bliss out.
This edition features C. Lavender in a solo set at the Maas Building, blending sound healing and electronic music for a “sound bath” experience—creating a space for calm, reflection, and rest.
Please bring a blanket, yoga mat, or other similarly comfortable option. Chairs will be limited.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
C. Lavender (Lavender Suarez) is a New York-based interdisciplinary sound artist, sound healing practitioner, and educator. Bandcamp describes her music as having “curative powers” while also being “confrontational, primed to change you whether or not you want it to.” She is the author of Transcendent Waves: How Listening Shapes Our Creative Lives and has released recordings on Editions Mego, Ecstatic Peace!, and RVNG Intl. Her latest album, Rupture in the Eternal Realm (iDEAL Recordings), explores meditative soundscapes through Buchla synthesizer, gongs, and field recordings. For more info: www.clavender.net

RUPTURE IN THE ETERNAL REALM by C. LAVENDER

Organized in collaboration with World Askew

Chris Dingman
2024-12-08 15:00 - 17:00
Bowerbird is pleased to present Chris Dingman in a solo set at the Maas Building for a “sound bath” style performance.
Please bring a blanket, yoga mat, or other similarly comfortable option. Chairs will be limited.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chris Dingman is a vibraphonist and composer known for his distinctive approach to the instrument: sonically rich and expansive, bringing listeners on a journey to a beautiful, transcendent place. He has done significant work with legendary artists Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter as well as next generation visionaries such as Linda Oh, Ambrose Akinmusire, Steve Lehman, and many others, performing around the world including India, Vietnam, and extensively in Europe and North America.
He has been profiled by NPR, The New York Times, AMNY and many other publications, and has received fellowships and grants from the Chamber Music America, the Doris Duke Foundation, New Music USA, South Arts, and the Herbie Hancock Institute (formerly the Thelonious Monk Institute). Hailed by The New York Times as a “dazzling” soloist and a composer with a “fondness for airtight logic and burnished lyricism,” the fluidity of his musical approach has earned him praise as “an extremely gifted composer, bandleader, and recording artist.” (Jon Weber, NPR).

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I Heart Artemis
2022-03-17 19:00 - 21:00
Bowerbird is pleased to present Variant 6 performing “I Heart Artemis”, a new, evening-length work by Wally Gunn and Maria Zajkowski performed at the Maas Building.
In the time before time, Athena and Artemis meet, fall in love, and live a brief eternity of passion. But their paradise can’t last. On earth, men wage war, indulge their lusts, and exploit the land. Athena and Artemis watch in horror as the world falls apart, and must unite to defend what cannot defend itself. Is time running out? The deities are watching.‘I heart Artemis’ is a story about a mythological love and a very real crisis, which asks the most pressing questions about humanity’s future.

This is an “in person” event. All those attending must show proof of COVID 19 vaccination status (vaccination card or legible photo on your smartphone, plus photo ID) and wear a mask during the entirety of the event. There will be no exceptions to this policy. Capacity will be limited – advanced tickets are strongly encouraged.
For this performance members of Variant 6, who are vaccinated, will be performing unmasked. The performers will be 6 feet away from audience seating
This performance will be recorded and available on-demand in the near future. Ticket holders for the live event will also receive a link for this video. Tickets for the video only will be available at a later date.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Variant 6 is a virtuosic vocal sextet that explores and advances the art of chamber music in the twenty-first century. The ensemble’s work includes concertizing throughout the United States, commissioning substantial new works, collaborating closely with other ensembles, and educating a new generation of singers and composers. Variant 6 believes that the process of compromise achieved from the diversity of opinion and specialty of its six individual artists can create deeply impactful experiences for its audiences, collaborators, and students.

