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.
Wednesday, October 19th at 8pm ET, ISSUE is pleased to stream a new collaboration between Irmin Schmidt—legendary German pianist, conductor, composer and co-founder of experimental rock band Can—and NYC-based writer and visual artist Leah Singer.
Artists-In-Residence 2022
Dion TYGAPAW McKenzie presents their second work in progress presentation of Devil Woman (Obeah Woman), an opera in three parts—and their 2nd commissioned project as a 2022 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence. Using Techno as their main genre of focus, the work urges us to renegotiate and expand our understanding of the genre.
Sound artist and musician Sydney Spann continues their 2022 ISSUE residency with a live performance in collaboration with artist Michelle Luong at the Ridgewood Reservoir in Highland Park, Queens. This collaborative performance is a continuation of Spann’s curiosity about childcare, sound, and psychoanalysis.
Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellowship 2022
2022 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow Theodore Kerr presents AUDIO MEME, his second program in THE BODY POPULAR series. AUDIO MEME is a project that explores the power and intimacy of podcasts to impact progressive social change.
ISSUE opens its 2022 Fall season at First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn Heights with an in-person performance from the new improvising group of Fred Moten (voice) Brandon López (double bass), and Gerald Cleaver (drums), new work from composer/performer and media artist Pamela Z, plus SYANIDE.
ISSUE closes it’s summer season with an expansive program of liberated sound featuring new work from Liturgy—the “transcendental black metal” project of composer/philosopher Hunter Hunt-Hendrix—as well as new solo work by artist/composer John Wiese, and musician, visual artist, and instrument builder Victoria Shen.
2018 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial fellow and collective Queer Trash are thrilled to present new work from composer and multi-instrumentalist Lucie Vítková, performance artist Gabe Rubin, and butoh dancer Will Atkins—an evening spanning performance art, experimental composition, movement, and rope suspension.
ISSUE and AvanTokyo are pleased to present the debut New York City performance of Japanese sound artist Fuji||||||||||ta, who performs in-person with his self-built one-of-a-kind pipe organ instrument that incorporates voice synthesized water tanks. The evening will also feature work from sound artist Tomoko Hojo.