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.
Swedish Energies V: Nordic Edition
ISSUE’s Swedish Energies Festival returns to NY for the 5th-annual edition. Presented in collaboration with EMS and the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, the series brings together a wide-ranging international lineup of visionary electronic and improvisational musicians spanning genres of sound and visual art.
Swedish Energies V: Nordic Edition
ISSUE’s Swedish Energies Festival returns to NY for the 5th-annual edition. Presented in collaboration with EMS and the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, the series brings together a wide-ranging international lineup of visionary electronic and improvisational musicians spanning genres of sound and visual art.
ISSUE Project Room presents a two-evening retrospective of collaborative performance works by poet Susan Howe and musician David Grubbs, in partnership with the Museum of Modern Art. Since 2003 the pair has created four full-length works. Three pieces are presented as well as a moderated discussion with the artists.
UK-based Áine O’Dwyer's performances cross boundaries of composition, improvisation, chance, psycho-geography. Primarily a harpist, for this concert she grapples with the "king of instruments", applying her sense of melodic, structured improvisation to the pipe organ.
Artists-In-Residence 2015
C. Spencer Yeh presents two new moving image works showcasing his unique perspective as an artist, organizer, and audience member. A travelogue captured via smartphone in Egypt explores surveillance, chance composition, tourism, and politics. Shot over the year 2002, a "concert film" documents approximately 40 bands.
International Festival of Text-Sound Poetry
Spanning plastic, poetry and post-rock, French artist and poet Anne-James Chaton performs. Both instrumental and physical, Stine Janvin Motland pushes the limits of the natural acoustics of the voice. Poet and programmer Ian Hatcher explores cognition in the context of digital systems.
International Festival of Text-Sound Poetry
Sound and radio artist Antje Vowinckel performs with voice and vinyl. Marc Matter mutates voical sounds via turntablist techniques. Swantje Lichtenstein's conceptual poetry and sound improvisations utilize electroacoustic elements.
International Festival of Text-Sound Poetry
Steve McCaffery, of the legendary Four Horsemen, plays, performs and discusses various 20th century sound texts. Torres explores sound as a landing point for a territorial poetry to begin. Matter and Liechtenstein focus on pre-conceptual poetry in relation to historical text-sound-works, poésie sonore and Hörspiel.