Kimberly Young

Choreographer/dancer Kimberly Young received her B.F.A. in Dance from the University of Illinois in 2004. She has danced in and choreographed works that have been presented throughout the US and in a series of site-specific performances in Paris. She also has danced for choreographers Jen Schmermund and Todd Williams. Young is proud to be working for the third time with dancer Krista Nelson.

For tonight's performance, Young will collaborate with dancer Krista Nelson and composer/sound artist Stephan Moore on a new dance work for Roulette's spring season. The work pairs exacting unison, improvisation and vibration-based movement with a live sound score.

Jessica Feldman

Jessica Feldman is an intermedia artist with a background in sound, sculpture and installation. She creates work that asks its audience to engage in dynamic relationships with their physical surroundings, with each other, with larger communities and with political questions. Recent pieces tend toward interactivity and often occur in extremely public or extremely private spaces. She makes use of sculptural materials, video and choreographic practices in addition to sound. Works have been performed, installed and exhibited internationally at art galleries, concert halls, public parks, city streets, tiny closets and the internet. Recent and upcoming venues include The Kitchen, The Museum of Contextual Amputations (ongoing online project), The Stone, The Tank, Chelsea Waterside Park, Tenri Cultural Institute and various outdoor locations. Her work has received grants/awards from the LMCC, the Max Kade Foundation, Columbia University and the Experimental Television Center, among others.

Tonight, Feldman presents Final Statement , a social sculpture/sound installation that challenges traditional concepts of memorial and proposes that a memorial can be as interactive, fluid and volatile as memory itself. The work explores the conflation of a number of issues of recent concern: documentation, history, truth, recording technology and its failure, mortality, execution, the disjunction that technology allows between the killer and the killed, and communal decisions about resources, preservation and destruction.  

The vocabulary of objects used for this installation is intended to make the setting look as institutional as possible.   Multiple circuits installed in the space contain the recordings of testimonials (some of them final statements) from inmates on death row. Circuits self-destruct (by short-circuiting and burning out/electrocuting the recording) after a finite number of playbacks. Playback is activated by a sensor that the viewer touches. The sound plays quietly through one small, quiet speaker - so quietly that listeners have to place their ears against the speaker to hear the sound. In this way, the sound is made private and individual - only one person can receive the sound at once, and no one else can hear what he or she hears. Viewers/listeners are confronted with choices: to play the recording, to preserve the recording, to leave it for someone else, to share the information with a group, etc. Thus, the community's choices activate the work and the work documents the community's choices.

http://www.myspace.com/jessmedia

Michelle Nagai with Ursula Scherrer

Synthetic Hand Holding

Often described as an aura or ‘aetheric body’, the presence of significant electrical activity or intangible matter beyond the borders of the physical body has been recognized and extensively studied by scientists, philosophers, religious practitioners, spiritualists, near-death-experience alumini and students of the occult. Drawn to this aether like a moth to a lamp, composer/performer Michelle Nagai presents Synthetic Hand Holding, the latest in her series of performance installations collectively entitled Sitting Pieces. She is joined for the evening by video artist Ursula Scherrer. With the invitation to get wired up and reach out and touch someone, audience members will travel with Nagai and Scherrer on an intimate audio-visual journey through the revolving door of mind/matter into the land of mists and vapors. 

Brooklyn-based composer Michelle Nagai utilizes sound, physicality and concept to create site-specific performances, installations, radio broadcasts, dances and other interactions that address the human state in relationship to its setting. Recent creative projects incorporate through-composed and improvised music for acoustic instruments and electronics, as well as natural environments, found objects, video, costumes, texts and structures fabricated from a variety of media. In addition, she has developed a number of web-based projects centered on the topic of soundwalking. Nagai’s work has been presented throughout the US, Canada and Europe. She has been supported by the American Composers Forum, Eyebeam, Harvestworks, the Jerome and McKnight Foundations, Meet the Composer and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Nagai is a founding member of the American Society for Acoustic Ecology and holds a teaching certificate from the Deep Listening Institute.

