The Rotunda

Philadelphia favorites Alash return to 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…

Philadelphia favorites Alash return to 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…

Bowerbird is pleased to present an evening of screened and live audio visual shorts including the Philadelphia premiere of Phill Niblock’s newly mastered 1966 film The Magic Sun - an experimental work featuring Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra that was produced using a unique negative process and ultra-tight close-ups on the moving hands and mouths of the musicians.  Also screened will be Philadelphia dance artist Terry Fox's Citizens' Footbook. These video "fillers" were created by Terry Fox in collaboration with filmmaker…

Philadelphia favorites Alash return to 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…

Bowerbird is pleased to present the world premiere of Greg Brown’s Fall and Decline performed by Variant 6. The new work composed for voices and electronics is based on texts of Sadakichi Hartmann, Eprenius, Todd Hearon, Edward Gibbon, and Omar Khayyam. The composition contemplates the inevitable decline of all things natural and manmade. Variant 6 pairs this new work with other pieces for voices and electronics, as well as selections of Medieval and Renaissance music. ABOUT THE PERFORMERS Variant 6…

Bowerbird is excited to present a rare evening of all contemporary music for brass ensemble featuring musicians from the Arcana New Music Ensemble. The program encompasses a wide variety of compositional voices from the last sixty years, including Lois V. Vierk's thorny Jagged Mesa, Michael Nyman's very un-Cagein For John Cage, and more recent works by Philadelphia based composers Rene Orth and Dustin Hurt. PROGRAM Lois V. Vierk: Jagged Mesa for brass ensemble Rene Orth: Leaguered in Fire, Lagooned in Gold for…

ABOUT THE EVENT Currently over 100 feet in length, LONG/GONE is a single intricately-cut piece of paper which flows freely from image to image. Narratives and scenarios (often drawn from classic works of literature from Homer to Dante) emerge and collapse and spill over and into each other. In performance, Erik scrolls the paper-cut continually across the surface of an over-head projector, creating an epic and immersive shadow-show. His musical group, the Ominous Cloud Ensemble, will provide a live soundtrack.…

ABOUT THIS EVENT Julius Eastman perfected his multifarious minimalism in three works of the late seventies: "Crazy Nigger", "Evil Nigger", and "Gay Guerrilla". Each work is scored for multiple instruments of the same kind. This concert features two of the works performed as a piano quartet and Gay Guerrilla performed by a large ensemble of electric guitars. More information about this event can be found athttps://www.thatwhichisfundamental.com/may-19th-crazy-evil-gay PROGRAM: JULIUS EASTMAN: SPOKEN INTRO (1980) Archival recording of Eastman's explanation of the use…

ABOUT THE SERIES Julius Eastman: That Which is Fundamental is an interdisciplinary, multi-artist project that examines the life, work, and resurgent influence of Julius Eastman, a gay African American composer and performer who was active internationally in the 1970s and 80s, but who died homeless at the age of 49, leaving an incomplete but compelling collection of scores and recordings. The culmination of more than three years of research, this first iteration of this project will take place in Philadelphia…

ABOUT THE SERIES Julius Eastman: That Which is Fundamental is an interdisciplinary, multi-artist project that examines the life, work, and resurgent influence of Julius Eastman, a gay African American composer and performer who was active internationally in the 1970s and 80s, but who died homeless at the age of 49, leaving an incomplete but compelling collection of scores and recordings. The culmination of more than three years of research, this first iteration of this project will take place in Philadelphia…

ABOUT THE EVENT Three Voices, written in 1982 for Joan La Barbara, was the last solo vocal piece he wrote before his death in 1987 (For Stefan Wolpe, dedicated to his composition teacher and written for chorus and two vibraphones, post-dates it). It sets part of Wind, a poem by his friend Frank O'Hara that had been dedicated to him and which he had set earlier in its entirety in The O'Hara Songs (1962) for bass-baritone. Conceived as a trio…

