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.
American musicians Jeff Witscher & Jack Callahan premiere new collaborative and solo work. Known for their discrete compositions and far-ranging work under various monikers, recently both have been using primary descriptors such as “Music Art” and “Sound Music” to re-assert the simplicity of their practices.
David Watson performs on the Great Highland Bagpipe and Scottish smallpipes in collaboration with renowned percussionist Tony Buck. Multidisciplinary artist Laura Ortman also presents new work for violin, incorporating over-rosining and heavy use of amplification in her scored and improvised works.
Lindsay Packer premieres DEPTH OF FIELD, her first commissioned work as an ISSUE Artist-In-Residence. Collaborating with dancer and choreographer Melanie Maar, the artists use light, color, repetition, movement & the reverberations that emanate from their movements to define and redefine the space around them.
Queer Trash is thrilled to present Madsen Minax, Max Hamel, and Reagan Holiday for an evening of gender blur, noise, abstraction, and intimate electricity. Returning to ISSUE following their 2018 Curatorial Fellowship, Queer Trash presents a varied night of drag, noise, and video.
Multimedia artist and experimental hodgepodge-ist Ying Liu opens her 2019 residency with the premiere of PLAYDATE, an outdoor play and hyper-cellphone oriented performance combining theater and happenings, exploring themes of urban interconnectivity.
ISSUE presents composers & instrumentalists Daniel Fishkin, Cleek Schrey, and Ron Shalom -- the U.S.'s only extant daxophone consort. At ISSUE, the group collaborates with experimental vocalist and composer Judith Berkson. The concert features the premiere of a new commission, HARD WOOD, by Alvin Lucier.
ISSUE presents artist and electronics visionary Mark Fell, returning to ISSUE for the first time since 2015 to premiere an untitled new piece with cellist, composer, and improviser Okkyung Lee. The evening also features Kara-Lis Coverdale and LXV, collaborators on joint album Sirens, each presenting new solo work.