Ursula Scherrer is a video artist and photographer living in New York. Her videos have been shown in festivals and galleries internationally and she had solo shows with her photographs at the Kentler International Drawing Space and at Studio Five Beekman. Scherrer is part of the international artist group Biwak which meets annually in isolated locations to focus on art. Scherrer’s work has been shown at the New York Video Festival 2004, BAC 36th International Film and Video Festival, Brooklyn Museum of Art, at the Chelsea Art Museum, at Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Dissonanze Festival in Rome, 9e Biennale de l'Image en Mouvement, Saint-Gervais Geneve, Galerie Rachel Haferkamp, Cologne, among others.

Pulse Jazz Composers - Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, Joseph C. Phillips Jr., JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider, Yumiko Sunami.

Sihr Halal

Music of Praise and Celebration

Ben Kono (flute, clarinet, shakuhachi, dizi, oboe, English Horn, soprano saxophone)
Steve Kenyon (clarinet, oboe, alto saxophone, bass clarinet)
Meg Okura (violin, erhu, voice)
William Martina (violoncello)
Jacob Garchik (laptop)
Yumi Kurosawa (koto)
Michael McCurdy (percussion)
Justin Ahiyon (percussion)

Sihr Halal features the premiere of six compositions that meld improvisation, contemporary classical and world music: a modern re-imagining of Western and non-Western musical traditions.

Pulse is a federation of award-winning composers who have joined forces to create and perform music that redraws traditional musical boundaries.

Pulse began in May 2004, when founder and Artistic Director Joseph C. Phillips Jr. assembled a group of composers -- including Darcy James Argue, Jamie Begian, JC Sanford, Joshua Shneider, and Yumiko Sunami -- who shared his commitment to music that defies categorization. Pulse combines influences from jazz, contemporary classical, and popular genres in a fluid, expressive, and engaging synthesis.

The Pulse Ensemble includes some of the finest musicians in New York City. Experienced in jazz, classical, rock, and world music, these players have also performed with Philip Glass, Charles Mingus, Alarm Will Sound, Gil Evans, Steve Reich, Wynton Marsalis, David Bowie, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Fred Hersch, Bill Evans, Joe Lovano, Maria Schneider, Dawn Upshaw, Terence Blanchard, Gamelan Dharma Swara, Paul Nash, John Abercrombie, Dave Douglas, and Michael Brecker.

Through regular concert performances and interdisciplinary projects, like our Eloquent Light series of music inspired by photography and our upcoming collaboration with a New York dance company, Pulse seeks to challenge and inspire. (Visit Pulse Blog for clips and interviews.)

Bill Horvitz

The Bill Horvitz Expanded Band in Tribute to Philip Horvitz

Steve Adams        sax flute
David Sewelson     baritone sax
Kyle Bruckman       oboe/English horn
Marty Ehrlich            clarinets
Sara Schoenbeck       bassoon
Steven Bernstein     trumpet
Darren Johnston          trumpet
Vincent Chancey       French horn
Marcus Rojas        tuba
Jason Hwang            violin
Katie Harlow            cello
Ken Filiano            bass
Wayne Horvitz       piano
Joseph Sabella        drums
Harris Eisenstadt       drums
Brian Thorstensen     spoken word
Robin Eschner       guitar/vocals
Robin Holcomb         vocals
Omid Zoufonoun       conductor
Bill Horvitz                  guitar/vocals, composer

"For those of you who didn't know my brother Philip, he passed away suddenly of heart failure on March 30, 2005 at the age of 44. He was an inspired writer, director, actor, dancer, choreographer, and a man who deeply loved many kinds of music. He was generous and kind, playful and curious . . . dramatic and impassioned. He had the largest group of extremely close friends of anyone I've ever known. I had been wanting to write something as a tribute to him, and honestly was pretty much unable to for quite a while. At some point, I began hearing the beginnings of new compositions that felt in some way related to Philip. I started putting these together and the resulting mix is a collection of folk, jazz, funk, and improvisational works that have come out of the enormous range of emotions I've felt since his death, and though they are not "his music" they have been influenced by him nonetheless. I'm delighted to say that we will be joined by Brian Thorstensen--compelling and wonderful writer and playwright--and Philip's treasured friend Brian will be reading some of his writing for Philip with music accompaniment." -Bill Horvitz

Bill Horvitz stretches the boundaries of guitar music and points it in new and exciting directions. Horvitz fuses traditional and extended techniques in a most inventive way; his strikingly personal instrumental vision endows the music with an infinite array of tonal color. His long and varied experience in the realms of jazz, rock, classical, folk, and new music have resulted in an entirely original compositional voice--a voice that is forceful and innovative, yet always intelligently accessible.

