Rebekah Heller

Thursday, November 1st, ISSUE is pleased to present WITH, the second evening of FOR/WITH, a mini-festival featuring new commissions and works by iconoclast composers Annea Lockwood, Ashlely Fure, Felipe Lara, and Wadada Leo Smith. Now in its second year, the FOR/WITH series celebrates the collaborative process between performer and composer, the spirit of spontaneity in contemporary music, and the ever-present search for the new.

The second evening of the series opens with the world premiere of Becoming Air by Annea Lockwood, followed by the U.S. premiere of Library on Lightning by Ashley Fure performed by Rebekah Heller, current ISSUE Artist-In-Residence Brandon Lopez, and Nate Wooley. The evening also features Felipe Lara’s recent composition Metafagote performed by Rebekah Heller, and, lastly, the world premiere of the duo rendition of Wadada Leo Smith’s Red Autumn Gold, performed by Wooley and Leo Smith himself.

Praised for her “flair” and “deftly illuminated” performances by The New York Times, bassoonist Rebekah Heller is a uniquely dynamic solo and collaborative artist. Called "an impressive solo bassoonist" by The New Yorker, she is fiercely committed to expanding the modern repertoire for the bassoon. Her debut solo album of world premiere recordings (featuring five new pieces written with and for her), 100 names, was called "pensive and potent" by The New York Times and her newly-released second album, METAFAGOTE (also entirely made up of pieces created with and for her), is receiving wide acclaim. As Artistic Director and bassoonist of the renowned International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Rebekah performs all over the world. Not only is she committed to advancing the music of our time, she is deeply engaged in working with younger musicians to continue the ICE-y legacy of fearless exploration and deep collaboration. She is also a committed advocate, through platforms like ICEcommons (a free, crowdsourced index of newly composed music), for underrepresented voices and outrageous experimentation.