BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//BOWERBIRD ::: MUSIC, DANCE, FILM ::: Philadelphia, PA - ECPv6.16.2//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:BOWERBIRD ::: MUSIC, DANCE, FILM ::: Philadelphia, PA 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:20170312T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20171105T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20180311T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20181104T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20190310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20191103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20200308T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20201101T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20210314T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20211107T060000 END:STANDARD 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 END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220914T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220914T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20220823T161844Z LAST-MODIFIED:20221003T164020Z UID:10001162-1663185600-1663192800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Laraaji DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present Laraaji in our home venue at University Lutheran performing an improvised solo piano set on our Steinway Model O. \nABOUT THE ARTIST\nPhiladelphia-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 faiths and transcendental research in his long-time home in Harlem\, in 1979 Brian Eno stumbled upon him busking in Washington Square Park in New York\, improvising celestial meditations with his electric zither. The producer invited him to contribute to his influential Ambient series\, resulting in the 1980 album Day of Radiance. Ever since he’s remained an outsized figure in new age and ambient music\, eschewing synthesizers in favor of hand-made sounds\, consistently embracing a human presence in his ever-seeking performances. Whether using monochord instruments\, singing\, or deploying electronics-kissed percussion\, Laraaji’s music remains connected to cosmic African-American tradition\, and as hypnotically beautiful as his work has been he’s never been afraid to inject ripples of tension and dissonance into his trance-inducing journeys. \nPhoto: Daniel Oduntan \n\n\n  \n\n  \n\nHEALTH & SAFETY\nThis is an “in person” event.   In consideration of the ongoing pandemic and the safety of those in our community\, Bowerbird is requiring all audience members\, staff\, and performers to wear a mask while inside the venue (please note that musicians will have the option to perform without masks once on stage). URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/laraaji-solo-piano/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Laraaji-piano2.jpeg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220824T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220824T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20220725T153817Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220829T140954Z UID:10001158-1661367600-1661374800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Kidlat Tahimik's Turumba DESCRIPTION:Commissioned by the German public service broadcaster ZDF\, Kidlat Tahimik shot this movie in Laguna in the Philippines in 1981 as a contribution to the ZDF teleplay series “Vater Unser” (“Our Father”). These comprised six 45-minute short movies by a group of international directors\, which interpreted key phrases from the lexicon of the Apostles’ Creed. Tahimik opted for the phrase “give us this day our daily bread”\, and shot a movie about a family in Pakil in Laguna\, a small town about 100 kilometers from the capital Manila reputed for its “Turumba” procession and its musical tradition\, which also play an important role in the film. The family earned their living producing paper mache figurines\, a handicraft for which the region is known nationwide. They sell the figurine-toys during the annual Turumba festivities and live off the proceeds throughout the year. An imperious\, German entrepreneur visits their market stall and commissions them to manufacture 30\,000 Olympic Waldi dachshunds\, the official mascot for the 1972 Munich Olympics. The family then embarks upon a quasi-industrial production of paper mache figures; suddenly\, time is money. Tahimik commented that Turumba is a movie about the “incursion of capitalism into a Philippine village”. \nTurumba / Kidlat Tahimik / 1981 / 95 min / 16mm \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nThis is an “in person” event.   In consideration of the ongoing pandemic and the safety of those in our community\, Bowerbird is requiring all audience members\, staff\, and performers to show proof of Covid 19 vaccinations status *and* wear a mask while inside the venue (please note that musicians will have the option to perform without masks once on stage).  Proof of vaccination can be the physical ID card or a photo/copy (a photo on your phone is acceptable). URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/kidlat-tahimiks-turumba/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Bowerbird-Main-Img-8.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220727T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220727T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20220602T181907Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220811T192230Z UID:10001156-1658948400-1658955600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Pat O’Neill’s Water and Power DESCRIPTION:NEW DATE \n\nPat O’Neill’s rarely-screened masterpiece of West Coast cinema is a dazzling synthesis of fast motion and superimposition\, appropriated footage and time lapse photography\, chroma keying and long exposures. Water and Power layers images drawn from urban Los Angeles\, its water source in the Owens Valley\, and an otherworldly interior space in increasingly complex permutations. What results is a fractured history\, not just of California and its environment but of the cinematic imagination. Through subtitles O’Neill also weaves a story of industrial expansion’s impact on the landscape from Sir Francis Drake’s exploration to situations that seem ripped from Golden Age Hollywood. \nIn the hands of O’Neill\, landscape becomes not just the industrial and natural world but the reflection of how humans have imagined it\, as the site of epics of silent film to ideal locations for resource extraction. The film abounds with visual rhymes\, becoming unclear where human architecture ends and nature begins. And this is to say nothing of the surreal dreamlike figures that litter O’Neill’s imagined Los Angeles. Shot on 35mm\, a rare luxury in experimental filmmaking\, and masterfully utilizing the optical printer\, Water and Power contains some of the most beautiful images in all of American cinema. \nWater and Power / Pat O’Neill / 1989 / 57 min / 16mm \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nThis is an “in person” event.   In consideration of the ongoing pandemic and the safety of those in our community\, Bowerbird is requiring all audience members\, staff\, and performers to show proof of Covid 19 vaccinations status *and* wear a mask while inside the venue (please note that musicians will have the option to perform without masks once on stage).  Proof of vaccination can be the physical ID card or a photo/copy (a photo on your phone is acceptable). URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/pat-oneills-water-and-power/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Bowerbird-Main-Img-6.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220714T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220714T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20220614T171801Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220707T174523Z UID:10001157-1657825200-1657832400@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Wildflower Composers: Concert of Faculty Works with Arcana New Music DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present a collaboration between the Arcana New Music Ensemble and the annual Wildflowers Composer Festival to present works by the festival faculty. The festival is open to composers who identify as part of gender-marginalized communities\, which includes cis-women\, trans-women\, trans-men\, and those who are nonbinary or gender-nonconforming. The summer festival is intended for composers between the ages of 13 and 19 who have not yet started college. \nPROGRAM \ninti figgis-vizueta: to give you form and breath\nAndy Thierauf\, Emily Roane\, Travis Goffredo – percussion \ninti figgis-vizueta: INBHIR (many waters)\nTom Kraines – cello \nRajna Swaminathan: Consilience\nRajna Swaminathan – mrundangum\, piano\, voice \nFlannery Cunningham: We are the same as we have always been\nSean Bailey – clarinet \nFlannery Cunningham: Songs of myself//songs for myself\nAlize Rozsnyai – voice \nErin Busch: refract (world premiere)\nCarlos Santiago – violin \n\nThis is an “in person” event.   In consideration of the ongoing pandemic and the safety of those in our community\, Bowerbird is requiring all audience members\, staff\, and performers to show proof of Covid 19 vaccinations status *and* wear a mask while inside the venue (please note that musicians will have the option to perform without masks once on stage).  Proof of vaccination can be the physical ID card or a photo/copy (a photo on your phone is acceptable). URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/wildflower-composer-concert/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Bowerbird-Main-Img-7.