ABOUT THE EVENT The evening features two sets by Moor Mother, working under the theme of Community Futurism, in collaboration with Black Quantum Futurism and the Community Futures Lab. The first set includes improv collaboration of live instrumentation with drums, saxophone, bass, synth, and text. The second features music from the album Fetish Bones as well as unreleased songs by Moor Mother. Artists include Rasheedah Phillips, Madam Data, Keir on sax, Philip on drums, and George and Steve on bass.…

Bowerbird is pleased to present the duo of Loren Connors and Chris Forsyth and a performance by Philadelphia's Taiwan Housing Project   LOREN CONNORS has improvised and composed original guitar music for over four decades. His music - which embraces the aesthetics of blues, Irish airs, blues-based rock and other genres while letting go of rigid forms - has been recorded on Family Vineyard, Northern Spy, Drag City, Table of the Elements, Recital, RoadCone and other labels. Connors, who names…

Bowerbird is pleased to present a screening of David Scott Kessler's evolving documentary The Pine Barrens: Whitesbog Edition with a live score performance by The Ruins of Friendship Orchestra. Guiding the viewer through the New Jersey Pineland's winding, rust-colored rivers; its dark, sandy forests and slowly developing towns, The Pine Barrens creates a contemplative, complex, portrait of a place out of time. With the Pinelands as a primary character, the film explores the symbiotic yet sometimes destructive relationship between man…

Bowerbird and The Rotunda are pleased to welcome back a Philadelphia favorite: The Alash Ensemble. ABOUT THE EVENT ALASH are masters of Tuvan throat singing, a remarkable technique for singing multiple pitches at the same time. Masters of traditional Tuvan instruments as well as the art of throat singing, Alash are deeply committed to traditional Tuvan music and culture. At the same time, they are fans of western music. Believing that traditional music must constantly evolve, the musicians subtly infuse…

Bowerbird is pleased to present Svitanya, a Philadelphia-area women's vocal ensemble that specializes in folk music of Eastern Europe. Founded in 2001, the ensemble started with six singers performing purely a cappella arrangements. The early members included two mother-daughter pairs, fitting for a genre in which songs have been passed from mother to daughter for centuries, and one of these pairs is still part of the group today. Svitanya's repertoire is drawn from a variety of regional traditions. Some songs…

Bowerbird is pleased to present a screening of Shirley Clarke's 1985 film "Ornette: Made in America". "Ornette: Made In America" captures Ornette's evolution over three decades. Returning home to Fort Worth, Texas in 1983 as a famed performer and composer, documentary footage, dramatic scenes, and some of the first music video-style segments ever made, chronicle his boyhood in segregated Texas and his subsequent emergence as an American cultural pioneer and world-class icon. Among those who contribute to the film include…

Bowerbird is pleased to screen three documentary films marking the 50th anniversary of "9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering". In 1966 ten New York artists and thirty engineers and scientists from Bell Telephone Laboratories collaborated on a series of innovative dance, music and theater performances, "9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering", held in October at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The artists were John Cage, Lucinda Childs, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg,…

ABOUT THE EVENT The third installment of Composing the Tinnitus Suites: 2016 consists of compositions for and by Daniel Fishkin, Cleek Schrey, and Ron Shalom. Shalom, Schrey, and Fishkin are members of New Perplexity, a collective of new wartime composers and scholars. Schrey performs on the Hardanger Fiddle, a Norwegian folk instrument lined with sympathetic strings that resonate as he plays. Shalom is a contrabassist blessed with perfect pitch, but this intutitive gift is confounded by spectral barrage of the…

ABOUT THE EVENT The second installment of Composing the Tinnitus Suites: 2016 consists of solos and duets between Ellen Fullman and Daniel Fishkin. Fullman is the inventor of the Long String Instrument, an 80 foot long string instrument consisting of stainless steel wires that she strokes with rosined fingertips. Fullman has used her instrument to explore the acoustics of large resonant spaces for over 30 years. In her Philadelphia premiere, Ellen Fullman will install her Long String Instrument in the…