Since 1974, Horvitz has led both large and small ensembles. Between 1978 and 1988, he lived and worked in New York City, where he explored and extended the sonic range of the guitar in a wide variety of settings. He has collaborated with many composers and improvisers, notably J.A. Deane, Joseph Sabella, Elliott Sharp, John Zorn, Bobby Previte, Shelley Hirsch, Denman Maroney, Herb Robertson, Roy Campbell, Richard Dworkin, David Hofstra, George Cartwright, Phillip Johnston, Butch Morris, Myra Melford, George Lewis, Bill Laswell, Dave Sewelson, Eugene Chadbourne, Frank London, and Walter Thompson.

He currently leads the Bill Horvitz Band featuring Steve Adams on woodwinds and Harris Eisenstadt on drums. He also works with the improvising quartet Out by Five with Jon Raskin, George Cremaschi, and Garth Powell , the Harris Eisenstadt Ahimsa Orchestra, and Moe Staino's Moekestra! He has recently recorded the CD Tuolumne Songs, compositions for solo acoustic guitar. His latest project is TONE BENT, a vocal and guitar collaboration with composer and singer Robin Eschner, features original songs as well as covers, often twisting old favorites in new ways.

Horvitz collaborates frequently with poets and other writers, combining electric and acoustic music with spoken word. He composed the music for the theater piece Circus Proboscis: A Sneeze of Freaks and the films DamNaged and Gravity Hill and has created music for dance and art installation .

Dave Dove with Pauline Oliveros

Deep Syrup without the Sentiment, H-Town Oozing Upward

Maria Chavez (Peru, Houston, New York) - turntables, Chris Cogburn (Oregon, Austin, Houston, Austin) - percussion, David Dove (California, Houston) - trombone, Sandy Ewen (Canada, Houston, Austin) - guitar, Juan Garcia (Mexico, Houston, Arizona) - bass, Jason Jackson (Houston) - saxophones, clarinet, trombonophone, flute + Pauline Oliveros (Houston, New York) - accordion

Houston, Texas has long been the backdrop for idiosyncratic, isolated, and potent soundings from the musical underground.   What factors affect these renegade stirrings and outbursts from outside of the avant-garde mainstream? Extreme weather slows thought and action to surreal tempos and a broad sense of space and time has always marked much of Houston music across genres. This is most recently heard in the singularly syrupy street music of visionary Houstonian DJ Screw; but it has always been present in Houston's country, noise, punk, Latino, and avant-garde genres.    

Reckless, no-zoning, laissez-faire attitudes of public development correlate to certain cultural audacity. Unbridled immigration adds to this situation to make a city of unpatterned and chaotic diversity.   Houston is a perfect home for outsiders. Everyone in Houston is an outsider.

In 1997, Houston trombonist David Dove began working at MECA, an inner-city arts community center.   With a diverse group of teenagers, Dove developed a unique, non-traditional approach to music education based on improvisation and creativity.   In 2000, Pauline Oliveros invited Dove to start a branch of her Foundation in order to develop this pioneering work.   Deep Listening Institute Houston began in 2001.   In 2006, it became Nameless Sound, an independent, Houston-based, non-profit organization.

In 1999, Jason Jackson would ride his bike to MECA in the sweltering Houston heat with his instruments strapped to his back.   The teenager had a natural talent and he embraced all the musical experiences that he could access. At night, Jackson's mother would take him to sit in on blues jams at their Northside neighborhood bars.   In the afternoon, he came to MECA where, through Nameless Sound, he was in workshops by some of the most important names in Creative Music, including: Joe McPhee, Sun Ra Arkestra, Keith Rowe, Steve Lacy, Bhob Rainey, Leroy Jenkins, Sam Rivers, John Butcher and many others.   Jackson is currently a teacher in the Nameless Sound program.   