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220615T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220615T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20220524T150848Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220708T020341Z UID:10001155-1655319600-1655326800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Babette Mangolte’s The Cold Eye (My Darling\, Be Careful) DESCRIPTION:By the time Babette Mangolte began work on The Cold Eye (My Darling Be Careful)\, her first overtly fictional narrative film\, she was already deeply enmeshed in the artistic vanguard of two continents. She had served as the cinematographer for the early groundbreaking films by Chantal Akerman and Yvonne Rainer\, photographed and filmed the development of postmodern theater and dance\, and directed her own experimental works. With The Cold Eye seeing Mangolte operate in a semi-autobiographical mode\, how then would an artist with a lifetime spent behind a lens inhabit a character? Mangolte’s answer: by constructing a film entirely out of shots from the subjective point of view of her protagonist. \nWe see The Cold Eye through the lens of Cathy\, an avatar for Mangolte’s early experiences after moving to the United States. Cathy is a young painter\, deeply self-conscious and insecure\, developing as an artist in the midst of her sentimental education. And we follow Cathy as she considers her own work and reflects on the role of the artist. Strikingly we also inhabit her gaze as she talks to friends and members of the art world often while her (or perhaps our) attention wanders around the room and we are struck when they look at her\, or rather us\, directly in the eye. As we stare at these characters\, portrayed by dancers James Barth (who also co-wrote the screenplay) and Valda Setterfield\, painter George Deem\, filmmaker Ela Troyano\, and character actor extraordinaire Powers Booth among others\, Mangolte offers up one of the most daring attempts to capture on film what previously seemed the domain of novels\, to describe a central character not just through what they do and say but through their observation and understanding of others. \n\n\nThe Cold Eye (My Darling\, Be Careful) / Babette Mangolte / 1980 / 90 min / 16mm-to-Digital \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\n\nThis is an “in person” event.   In consideration of the ongoing pandemic and the safety of those in our community\, Bowerbird is requiring all audience members\, staff\, and performers to show proof of Covid 19 vaccinations status *and* wear a mask while inside the venue (please note that musicians will have the option to perform without masks once on stage).  Proof of vaccination can be the physical ID card or a photo/copy (a photo on your phone is acceptable). URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/babette-mangoltes-the-cold-eye-my-darling-be-careful/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Bowerbird-Main-Img-5.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220521T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220521T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20211118T020751Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220524T203611Z UID:10001137-1653163200-1653170400@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:New Suns DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present vocal sextet Variant 6 in a concert celebration of their first full-length album\, New Suns. The album explores myriad universes of a cappella vocal music featuring works by Jeremy Gill\, Gabriel Jackson\, Joanne Metcalf\, Benjamin C.S. Boyle\, and Bruno Bettinelli. This album is a celebration of everything they love about the versatility and virtuosity of the human voice. \n\nThis 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. \n\nABOUT THE ARTIST \nVariant 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. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/new-suns-variant-6/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/NewSuns_Main.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220518T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220518T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20220317T151459Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220520T142430Z UID:10001153-1652900400-1652907600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Raúl Ruiz’s The Golden Boat DESCRIPTION:Over the course of a half century long career\, Chilean-born Raúl Ruiz established himself as cinema’s greatest surrealist this side of Luis Buñuel. And like Buñuel\, Ruiz was a vagabond\, making films wherever funds were available. After the establishment of Chile’s military junta under Augusto Pinochet in 1973\, Ruiz fled to Paris\, making films in France\, Portugal\, The Netherlands\, among other locales. The Golden Boat brought him to the U.S. for the first time while the director hones in on an artistic mecca\, the downtown New York art scene of the 1980s. Produced in collaboration with The Kitchen\, the film takes the form of one of our homegrown police procedurals crossed with a telenovela. The film wanders through Manhattan as a murderer and a philosophy-student rock critic pursue the object of the cut-throat’s affection\, a Mexican soap opera star. But the meandering plot is mainly an excuse for Ruiz to engage in his love of dreamlike black comedy where streets are populated by a veritable who’s who of no wave New York including Jim Jarmusch\, Kathy Acker\, Annie Sprinkle\, Vito Acconci—featuring a score by John Zorn. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nThis 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. \n\nPROGRAM \nThe Golden Boat / Raúl Ruiz / 1990 / 83 min / 16mm-to-Digital URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/raul-ruizs-the-golden-boat/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Bowerbird-Main-Img-4.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220507T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220507T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20211118T021720Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220517T200658Z UID:10001139-1651953600-1651960800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:J. Pavone String Ensemble DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present the J. Pavone String Ensemble led by New York based composer and performer Jessica Pavone. \nThe foundation of Jessica Pavone’s recent ensemble compositions is research on the effects of sonic vibration on human physiology and emotional health. Sustained pitches and clusters of ensemble sounds generate specific physical and cognitive benefits intended to impact the audience physically and mentally\, existing within and beyond music’s canonical role. The compositional techniques borrow from and elaborate on traditional music notation. Pavone experiments with improvisatory techniques\, alternating between metered and time-based scores and improvised and notated instructions. The ensemble approach focuses on a vision of collective improvisation that prioritizes a collaboratively sewn musical fabric\, in contrast to the traditional improvisatory method that prizes the individuality and uniqueness of the soloist. The rehearsal method\, influenced by her solo work\, attends to how the body plays a role in sound and intention. \nIn 2019\, the string ensemble’s debut album\, Brick and Mortar\, was hailed by the Chicago Reader’s Peter Margasak as “the most assured\, bracing work of Pavone’s career.” Astral Spirits Records released their second\, Lost and Found\, in 2020 to critical acclaim from publications such as; The Wire\, The New Yorker\, NYC Jazz Record\, NPR\, Jazzwise\, and was named a “Best Contemporary Albums of 2020” by Bandcamp Daily. Chris Ingalls from Pop Matters described their music as “too stunning to lump into genres.” This tour celebrates the release of their third album\, …Of Late\, on Astral Spirits Records and features a new lineup consisting of Pavone on viola\, with Aimée Niemann on violin and Abby Swidler playing both violin and viola. \n\nThis 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. \n\n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/j-pavone-string-ensemble/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Pavone.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220413T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220413T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20211101T163635Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220503T205928Z UID:10001128-1649876400-1649883600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Trans-Pacific Partnership: Japanese Fluxus DESCRIPTION:Although founded in early 1960s New York\, the pioneering interdisciplinary art community Fluxus included participants from around the world\, notably several from Japan. Born out of the influence of John Cage and the Dada movement\, the loose group included composers\, conceptual artists\, filmmakers\, video artists\, sculptors\, and performance artists and resulted in new forms of visual and sound art. The names of the western members are in greater currency\, but the Japanese contingent\, most famously Japanese émigré Yoko Ono\, freely intermingled between the Tokyo avant-garde and the New York downtown art scene resulting in a number of arresting films. \nNever formally a Fluxus member\, Takahiko Iimura nevertheless collaborated with many Fluxus artists on both sides of the Pacific and shared roots in a Neo-Dada outlook. His first film Kuzu (Junk) features the trash strewn everywhere on Tokyo Bay to the music of Fluxus composer Takehisa Kosugi. Iro (Color) and Onan both feature collaborations with fellow Fluxus composer Yasunao Tone to explore abstract color and erotic desire respectively. And Ai (Love) breaks down sex and the body in extreme close up alongside the vocal experiments of Yoko Ono. Ono herself made numerous films\, most fruitfully as part of the Fluxfilm anthologies organized by Fluxus godfather George Maciunas. One\, the fourteenth film in the Fluxfilm series\, is an extreme slow motion record of a match striking in close up and a visualization of “Lighting Piece” from her classic book “Grapefruit”. Bottoms is perhaps Ono’s most famous film\, and is constructed solely out of the buttocks of artists and friends in her circle including Carolee Schneemann. The program will end with Cut Piece\, a documentation by Albert and David Maysles of Ono’s most influential performance in which she invited audience members to cut off articles of her clothing\, exploring issues of gender\, power and violence. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nPROGRAM \nKuzu (Junk) / Takahiko Iimura / 1962 / 12 min / 16mm\nIro (Colors) / Takahiko Iimura / 1962 / 10 min / 16mm\nOnan / Takahiko Iimura / 1963 / 8 min / 16mm\nAi (Love) / Takahiko Iimura / 1963 / 10 min / 16mm\nOne / Yoko Ono / 1966 / 4 min / digital\nBottoms / Yoko Ono & Anthony Cox / 1966 / 6 min / digital\nCut Piece / Albert & David Maysles / 1966 / 8 min / digital \n\nThis 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. \n\nTakahiko Iimura “Kuzu” (low res excerpt) \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/trans-pacific-partnership-japanese-fluxus/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/JapanFluxus.