Matt Sharrock, percussion

Friday February 24th, 8pm:
Painting White Shadows
-text generated performance art-

with

Ellen Godena, movement
Steve Norton, reeds, celeste
Morgan Evans-Weiller, violin
Veronica Barron, voice
Melanie Hedlund, voice
Jessica Newman, voice
Troy Kidwell, voice
Tony Leva, prepared upright bass

+
Lucio Menegon, singing bowls

20th Century Limited:

Jessica Newman voice

Peter H Bloom flute

Pam Marshall french horn

Michael Dobiel saxophone

Valerie Thompson cello

Tony Leva bass

+

Kevin Frenette Trio

{Kevin Frenette guitars / Todd Brunel clarinetss /John McLellan drums}

+

Douglas Urbank films

Jorrit Dijkstra saxophone

John McDonald Solus for solo flute [1993]

Thadd Comstock- microtonal pieces for solo acoustic guitar [2009-11]

Joshua H. DeScherer Labyrinthine Trilogy, Book II [2009]

Michael DobielPropinquity [2009]
for solo double bass

Dennis Shafer Berio Sequenza VIIb [1969/93]

Josh Hahn canonic flute duet [2011]

Kevin Laba At the Ends of the Waves [2011]
for flute & cello

Ken Field alto sax

Sagit Zilberman alto sax

Steve Norton alto sax

Jorrit Dijkstra alto sax

Joshua Jefferson alto sax

+

Tom Hall Trio:

Tom Hall saxophones

Eric Hofbauer guitar

Marty Ballou bass

+

Four Elements:

Paul Erlich guitar

Chris Baum: violin

Jo Ball bass

Karen Kocharyan drums

+

Duck That!

Steve Norton Reeds, game calls, small percussion

Joshua Jefferson Saxophone, game calls, etc

Angela Sawyer Electronics, game calls, etc

The Quilisma Consort:

Lisa Gay: recorders
Carolyn Jean Smith: recorders
Mel Fitzhugh: recorders

The Other Georgia:

Jim Desmond, Pirveli (Tenor)
Joel Sindelar, Meore (Baritone)
David Gillman, Bani (Bass)

Joe Morris, Guitar /Tom Plsek, Trombone

‘Tips’, music by Steve Lacy; text by Georges Braque:
Noell Dorsey, Soprano
Matt Samolis, Flute
Peter Bloom, Bass Flute
Bodydrama Dance Co.: Joe Burgio, Rachel Rosner, Betty Wang, Walter Wright

Tips is a song cycle composed by Steve Lacy in 1979 which sets short text selections from the notebooks of painter Georges Braque to music for voice and soprano and alto saxophones. For the saxophones, we’ve substituted flute and bass flute ’cause, well, that’s what we play. I’m particularly pleased by the combination of timbres and the possibilities for extending these given the improvisational proclivities of the players. Not really jazz, not really classical, Lacy’s song cycles (there are several) are “art songs” of another sort—usually pithy repositories of modernist wisdom, nearly always highly concentrated and concise, “casebook cantatas” as he describes Tips in his liner notes. In this instance, Lacy has selected instructive aphorisms for the benefit of artists. (Hence the title.) We have added choreography and improvised movement for this performance as well, thanks to the efforts of Dancers Joe Burgio + company.

BIOGRAPHIES:

Trombone explorer Tom Plsek has been stretching trombones and our concepts of them for years.  His compositions include pieces for ensembles and solo trombone often incorporate improvisation, technology, and performance art.  Tom has performed with such artists as Jerry Hunt, Malcolm Goldstein, Phill Niblock, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Joe Morris, Marjorie Morgan, and with the Outsider Quartet.  He has performed at New Music American in 1983 and 1986.  He is a member of the Mobius Artists Group and Chair of the Brass Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston. The Gu series, a monthly performance series created with Marjorie Morgan and based on one of the hexagrams from the I Ching, was selected by the Boston Globe as one of the top ten dance events in Boston for the year 2002.  He performed a solo concert at the Forfest Festival in Kromeriz, Czech Republic in the summer of 2004.  In May 2005 his piece “Collateral Damage Noted for 100+ musicians was premiered on Boston city hall plaza to critical acclaim. More recently he performed as guest composer/performer with EnsoArts in Galway, Ireland in November 2005, the Hochschule fur Musik in Trossingen, Germany in May 2006 and the Acoustical Society of America in Providence, Rhode Island, in June, 2006.  He is a member of the Acoustical Society of America for which he has given many presentations mostly about the use of technology with brass instruments.  He is featured on several recording including “Firehouse Futurities,” 1999: Rastascan Records (BRD038) and Tautology (005); and “Jump or Die; 21 Braxton Compositions 1992,” Music and Arts (CD-843).  The CD “MVP LSD” with Joe Morris, guitar and John Voigt, bass was released 2009 and has received numerous positive reviews.