ABOUT THE EVENT The first installment of Composing the Tinnitus Suites: 2016 is the premiere performance of Philadelphia Hearing Damage. This band of broken ears is a crowd-sourced creation of local Philadelphia artists. Fishkin worked with these musicians in the summer of 2016, teaching them how to play the Lady's Harp, and to apply its techniques to their own instruments. This assemblage does not consist of gifted virtuosos, rather kindred listeners-musicians whose relationship to sound might be fundamentally unstable. Ben…

Bowerbird is excited to present the Philadelphia record release celebration of Bombogenic, a new album by Sonic Liberation 8 with the The Classical Revolution Trio & Oliver Lake. The album celebrates the 15 year anniversary of Sonic Liberation 8 with a new collection of compositions and arrangements showcasing a unique confluence of loft jazz, Afro Cuban Yoruba music, and new chamber music. Joining SL8 in this milestone is special guest artist Oliver Lake (World Saxophone Quartet) and the Classical Revolution…

Bowerbird is pleased to present an encore screening of Philippe Garrel’s visually arresting silent film Le Révélateur, performed live with an original score by Philadelphia’s own Mary Lattimore and Jeff Zeigler. Le Révélateur was one of the first films of the Zanzibar group (a coterie of mostly French artists and filmmakers who began making experimental films in the wake of the May 1968 student protests) which exemplified the radical approach of the new generation of French filmmakers. Shot in stark…

ABOUT GLENN JONES Glenn Jones is a master of American Primitive Guitar, a style invented in the late 1950s by John Fahey, whose traditional fingerpicking techniques and wide-ranging influences were used to create modern original compositions. Jones, who led the post-rock ensemble Cul de Sac, brings his own made-up tunings, the use of custom-crafted partial capos, and a highly skilled picking style on both banjo and guitar, to create personal compositions that are lyrical, emotive and elegant. What sets him…

PRISONER'S SONG Erik Ruin, shadow puppets and projections Gelsey Bell, voice, metallophone, and sound design Rick Burkhardt, director   ABOUT THE EVENT Prisoner's Song is a performance created by composer Gelsey Bell and visual artist Erik Ruin about the prison experience. Using shadow puppets and projections alongside a variety of musical idioms, the piece draws on historic ballads, poetry, audio interviews with people who have spent time in prison, and other primary sources to create a fragmentary encounter with the…

A brazen multidisciplinary artist who studied film history and theory, C. Spencer Yeh presents a program of two new moving image works combining diaristic and documentary footage as part of his as part of his ISSUE Project Room residency in 2015. The recently completed TRAVELOGUE: CAIRO EGYPT crosses long takes and static shots captured via smartphone in a four-part composition exploring surveillance, chance composition, tourism, and politics. 2002 is a "concert film" that documents approximately forty bands and artists Yeh…

TRAVELOGUE: CAIRO EGYPT 2015, 33 min, digital video, color 2002 2015, 60 min, digital video, color and nightvision b&w   ABOUT THE EVENT A brazen multidisciplinary artist who studied film history and theory, C. Spencer Yeh presents a program of two new moving image works combining diaristic and documentary footage as part of his as part of his ISSUE Project Room residency in 2015. The recently completed TRAVELOGUE: CAIRO EGYPT crosses long takes and static shots captured via smartphone in…

Bowerbird is pleased to present Philadelphia based filmmaker and artist Tiona McClodden conducting a live presentation and artist talk for her project Af·fixing Ceremony: Four Movements for Essex, which recently debuted in recognition of 2015's Day With(out) Art. Af·fixing Ceremony commemorates the life and work of celebrated African-American poet Essex Hemphill who was a important member of Washington D.C.'s poetry and artistic community. This is the twentieth anniversary of Hemphill's death from HIV/AIDS complications on November 4, 1995 in Philadelphia,…