Percussionist Chris Cogburn (from Oregon, currently living in Austin), also met David Dove in 1999.   Cogburn and Dove became close collaborators in performance and workshop situations.   They continue to steadily hone an ever-evolving aesthetic that finds its way in the context teaching projects, their duo, and in collaborations with many international artists.   Cogburn is one of the most active improvising musicians in the US, organizing the No Idea Festival for several years and working with an array of musical and multi-disciplinary artists, such as: Liz Tonne, poet Joshua Beckman, and dancer Jennifer Monson.

As a teenager, Juan Garcia discovered the music of Xenakis and Penderecki on the radio in his hometown of Monterrey (Mexico).   Garcia came to Houston in 2000 and found Nameless Sound after seeing a workshop at Milby High School, a public school in a working class neighborhood near Houston's ship channel.   Garcia is currently getting his masters in performance.   In 2005, he played bass on the first ever US concert by another underground musician from Houston, Jandek.

In 2002, a teenaged Sandy Ewen , was spotted purchasing Sun Ra and Captain Beefhart Records at Houston's Sound Exchange.   It was only a matter of time before the Canadian transplant joined the group.   Soon, she would abandon traditional guitar playing for her 'sit-on-the-floor and lay her guitar down' approach.   At a young age, Ewen has carved out a distinct language hi-lighted by the mesmerizing harmonies of her 'chalk-on-the-strings technique'.   Ewen is a member of the band The Weird Weeds and plays with Tom Carter, among others.

Turntabilist Maria Chavez   (originally from Lima, Peru) was a club DJ when she met David Dove and came to MECA.   After her first workshop, she immediately "retired" from DJing and dedicated herself to musical improvisation.   Since then, she has toured extensively and performed with Kaffe Matthews, Thurston Moore, and Christina Carter, among others.   She currently lives in Brooklyn and owns Hounds Tooth, a vintage clothing store (that also doubles as a music venue).

David Dove met Pauline Oliveros through her mother Edith Gutierrez, a well-known Houston piano teacher and composer of children's music.   Dove became friends with Edith when the two worked together selling tickets for the Houston Ballet.   At the time, Dove would visit Edith and play boogie-boogie songs with her in her studio.   He was unfamiliar with Oliveros' history and significance and came to know her during her visits home to see her mother.   Oliveros became an important mentor to Dove and later she would take a similar role to the other Houston musicians.

Pauline Oliveros , composer, performer and humanitarian is an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, for four decades she has explored sound -- forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly effects those who experience it and eludes many who try to write about it.

Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment is unchanged. She can make the sound of a sweeping siren into another instrument of the ensemble. Through Deep Listening Pieces and earlier Sonic Meditations Oliveros introduced the concept of incorporating all environmental sounds into musical performance. To make a pleasurable experience of this requires focused concentration, skilled musicianship and strong improvisational skills, which are the hallmarks of Oliveros' form. In performance Oliveros uses an accordion which has been re-tuned in two different systems of her just intonation in addition to electronics to alter the sound of the accordion and to explore the individual characteristics of each room. (Tuning Chart)

Pauline Oliveros has built a loyal following through her concerts, recordings, publications and musical compositions that she has written for soloists and ensembles in music, dance, theater and interarts companies. She has also provided leadership within the music community from her early years as the first Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (formerly the Tape Music Center at Mills), director of the Center for Music Experiment during her 14 year tenure as professor of music at the University of California at San Diego to acting in an advisory capacity for organizations such as The National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts, and many private foundations. She now serves as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College. Oliveros has been vocal about representing the needs of individual artists, about the need for diversity and experimentation in the arts, and promoting cooperation and good will among people.