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220323T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220323T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20211213T161920Z LAST-MODIFIED:20220410T160530Z UID:10001140-1648062000-1648069200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Sons of Jack Smith DESCRIPTION:When Jack Smith transitioned from his relatively brief career as a director headlong into experimental theater in the late 1960s\, he already had multiple scandals and groundbreaking films under his belt and had appeared in many more as a muse to Andy Warhol\, Ken Jacobs\, and Ron Rice. These films capture Smith in amber as he pioneered an intellectually serious approach to camp performance and a low-budget trash aesthetic. But within a few years of his exit\, trends in experimental film shifted away from Smith’s obsession with artifice and performance toward something much more austere and theoretical. \nBut Smith’s transgressive\, baroque influence runs far deeper than as a shooting star or as a forefather of cheapo “cult classic” cinema. And it continued to be felt even while some of his contemporaries became more staid and cerebral. This program traces Smith’s immediate progeny in experimental filmmaking who followed his enthusiasm for gender performance and costuming\, the tension between trash and classical beauty\, and pre-assimilationist gay life. \nBill Vehr\, whose films starring Smith have entirely vanished\, leaves us with Avocada\, a decadent subversion of Hollywood that Smith himself praised as “possessed of gilded glamour.” José Rodriguez-Soltero’s Jerovi is a self-consciously homoerotic low-budget portrait that becomes an onanistic reverie of the body reminiscent of Smith. Takahiko Iimura’s Face is another body-study\, this time focusing on three faces in ecstasy to highlight the artifice of performance on screen and the gendered costuming and makeup of the actors\, including one of Smith’s great discoveries\, Mario Montez. Steven Arnold\, one of Smith’s clearest inheritors in the hippie generation\, directed The Liberation of the Mannique Mechanique as a dream of surreal androgyny\, with impeccable costuming and production design. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nThis 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. \nPROGRAM \nAvocada / Bill Vehr / 1966 / 37 min / 16mm\nJerovi / José Rodriguez-Soltero / 1965 / 12 min / 16mm\nFace / Takahiko Iimura / 1969 / 21 min / 16mm\nThe Liberation of the Mannique Mechanique / Steven Arnold / 1967 / 15 min / 16mm URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/sons-of-jack-smith/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Bowerbird-Main-Img-6.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211208T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211208T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20211101T152817Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211208T160952Z UID:10001126-1638990000-1638997200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Nam June Paik: Ridiculous Technology DESCRIPTION:This event is SOLD OUT. There will be no tickets available at the door. \nAfter moving from his native Seoul\, first to Germany to study music alongside the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage\, and then to the United States\, Nam June Paik lived what seems like the romantic archetype of the post-war New York artist. He drifted easily between avant-garde music\, film\, and fine art and helped in turn to create two new disciplines: video art and video installation. By 1962 he was a member of Fluxus and would collaborate with a litany of bright lights from Cage and Charlotte Moorman to Shigeko Kubota and Jud Yalkut. \nRidiculous Technology collects some of Paik’s most important early works\, with special emphasis on his connection with the burgeoning experimental music scene. In Beatles Electroniques\, Paik distorts imagery of the Beatles using a video synthesizer alongside an electronic soundtrack by Kenneth Werner composed of Beatles loops. Video Tape Study No. 3 critiques Lyndon B. Johnson to a score by David Behrman. Electronic Fables is one of Paik’s more visually beautiful and minimal productions featuring the voices of Marcel Duchamp\, John Cage\, Allen Ginsberg\, and Moondog\, among others. Waiting for Commercials features found footage of international commercials originally used as part of a Charlotte Moorman performance. Global Groove is perhaps Paik’s single-channel masterpiece\, a collage of original video\, his past work\, commercials\, dance\, popular music\, and contributions by Cage\, Stockhausen\, and Moorman. Taken together\, these works begin to scratch the surface of one of the most wide-ranging artists of the 20th Century. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nThis 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. \n\nPROGRAM \nGlobal Groove​ / Nam June Paik & John Godfrey / 1973 / 29 min / Digital\nBeatles Electroniques / Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut / 1969 / 3 min / Digital\nVideo Tape Study No. 3 / Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut / 1967 / 4 min / Digital\nElectronic Fables / Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut / 1965 / 10 min / Digital\nWaiting for Commercials / Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut / 1966-1972 / 8 min / Digital \n\nNam June Paik – Global Groove (low res) \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/nam-june-paik-ridiculous-technology/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Paik.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200520T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200520T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20200203T012048Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211101T162956Z UID:10001105-1590001200-1590008400@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:POSTPONED - Trans-Pacific Partnership: Japanese Fluxus DESCRIPTION:Although founded in early 1960s New York\, the pioneering interdisciplinary art community Fluxus included participants from around the world\, notably several from Japan. Born out of the influence of John Cage and the Dada movement\, the loose group included composers\, conceptual artists\, filmmakers\, video artists\, sculptors\, and performance artists and resulted in new forms of visual and sound art. The names of the western members are in greater currency\, but the Japanese contingent\, most famously Japanese émigré Yoko Ono\, freely intermingled between the Tokyo avant-garde and the New York downtown art scene resulting in a number of arresting films. \nNever formally a Fluxus member\, Takahiko Iimura nevertheless collaborated with many Fluxus artists on both sides of the Pacific and shared roots in a Neo-Dada outlook. His first film Kuzu (Junk) features the trash strewn everywhere on Tokyo Bay to the music of Fluxus composer Takehisa Kosugi. Iro (Color) and Onan both feature collaborations with fellow Fluxus composer Yasunao Tone to explore abstract color and erotic desire respectively. And Ai (Love) breaks down sex and the body in extreme close up alongside the vocal experiments of Yoko Ono. Ono herself made numerous films\, most fruitfully as part of the Fluxfilm anthologies organized by Fluxus godfather George Maciunas. One\, the fourteenth film in the Fluxfilm series\, is an extreme slow motion record of a match striking in close up and a visualization of “Lighting Piece” from her classic book “Grapefruit”. Bottoms is perhaps Ono’s most famous film\, and is constructed solely out of the buttocks of artists and friends in her circle including Carolee Schneemann. The program will end with Cut Piece\, a documentation by Albert and David Maysles of Ono’s most influential performance in which she invited audience members to cut off articles of her clothing\, exploring issues of gender\, power and violence. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nPROGRAM \nKuzu (Junk) / Takahiko Iimura / 1962 / 12 min / 16mm\nIro (Colors) / Takahiko Iimura / 1962 / 10 min / 16mm\nOnan / Takahiko Iimura / 1963 / 8 min / 16mm\nAi (Love) / Takahiko Iimura / 1963 / 10 min / 16mm\nOne / Yoko Ono / 1966 / 4 min / 16mm\nBottoms / Yoko Ono & Anthony Cox / 1966 / 6 min / 16mm\nCut Piece / Albert & David Maysles / 1966 / 8 min / 16mm \n\nTakahiko Iimura “Kuzu” (low res excerpt) \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/postponed-trans-pacific-partnership-japanese-fluxus/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/JapanFluxus.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200425T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200425T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20200226T225236Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200413T164751Z UID:10001109-1587844800-1587852000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:POSTPONED - Timothy McCormack: MATTER DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present Timothy McCormack’s complete MATTER series – a cycle of four solo pieces for trombone\, cello\, bassoon\, and bass clarinet. Written between 2012 and 2017\, the MATTER Series traces McCormack’s evolving relationship with physicality\, corporeality\, and the relationship between a performer and their instrument. Starting from the proposition that sound is matter\, as tactile and palpable as any object\, these four solo pieces delve deep into the physical properties of their respective instruments to reveal sonic languages that speak as not just idiomatic\, but elemental to each. Taken chronologically\, the MATTER Series charts a slow shift in what physicality can sound like: from something enacted\, ecstatic\, and earthen\, to something embodied\, insular\, and weightless. \n\nPROGRAM \nHEAVY MATTER (2012)\nWeston Olencki\, trombone \nDRIFT MATTER (2013)\nTJ Borden\, cello \nBODY MATTER (2015)\nChris Watford\, bassoon \nRAW MATTER (2015 – 2017)\nMadison Greenstone\, clarinet \n\n“BODY MATTER” (2015) for solo bassoon \n\n  \n\nABOUT THE COMPOSER \nTimothy McCormack (b. 1984) writes haptic\, viscous music which makes audible the tactile\, physical relationship between a performer and their instrument. Sometimes ecstatic\, sometimes hermetic\, his music embeds pitch within dense walls of noise to create strangely affecting sonic ecologies which alter one’s perception of time. He has been commissioned by ensembles and organizations such as the ELISION Ensemble\, Ensemblekollektiv Berlin\, Klangforum Wien\, the JACK Quartet\, musikFabrik\, among others. McCormack is the recipient of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Composers’ Prize (2018). He won the Impuls International Composition Competition (2019) which resulted in a new work for Vienna’s Klangforum Wien.McCormack currently teaches at Boston Conservatory at Berklee where he is an Assistant Professor of Composition. He received his PhD from Harvard University (2019)\, where he studied with Chaya Czernowin and Hans Tutschku. He also studied at the University of Huddersfield with Aaron Cassidy and Liza Lim\, as well as at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Lewis Nielson and Randolph Coleman. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/timothy-mccormack-matter/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Matter.