Bowerbird is pleased to present Philadelphia based filmmaker and artist Tiona McClodden conducting a live presentation and artist talk for her project Af·fixing Ceremony: Four Movements for Essex, which recently debuted in recognition of 2015's Day With(out) Art. Af·fixing Ceremony commemorates the life and work of celebrated African-American poet Essex Hemphill who was a important member of Washington D.C.'s poetry and artistic community. This is the twentieth anniversary of Hemphill's death from HIV/AIDS complications on November 4, 1995 in Philadelphia,…

Ecstatic & Wingless is an audio documentary project on early 20th century birdsong and its direct relationship on human performance - and human action on birdsong. It tells the story not only of the first recordings of cagebirds but also the practice of bird-imitation, a field that produced amazing and eccentric celebrities during the 1910s-20s. Rarely heard in recent years, bird imitation was also recorded commercially on every continent by 1925 and possibly predates music or language in human history.…

ABOUT THE EVENT Ecstatic & Wingless is an audio documentary project on early 20th century birdsong and its direct relationship on human performance - and human action on birdsong. It tells the story not only of the first recordings of cagebirds but also the practice of bird-imitation, a field that produced amazing and eccentric celebrities during the 1910s-20s. Rarely heard in recent years, bird imitation was also recorded commercially on every continent by 1925 and possibly predates music or language…

ABOUT THE EVENT "Don't ask me what I mean, ask me what I've made." Inspired by this motto, this documentary accompanies the American composer Alvin Lucier (*1931) on concert travels to The Hague (Netherlands) and Zug (Switzerland). The filmmakers invite Lucier to explain and comment on his works: from his early live electronics performances ("Music for Solo Performer" (1965), and "Bird and Person Dyning" (1975)) - up to the premiere of his ensemble piece "Panorama 2" in 2011. One of…

Julius Eastman's █████ ██████ for 4 grand pianos performed by performed by Joseph Kubera, Adam Tendler, Michelle A. Cann, and Dynasty Battles and a special performance by sound artists Tracie Morris.   ABOUT THE EVENT Pulsating textures, unyielding and relentless, Eastman's compositions for multiple pianos are in a world all their own. Joseph Kubera, who performed the work with Eastman in 1980, will lead this rare performance. Beginning the concert will be a recording of Eastman describing his intentionally provocative…

ALASH are masters of Tuvan throat singing, a remarkable technique for singing multiple pitches at the same time. Masters of traditional Tuvan instruments as well as the art of throat singing, Alash are deeply committed to traditional Tuvan music and 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…

Bowerbird is excited to close out it's 2014 - 2015 GATE season with this thrilling double bill of audio-visual spectaculars inspired by Iannis Xenakis' "Polytopes". The evening features a new electronic work by Bhob Rainey and a performance of Keroaän, Ian M Fraser and Reed Evan Rosenberg's laser, strobe, and sound performing Artificial Intelligence platform.   ABOUT THE ARTISTS KEROAÄN is a collaborative research project between IAN M FRASER and REED EVAN ROSENBERG exploring composition of electronic music by an…

This is a series about starting a new music ensemble. In Philadelphia. In 2015. But it is also a series for anyone that's ever tried to make something with other people. It's about starting a non-profit, or an ensemble, or a business, or choosing not too. It's about being unstoppable in the face of soul-crushing paperwork, or just finding your own path. It's about asking the question "How are we going to do this?", answering "I don't know", and giving…

Bowerbird is excited to welcome back NYC based ensemble Either / OR to perform "For Philip Guston", Morton Feldman's late period masterpiece for piano/celesta, flute, and percussion. Upon hearing this expansive 4+ hour work, noted music critic Alex Ross wrote, "What makes "Guston" fundamentally and wondrously beautiful is its harmony. Feldman's whole career was a search for ways to string together lovely chords, and "Guston" contains some of his most lustrous inventions. He is careful to parcel them out economically,…

Bowerbird presents: New Works: CINÉ-ROMAN curated by J. Louise Makary   ABOUT THE EVENT Chris Marker made his groundbreaking work La Jetée, a moving-image film made up of still photographs, in 1962, and it still stands as the most iconic ciné-roman in the canon. Many artists have admired Marker's innovative use of photomontage to weave a narrative, yet few have contributed to the genre. Curated by filmmaker and visual artist J. Louise Makary, New Works: CINÉ-ROMAN will include works, most…

