DARMSTADT: “Classics of the Avant Garde” presents its second annual ESSENTIAL REPERTOIRE festival
This year’s festival celebrates the 30th anniversary of the seminal New Music New York concerts curated by Rhys Chatham and held at The Kitchen (then on Mercer Street), which put the still-burgeoning Downtown Scene – at the crossroads of minimalism, interdisciplinary performance, and various strains of post-punk – under a mainstream spotlight and redefined the presentation of experimental music.
DARMSTADT’s cross-section of composers involved in the original festival includes “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Connie Beckley, David van Tieghem, Jill Kroesen, Jon Gibson, Ned Sublette, Peter Gordon, Peter Zummo, Petr Kotik, Phill Niblock, and a performance of Meredith Monk’s Dolmen Music by the M6. Invited composers have been asked to present compositions of theirs from the 1970s, if not the actual pieces presented at the original Kitchen concerts. The festival will be held from December 3 through 5 at ISSUE Project Room. All concerts begin at 8pm. Tickets will be $20 at the door/$15 advance (available online at http://www.issueprojectroom.org or for cash purchase at Other Music.)
Thursday, December 3 at 8pm
Connie Beckley – “Sound Split” (1976), “Tiptoe” (1979), “Showdown” (1976); Performed by the composer
“Blue” Gene Tyranny – “Harvey Milk (Portrait from ‘How to Do It’/A circuit to help generate the feeling of meaning)” (1978), “The White Night Riot” (1979); Electronic sound pieces prepared by the composer (in attendance), special guest performers TBA
Petr Kotik – Excerpt from There is Singularly Nothing (1973); Performed by the S.E.M. Ensemble with special guests
For more information on Connie Beckley, visit: http://conniebeckley.com/ConnieBeckleyBIO.htm
For more information on “Blue” Gene Tyranny, visit: http://www.bluegenetyranny.com/bio.html
For more information on Petr Kotik, visit: http://www.semensemble.org/pk.html