Bassist and composer James Ilgenfritz (2011 AIR) returns to ISSUE, joined by Joe McPhee and AC Diamond for their first performance as a trio. This event marks a new shared context for three artists deeply invested in improvisation as a mode of inquiry.
ISSUE presents the premiere of three audiovisual compositions by Matt Mottel (2010 AIR). These works bring Mottel’s distinct artistic sensibility into dialogue with formative figures in his life and in New York’s avant-garde, tracing a lineage that is both deeply personal and central to ISSUE’s history.
Monarch Butterfly by rocío sánchez (2026 AIR) features Melissa Almaguer (tap dance and percussion) and Kenneth Jiménez (double bass). Together, the trio explores the elusive monarch’s migratory journey through sound and movement, with each instrument articulating distinct states of motion.
Isabella Thorpe-Woods presents "Envelop/e," her second program as ISSUE’s 2026 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow. Bringing together choreographers Jade Manns and Ella Dawn W-S for site-specific duets, they navigate presence and absence, repetition and rupture, and the tension between inherited geometries and shifting landscapes.
"Spiriting Off" is a new solo work by luthier Webb Crawford (2026 AIR) for electric guitar, tenor banjo, and five-string banjo.
ISSUE closes the summer season with the return of Matana Roberts (2009 AIR). Opening the evening, Ben Vida (2013 AIR) will perform music from his 2026 release, "Oblivion Seekers" with vocalist Sara Magenheimer.
Light and color improviser Lindsay Packer premieres her third commissioned work as a 2019 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence. In Call and Response: ECHOLOCATION, Packer collaborates with Alex Nathanson and Dylan Neely of Fan Letters in a nonlinear feedback loop of analog/digital chain reactions.
ISSUE has invited musician Beverly Glenn-Copeland for an intimate artist talk, documentary screening, and short performance, accessible exclusively to ISSUE Members and all who support ISSUE during our Year-End Campaign.
Charmaine Lee presents her third and final work as a 2019 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence, Laminals III, the last of three movements of a new long-form piece for solo voice. The evening concludes with a trio of improvised music featuring Tyshawn Sorey (percussion) and Ikue Mori (laptop).
ISSUE welcomes pioneering French composers Beatriz Ferreyra & Christine Groult, presenting new solo and collaborative work. The evening marks an exceptionally rare opportunity to hear the work of two major figures in the development of musique concrète, electroacoustic, and acousmatic music.
Rena Anakwe presents the final work of her 2019 ISSUE residency with the premiere of Ogwu (the healing), an immersive purification ritual inspired by the element of fire, staged in collaboration with lighting designer Kelley Shih.
FOR/WITH concludes with a solo trumpet premiere composed for Nate Wooley by Sarah Hennies, followed by von da nach da by Eva-Maria Houben performed by Sara Schoenbeck, Mariel Roberts, and Russell Greenberg. The festival concludes with an ensemble performance of Sarah Hennies' Fleas
The first evening of FOR/WITH, a mini-festival featuring commissions and works by iconoclast composers Eva-Maria Houben, Katherine Young, and Ryoko Akama. Now in its third year, the series celebrates the collaborative process between performer and composer.
ISSUE is thrilled to present an epic, career-spanning durational performance by longtime friend William Basinski. Taking place at ISSUE’s 22 Boerum Theater from 6pm until 2am, Basinski takes listeners through a marathon sequence of past, recent, and new work featuring light artists Seth Kirby & Brock Monroe.