Variant 6 + Square Peg Round Hole
2019-11-22 20:00 - 22:00
Bowerbird is pleased to present an evening featuring a new collaborative work by between vocal group Variant 6 and instrumental / percussion trio Square Peg Round Hole.
Philadelphia vocal sextet Variant 6 are staunchly devoted to performing new music, commissioning and collaborating with a wide variety of forward-looking composers and ensembles. Its peerless vocalists find dazzling ways to unite the past and future, complementing a fluency in historical music with a fearless forward-looking approach, including a mastery of contemporary pieces that deploy fascinating extended techniques and idiomatic sprawl.
Recently Variant 6 contributed to Branches, the stunning new album by the Philadelphia percussion trio Square Peg Round Hole, which shares a commitment to creating music outside tidy categories. The group’s voices both go through electronic processing and unfold with crystalline purity in richly atmospheric post-rock settings, providing texture and melodic splendor. Trio members Evan Chapman, Sean M. Gill, and Carlos Pacheco-Perez utilize a standard drum kit, vibraphones, electronics, analog synthesizer, and found sounds to forge a shimmering sound that toggles between serene ambience and driving rhythms, splitting the difference between the music of Steve Reich and Tortoise while inventing a compact sound world all its own.
Each ensemble will perform its own set and then join forces, performing the music they made together for Branches and sharing a new collaboration: Irrational Forms. The new work takes inspiration from writers who consider form, figure, and perspective. Among them are the artist Francis Bacon, the 19th-century socialite and amateur photographer Clover Adams, author Annie Dillard, and a Wikihow entry on drawing faces. Through the combined sounds of voices, vibes, synths, and drums in a collection of musical fragments, Variant 6 and Square Peg will bring to life Bacon’s statement: “I’ve never yet been able to make the one image that sums up the others. So one image against the other seems to be able to say the thing more?”

Wally Gunn: Moonlite
2019-05-16 20:00 - 22:00
Bowerbird is pleased to present Moonlite, a new work by composer Wally Gunn and librettist Maria Zajkowski performed by Variant 6, Mobius Percussion and Veronica Jurkiewicz. Moonlite is a concert-length oratorio is based on the true story of the 19th-century Australian outlaw Andrew George Scott, known as “Captain Moonlite.” Captain Moonlite—a rogue, a brigand, a criminal, and a queer—is an outsider who chafes at the constraints of Victorian-era society. He dreams of founding a utopia for himself and the lover he met in prison, James Nesbitt. Unable to make a life in society upon their release, Scott and Nesbitt resign themselves to living outside it, and in pursuing this end, the pair, by misconduct and misfortune, fall foul of the law. Banding together with some other misfits, they set off on a grueling trek through Australia’s arid outback and find themselves in a series of increasingly desperate situations which culminate in a stand-off and shoot-out with police. An officer is shot and killed, and Nesbitt, also shot fatally, dies in Scott’s arms. Scott, stricken and defeated, is imprisoned and sentenced to death by hanging for his crimes. In his cell, he writes heartrendingly of his love for Nesbitt, his terrible loss, and his hope that he will be reunited with his lover in the next world.
Variant 6
Rebecca Myers and Kathryn Radakovich, sopranos
Elisa Sutherland, mezzo-soprano
Steven Bradshaw and James Reese, tenors
Daniel Schwartz, bass-baritone
Mobius Percussion
Mika Godbole
Nicole Patrick
Victor Pablo
Jessica Tsang
Veronica Jurkiewicz, viola

