*This performance marks Maria Chavez’s last performance as an artist in residence at ISSUE Project Room
Maria Chavez creates electro-acoustic sound pieces utilizing a collection of needles that range from immaculate to broken (“Pencils of Sound”) and a collection of records in various conditions (“The Palette”). “As an active member of the improvised music scene, she has earned a reputation as one of the most alluring electro-acoustic improvisers in the underground”. She has collaborated with improvisers from across the country and around the world, notably guitarist Christina Carter most recently known for her work with DJ Shadow and bands Scorses and Charlambides. Their duo, Weird Cookie, toured the East Coast in 2003 to much acclaim. In 2004, Chavez and London-based laptop improviser Kaffe Matthews won a DLI grant to record in Kingston, New York. Chavez has also performed with Tatsuya Nakamura, Ricardo Arias and Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth in her debut performance in New York City. She was recently selected for a resident musicianship at Dia: Beacon Events with Merce Cunningham Dance Company, to begin in 2007.