2:00 PM - Roulette Children's Concert - Duo Prism

Jesse Mills: violin, Rieko Aizawa: piano

Comprised of pianist Rieko Aizawa and violinist Jesse Mills, Duo Prism is a dynamic ensemble committed to the full spectrum of works composed for this instrumentation.   The metaphor of a three-sided prism represents the perfectly balanced relationship which these two artists together make with the composers of the works that they present.

In May of 2006, Duo Prism won 1st Prize at the Gaetano Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition in Verona, Italy.   Since its inception in 2005, Duo Prism has performed at Universities, Concert Halls, and Festivals throughout the United States.   Based in New York City, the duo enjoys opportunities to work with contemporary composers in addition to their exploration of the vast traditional repertoire.   They are in the process of performing the complete sonatas by Beethoven, and they aim to commission new works in the upcoming season.

Both Aizawa and Mills are graduates of the Juilliard School.   Aizawa also studied at The Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where she was the last pupil of Miecyslaw Horszowski.   A native of Japan, Ms. Aizawa made her United States debut in 1988 with the New York String Orchestra, conducted by Alexander Schneider, at the Kennedy Center and at Carnegie Hall.  

Mills earned a Grammy nomination for his work on a CD of Arnold Schoenberg's music, released by NAXOS in 2005.   He is known as a pioneer of contemporary works, a renowned improvisational artist, as well as a composer. Mills recently made his concerto debut at Chicago's Ravinia Festival, and he also recorded a disc on the Verve label with jazz pianist Makoto Ozone.

2nd annual Mother's Day Concert

Co-produced and Curated by Gisburg

On Sunday May 13th at 8:30 PM we are happy to celebrate a true Mother's Day with Composers and Artists, all who are Mothers.

Beth Griffith

Among the ensembles with which Ms. Griffith has appeared are: WNC, L'art pour l'art Ensemble 13, Musikfabrik, Collegium Vocale K^ln, Paris Nouvelle Orchestra Philharmonique,   Pocket Opera Nuernberg,   Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, London New Music,   Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and New York's DownTown Ensemble.  

"The singer Beth Griffith has trained her voice to the utmost virtuosity in vocal acrobatics, and, in addition, is in command of a phenomenal theatrical talent."(Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Cologne, Germany)    "Beth Griffith is a musician of such versatility the word "singer" is totally inadequate."(The Cue, Grahamstown, South Africa)

Janene Higgins' videos and digital media have been presented internationally at numerous festivals and galleries worldwide. Her latest work, "Through My Fingers" premiered at The 2006 New York Video Festival. She developed a technique for live video performance, and has collaborated with many of New York's pre-eminent composers and improvisors of new music, including duo performances with Elliott Sharp, Ikue Mori, Alan Licht, Okkyung Lee, Aki Onda, Nurit Tilles, and Zeena Parkins. She is a frequent artist-in-residence at the Experimental Television Center, and is a recent recipient of their Electronic Arts grant. She has given workshops on video performance at A.I.R. Gallery and the Chelsea Art Museum, NYC, and at the Watson Festival at Carnegie Mellon University.

Mari Kimura: Hailed by The New York Times as "a virtuoso playing at the edge,"composer/violinist Mari Kimura is widely admired for her revolutionary extended technique "Subharmonics" and for the solo performances of diverse programs including her works with interactive computer music. She has won numerous awards both in her native Japan and in the U.S., and has been invited to give solo performances in international festivals around the world including Spring in Budapest, Other Minds Festival in San Francisco, International Bartok Festival, Festival Cervantino in Mexico, ISCM World Music Days, and at IRCAM, Paris. Ms. Kimura's works have been supported by grants including Jerome Foundation, Arts International, Japan Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York Foundation of the Arts. Since September 1998, Ms. Kimura has been teaching a graduate class in Computer Music Performance at The Juilliard School in New York City. http://www.marikimura.com

Kyoko Kitamura Born in NYC, raised partially in Tokyo. Studied piano at the Juilliard School of Music prep division but later chose to become a TV reporter with Fuji Television, a national network in Japan. Was based in Paris for many years as their French news correspondent. Quit job, moved back to NYC in 1997, worked as a freelance magazine writer for a few years before getting back into music after a hiatus of close to 15 years. Honed craft as a sideperson-vocalist with NYC musicians such as bassist Reggie Workman, saxophonist Steve Coleman, Argentinean composer/conductor Laura Andel, while taking lessons whenever possible with various musicians/singers including pianist Marc Copland and vocalist Jay Clayton. Have frequently appeared in downtown venues such as the 55 Bar, Sweet Rhythm, the Roulette series, the Downtown Music Gallery. Currently working with the improvising chamber trio ok|ok with Mike McGinnis on reeds and Khabu Doug Young on guitar.

