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.
Join ISSUE, Marc Ribot, drummer Chad Taylor and legendary Albert Ayler alumnus bassist Henry Grimes in harnessing the power of improvisation and the music of Albert Ayler to renew spirits for a New Year of music, love, rage, and resistance.
Leila Bordreuil continues her ISSUE residency with an evening of spatialized music in solo and large ensemble formats. Following a solo set, Bordreuil premieres “Memory City,” a new piece for large ensemble featuring Nate Wooley, Anne Guthrie, Chris McIntyre, Michael Foster and Ben Bennett.
We commemorate the near close of the season with a special year-end event with unclassifiable sound artist Id M Theft Able, and two new compositions from sound artist/composer Lea Bertucci and performer, composer and curator Chris McIntyre.
The thunderous conclusion of a season’s worth of political hysteria, Cecilia Corrigan’s Motherland culminates with a performance of the piece's full episodic cycle on December 3rd, 2016.
ISSUE premieres Owl Movie, a cinema work by multimedia composer Lary 7 exploring arcane film equipment. Running for two nights only, the piece is his first-ever fixed media film following decades of ephemeral multimedia performances. The evening opens with a cinema performance by Rose Kallal.
ISSUE premieres Owl Movie, a cinema work by multimedia composer Lary 7 exploring arcane film equipment. Running for two nights, the piece is his first-ever fixed media film following decades of ephemeral multimedia performances. Opening the evening, the “Ensemble of Seven” reunites for one-night only.
NYC-based composer and performer Aki Onda and Yokohama-based sound practitioner Nao Nishihara began collaborating in 2015 while Nishihara was residing in New York as an Asian Cultural Council grantee. Thursday, November 10th, Nishihara returns to New York to further develop their sonic and spatial exploration.
Active since the 1970s, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rhys Chatham altered the DNA of rock and created a new type of urban music by fusing overtone-drenched minimalism with relentless, elemental fury. He returns to ISSUE’s 22 Boerum theater for a rare solo performance on Thursday, November 3rd.