The Other Georgia- David Gillman, Joel Sindelar and Jim Desmond- are a virtuoso vocal trio specializing in folk music from the country of Georgia, in the Caucasus mountains of Eastern Europe. Ranging from the haunting to the frenetic, this ancient polyphony has been passed from father to son for at least a thousand years before being notated, recorded and otherwise available to singers outside of the country. Originating at the sacred wine toasting feasts of the villages and in the frescoed caves of the monasteries in one of Europe’s seven oldest civilizations, this rich musical tradition has instantly mesmerized lovers of close harmony worldwide.David, Joel and Jim are musicians who grew up in the United States and independently fell in love with this music and visited the country of Georgia to learn more about it. Meeting in Boston in 2006, they formed The Other Georgia and have performed at festivals all over New England since then. In the summer of 2009 they recorded their first, self-titled album, which is available as a physical CD through CDbaby, or digitally on both CDbaby and Itunes.

Vortex Ensemble “Lost Angel” (premiere) +group improvisation
Sara Bielanski, mezzo soprano
Matt Samolis, flute
Todd Brunel, bass clarinet
Rob Bethel, cello

Charles Turner-”Sonata for Violin and Harp” (premiere)
Nash Ryder, violin
Anna DeLoi, harp

Lou Cohen “Open Sounds” for unspecified instruments (premiere)
Todd Brunel, reed
Steve Norton, reed
Kathryn Schulmeister, bass
Ashley Addington, flute
Melanie Hedlund, accordion
Duane Reed, guitar
Randy Winchester, trombone
Valerie Thompson, cello
Rob Bethel, cello
Charles Turner, shakuhachi
Jane Wang, bass
Matt Samolis, flute

Pieces for flute & cello by Gainey, Saariaho, Carter, Ran.
Ashley Addington, flute
Rachel Arnold, cello

Todd Brunell, clarinet
Rob Bethel, cello
duo music by Paul Hindemith

Biographies:

Lou Cohen has composed music since age 12. He studied mathematics at MIT, and has studied music privately. Composition teachers include John Cage, Ernst Levy and Alan Kemler. He studied harpsichord and early music performance practice with John Gibbons. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. In the early 60s Cohen promoted new music in the Boston area by producing concerts in collaboration with Christian Wolff, in which the New York School was heavily represented. For a long time afterwards he composed in isolation. In April 2004 he produced his first concert in more than 40 years, in collaboration with the electro-acoustic group ONDA. Since then he has appeared as a laptop improviser in numerous concerts in the Greater Boston area. His collaborations with video artist Bebe Beard, and his own comp uter animations have been shown in many galleries throughout the United States, and in film festivals around the world.He is co-director of Opensound, a Greater Boston concert series featuring electro-acoustic improvisation. Opensound is sponsored in part by the Somerville Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Todd Brunel is an innovative, critically acclaimed clarinetist and saxophonist, who performs extensively as a crossover classical and jazz musician. As a classical freelance musician, his busy performance schedule includes ALEA III, The Boston Chamber Ensemble, The Lexington Symphony, The Bulgarian Virtuosi, The Waltham Symphony and the Claflin Hill Symphony. Brunel has made guest appearances at: Carnegie Hall, the SEAMUS Festival at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the Boston and New England Conservatories, The Longy School of Music, The Manhattan School, The SEAMUS Festival and The Winter Sun Music Festival with legendary pianist Daltin Baldwin. He has recorded for PBS and collaborates frequently with pianist Amira Acre, performing an extensive clarinet repertoire. He is a founding member of the Circadian Rhythm Kings (2008 Innova Recordings), Musaner, the Palimpest Ensemble, Neon Juju, a literary music ensemble, the Lilli Lewis Project, The Rivera Brunel Method, and the Vortex Other Dimension Ensemble. His work with conductor and composer Lawrence ‘Butch’ Morris includes Conductions recorded in NYC and performances in Boston, with the New England Skyscraper. Mr. Brunel received an MM from the Brooklyn College Conservatory, where he was a teaching assistant to Paul Shelden. He holds a BM from the Boston Conservatory of Music, where he studied clarinet with Atilio Poto. Other clarinet teachers have included Pasquale Cardillo, Thomas Martin and Jonathan Cohler. He has pursued additional graduate study at the Longy School of Music as a scholarship recipient, the University of North Texas and Boston University. He was a scholarship participant at the Aspen Music Festival and has studied composition with Sam Headrick and jazz improvisation with Bob Mover and Peter Cassino.