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200422T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200422T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20200202T225603Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211101T161807Z UID:10001104-1587582000-1587589200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:POSTPONED: Sounding Ornaments: Experiments with Optical Sound DESCRIPTION:Dedicated to Daphne Oram \nOn 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 have turned their eye to this strip which is most frequently the site of pre-recorded music and sound. Sounding Ornaments presents films which use the optical track and the projector as their sonic instruments. \nNorman McLaren’s Dots was one of his first experiments with sound: not content to simply animate the image\, McLaren painted on the soundtrack to create an original drawn-sound score. The Whitney Brothers pioneered experimental animation influenced by vanguard composers like Schoenberg. Using a homemade weighted pendulum\, the Whitneys created abstract patterns on the optical track of Five Film Exercises resulting in incredible congruity between image and sound. With the ensuing minimalist turn of American experimental filmmaking\, Peter Kubelka examined flickering black and white frames in Arnulf Rainer alongside flickering black and white noise. Paul Shartis’ Ray Gun Virus continues one step further by examining what would happen if the film print’s sprocket holes were to run through the photoelectric sound cell. Barry Spinello extended McLaren’s experiments into pure abstraction by hand painting on both the image and the soundtrack of Soundtrack\, creating a frenzy of sounds. And finally with Newsprint\, Guy Sherwin collaged strips of newspaper between clear film resulting in an image and a sound of the projector “reading” the newspaper. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nPROGRAM \nDots / Norman McLaren / 1940 / 3 min / 16mm\nFive Film Exercises / John Whitney & James Whitney / 1943-45 / 21 min / 16mm\nArnulf Rainer / Peter Kubelka / 1960 / 7 min / 16mm\nRay Gun Virus / Paul Sharits / 1967 / 14 min / 16mm\nSoundtrack / Barry Spinello / 1969 / 10 min / 16mm\nNewsprint / Guy Sherwin / 1972 / 5 min / 16mm \nPaul Sharits: Ray Gun Virus (low res excerpt) \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/postponed-sounding-ornaments-experiments-with-optical-sound/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Sharits-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200415T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200415T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20200203T013610Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200316T175136Z UID:10001106-1586980800-1586988000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:POSTPONED: Anna Webber's Simple Trio DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present New York-based composer\, saxophonist\, and flutist Anna Webber’s Simple Trio. Webber\, called “one of the most exciting new arrivals on the New York avant-garde jazz scene” by Peter Margasak in the Chicago Reader\, has been working with her Simple Trio since 2013. They have released two albums on Skirl Records: Binary (2016) and SIMPLE (2014). The trio features bandmates John Hollenbeck on drums and Matt Mitchell on piano. The music of the Simple Trio highlights what The New York Times called the “range of the group members: fulminous\, intense collective improvisation” in songs that feel like living things and lead the audience in different directions on each listen. The trio has the ability to combine “a huge sound\, big ideas and disarming humor into an engagingly avant-garde approach that promises to continue to gain wider recognition (Style Weekly\, 2016). \nAnna Webber’s Simple Trio\nAnna Webber – tenor sax\, flute\, compositions\nMatt Mitchell – piano\nJohn Hollenbeck – drums \nClockwise by Anna Webber URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/anna-webbers-simple-trio/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/SimpleTrio.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200325T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200325T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20200202T222953Z LAST-MODIFIED:20211101T150832Z UID:10001103-1585162800-1585170000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:POSTPONED: Nam June Paik: Ridiculous Technology DESCRIPTION:Introduced by Gregory Zinman\, editor\, “We Are in Open Circuits: Writings by Nam June Paik” \nAfter moving from his native Seoul\, first to Germany to study music alongside the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage\, and then to the United States\, Nam June Paik lived what seems like the romantic archetype of the post-war New York artist. He drifted easily between avant-garde music\, film\, and fine art and helped in turn to create two new disciplines: video art and video installation. By 1962 he was a member of Fluxus and would collaborate with a litany of bright lights from Cage and Charlotte Moorman to Shigeko Kubota and Jud Yalkut. \nRidiculous Technology collects some of Paik’s most important early works\, with special emphasis on his connection with the burgeoning experimental music scene. In Beatles Electroniques\, Paik distorts imagery of the Beatles using a video synthesizer alongside an electronic soundtrack by Kenneth Werner composed of Beatles loops. Video Tape Study No. 3 critiques Lyndon B. Johnson to a score by David Behrman. Electronic Fables is one of Paik’s more visually beautiful and minimal productions featuring the voices of Marcel Duchamp\, John Cage\, Allen Ginsberg\, and Moondog\, among others. Waiting for Commercials features found footage of international commercials originally used as part of a Charlotte Moorman performance. Global Groove is perhaps Paik’s single-channel masterpiece\, a collage of original video\, his past work\, commercials\, dance\, popular music\, and contributions by Cage\, Stockhausen\, and Moorman. Taken together\, these works begin to scratch the surface of one of the most wide-ranging artists of the 20th Century. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nPROGRAM \nGlobal Groove​ / Nam June Paik & John Godfrey / 1973 / 29 min / Digital\nBeatles Electroniques / Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut / 1969 / 3 min / Digital\nVideo Tape Study No. 3 / Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut / 1967 / 4 min / Digital\nElectronic Fables / Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut / 1965 / 10 min / Digital\nWaiting for Commercials / Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut / 1966-1972 / 8 min / Digital \n\nNam June Paik – Global Groove (low res) \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/postponed-nam-june-paik-ridiculous-technology/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Paik.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200318T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200318T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20200212T160821Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200312T195249Z UID:10001108-1584561600-1584568800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:POSTPONED - Peter Evans & Levy Lorenzo DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to presented the duo of Peter Evans (trumpets) & Levy Lorenzo (percussion/electronics). Evans and Lorenzo began performing duo as part of the International Contemporary Ensemble’s OpenICE commissioning series in early 2016. Their music is an otherworldly blur of dense rhythmic frameworks\, elaborate notated pieces\, open improvisation and weird drones. Lorenzo’s complex of self-built instruments\, gongs\, dry percussion\, laptop and sound processing engage with Evans’ acoustic trumpet in a dialogue of noise\, mystery\, precision and chaos. The duo has toured extensively in the USA\, Canada and Europe and released their debut recording “Q” on Evans’ More is More label in October 2018. \nCo-presented with University of Pennsylvania – Department of Music.\nFree for Penn Card holders. \n\n Peter Evans and Levy Lorenzo \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/peter-evans-levy-lorenzo/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/PeterLevy.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20200311T190000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20200311T210000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20200130T195609Z LAST-MODIFIED:20200629T171415Z UID:10001101-1583953200-1583960400@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Meredith Monk's Quarry DESCRIPTION:This event was originally scheduled for Feb 26 but has been rescheduled for March 11. \nRightfully renowned as a composer\, vocalist\, choreographer\, and stage director\, Meredith Monk’s underseen films present their own inventive reflections on the cataclysms of history. Quarry began as a live multimedia opera in 1976 featuring a black and white short film of the same name directed by Monk. With the help of the New York Public Library’s initiative to document groundbreaking live performances\, Monk and Amram Nowak re-staged the work with Monk guiding the film’s camera movements and close-ups not normally found in “filmed theater.” In Quarry\, Monk continues her interest in abstracting her own Jewish history to create an anti-fascist narrative in which she portrays a sick child whose illness progresses in tandem with the rise of a dictator. Featuring not just Monk’s novel vocal and theatrical experiments\, Quarry is both a fascinating performance document and a shapeshifting film in its own right. \nCo-presented with Nightletter. \n\nPROGRAM \nQuarry / Meredith Monk & Amram Nowak / 1977 / 82 min / Digital \n\nMeredith Monk: Quarry: The Rally (Live\, 1977) \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/meredith-monk-quarry/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Monk2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20191211T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20191211T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20191002T221851Z LAST-MODIFIED:20191003T165404Z UID:10001095-1576094400-1576101600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:American Dream DESCRIPTION:This superb New York chamber trio deftly applies the instrumentation of the classic jazz piano trio to dazzling new contemporary writing. Pianist Karl Larson\, percussionist Matthew Evans\, and bassist Pat Swoboda achieved an early apotheosis in 2018 with American Dream\, a concert-length commission from the Brooklyn composer Scott Wollschleger\, which according to Bandcamp Daily\, “toggles between Morton Feldman-esque contemplation and pointedly fractured\, multi-planar collisions to indicate both the hope and deep disappointments of contemporary America.” Written in 2017\, the work for piano\, double bass\, and vibraphone cycles through incrementally transforming harmony and melody—starting one place\, and ending up another without drawing attention to the