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 presents the debut of its new Syncretics Series, featuring solo and duo performances by artists at highest level of their craft curated by Chris McIntyre. The opening event features two of the most revered and sought-after pianists in the experimental improvisation scene, Craig Taborn and Kris Davis.
Olivia Block, Drew McDowall, and Lea Bertucci perform site-responsive solo performances. Each artist observes an individual approach to presenting new work in ISSUE’s theater space, applying the room’s unique acoustics to inform their craft and independent performative methods.
Artists-In-Residence 2018
Improviser, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Brandon Lopez opens his 2018 ISSUE residency with the premiere of Fairer Than Tongue, a solo piece for improviser in three movements. The evening also features a duo performance between Lopez and celebrated Detroit-born jazz drummer Gerald Cleaver.
ISSUE is pleased to present Sarah Davachi and Gabi Losoncy performing new work. Their varying practices span Davachi’s disclosure of the delicate psychoacoustics of intimate aural space to Losoncy’s unlayered, utilitarian audio experiments -- both charting critical new contexts for composition & sound art.
Artists-In-Residence 2017
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste completes his ISSUE residency in collaboration with LaMont Hamilton January 19th - 20th at The Kitchen. The performance features the duo sequentially performing all five of their previously staged “parts” of Julius Eastman’s 1979 composition “Evil Nigger” as a 24 hour interpretive cycle.
ISSUE is pleased to screen Brooklyn-born film pioneer Ken Jacobs’ 3D film A Primer in Sky Socialism, presented alongside the premiere of a film score by Aki Onda + performed live in collaboration with musician & writer Alan Licht. Baltimore-based pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn performs solo before the film.
ISSUE commemorates the close of the 2017 season with a special year-end event with acclaimed composer and electronic musician Tyondai Braxton and extended technique vocalist, composer, and performer Like A Villain (Holland Andrews), co-presented with BOMB Magazine.
