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.
Andrew Lampert presents a collection of new and recent pieces from his deep back catalog of films, videos, and performances. This evening is built around a number of new instruction-based performances, combining elements of predetermined structure and improvisation.
Malcolm Goldstein has extended the sonic boundaries of improvisatory practice and the violin since the early 1960s. Tonight, he presents a 4-part solo program dedicated to Ornette Coleman, including Coleman's 1986 composition "Trinity", a modular suite of solo pieces dedicated to the performer.
Choreographer Kim Brandt premieres a new work for large ensemble as part of her 2015 ISSUE residency. A series of systems for a “body of bodies” to move within, the piece explores a process in which the group metamorphoses through the sum of its parts.
For decades, Lonnie Holley has devoted his life to improvisational creativity. Born out of struggle, hardship, and more importantly, out of furious curiosity and biological necessity, his practice has recently manifested in sound. His deeply layered, fully improvised music and lyrics morph and evolve in each event.
Japanese sound artists Akio Suzuki and Aki Onda have been collaborating extensively in recent years. They perform with self-made instruments, analogue tape machines and radios, wood pieces, nails, hammer, and daily objects, by responding to the architecture, acoustics and energy of the performance space.
Yarn/Wire/Currents
The fourth installment of Yarn/Wire/Currents celebrates the ensemble's 10th anniversary season and their recent release on ISSUE’s Distributed Objects imprint. The concert program features world premieres by David Bird, Sam Pluta, and electronics visionary Mark Fell; doors open with DJ & reception at 7pm.
Oakland electro-acoustic unit Black Spirituals make their NY debut. At the ecstatic intersection of rich harmonic tones and heart-thumping percussion, Black Spirituals transform performance sites with ritualistic communication, and manipulate temporal experience with their “Multi-Aesthetic Approach to Improvisation."
One the most prolific figures in contemporary ambient music, Lawrence English undertakes study of perception, memory and sonic affect across a wide swathe of creative forms. John Chantler's sound world spans sliding arpeggios and visceral noise to pointillist interjections, near silence and infinitely variable texture.