Flutist Ashley Addington and ‘Cellist Rachel Arnold are actively engaged in a project commissioning several new works for flute and cello. In August of 2009, Ashley and Rachel were invited by New Music Hartford to perform a series of short pieces for flute and cello written in a “60/60” contest entered by composers all across the country.  Inspired by the enthusiastic response in writing for these two instruments, Ashley and Rachel created a project to commission many of the selected performances culminating in a recording session in August of 2010 funded by a Subito Grant of the American Composers Forum.

Rachel Arnold, a Los Angeles native, is an active chamber musician and teacher living in the Boston area. She has performed in numerous chamber music festivals including Zephyr (Italy), Bowdoin, and the Summer Institute of Contemporary Performance Practice at the New England Conservatory. Rachel currently performs with the Callithumpian Consort, Juventas Ensemble, and Embryonic Noise. Her jazz quartet CD, When Manatees Attack, featuring music by percussionist Brad Dutz, was heralded in the- Jazz Times “The musicians play with precision but let the music breathe naturally…the solos are creative.” She has been a member of the Los Angeles-based Partch Ensemble, in which she played the microtonal music of Harry Partch on an adapted viola and a kithara (a 72-stringed harp-like instrument). Rachel is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, where she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and the Longy School of Music where she earned her Master of Music degree (with distinction). Her principal teachers are Erika Duke-Kirkpatrick and Terry King. Rachel can be heard on the pfMentum, Cold Blue, 7Tangram Records, Afrasia, and Innova record labels. A multi-talented artist, Rachel also teaches yoga and is a passionate crafter.

Originally from Texas, Ashley Addington earned a Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from The University of Texas at Austin and completed additional graduate work at Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her principal teachers include Marianne Gedigian, Robert Willoughby, Jacqueline Hofto, and Alison Young. She has performed with the New England Philharmonic, Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Opera Collaborative, Cape Cod Symphony, and the Austrian American Mozart Academy Orchestra. Ashley was a participant in the 2008 National Flute Association Young Artist Competition and a semi-finalist in 2008 Plowman Chamber Music Competition.Ashley Addington enjoys working with composers and has premiered works by several emerging artists in the Austin and Boston area. Other new music projects include performances with Amp Music (NYC), the Boston CyberArts Festival, New Music Hartford, and such venues as the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Lilypad, and the Outpost in Boston. Ashley has participated twice as a fellow in the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory. Ashley currently teaches flute in the Boston area.

-Improvisational works -

Text fragments of the Popol Vuh
with:
John Voigt – Narration, bass
Linda Clave – spontaneous visual art
Curt Newton – percussion
Matt Samolis – flute, flax

Josh Jefferson -  saxophone etc.
Angela Sawyer- voice, game calls, electronics

Tom Plsek – trombone,
Voigtdog – bass

Liz Tonne - solo voice

ARTIST BIOS:

John Voigt – Electro-Acoustic-Bass. Occasional performances with  Chick
Corea, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Keith Jarrett, Bill T. Jones, Captain
Kangaroo, Tuli Kupferberg (Fuggs), Rex Harrison, Jemeel Moondoc, Thurston
Moore (Sonic Youth). Broadway Musicals: Hello Dolly, Hair, My Fair Lady.
His fiction and non-fiction prose, and poetry have been published by major
publishing houses . He was Library Director at Berklee College, and taught
at Mass. College of Art. Lectured and former member of the Board of
Overseers at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers.
Recorded on Aum Fidelity, Ayler (Sweden), Box Holder, Cadence, Clean Feed
(Portugal), Eremite, MoonFood, and RRRecords.
http://art-energy.org