Join Bowerbird as we welcome Swiss musician Corina Marti, an Early music specialist, in her Philadelphia premiere. Marti will be performing a concert of late fourteenth-century music for recorder and early keyboard instruments. The repertoire includes music from the two most important surviving sources: the London and the Faenza codices. In this concert Marti achieves a remarkable variety by juxtaposing the sound of recorders (including the rare double recorder) and on a clavisimbalum - an instrument that is related to…

Trefoil offers selections from the spectacular trecento style of 14th-century Italy. Music as described in Boccaccio's Decameron: Madrigals, ballate, canons, and estampie by Landini, Cicconia, and Jacopo di Bologna. TREFOIL is a trio of modern minstrels long active in early music, with experience in such ensembles as Les Arts Florissants, Concert Royal, Early Music New York, Pomerium, Piffaro, Clarion Music Society, and My Lord Chamberlain's Consort. The trio debuted in New York and Philadelphia in 2000 with a program of…

Join Bowerbird for a special screening of the sci-fi musical "Space Is the Place". Sun Ra (1914-1993) and his Intergalactic Myth-Science Arkestra land their yellow spaceship in Oakland; offer an alter-destiny; and battle the FBI, NASA, and a supernatural pimp named the Overseer. The film includes lively performances of such Arkestra favorites as "Watusi," "The Satellites Are Spinning," and "Outer Spaceways, Inc." Celebrate the legacy of Sun Ra's cosmic philosophies, complex persona, and innovative, otherworldly music. For this event we…

Bowerbird presents: A NIGHT FOR JACK remembering Jack Rose featuring performances by Glenn Jones Nathan Bowles Daniel Bachman Chris Forsyth Megajam Booze Band plus DJs Ian Nagoski and Michael Chaiken   ABOUT THE EVENT The only thing more monumental than Jack Rose's personal presence was his talent. He was one of those preternaturally gifted guitar players who make you believe in pacts with the devil under a full moon. But of course we know now that these gifts only come…

ALASH are masters of Tuvan throat singing, a remarkable technique for singing multiple pitches at the same time. Masters of traditional Tuvan instruments as well as the art of throat singing, Alash are deeply committed to traditional Tuvan music and 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…

Carol Robinson & Nate Wooley: Works of Eliane Radigue & Denis Dufour Werner Dafeldecker & Valerio Tricoli: Williams Mix Extended   ABOUT THE EVENT Clarinetist Carol Robinson and trumpeter Nate Wooley give performances of new works by iconoclastic French composers Eliane Radigue and Denis Dufour. The program opens with Dufour's fascinating Cinq forms d'appel for bass clarinet and trumpet, and continues with Radigue's OCCAM XVI for solo bass clarinet, OCCAM X for solo trumpet, and OCCAM River III, an amazingly…

ABOUT THE EVENT The Rotunda and Bowerbird are proud to present SANCTUARY, a series of sound based & site specific works created for The Rotunda's rarely seen main sanctuary. This space - which is covered by a massive 4 story, 80-foot diameter dome - will house new works by seven Philadelphia based artists - John Phillips & Carolyn Healy, Michael & Linda Bullock, Jorge Cousineau, Tiona McClodden, and Daniel Fishkin. These works were created during a multi-month artist residency in…

ALL SOUND IS QUEER curated by Catherine Pancake, featuring artists Keir Neuringer, Alex Smith, Megan McShea, John Eaton, Jules Gimbrone, and Drew Daniel.   ABOUT THE EVENT   "Queerness abides in the refusal to preserve, in the willingness to end the space of ruinous, risky anonymity, to let sound pull us with it into the black hole of an experience that is not yet stable." ~ Drew Daniel   ALL SOUND IS QUEER is envisioned as both a response and…

