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.
ISSUE is pleased to stream the debut collaboration between Diné composer, performer & installation artist Raven Chacon and New Zealand Maori composer, improvisor & anthropologist Rob Thorne. Both have extensive histories using various high-pitched Indingenous wind instruments from their respective territories.
Distant Pairs Series
Having collaborated only once before, Sofia Jernberg & Tomeka Reid embark from two respectively vast performative histories of composed and improvised music—from Jernberg’s standing collaborations with Fire! Orchestra, to Reid’s shortlist of collaborators that include Anthony Braxton & George Lewis.
ISSUE is pleased to host an online event for ISSUE Members with French composer Pascale Criton, violinist Silvia Tarozzi, and cellist Deborah Walker, in conversation around the Sounding Limits series of compositions.
Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellowship 2021
2021 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow Sami Hopkins presents her second program in Propositions from the deadWIP, featuring composer and Argentinian pianist Leo Genovese in collaboration with bassist John Lockwood and percussionist Nat Mugavero.
Artists-In-Residence 2021
Composer, poet & performer JJJJJerome Ellis presents Impediment is Information, his second work as a 2021 ISSUE Artist-In-Residence. In his second presentation, Impediment is Information, JJJJJerome Ellis continues to use music, poetry, and video to contemplate intersections between blackness and disability.
Artists-In-Residence 2021
Sound/visual artist, improviser, and performer Austin Sley Julian presents Helio-Grave, his second commissioned work as an ISSUE Artist-In-Residence. This piece is performed as a quartet with sound artist/engineer Riley, vocalist/saxophonist Carolyn Hietter, and improviser/composer Gabby Fluke-Mogul.
Artists-In-Residence 2021
Violist Joanna Mattrey continues her 2021 ISSUE residency with the premiere of POV: Simulation, a digital sound walk created with physicist Dr. Graham Walker. Using the frequencies of Mattrey’s soundscape, Dr. Walker generates a visualization that reveals the vibrational patterns formed in real-time.
ISSUE presents a remote audio visual realization of a soundtrack for a dystopian zone from legendary artist, musician, record producer, model maker and cultural provocateur, Jimmy Cauty.