8:00 PM - Kris Davis

Born in Vancouver, Canada, Kris Davis began playing piano at the age of 6. She studied classical piano through the Royal Conservatory of Music and performed in various concert settings as a soloist and as an accompanist. In 1997 she moved to Toronto, Canada where she attended the esteemed University of Toronto on scholarship and studied jazz piano with Canadian pianists Brian Dickinson and Gary Williamson. Kris integrated herself into the Toronto jazz scene and performed as a freelance musician and as a leader of a trio and septet with Toronto musicians Kevin Turcotte and Mike Murley. In 1999, Kris was asked by the Duke Ellington Society to perform a solo piano piece for the anniversary of Ellington’s passing. She attended the Banff Centre for the Arts Summer Jazz Program in 1997 and 2000 on scholarship and had the opportunity to perform and work with renowned artists such as Joey Baron, Don Thompson, Kenny Wheeler and Kenny Werner.

 After graduating with a Bachelors degree from the University of Toronto in 2001, Kris was awarded a Canada Council Arts grant to study with prominent composer/pianist Jim McNeely and relocate to New York. She has since become an active participant in the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop, has performed with, among other local greats, Tony Malaby, John Riley, and Chris Speed, and has taught at the Maine Jazz Camp and the Hartwick Music Festival in Oneonta, New York. As a leader, Kris’ group has been heard in such New York listening rooms as the Knitting Factory, Cornelia Street Cafe, Detour, the 55 bar, NuBlu, Kavehaz, the Scandinavia House, ‘Concerts at One’ music series through the Trinity Church of New York, Lady Fest East and has toured Canada, and the coasts of the United States. In June of 2003, Kris recorded a number of her compositions on her first album, ‘Lifespan,’ released on the Spanish label Fresh Sound/New Talent Records which features New York greats Tony Malaby, Russ Johnson, Jason Rigby, Eivind Opsvik and Jeff Davis. ‘Lifespan’ was voted one of the top ten jazz records of 2004 in the New York magazine Jazz House and has been praised by critics from All About Jazz, Cadence, the Ottawa Citzen, Jazzman, JAZZNYTT from Norway and other publications in Italy, Spain, France and Greece.

9:00 PM - Lindha Kallerdahl

"If you want a brave and courageous woman here she is. The tone of her voice can be straight and almost cruel, soft and whispering, deep and dark and suddenly so light and high that it hurts. It's so shocking that you won't believe me."
Ingemar Glanzelius, Dagens Nyheter

"Lindha includes in her person an utterly sensitive musician often using very small gestures and an unbelievable voice equilibrist. Her improvisations have virtuosity and are spectacular but they are never too much. In fact her humble manners tell you about her deep honesty which in itself can disarm any reviewer."
Aron Hidman, Piteå Tidning

Benefit for Roulette - All tickets $15

Ned Rothenberg 1-2-3 - solo work, duos with Marcus Rojas and trio with
Brahim Fribgane (Oud, Cahone) and Marcus Rojas (Tuba) ----

Composer/Performer Ned Rothenberg has been internationally acclaimed for both his solo and ensemble music, presented for the past 25 years in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He leads the trio Sync, with Jerome Harris, guitars and Samir Chatterjee, tabla. Recent recordings include Intervals, a double CD of solo work, and Are You Be, by R.U.B. (Rothenberg, Kazuhisa Uchihashi and Samm Bennett) on Rothenberg's Animul label. Chamber music releases include Ghost Stories, on Tzadik and Power Lines on New World, along with Port of Entry, Sync's release on Intuition. Other collaborators have included Sainkho Namchylak, Paul Dresher, John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Yuji Takahashi and Evan Parker. Rothenberg generates a remarkable variety of new timbres through unique playing techniques including circular breathing allowing for extremely long melodic patterns, multiphonic chords, precise overtone control, elaborate rhythmic tonguing attacks, control of overlapping beat frequencies, combinations of the previous, and much more. His music evokes an emotional spectrum from humor to pathos, a feeling of rhapsodic melancholy to simple awe at encountering a sound never before experienced.