NAKATANI GONG ORCHESTRA - ten gong ensemble + TATSUYA NAKATANI - solo percussion set Vibrating metal. Glacial ambiance. Percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani returns to Philadelphia for a solo set and to lead a performance of the Nakatani Gong Orchestra (NGO) - an ensemble of 10 gongs played by local musicians and conducted by Natakatani. Anyone who has seen Nakatani perform live should be familiar with his skill in manipulating metal discs of all shapes and sizes, and as the director of…

Built upon shared interests in technology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence, Axon Ladder is a multimedia performance installation by Bhob Rainey and Catherine Pancake. Combining algorithmic electronic composition with real-time video manipulation, this world premiere evening length work offers a timely view into the intersection of advancing technology and human intuition. The performance features footage of dancer/ choreographer Meg Foley.   From the composer: Imagine, on the one hand, a modest algorithm that describes a population of creatures who want…

The powerhouse JACK Quartet returns to Philadelphia for a concert featuring the hypercomplex string quartets by Iannis Xenakis. A leading figure in twentieth century music, Xenakis (1922 - 2001) was trained as a civil engineer, then became an architect and developed revolutionary designs while working with Le Corbusier. Utilizing his technical background, Xenakis approached composition with a curious mix of analysis and intuition, creating works of massed orchestral textures, dense electronics, polyrhythmic percussion music. Taken as a whole, the four…

Bowerbird is pleased to present this concert portrait of the early electronic music of composer Andrew Rudin. The concert will feature Rudin’s Tragoedia performed with a live video accompaniment and Il Giuoco (1966), which Robert Moog said to be the first large-scale, original, serious composition created on his synthesizing instruments. Il Giuoco is accompanied by a film (also made by the composer). THE PROGRAM Il Giuoco (with film, 15:28) Tragoedia (visuals by Peter Price, 37:30) Paideia (with film, 14:52) MEETING…

Bowerbird is very excited to present Trefoil, a trio of singer-instrumentalists that specialize in European Medieval music, performing works by Guillaume Dufay, Gilles Binchois, and others from their new CD Fleur de Valeur: A Medieval Bouquet. Like poets of all ages, medieval songwriters invoked the imagery and natural magic of flowers in the service of ideal, feminine beauty. In many poems, the most revered flower was the Rose, or fleur de valeur. As a symbol of Mary the Virgin this…

Bowerbird is pleased to present a rare screening of Werner Herzog's peculiar 1995 documentary film Death in Five Voices about the troubled life of eccentric sixteenth century composer Don Carol Gesualdo. Shot on location in Italy and featuring interviews with Gesualdo Consort director Gerald Pace, Il Complesso Barocco musical director Alan Curtis. From his sexual deviance and dangerous obsessions to a shocking act of murder, Gesualdo's personal demons and remarkable influence are explored as never before thanks to careful research and…

International Ensemble N_JP (featuring Sho master Ko Ishikawa and live electronics from Toshimaru Nakamura) will give the Philadelphia premiere of new works by composer and director Gene Coleman. The program includes his new music and film piece "Sendai Transmissions" and "Bairo", a new work made in collaboration with contemporary Indian choreographer Shaily Dadiala.

Flutist Claire Chase, "the young star of the modern flute" (The New Yorker) and a 2012 MacArthur Fellow, celebrates the release of her third solo album, DENSITY, featuring tour de force flute works by Steve Reich, Alvin Lucier, Philip Glass, Marcos Balter, Mario Diaz de Leon, and the seminal 1936 flute solo Density 21.5 by Edgard Varese. Taking the concept of "density" as a springboard for sonic explorations of texture, layering and performative virtuosity, the record commences with 11 multi-tracked…

The internationally acclaimed JACK Quartet returns for a concert featuring masterworks by Witold Lutoslawski, Helmut Lachenman, and the world premiere of Philadelphia based composer Adam Berenson's String Quartet No. 3. In addition to the new work, JACK will perform Lachenmann's own String Quartet No. 1 "Gran Torso" (1972), and Lutoslawski's radical aleatoric contribution to the genre. *An earlier version of this program included Luigi Nono's Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima. Due to unforsee circumstances JACK will perform Lutoslawski's String Quartet instead.*