Trombone explorer Tom Plsek has been stretching trombones and our concepts of them for years. His compositions include pieces for ensembles and solo trombone often incorporate improvisation, technology, and performance art. Tom has performed with such artists as Jerry Hunt, Malcolm Goldstein, Phill Niblock, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Joe Morris, Marjorie Morgan, and with the Outsider Quartet. He has performed at New Music American in 1983 and 1986. He is a member of the Mobius Artists Group and Chair of the Brass Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston. The Gu series, a monthly performance series created with Marjorie Morgan and based on one of the hexagrams from the I Ching, was selected by the Boston Globe as one of the top ten dance events in Boston for the year 2002. He performed a solo concert at the Forfest Festival in Kromeriz, Czech Republic in the summer of 2004. In May 2005 his piece “Collateral Damage Noted for 100+ musicians was premiered on Boston city hall plaza to critical acclaim. More recently he performed as guest composer/performer with EnsoArts in Galway, Ireland in November 2005, the Hochschule fur Musik in Trossingen, Germany in May 2006 and the Acoustical Society of America in Providence, Rhode Island, in June, 2006. He is a member of the Acoustical Society of America for which he has given many presentations mostly about the use of technology with brass instruments. He is featured on several recording including “Firehouse Futurities,” 1999: Rastascan Records (BRD038) and Tautology (005); and “Jump or Die; 21 Braxton Compositions 1992,” Music and Arts (CD-843). The CD “MVP LSD” with Joe Morris, guitar and John Voigt, bass was released 2009 and has received numerous positive reviews.

Liz Tonne is a Vocal Artist whose work is inspired by the unorthodox use of the human voice. Sometimes this manifests in singing, but more often, mimics sound; bird songs, mechanical devices, unknown languages, or vocalizations that conjure forgotten memories. She is an improviser and an interpreter of contemporary composition using voice as a sound source. She is the long time member of experimental music ensembles The BSC and undr quartet.

$10. donation

Three performance groups sure to inspire!

From Brooklyn- Lyrebird (Matt Darriau Katie Down). Improv and world music for flutes & reeds.

Matt Dariau & Katie Down

Matt Darriau

Katie Down

+

Liz Roncka, movement & Haggai Cohen Milo, bass. Improvisational dance performance.

Liz Roncka & Haggai Cohen Milo

+

Glass night with M&G Ensemble members Randy Winchester, Thadd Comstock, & Heather Townsend. With special guest, Katie Down, glass glockenspiel and other glass objects. Plus David Michael Curry, viola & saw, Jane wang, bass, and Matt Samolis, flute.

http://nyokai.com

On Friday May 21st, 8pm, there will be a special benefit event for Phil Nyokai James, who recently suffered a major stroke. There will be refreshments and live performances by artists who know Nyokai, including:

ELIZABETH REIAN BENNETT is the first woman to be certified a Grand Master of the shakuhachi and one of only a handful of western players trained in traditional Japanese music. She has studied and performed with Living National Treasure Aoki Reibo, recognized as Japan’s foremost shakuhachi instrumentalist, for 30 years, and teaches in the World Music program at Tufts University.

JENNIFER HICKS- a solo movement piece with recorded piano music performed by Phil in 2009.
PETER BLOOM- an unaccompanied alto-flute version of the Bach Chaconne (BWV 1004)
MATT SAMOLIS- a piece for flute & guitar written by Phil James
RYOANJI- A graphic score by John Cage for two flutes, two voices, and percussion obligatto. With Noell Dorsey & Liz Tonne, voices/ Peter Bloom & Matt Samolis, flutes/ Curt Newton, percussion

…and more! Check back for updates as performers are confirmed.

TRIO FLUTE CD- Recorded in August 2009 at Church of the Advent is off to press, and will be available soon online and at the benefit. Features solos, duos, and trios by Phil Nyokai, Peter Bloom, and Matt Samolis!

Phil’s wife, Lara, has been keeping a heartwarming and inspiring blog of their life since the stroke:
http://homegrown-hope.blogspot.com

Directions to the benefit:

http://theadvent.org/geninfo/direct.htm

Debbie & the Bullets-Debbie and the Bullets have been a lot of things to a lot of people in a lot of different places. Right now they’re one man (Francis Joseph) singing folk songs about family, loss and redemption. The music is real. The tenor is honest. The scope collides. Debbie and the Bullets will be playing a set of new music written over a two year span in Taldy Korgan, Kazakhstan.

Greg Mullen- I make music with a guitar and hands and a mouth. Sometimes those hands and mouth and guitar are joined by keys, bass, trumpets and drums and friends. My first record, “The Hungry Ocean” was released at the beginning of Spring 2010. It is the culmination of twenty-four years of looking at light.

Avi Jacobs- Avi Jacob is an old soul. His songs fit square in the American tradition of the wobbly cry of Hank Williams, the holler of Leadbelly, the space of Van Morrison, and the time of Bob Dylan. He is a man made to browse the New England shoreline, foraging for broken hearts and twisting heart-song melodies from them.

Friday April 23rd, 8pm
Church of the Advent Library
30 Brimmer St Boston (Beacon Hill)
-$10. donation for the artists-

http://theadvent.org/geninfo/direct.htm

Glenn Pettit

Avi Jacobs

Debbie & the Bullets

Greg Mullen