Matthew Welch

Matthew Welch and Wayang Kontemporer - two multimedia collaborations inspired by The Balinese shadow play. Premiere of "Borges and the Other", an opera performed by Welch's ensemble Blarvuster, Balinese dance by Desiree A. Seguritan, setting text by Jorge Luis
Borges. Also a Tzadik DVD Edition pre-Release performance of Bhima Swarga - electronic sound and projected animations of traditional Balinese paintings by Ikue Mori, with Gamelan Dharma Swara performing Welch's bagpipe inspired compositions for Balinese gamelan semara dana. "Borges and the Other" is a Roulette/Jerome Foundation commission.

Matthew Welch (b.1976) holds two university degrees in Experimental Music Composition, a BFA from Simon Fraser University (1999), and an MA from Wesleyan University (2001), studying with noted composers such as Barry Truax, Rodney Sharman, Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton. The eclectic breadth of his interests in Scottish bagpipe music, Balinese gamelan, minimalism, improvisation and rock converge in compositional amalgams ranging from traditional-like bagpipe tunes to electronic pieces, improvisation strategies and fully notated works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestra and non-western instruments.

8:00 PM - Janis Mercer

While Away/On Friendship is a series of tape, and piano and tape pieces influenced by travel, language, culture and friendship. Painter Tammy Nguyen collaborates with paintings for two works, Sound Portraits and Citytudes .  

http://home.pacbell.net/catmcman/janismercer.htm

Janis Mercer, composer/pianist, lives in San Francisco. After writing chamber and vocal music, culminating in her large-scale Mass For Friends , she has turned to electronic music. She was trained in the Midwest and California and performs throughout the U.S. Her music has been heard in the U.S., Austria and The Netherlands.

9:30 PM - Cyrus Pireh and Anthony Ptak

Cyrus Pireh is the world's greatest living electric guitarist.

Anthony Jay Ptak is an experimental thereminist, artist, and composer.

Bernadette Speach

Through her efforts as an administrator, fundraiser, presenter and educator with organizations and institutions such as Composers' Forum, Inc. (1984 - present), the Alternative Museum (1987 - 1993), Musicians of Brooklyn Initiative (1987 - 1991), MusicVistas, Inc. (1988 - present), The New School University (1994 - 1998), The Kitchen (1995 - 1998), Women Make Movies (1998 - 1999), CUNY - Brooklyn (1999 - present), Engine 27 (1999 - 2001) and Electronic Music Foundation (1999 - present), Bernadette continues to bring the work of a broad range of contemporary artists to audiences in the New York metropolitan area and beyond. Throughout these years and to the present time, Bernadette has followed three career paths: composer/performer, presenter/arts administrator and teacher/lecturer/educational consultant.

Her work as a composer embraces a variety of styles, and includes solo, chamber and orchestral works. In recent years PARALLEL WINDOWS - UNFRAMED for piano and orchestra was performed by Anthony de Mare and the Absolute Chamber Orchestra, and WITHIN for piano and orchestra was performed by Ursula Oppens and the Brooklyn Philharmonic under the direction of Lukas Foss. Her second string quartet, LES ONDES POUR QUATRE, was premiered by the Arditti String Quartet in Darmstadt, Germany (where Ms. Speach lectured as a part of the composition faculty) and at the Ravinia Festival, where it received its American premiere.