SOUND POETRY EFFECTS CATALOG curated by Danny Snelson, with live performances by Caleb Beckwith, Mark Johnson, Timothy Leonido, Kate McGuire, John Paetsch, and Danny Snelson Join Bowerbird for its first event exploring sound poetry, an artistic form that bridges literary and musical composition. As Joan La Barbara reminds us, voice is the original instrument. Already in 1641, Ben Jonson writes: "Others there are that have no composition at all but a kind of tuning and rhyming fall in what they…

ALASH ENSEMBLE wth beat boxer Shodekeh, double bassist Garth Stevenson, and vocalist/guitarist Annie Lynch   ALASH are masters of Tuvan throat singing, a remarkable technique for singing multiple pitches at the same time. Masters of traditional Tuvan instruments as well as the art of throat singing, Alash are deeply committed to traditional Tuvan music and 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…

Created the year he died, Cages only feature-length film One11 (1992) was composed entirely using 1,200 random operations devised by a computereach determining the movements of a crane-mounted camera and the qualities of lighting within an empty room. A meditation on the perception of emptiness that harks back to Cages much earlier 433 (1952), One11 is a film without subject, persons or things, offering instead a sublime impression of another, timeless place. For this performance, a video of Cages own…

• Variations I (1958) performed by Christopher Colucci and Jorge Cousineau • Variations II (1961) performed by Nate Wooley and Susan Alcorn • Variations III (1962) performed by Bonnie Jones and Jesse Kudler With vastly open and indeterminate scores and happenings, Variations I – VIII (1958 – 1967) is a series of compositions that foreshadows both Song Books and the Fluxus movement performance pieces. Sometimes scored as broadly as “for any number of players and any sound producing means,” Variation…

Bernard Parmegiani (b. 1927): "De natura sonorum" (1975) Suite in twelve movements Digital artist Peter Price will perform live projected visuals to accompany the digital playback. The concert will be preceded by a brief introductory talk by Thomas Patteson. ABOUT THE EVENT Building on the acoustic investigations of his teacher Pierre Schaeffer, the founder of musique concrete, French composer Bernard Parmegiani creates what he calls "acousmatic music" -- a kind of sonic art conceived especially for presentation through loudspeakers, designed…

Difficult to summarize, yet unified in ethos and affect, this evening features three solo projects - Diamond Terrifier (Sam Hillmer of the Zs's), Partrick Higgins (in an extensive reworking of JS Bach's music), and Wait (a solo electronics project by Robert J). Also on the evening is a new quartetFemme Tops featuring Alex Hampshire, Rick Weaver, Evan Lipson, and Jeff Zagers.

When we think of documentary films, we probably call to mind certain familiar forms, such as archival footage of World War II battles or British-accented narration of natural scenes. But conceived in the broadest terms, the documentary is an extremely diverse cinematic genre with at least as much room for artistic experimentation as the fictional film. This program is intended to trace the fascinating variety of short documentary films, which spans the roughly century-long history of cinema itself.   In…

Bowerbird pays homage to the eclectic past of the GATE series, and offers a synth laden night of psychedelic slow jams and industrial thrashes. Headling the evening will be New York City's post-punk electronic band OUTPOST featuring Mark C of the 80s no wave band Live Skull on guitar, synths, and vocals, with Stuart Argabright (Ike Yard, Dominatrix, Death Comet Crew) on synths, laptop, vocals, and bassist Kent Heine (Holy Ghost, Steve Shiffman & the Land of No). Opening the…

There is something wonderfully fleeting about improvised music. The music itself lives for only the briefest of moments, and collaborations, even extended ones, can come and go quite often. Maybe this has to do with the relative ease with which partners can interchange with one another, or the transient nature of its practitioners, but in any case this openness for possibility creates great potential for artistic exploration. On this evening Bowerbird offers a geographical survey of projects new and old…