journey. The piece only gained resonance within the increased division and disenfranchisement in the US\, its meditative\, often fraught dualities reflecting disparate visions of the title concept—whether utter disenchantment or guarded vitality. Gas Station Canon Song and We See Things adroitly bookend that work\, with fractured elements of each obliquely contained within American Dream. This evening’s program opens with Trio\, a commissioned work by Katherine Balch—currently composer-in-residence with the California Symphony—which the trio premiered at Pioneer Works in April of 2019. \nBalch’s Trio was written to be a kind of intense\, jittery explosion that showcased the virtuosity of her friends in Bearthoven. Tight-knit\, pulse-y movements of “jitter music” (I\, III\, and V) are offset by contrasting episodes (II\, IV) with a brief winding-down coda\, like the slowing of breath at the end of a sprint (VI). This “jitter music” begins with hushed\, delicate\, crisp sounds but gets progressively more overtly rhythmic and less delicate throughout the approximately 18-minute piece. While each instrumentalist is featured as a soloist in different ways\, because of the composer’s strong association of this ensemble with the jazz trio\, the piano takes a particularly forward role. \n\nPROGRAM \n– Katherine Balch: ‘Trio’\n– Scott Wollschleger: ‘Gas Station Canon Song’\n– Scott Wollschleger: ‘American Dream’\n– Scott Wollschleger: ‘We See Things That Are Not There’ \n\nAMERICAN DREAM \n\n  \n\nABOUT THE ARTIST\nBearthoven [ \’bâr-toh-vən\ ] is a piano trio creating a new repertoire for a familiar instrumentation by commissioning works from leading young composers. Karl Larson (piano)\, Pat Swoboda (bass)\, and Matt Evans (percussion) have combined their individual voices and diverse musical backgrounds\, coming together to create a versatile trio focused on frequent and innovative commissioning of up-and-coming composers. Bearthoven is rapidly building a diverse repertoire by challenging composers to apply their own voice to an instrumentation that\, while common amongst jazz and pop idioms\, is currently foreign in the contemporary classical world. \nFormed in 2013\, Bearthoven has quickly established themselves as a forerunner in the New York City contemporary music scene. Commissioning over 30 new works in their first six seasons\, the trio has created its own diverse repertoire ranging from the driving\, post-minimal voices of Ken Thomson\, Brooks Frederickson\, and Shelley Washington to the atmospheric and abstracted offerings of Sarah Hennies\, Scott Wollschleger\, and Anthony Vine. Bearthoven’s commitment to collaboration and innovation has garnered both critical and peer acclaim and has led to featured performances on notable series including the MATA Festival\, the Bang On a Can Marathon\, the Music/Sound Series at EMPAC\, the Princeton Sound Kitchen\, and the Ciclo de Conciertos de Música Contemporánea in Buenos Aires\, Argentina. The group’s debut album Trios was released on Cantaloupe Music in May of 2017. Their second album\, American Dream\, features the works of Scott Wollschleger\, and was released in February of 2019 on the same label. Bearthoven was recently selected as 1 of 24 ensembles to be a part of the inaugural New Music USA Impact Fund cohort. \n\nKatherine Balch’s Trio has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program\, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation\, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/american-dream/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/American-Dream.png END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190918T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190918T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20190828T155136Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190829T201103Z UID:10001086-1568836800-1568844000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Eric Wubbels: if and only if DESCRIPTION:A new chamber formation brings together Josh Modney\, Mariel Roberts\, and Eric Wubbels\, three of the leading musicians of the New York new music scene\, whose playing draws on over a decade of experience playing together in the Wet Ink Ensemble and Mivos Quartet. Their debut program features if and only if \, a new large-scale work by Eric Wubbels\, written over an extended period of close collaboration with Modney and Roberts. if and only if combines a microscopic attention to tuning\, acoustic beating\, and instrumental vibration with an austerity and simplicity derived from Medieval music. \nPROGRAM \nif and only if (2018-19)\nfor violin\, cello\, and piano \nby Eric Wubbels \nI. endings\nII. tombeau\nIII. Hz spectrum\nIV. canon spiralis\nV. antistrophe\nVI. oxygen\nVII. second per second\nVIII. haven \nPREVIEW IF AND ONLY IF \n\n  \nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nJosh Modney is a violinist devoted to creative music-making. A “new-music luminary\,” “superb violinist” (The New York Times)\, and “multitasking virtuoso” (The New Yorker) hailed for “jaw-dropping technical skill…” and as “one of today’s most intrepid experimentalists” (Bandcamp Daily)\, Modney collaborates with a wide array of renowned ensembles and artists as part of a broad scene of adventurous music that thrives at the nexus of composition\, improvisation\, and interpretation. Modney is violinist and Executive Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble and a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)\, and performed with the Mivos Quartet for eight years\, a vital new-music string quartet he co-founded in 2008. Modney’s fresh and versatile approach to the violin and uniquely dynamic performance practice has made him a highly sought-after collaborator. He has worked closely on new solos and duos with composers including Kate Soper\, Alex Mincek\, Eric Wubbels\, Sam Pluta\, Andrew Greenwald and Rick Burkhardt\, as well as projects with major figures including Kaija Saariaho\, Mathias Spahlinger\, Helmut Lachenmann\, George Lewis\, Pauline Oliveros\, Christian Wolff\, and Peter Ablinger. \nAmerican cellist Mariel Roberts is widely recognized not just for her “virtuosic” performances\, but as a “fearless explorer” (Chicago Reader) in her field. Her ravenous appetite for collaboration and experimentation as an interpreter\, improvisor\, and composer have helped create a body of work which bridges avant-garde\, contemporary\, jazz\, classical\, and traditional music. Roberts is widely recognized for her “technical and interpretive mastery” (I care if you listen) and for performances which seethe with “excruciating intensity” (The Whole Note). Roberts has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician across four continents\, most notably as a member of the Mivos Quartet\, Wet Ink Ensemble\, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)\, Bang on a Can All Stars\, and Ensemble Signal. She performs regularly on major stages for new music such as the Lincoln Center Festival (NYC)\, Wien Modern (Austria)\, Lucerne Festival (Switzerland)\, Cervantino Festival (Mexico)\, Klang Festival (Denmark)\, Shanghai New Music Week (China)\, Darmstadt Internationalen Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Germany)\, and Aldeburgh Music Festival (UK). Roberts has been featured as a chamber musician on recordings for Innova\, Albany Records\, New World Records\, New Amsterdam\, Carrier Records\, New Focus\, and Urtext Records. Roberts’ compositions have been performed at venues such as Merkin Hall and Miller Theater in New York City. Roberts has released two solo albums of new works commissioned for her. The first\, “Nonextraneous Sounds” (2012)\, was noted for it’s “technical flair and exquisite sensitivity” (Composers Forum). 2017’s “Cartography” solidified Roberts’ position as “one of the most adventurous figures on New York’s new music scene—one with a thorough grounding in classical tradition but a ravenous appetite for and tireless discipline in new work.” (Bandcamp). \nEric Wubbels is a composer and pianist\, and a Co-Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble. His music has been performed throughout Europe\, Asia\, Australia\, and the U.S.\, by groups such as Wet Ink Ensemble\, Mivos Quartet\, yarn|wire\, Splinter Reeds\, Kupka’s Piano (AUS)\, SCENATET (DK)\, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble\, and featured on festivals including Huddersfield Festival (hcmf//)\, LA Phil Green Umbrella Series\, Chicago Symphony MusicNOW\, New York Philharmonic CONTACT\, MATA Festival\, and Zurich Tage für Neue Musik. Wubbels has been awarded grants and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters\, NYSCA / New York Foundation for the Arts\, Chamber Music America\, ISSUE Project Room\, MATA Festival\, Barlow Endowment\, and Jerome Foundation\, and residencies at the MacDowell Colony (2011\, 2016)\, Copland House\, L’Abri (Geneva)\, Djerassi Resident Artists Program\, and Civitella Ranieri Center (Italy). As a performer\, he has given U.S. and world premieres of works by major figures such as Peter Ablinger\, Richard Barrett\, Beat Furrer\, George Lewis\, and Mathias Spahlinger\, as well as vital young artists such as Rick Burkhardt\, Francesco Filidei\, Erin Gee\, Bryn Harrison\, Clara Iannotta\, Darius Jones\, Cat Lamb\, Ingrid Laubrock\, Charmaine Lee\, Alex Mincek\, Sam Pluta\, Katharina Rosenberger\, and Kate Soper. He has recorded for Carrier Records\, hatART\, Intakt\, New Focus\, Spektral (Vienna)\, quiet design\, and Albany Records\, among others\, and has held teaching positions at Amherst College and Oberlin Conservatory. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/eric-wubbels-if-and-only-if/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/20190202_WetInk_03.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190613T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190613T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20190121T180710Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190211T183423Z UID:10000841-1560456000-1560463200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Morton Feldman: Trio DESCRIPTION:Continuing an already ten year commitment to exploring the music of Morton Feldman\, Bowerbird is pleased to present his landmark work Trio (for piano\, violin\, and cello)\, performed by NYC based ensemble Longleash.  Originally premiered in 1980\, Trio is one of Feldman’s earliest extended duration works (predated by only his String Quartet No. 1).  And though epic in duration (approximately 1 hour 40 mins)\, the work is threaded together with an intricate patchwork of quiet blocks of sound\, pointillistic colors\, and wispy melodies that stretch the listener’s musical memory and perception of time. The performance includes work by lighting designer and artist Julie Zhu.  \nBowerbird’s Steinway Model O piano was donated in honor of Virginia Francis Lease. \n\nPROGRAM \nMorton Feldman: Trio (1980)\nfor piano\, violin\, and cello \n\nABOUT THE PERFORMER \nLongleash (Pala Garcia\, violin; John Popham\, cello; Renate Rohlfing\, piano) is an ensemble with a traditional instrumentation and a progressive identity. The “expert young trio” (Strad Magazine) takes its name from Operation Long Leash\, a recently-declassified CIA operation promoting the work of American avant-garde artists in Europe during the Cold War. “Fearlessly accomplished” (Arts Desk UK)\, Longleash has quickly earned a reputation in the US and abroad for innovative programming\, artistic excellence and new music advocacy.  Recent and upcoming engagements for Longleash include Kaufman Music Center’s Ecstatic Music Festival (New York City)\, National Sawdust (Brooklyn)\, (le) Poisson Rouge (New York City)\, Princeton Sound Kitchen\, Constellation (Chicago)\, Equilibrium Concerts (Boston)\, Center for New Music (San Francisco)\, Green Music Center (Sonoma)\, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (Troy\, NY) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Appearances abroad include Trondheim International Chamber Music Festival (Norway)\, Echoraum (Vienna)\, Open Music (Graz\, Austria) and Kunstuniversität Graz. Longleash has given lectures\, workshops\, composition readings and performances at Juilliard\, Manhattan School of Music\, Hunter College\, New York University\,  City University of New York\, Rutgers\, Ohio University and University of Nebraska-Kearney. J. Zhu is a composer\, artist\, and carillonneur. She is the recipient of the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for her interdisciplinary work\, visual and aural\, that has since been exhibited and performed internationally. Zhu studied at Yale University (mathematics)\, the Royal Carillon School\, Hunter College (MFA art)\, and is currently pursuing a DMA in composition at Stanford University. \n  \n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/morton-feldman-trio/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/feldman-blue2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190511T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190511T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20181129T172854Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190306T024629Z UID:10000831-1557604800-1557612000@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Mystical Paths DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is excited to present Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble performing Mystical Paths\, a program of music with spiritual focuses as diverse as Sufism\, silence\, cooking\, and humor. Taylor Brook’s Motorman Sextet anchors the program\, as an expressive setting of the most nostalgic episodes from David Ohle’s cult novel Motorman. Forrest Pierce’s Tighten to Nothing explores the composer’s Sufism through a text by medieval Dutch mystic Hadewijch II. Lucia Ronchetti’s Anatra al sal\, heard here in its U.S. premiere\, is a raucous exposition on cooking (the title is Duck with salt). Agata Zubel’s Madrigals\, another U.S. premiere\, draws from the composer’s experience as a renowned contemporary vocalist. Evan Johnson’s 3 in ad abundantiam\, and vo mesurando\, are extraordinarily delicate works that play on the edge of sound and silence\, questioning the very nature of vocal performance. \n\nPROGRAM\nTaylor Brook – Motorman Sextet\nForrest Pierce – Tighten to Nothing\nAgata Zubel – The Alphabet of the Ars Brevis\nEvan Johnson – 3 in ad abundantiam\nEvan Johnson – vo mesurando\nLucia Ronchetti – Antara al sal \n\nABOUT THE PERFORMERS\nEkmeles is a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works\, and gems of the historical avant garde. New York is home to a vibrant instrumental New Music scene\, with a relative paucity of vocal music. Ekmeles was founded to fill the gap by presenting new a cappella repertoire for solo voices\, and by collaborating with these instrumental ensembles.  Director Jeffrey Gavett brings a hybrid vision to the group: he is an accomplished ensemble singer and performer of new works\, and holds degrees from Westminster Choir College and Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program. He has assembled a virtuoso group of colleagues who bring their own diverse backgrounds to bear on the unique challenges of this essential and neglected repertoire. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/mystical-paths/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/33ClaytonRaithel1-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190504T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190504T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20190121T163912Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190122T231045Z UID:10000840-1557000000-1557007200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Kevin Laskey's Almanac DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird presents acclaimed ensembles Variant 6\, Warp Trio\, and the Kevin Sun Quartet in Philadelphia composer Kevin Laskey’s new evening-length work Almanac. Crossing many stylistic borders\, the work explores an almanac’s dual nature as information compendium and prophetic text. Dark sibylline prophecies emerge from catalogic texts about colors and food and flowers. And despite its best efforts\, this Almanac cannot completely predict its own fate. Confronted with unforeseen circumstances\, the performers improvise\, seeking an ordered conclusion from a flotsam of cliches. \nSupport for Almanac has been provided by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.  Bowerbird’s Steinway Model O piano was donated in honor of Virginia Francis Lease. \n\nPERFORMERS \nVariant 6\nRebecca Myers & Molly Netter\, soprano\nElisa Sutherland\, mezzo-soprano\nSteven Bradshaw and James Reese\, tenor\nDaniel Schwartz\, bass-baritone \nWarp Trio\nJosh Henderson\, violin\nJu-Young Lee\, cello\nMikael Darmanie\, piano \nKevin Sun Quartet\nKevin Sun\, tenor saxophone\nAdam O’Farrill\, trumpet\nWalter Stinson\, bass\nMatt Honor\, drums \nKevin Laskey\, composer/conductor \n\nARTIST BIOS \nVariant 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 radically reimagining concert experiences\, commissioning substantial new works\, collaborating closely with other ensembles\, and educating a new generation of singers. 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. \nDescribed as “A talented group that exemplifies the genre-obliterating direction of contemporary classical music (Columbia Free Times)”\, Warp Trio is an Internationally touring cross-genre chamber music experience. Reflecting the combination of Juilliard trained members juxtaposed with members steeped in rock and jazz styles\, the one of a kind trio can be seen performing classical works in prestigious halls on the same tour where they headline a standing room only show at a rock venue. In addition to their electrifying public performances\, they have gained a reputation for their innovative educational workshops with students from grade school through university level. \nKevin Sun is a Brooklyn-based saxophonist\, clarinetist\, and improvisor-composer. Kevin was the 2013 Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition winner and the 2012 Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition winner in the jazz saxophone category. He was previously the editor of Jazz Speaks\, the blog of The Jazz Gallery\, a nonprofit jazz cultural center in New York City. His co-led 2016 release\, Earprint\, was named #1 Debut Album in the 2016 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. \nKevin Laskey is a composer\, percussionist\, and writer based in Philadelphia\, PA. His music lives in a netherworld between formal concert music and more vernacular styles\, drawing from classical\, jazz\, and popular idioms alike. He has written for notable ensembles including PRISM Quartet\, the International Contemporary Ensemble\, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia\, and Bearthoven\, and has performed with\, among others\, trombonist Ray Anderson\, pianist Anthony Davis\, and composer/vocalist Ted Hearne. Kevin is currently completing a PhD in music composition at the University of Pennsylvania where he studies with Anna Weesner and James Primosch. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/kevin-laskeys-almanac/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Alamanc.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190404T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190404T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20181219T221254Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190321T151400Z UID:10000838-1554408000-1554415200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Magnus Granberg and Ordinary Affects DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present the Philadelphia premiere of the Boston-based experimental music ensemble Ordinary Affects and a new evening length work by Magnus Granberg\, a Swedish composer closely associated with the Wandelweiser movement. Of Granberg’s recent How Vain Are All Our Frail Delights?\, journalist Ben Harper notes\, “[Granberg] combines individual sounds and small fragments of material into a type of mobile structure\, allowing the musicians to draw from one group or another at different times. A resemblance to late Feldman comes here from the sense of hearing patterns overlap and repeat\, only never quite the same. The music feels like one extended moment\, constantly changing in appearance but never changing in substance.” \nBowerbird’s Steinway Model O piano was donated in honor of Virginia Francis Lease.  This concert has been supported by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.