Her works have been played by numerous performers including: pianists Anthony de Mare, Yvar Mikhashoff, Kathleen Supove and Nurit Tilles; vocalists Joan La Barbara, Cheryl Marshall and Thomas Buckner; percussionists Robert Previte, Robert Schulz and Jan Williams; cellist Frances-Marie Uitti; The Arditti String Quartet and Soldier String Quartet, Maelstrom Percussion Quartet, The Omni Ensemble, Talujon Percussion Quartet, Leroy Jenkins' Sting, The Contemporary Ensemble of the University of Nottingham in England, The Abel/ Steinberg/Winant Trio, Fidelio, Zeitgeist and Auros Group for New Music.

Bernadette was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Composers Fellowship in 1992. In the same year she received a commission through the American Composers Forum with funding by The Jerome Foundation to compose for the ensemble Zeitgeist, as well as commissioning funds from The New York State Council on the Arts through MusicVistas to continue her collaboration with Thulani Davis. Bernadette was a Music Composition Fellow through the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship program in 1998 - 1999.

Matana Roberts

Matana  Roberts' BLACK MAN
      
One of the first   “picture book” texts that   Saxophonist Matana Roberts was given to read as a child was Joel  Augustus Roger’s Africa’s Gift to America.  The first edition originally published in 1961   was created by a man who spent   over 50 years devoting his life to research  that showed that people of African orgin  had a history that was an inseperable  part of the history of mankind. The quinteseential  rennasaince man, J.A. Rogers was an  artist, Pullman porter, journalist, linguist,  author  and scholar of the highest  degree. Though unable to afford to recieve a college education, he created his  own scholarship through through a voracious reading habit that allowed him to  expand his sometimes controversial   documentation of the contributions of black folk to America.  His single   major mission in life was to affirm the humanity of the African  personality, so that young people would have a document to inspire them not to  be ashamed of their cultural legacy. Matana Roberts’ father was a recipient of  this  documentation in his youth and  was able to pass on this positive piece of  important  documentation to his children.  And so it was.
     

In this age of  fifty  bullet armed force brutality strategies =800Saxophonist  Matana Roberts has  decided to pay homage to the positive  role of black manhood in her life and her  music. Based on  the works  J.A. Rogers, as well as her own personal  research into the minds of   men of the  diasporic persuasion that she has admired and been inspired by she is using  this  as an artistic  backdrop for reflection  that she will piece together in a celebration  of sound. Written for mini brass band, language ensemble and movement master.
  
Chapter 5 of the Coin Coin Continuum.

Rocco Di Pietro with K. Supove

Rocco Di Pietro was born in Buffalo, New York in 1949. He studied composition and piano with Hans Hagen and Lukas Foss in Buffalo and at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood. He studied in New York and Darmstadt with Bruno Maderna and was a freelance composer for twenty years before earning degrees from SUNY Buffalo and Vermont College.He became an interdisciplinary adjunct professor teaching in prisons and on many college campuses throughout New York, Ohio, and California. He toured California prisons as artist-in-residence and conducted four years of interviews in Chicago with Pierre Boulez. The resulting book, DIALOGUES WITH BOULEZ, was recently published by Scarecrow Press. He composed Prison Dirges I for the Kronos String Quartet. Di Pietro's music has been performed by many musicians in venues throughout the world. These include: Christiane Edinger, Christobal Halffter, Lukas Foss, Julius Eastman, Bruno Maderna, Frances Marie Uitti, Yvar Mikhasoff, Jan Williams, Anthony Miranda, Gunther Schuller, Dennis Russell Davies, the Buffalo Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, CETA Orchestra, Ojai Ensemble Sonor, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Columbus Wind Orchestra, Earlham String Orchestra, the Avant Collective, and the Madd Lab Orchestra. Venues include: The Kitchen, La Mama, Bang On A Can Festival, in New York, Contemporary Music Society of Seoul, South Korea and American Academy in Rome among others. Recent performances of LOST have been featured at Dartmouth College and Stanford University. Recently, his work has developed on several fronts. Sound text radio works have developed simultaneously with his teaching at Columbus State College of electronic music and other courses in the Humanities. These works have been broadcast on radio stations in Seattle, Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, New York and in Europe, in Naples, Rome, Vienna, Prague, Budapest etc.