SHOT X SHOT with special guest MATT MITCHELL   Shot x Shot is a Philadelphia quartet that has forged a distinctive sound through five years of steady collaboration. Their work is based in collective improvisational compositions that run the gamut from delicate to ruthless. The band was formed in 2004 while the members were students at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. They began performing at local venues and gradually extended their range to include New York, Boston, Chicago,…

THE PROGRAM Rafael Toral - Tatsuya Nakatani Vuitton (Alex Nagle - Joe Lentini) Dave Smolen   ABOUT THE ARTIST Rafael Toral is researching performance possibilities in electronic music. Using custom-built or modified electronic instruments, he's developing the long-term Space Program to structure musical phrasing in "post-free jazz electronic music". Approaching jazz as a system of individual decision-making from the viewpoint of electronics, his conception deals with gestural performance, “phrasing and swing”, instruments with a clear sonic identity, and articulation of…

Graham Lambkin and Jason Lescalleet are both highly respected artists, with small but intensely hardcore followings. Since 2001, they've been gradually moving closer towards realizing a collaborative project, and The Breadwinner is the results of two years of recording, reworking and polishing. Lambkin first entered the public consciousness at 19 when he formed his band The Shadow Ring, in Folkestone, a small town in Kent, England. The band was memorable and built an rabidly passionate fan base because of its…

Bowerbird presents SONIC MIRRORS featuring music by The International Nothing, Lopass Mates, and Ko Koed. For as much as the duo format highlights the creative boundaries of its individual artists, duos featuring two of the same instrument push these frontiers even further. Hidden beneath a veneer of sameness, the minute and nuanced details of sound and structure rise to the foreground. Perhaps the most sensuous example of this can be found in Kai Fagaschinski and Michael Thieke's Berlin-based clarinet duo…

Nate Wooley / Ivar Grydeland Ben Hall / Chris Riggs Bring It Inside with McOmber Toshi Makihara   ABOUT THE ARTISTS   Guitarist Ivar Grydeland (b.Trondheim 1976) started his music education degree in the mid-nineties. Having a base as a free jazz artist, Grydeland has continually expanded his experimental style to include new sounds. This unique style set it's roots while Grydeland studied improvised chamber music at Norway's College of Music (2001-2003), together with percussionist Ingar Zach. Since, the musical…

Maria Chavez is an avant-turntablist from Peru, living in New York City. She focuses on electro acoustic sound of vinyl and needle and has a collection of needles from immaculate to ruined that she calls her "pencils of sound" and a collection of records that provide the palette. She has toured with Christiina Carter (Charlambides, Scorses), performed with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth in her New York City debut, and recorded with London-based laptop artist Kaffe Matthews. Chavez has curated…

CONSERVATORY OF NOW Some of the greatest things in music have been happening at the edges of the Rock genres. The depth of complexity, instrumental coloring, and overall creative ingenuity rivals, if not surpasses, the level of compositional prowess happening in concert halls today.  And with the popularity of bands like the Dirty Projectors or Animal Collective, it's not surprising that younger generations of composers are turning to the amplified settings of warehouses, parties and rock clubs to work out…

We are extremely excited to present the amazing free jazz duo of Paul Flaherty and Randall Colbourne. They have been playing together for over 20 years and have over 15 releases together, but this is only their first tour. Alto and tenor saxophonist Paul Flaherty is New England's purveyor of the ecstatic jazz pulse. Even before his 1978 debut Flaherty remained unshakable in the pursuit of soul healing and demon dashing through freedom music. Since 2001 Flaherty's notoriety has risen…

Films and live performances by Atsushi Yamamoto, Christian Schneider, Delgado Fuchs, Hammes, Zende, Helena Gough, Pe Lang, Richard Garet, and Zimoun co-presented with GATE Join us for an evening of experimental video and sound performances featuring a survey of work from of European, Asian, and American artists of the Leerraum network. In a world clamoring with sounds, we are often bombarded by their calamity and attempt to shut them out. But when we are able to focus we can easily…