ISSUE Project Room celebrates the 20th Anniversary of its Artists-In-Residence (AIR) program throughout 2026 with performances by current residents and returning alumni. This anniversary season highlights AIRs whose work reflects the ongoing evolution of a much broader community of experimental artists who have helped shape ISSUE for over twenty years.
Saturday, February 21st at 8pm, ISSUE presents 2026 Artist-In-Residence Webb Crawford’s first commission, Men dreme of thing that never was ne shall, at the 22 Boerum Pl. theater. A luthier whose practice centers on modern re-imaginings of historical stringed instruments, Crawford’s work explores their recontextualization within experimental music, and the exchange dynamics of multi-player sound objects. For this commission, Crawford incorporates two custom-built tromba marina—a late-medieval, early Renaissance monochord with a flared body that could extend up to seven feet. Referred to in German convents as the “nun’s violin," the tromba marina served as a favored basso-continuo surrogate for brass instruments, which were deemed unseemly for nuns to play.
For the premiere, Crawford (tenor tromba) is joined by Sean Ali (baritone tromba), Adam O’Farrill (trumpet), and Jack Langdon (self-made PVC serpent horn). Together, the quartet investigates the tromba’s close relationship to its aerophone counterparts—strings in imitation of brass.
Webb Crawford is a guitarist, tenor banjoist, improviser and instrument-builder whose work considers relationships between maker, instrument, and player, traditional design conventions, and established performance practices. In 2017, they worked with MASS MoCA to restore instruments built by composer and luthier Gunnar Schonbeck, and later created replicas of Schonbeck’s “triangular cellos” for Bennington College. Crawford has led and participated in instrument-building workshops at The Cooper Union, Connecticut College, the Bennington Museum, and Carnegie Hall (with Bash the Trash), and has worked for ten years as a guitar repair technician.
Sean Ali is a composer, improvisor, multi-instrumentalist, and poet. His work explores themes of fractured selves, the unreliability of memory, violence in historical and political rhetoric, dreams and hallucinatory states, nature, and childhood. His performances and recordings frequently incorporate extra-musical media, including spoken word, found objects, field recordings, sound collage, photography, light, and dance. He has performed regularly in New York City since 2007 and has toured extensively in North America and Europe. His solo and collaborative projects can be found on a diverse array of record labels from the U.S., U.K., and Europe.
Brooklyn-bred artist Adam O’Farrill has been heralded as “among the the leading trumpeters in jazz- and perhaps the music’s next major improviser.” (The New York Times). Born into a musical legacy that includes composer Chico O’Farrill and pianist Arturo O’Farrill, Adam has since collaborated with artists such as Mary Halvorson, Hiromi, Vijay Iyer, Anna Webber, Tyshawn Sorey, Mulatu Astatke, Samora Pinderhughes, Son Lux, Kevin Sun, and Mali Obomsawin. Adam’s most recent album, the 1930s-inspired For These Streets, was featured on NPR Alt.Latino, Bandcamp’s Best of Jazz April 2025, and of which Downbeat Magazine wrote, “For These Streets is an ambitious outing of orchestral soundscapes and dreamy meditations brought to life by an all-star octet.” Prior to this, O’Farrill released HUESO, featuring his quartet, Stranger Days, which was recorded following a residency at Morning Glory Farm, exploring the integration of farming work into the creative process. For his work as a composer and bandleader, Adam has received awards, commissions, and grants from the ASCAP Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The Jazz Gallery, Roulette, The Shifting Foundation, and South Arts, and additionally won the 2021 Downbeat Critics Poll for Rising Star Trumpet.
Jack Langdon is an Ojibwe composer of experimental music. His work investigates incompleteness, indifference, mimesis, stagnation, and material brevity. He is currently devising systematic approaches to non-harmony. As a performer, his mediums are the pipe organ and the Ojibwe wooden flute (bibigwan). Jack has written for Yarn/Wire, Schallfeld Ensemble, Fonema Consort, Ensemble Dal Niente, Talea Ensemble, Prague Quiet Music Collective, Southland Ensemble, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and Trio SÆITENWIND. He has created work together with musicians Jeff Kimmel, Olivia Shortt, Anthony Vine, Webb Crawford, Taylor Ho Bynum, Kelley Sheehan, and Weston Olencki. His work has been presented by the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, University of Toronto Mississauga Indigenous Creation Studio, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, the Fromm Foundation, NE/X Festival of Indigenous Performance, and Prague City Gallery. His recordings have been released by IMPREC, Sawyer Editions, Dinzu Artefacts, and Lobby Art Records. He runs an independent record label and music journal called Empty Stage and runs a blog called Challenging Music. He is a PhD student at Northwestern University. He holds degrees from Dartmouth College and Saint Olaf College. Jack grew up in Keyeser, Wisconsin and he is an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Respect your RSVP
ISSUE encourages a culture of respect around free arts programming–by honoring your RSVP, you recognize ISSUE’s ongoing efforts to cultivate new work by emerging artists. RSVPing for free events does not guarantee entry in limited capacity environments, and ISSUE encourages audiences to arrive on-time. If you can no longer attend this free event, please contact sylver@issueprojectroom.org to let us know. Thank you for respecting the reservation.