\n\n \n  \n\nABOUT THE ARTISTS \nOrdinary Affects is a Boston-based experimental music ensemble. Experimental composer/performers J.P.A. Falzone\, Laura Cetilia\, Luke Martin\, and Morgan Evans-Weiler make-up the ensemble\, performing on piano/organ/percussion\, cello\, violin\, and guitar/electronics (respectively). The ensemble was formed as a group of musicians seeking to workshop\, commission\, and perform experimental music. Their work is often aligned with the tradition of John Cage and the Wandelweiser Collective. While the group frequently focuses on the performance of commissioned compositions of living composers\, it also serves as a laboratory for improvisation and the compositions of its members. Whenever possible\, Ordinary Affects involves the commissioned composer as a performer in the ensemble. Ordinary Affects has commissioned and premiered pieces by Eva-Maria Houben\, Christian Wolff\, Michael Pisaro\, Antoine Beuger\, Sarah Hughes\, Eva-Maria Houben\, Ryoko Akama\, Doug Farrand\, Patrick Farmer\, and Jurg Frey\, in addition to performing works by Joseph Kurdika\, John Lely\, and all ensemble members. In summer 2017\, Ordinary Affects attended the Avaloch Residency. Ordinary Affects has recordings on elsewhere\, Another Timbre\, and forthcoming recordings on Ftarri and Editions Wandelweiser. \nMagnus Granberg is a composer and performer working at an intersection between contemporary chamber music and improvisation. He is based in Stockholm\, Sweden. Born in Umeå in 1974\, he studied saxophone and improvisation at the University of Gothenburg and in New York in his late teens and early twenties. Self taught as a composer\, he formed his own ensemble Skogen in 2005 trying to integrate experiences\, methods and materials from various traditions of improvised and composed musics into a new modus operandi. Now mainly working with the ensemble Skogen and the newly formed Skuggorna och ljuset\, while increasingly also writing music on commission for different ensembles and projects. He is also active as an improvisor in different contexts\, mainly playing the clarinet. His music has been performed in Norway\, Sweden\, Switzerland\, the United States\, England\, Austria\, Hungary and Slovenia\, broadcast by public radio channels in England (BBC Radio 3 and 6)\, Germany (SWR 2)\, Sweden (SR P2)\, Estonia\, Slovenia\, Serbia\, Hungary and the United States\, and has been published by the renowned British record label Another Timbre. Recent work includes a commission from Another Timbre and Ensemble Grizzana and collaborations with musicians such as David Sylvian\, Christoph Schiller and the Swiss duo Diatribes. He has in the last decade also\, more or less regularly\, collaborated with musicians such as Angharad Davies\, Tisha Mukarji\, Tetuzi Akiyama\, Toshimaru Nakamura\, Anna Lindal\, Kristine Scholz\, Rhodri Davies\, Simon Allen\, Christoph Schiller and Ko Ishikawa. \n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/magnus-granberg-and-ordinary-affects/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/magnusgranberg-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190321T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190321T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20181214T181959Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190123T001152Z UID:10000836-1553198400-1553205600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:John Cage: Sonatas and Interludes DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird\, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania Department of Music\, is pleased to present Amy Williams performing Sonatas and Interludes\, John Cage’s groundbreaking cycle for prepared piano.  The work was composed in 1946–48\, 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.Cage’s works will be interspersed with new interludes by Jay Alan Yim\, Jeffrey Weeter\, Robert Reinhart and Philly composers Adam Vidiksis and Kevin Laskey. The influence of Cage’s invention is still felt 70 years after the premiere and will be reflected in the new works using the same set of preparations. Pianist/composer Amy Williams will present this journey through the eight permanent emotions of Ancient Hindu aesthetics: the “white” emotions (heroic\, erotic\, mirthful and wondrous) and the “black” emotions (fear\, anger\, disgust\, and sorrow). All lead to a state of transcendence and tranquility. \nBowerbird’s Steinway Model O piano was donated in honor of Virginia Francis Lease. \nCo-presented with the University of Pennsylvania Department of Music.  Concert admission is FREE for PennCard holders.\n\nAbout Amy Williams \nAmy Williams is a composer of music that is “simultaneously demanding\, rewarding and fascinating” (Buffalo News)\, “fresh\, daring and incisive” (Fanfare). Her compositions have been presented at renowned contemporary music venues on four continents by many of the leading contemporary music soloists and ensembles\, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra\, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra\, JACK Quartet\, Ensemble Aleph\, Dal Niente\, Wet Ink\, Talujon\, International Contemporary Ensemble\, and pianist Ursula Oppens. Her pieces appear on the Albany\, Parma\, VDM (Italy)\, Blue Griffin\, Centaur and New Ariel labels. As a member of the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo\, Ms. Williams has performed at important new music festivals and series worldwide and recorded six critically-acclaimed CDs for Wergo (works of Nancarrow\, Stravinsky\, Varèse/Feldman and Kurtág). She has taught at Bennington College and Northwestern University and is currently Associate Professor of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a visiting professor of composition at U Penn in the spring of 2019. \n \n  \n  \n  \n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/john-cage-sonatas-interludes/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Cage-preparing-piano-1-cropped.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190316T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190316T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20190131T175432Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190305T014910Z UID:10000843-1552766400-1552773600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Johanna Beyer: Music of the Spheres - Night Two DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is honored to present a two evening retrospective of pioneering composer Johanna Beyer. The first evening features her percussion music and the second evening features her chamber music. \nAlthough Beyer’s music was overlooked during her lifetime and for decades after her death\, it was some of the most experimental and prophetic work created during the 1930s. Music of the Spheres (1938) is the first known work scored for electronic instruments by a female composer. The fourth movements of her two clarinet suites (1932) are some of the earliest examples of a pitch-based approach to rhythmic processes\, which would not be fully explored again until the late 1940s by composers such as Elliott Carter and Conlon Nancarrow. Several of her works anticipate the minimalist music of the 1960s\, most notably the fourth movement of her first String Quartet. She included tone clusters in Clusters\, a suite for solo piano\, and the duet\, Movement for Two Pianos. The large clusters in these works often require the pianist to play the keys with their forearms. Perhaps Beyer’s most important and overlooked contribution to the development of new music is her repertoire for percussion ensemble. The Percussion Suite of 1933 is one of the earliest examples in this genre and differs from those of her contemporaries in that it “explores the understated and quiet expressive possibilities of percussion. \nWe extend our thanks to Frog Peak Music and Amy Beal and their dedication in  recovering Beyer’s work\, without whom these concerts would not be possible.   \n\nCONCERT PROGRAM \nDissonant Counterpoint\nMichael Tan \nGebrauchs-Musik\nMichael Tan \nBees\nMichael Tan \nThree Songs for Percussion\, Voice\, and Piano\nEva Kastner-Puschl\, voice\nAndy Thierauf\, percussion\nDavid Hughes\, piano \nMovement for Double Bass and Piano\nJoshua Machiz\, double bass\nDavid Hughes\, piano \nSuite for Violin and Piano\nMolly Germer\, violin\nDavid Hughes\, piano \nRobin in the Rain\nAlize Rozsnyai\, soprano\nEva Kastner-Puschl\, alto\nDavid Hughes\, piano \nHave Faith!\nAlize Rozsnyai\, soprano\nNicholas Handahl\, flute \nFour Pieces for Oboe and Bassoon\nMeghan Woodard\, oboe\nDominic Panunto\, bassoon \nSolo Clarinet Suite I\nSean Bailey\, clarinet \nString Quartet II\nBismuth Quartet \nString Quartet IV\nBismuth Quartet \n  \nABOUT THE COMPOSER \nBeyer was born on July 11\, 1888 in Leipzig. She studied piano and music theory in Germany. In 1924 she arrived in New York and went to study at the David Mannes School. After receiving a teacher’s certificate in 1928\, she took private lessons with Dane Rudhyar\, Ruth Crawford\, Charles Seeger\, and Henry Cowell. During this time she wrote music and several plays for various projects. She was familiar with Henry Cowell and other composers of his circle. During Cowell’s incarceration in San Quentin (1937-40)\, Beyer served as his secretary and took care of his scores. Towards the end of her life she began to receive a small amount of recognition by her peers\, but she died in poverty in New York\, on January 9\, 1944. \n  \nABOUT THE PERFORMERS \nThe Arcana New Music Ensemble is a Philadelphia based ensemble for performing interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional music in interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional spaces. Founded in 2016\, the ensemble comprises a flexible roster of more than 30 musicians and performs regularly in Philadelphia. Past concerts have featured the music of Julius Eastman\, Galina Ustvolskaya\, Morton Feldman\, Moondog\, among others. \n  \n\n  URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/johanna-beyer-music-of-the-spheres-night-two/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/BeyerLg2.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190309T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190309T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20181129T172743Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190123T001127Z UID:10000830-1552161600-1552168800@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Joshua Stamper's color as time DESCRIPTION:Bowerbird is pleased to present color as time\, an ensemble led by Philadelphia composer / performer Joshua Stamper that inhabits the blur between classical\, jazz\, folk\, and experimental textures. Playing at the edges of the composed and the improvised\, the music is inspired by Elliott Carter’s and Olivier Messiaen’s time-stretching compositional techniques\, immersed in a love for contrapuntal textures\, and occupies a harmonic world redolent of jazz musicians from Bill Evans to Duke Ellington to Wayne Shorter. \n\n\n\nPaul Arbogast – trombones\nBethany Brooks – piano\, keyboards\, accordion\nChristopher McDonald – keyboards\, electronics\, piano\nAnthony Nigro – woodwinds\nMatt Scarano – drums\nJoshua Stamper – guitar\, double-bass\, compositions\n\n\nBowerbird’s Steinway Model O piano was donated in honor of Virginia Francis Lease.