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Wally Gunn (b. 1971) is a composer whose work makes use of patterns and processes, and sometimes utilizes physical gesture and speech to heighten the theatricality of musical performance, creating music that is expressive and emotionally direct. Hailing from rural Australia, Wally first played in rock bands, then attended Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, before moving to New York to study with Julia Wolfe at Manhattan School of Music, and then pursue a PhD at Princeton University. Wally writes concert music and collaborates with theater makers and visual artists. A collaboration in 2012 with vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth and Melbourne poet Maria Zajkowski yielded three songs entitled ‘The Ascendant’ that the ensemble recorded and released on their album ‘Render,’ for which they received a Grammy nomination in 2015. In recent years, Wally has received commissions from Brooklyn Youth Chorus, percussionist Becca Doughty, Gemini Duo, The Letter String Quartet (AU), the New Works For Percussion Project, Roomful of Teeth, guitarist Laura Snowden (UK), Steady State, Tala Rasa, Three (AU), and percussionist Jason Treuting. He currently divides his time between New York, NY, USA and Castlemaine, VIC, Australia.
Variant 6 is a virtuosic vocal sextet that explores and advances the art of chamber music in the twenty-first century. The ensemble’s work includes concertizing throughout the United States, commissioning substantial new works, collaborating closely with other ensembles, and educating a new generation of singers and composers. The ensemble currently holds a 2018-2019 Featured Artist Residency at Swarthmore College.
Mobius Percussion seeks to fuse their interest in fresh sounds with their commitment to high-quality performance and the promotion of new works by emerging composers. The group formed the ensemble after working together at the first annual So Percussion Summer Institute in Princeton, NJ. Based in New York City, the ensemble made their debut at downtown multimedia art cabaret, (Le) Poisson Rouge, performing alongside other notable artists including So Percussion, Nexus, Meehan/Perkins Duo and Mantra Percussion. Recent projects include commissioning a multi-movement work from So Percussion’s Jason Treuting and recording Australian composer Kate Neal’s dramatic quartet What Hath II with noted videographer Troy Herion. Based on the text transmissions of Morse code, the work integrates visual and corporeal elements that enhance the underlying rhythmic drive. In addition to their regular performance schedule, Mobius has given concerts and masterclasses at numerous universities including the Curtis Institute of Music, York College of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, and Rowan University as well as participating in educational outreach programs including the MAP program at Juilliard and others. With several unannounced, versatile projects already in the works, Mobius seeks to springboard evocative ideas with a theatrical inclination to the forefront of their music making.
Veronica Jurkiewicz is an instrumentalist, vocalist, educator, and curator based in Philadelphia. She is drawn to sound involving the intersection of experimental, improvisational, and traditional practice. She has shared the stage with innovative chamber musicians such as Kim Kashkashian, Menahem Pressler, and the Daedalus Quartet. She has performed as an improvisor alongside Marshall Allen, Odean Pope, William Parker, Oliver Lake, and Chad Taylor. Veronica is often seen performing new/experimental music as a violist with the Bismuth String Quartet, singing Bach as a soprano in Choral Arts Philadelphia, improvising alongside Matt Engle (bass) and Dan Capecchi (drums), interpreting new music as member of Arcana New Music Ensemble, and bringing chamber music to the people with Classical Revolution Philly.

Commonwealth Dinner Theater 01
2017-04-09 18:00 - 21:00
ABOUT THE EVENT
Bowerbird is excited to launch a new series – Commonwealth Dinner Theater – a night of genre bending performances combined with a delicious meal. Perfect for the curious of mind and palate.
The night includes a vegetarian friendly meal served family style and three wonderful acts: Philly favorite Beth Nixon, a beautifully illustrated crankie- scrolling panoramic drawing- from Baltimore’s Hidden Eye Theater (comics artist Eamon Espey & puppeteer Lisa Krause), and Jupiter Blue, a new musical duo featuring Sun Ra Arkestra’s D.M. Hotep and Tara Middleton.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
BETH NIXON is an interdisciplinary artist who works under the name Ramshackle Enterprises. Since 1998 Beth has been writing, building, performing, and touring her own solo clown and puppet shows, collaborating with other artists, and frequently facilitating the creation of puppet parades, pageants, and performances with groups of children and adults. Beth has worked with Pig Iron Theatre and Spiral Q (Philly), Red Moon Theater (Chicago), Bread and Puppet Theater (VT), and Big Nazo Puppets (RI). CAPSULE is a work-in-progress performance created by Beth Nixon is collaboration with Maggie Alvarez, Theodora Rodine, Madeline Shuron, and Emma Wells, directed by Jaclyn Pryor.

Baltimore-based HIDDEN EYE THEATER (Eamon Espey & Lisa Krause) presents the Nameless Gate, a moving panorama. It is a meditation on male/ female and animal/ plant relations and the journey to return to the source of all things. It is a poem about the light of darkness. The music was specifically written for the performance and was made using a keyboard, a shovel and a boombass.
Sun Ra Arkestra guitarist D.Hotep with Sun Ra Arkestra vocalist/lyricist/violinist Tara Middleton form the duo JUPITER BLUE, exploring differing genres of music — from composed to improvised to experimental, developing lyrical grooves & jazz-sourced vocal soundscapes.