\n\nthis light used to be a mountain by color as time URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/color-as-time/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/cat-image1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190209T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190209T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20181119T182338Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190211T174538Z UID:10000829-1549742400-1549749600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Strange City: Music of Claude Vivier DESCRIPTION:The music of the Canadian composer Claude Vivier (1948-1983) combines diverse influences–from the the cerebral constructions of the European avant-garde to exoticist borrowings from East Asia– into a haunting and inimitable artistic voice. Vivier’s intense and colorful music mirrors his life as an eccentric and bon vivant who met a tragic death at the age of 34. The Arcana New Music Ensemble will present a selection of this rarely performed music\, ranging from the shatteringly virtuosic piano work Shiraz to the ritualistic intonations of Et je reverrai cette ville étrange (“And I will see this strange city again”)\, which is based\, like much of his music\, on the unfolding elaboration of a single melodic line. \nBowerbird’s Steinway Model O piano was donated in honor of Virginia Francis Lease. \n\nPROGRAM \nGreeting Music\nNicholas Handahl\, flute\nEvan Ocheret\, oboe\nErin Busch\, cello\nDavid Hughes\, piano\nAndy Thierauf\, percussion \nHymnen An Die Nacht\nAlize Rozsnyai\, soprano\nDavid Hughes\, piano \nShiraz\nDavid Hughes\, piano \nPulau Dewata\nDavid Hughes\, piano\nAndy Thierauf\, percussion\nAshley Tini\, percussion \nEt Je Reverrai Cette Ville Étrange\nTessa Ellis\, trumpet\nEmma Hey\, viola\nErin Busch\, cello\nDavi Ciriaco\, bass\nDavid Hughes\, piano\nAndy Thierauf\, percussion \n\n\n  \nABOUT THE COMPOSER\nMany consider Claude Vivier the greatest composer Canada has yet produced. At the age of 34\, he was the victim of a shocking murder\, leaving behind some 49 compositions in a wide range of genres\, including opera\, orchestral works\, and chamber pieces. György Ligeti once called Vivier “the finest French composer of his generation.” \nBorn in Montréal of unknown parents\, Vivier was adopted at the age of three. After being expelled from a seminary at sixteen for “immature behavior”—from an early age\, Vivier was open about his homosexuality—he studied at the Conservatoire de Musique in Montréal\, where his teachers included Gilles Tremblay (composition) and Irving Heller (piano). In 1971\, Vivier left Canada for Europe\, studying electroacoustic music with Gottfried Michael Koenig in Utrecht\, and composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne. Although Vivier was influenced by the latter\, he nonetheless developed a highly personal language. Chants\, composed during this period\, represented for him “the first moment of my existence as a composer.” \nIn the fall of 1976\, Vivier took a long trip through Asia. A visit to Bali caused him to reevaluate his ideas concerning the role of the artist in society\, initiating a new period in his stylistic evolution. In the wake of this journey he wrote Shiraz (1977) for piano\, Orion (1979) for orchestra\, and his opera Kopernikus (1978–79). Above all\, it was in his cycle of pieces for voice and instrumental ensemble\, particularly Lonely Child (1980) and Prologue pour un Marco Polo (1981) that Vivier’s unique style crystallized. In a New York Times profile\, Paul Griffiths observed\, “The harmonic auras are suddenly more complex\, and the fantastic orchestration is unlike anything in Vivier’s earlier music\, or anyone else’s. Perhaps he found it by listening intently to bells and gongs\, for the huge chords that march along—around—the voice commonly have deep fundamentals with a fizz of interfering higher tones\, rather like metallic resonances.” During this period\, Vivier began to create texts in an invented language\, mirroring the singularity of his musical idiom. \nVivier spent the last months of his life in Paris. On March 12\, 1983\, Vivier was found stabbed to death in his apartment. His murderer\, a 19-year-old man who may have been a prospective lover\, was later caught and sentenced. \nVivier advocates include Mauricio Kagel\, Kent Nagano\, Reinbert de Leeuw\, David Robertson\, and Dawn Upshaw. Vivier’s music featured prominently in Holland Festival 2005\, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra opened its 2005–06 season with Lonely Child\, with David Robertson conducting and Dawn Upshaw as the soprano soloist. In 2005\, the Montréal Symphony Orchestra inaugurated the Claude Vivier National Prize for the best work by a Canadian composer. (Reprinted by kind permission of B&H) \nABOUT THE PERFORMERS \nThe Arcana New Music Ensemble is a Philadelphia based ensemble for performing interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional music in interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional spaces. Founded in 2016\, the ensemble comprises a flexible roster of more than 30 musicians and performs regularly in Philadelphia. Past concerts have featured the music of Julius Eastman\, Galina Ustvolskaya\, Morton Feldman\, Moondog\, among others. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/arcana-performs-vivier/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Vivier-1.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20190119T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20190119T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20181129T173344Z LAST-MODIFIED:20190119T190909Z UID:10000834-1547928000-1547935200@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Madrigals and Animals DESCRIPTION:WEATHER UPDATE: CONCERT IS HAPPENING AS PLANNED.   \nBowerbird is pleased to present the the extraordinary vocal ensemble Ekmeles performing Madrigals and Animals\, a program celebrating the ongoing history of madrigals – the complex multi-part songs born during the Renaissance period known for their creative text setting (including imitating animals calls).  Karola Obermüller’s mass:distance:time relates directly to this history\, with flickers of Machaut’s mass\, and text by renaissance writer Ungaretti. Salvatore Sciarrino’s 12 Madrigali is an epic exploration of the composer’s signature sound world of filigree and glissando\, and will be heard here in its U.S. premiere. Karola Bauckholt’s Instinkt\, also heard for the first time in the U.S.\, blurs the line between animal vocalization and contemporary music. Finally\, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf’s void – un delitto italiano dramatizes in madrigal form the murder of Italian artist Pier Paolo Pasolini. \n\n\n\nPROGRAM \nmass:distance:time – Karola Obermüller \nvoid – un delitto italiano –  Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf \n12 Madrigali – Salvatore Sciarrino \nInstinkt – Carola Bauckholt \n\nABOUT THE PERFORMERS \nCharlotte Mundy\, soprano\nElisa Sutherland\, mezzo soprano\nTim Keeler\, countertenor\nNickolas Karageorgiou\, tenor\nJeffrey Gavett\, baritone and director\nSteven Hrycelak\, bass \nEkmeles is a vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new and rarely-heard works\, and gems of the historical avant garde. New York is home to a vibrant instrumental New Music scene\, with a relative paucity of vocal music. Ekmeles was founded to fill the gap by presenting new a cappella repertoire for solo voices\, and by collaborating with these instrumental ensembles.  Director Jeffrey Gavett brings a hybrid vision to the group: he is an accomplished ensemble singer and performer of new works\, and holds degrees from Westminster Choir College and Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program. He has assembled a virtuoso group of colleagues who bring their own diverse backgrounds to bear on the unique challenges of this essential and neglected repertoire. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/madrigals-and-animals/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/42ClaytonRaithel3.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20181206T200000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20181206T220000 DTSTAMP:20260621T201550 CREATED:20181112T164535Z LAST-MODIFIED:20181206T152713Z UID:10000828-1544126400-1544133600@www.bowerbird.org SUMMARY:Gavin Bryars: Laude DESCRIPTION:… The music of Gavin Bryars falls under no category. It is mongrel\, full of sensuality and wit and is deeply moving. He allows you to witness new wonders in the sounds around you by approaching them from a completely new angle. With a third ear maybe… Michael Ondaatj \nArcana performs Gavin Bryars medieval inspired “Laude” (songs) with improvised interludes by electronic musician Jesse Kudler. \nEnglish composer Gavin Bryars (b. 1943) emerged in the late 60s\, playing bass with improvisers Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley\, and working with composers John Cage\, Cornelius Cardew and John White. His first major works – The Sinking of the Titanic (1969)\, originally released on Brian Eno’s Obscure label in 1975\, and Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet (1971) – were remarkable for their juxtaposition of music concrete and found sounds with rich\, beautiful harmonies. \nSince 2001 Bryars has been writing a number of pieces based on a large collection of 13th century ‘Laude’ -short mediaeval devotional songs to the Virgin Mary. Bryars notes\, “Over the last few years I have written a number of pieces for unaccompanied voice based on the texts and format of the “lauda”\, a large collection of songs which appears in a manuscript collection from thirteenth-century Cortona. These laude are religious (but non-liturgical) songs that were performed outside churches and in other public places. In setting these texts for voice I do not imitate the style of the original but rather the spirit and form\, and also relish the challenge of writing something quite austere and self sufficient.” \n\nPROGRAM \nLauda Dolce II for solo viola \nIt Never Rains for electric guitar\, viola\, cello\, double bass \nTre Lauda Dolce for solo cello \nLaude Cortonese Vol. 3 for soprano\, tenor\, viola\, cello\, and double bass \nLauda: The Flower of Friendship for electric guitar\, viola\, cello\, double bass \n\nTHE PERFORMERS\nAlize Rozsnyai\, soprano\nBryan Umberto Hoyos\, tenor\nBrendan Evans\, electric guitar\nVeronica Jurkiewicz\, viola\nJulia Morelli\, cello\nMatt Engle\, double bass \nand\nJesse Kudler\, electronics \nThe Arcana New Music Ensemble is an ensemble for performing interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional music in interesting\, beautiful\, and unconventional spaces. Founded in 2016\, the ensemble comprises a flexible roster of more than 30 musicians and performs regularly in Philadelphia. Past concerts have featured the music of Julius Eastman\, Galina Ustvolskaya\, Morton Feldman\, Moondog\, among others. URL:https://www.bowerbird.org/event/gavin-bryars-laude/ LOCATION:University Lutheran\, 3637 Chestnut Street\, Philadelphia\, PA\, 19104\, United States ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.bowerbird.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/bryars3-1.jpg END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR