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.
Ultima Festival New York 2014
An afternoon concert pairs solo piano performances by the young Finnish musician Antti Tolvi and acclaimed composer/performer Lubomyr Melnyk, architect of the Continuous Music method. Both venture far outside the classical tradition, sharing an emphasis on the instrument's capacity for extended harmony and overtone.
Ultima Festival New York 2014
Radical Danish artist Henning Christiansen’s performance work "Requiem of Art (NYC) Fluxorum Organum" receives its first NY presentation, in a new interpretation developed by Anton Lukoszevieze, who leads the superb Ne(x)tworks ensemble. The program includes works by Arne Nordheim, Shelley Burgon and Kristin Norderval.
Berlin-based Danish sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard presents Faust and other works by the pioneering electronic musician Else Marie Pade (not present). Acclaimed piano/percussion quartet Yarn/WIre perform works by composers Øyvind Torvund, Simon Steen-Andersen and Anna Thorvaldsdottir/Sigurdur Gudjonsson.
Catherine Christer Hennix appears alongside her Berlin-based just intonation ensemble Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage as part of Ultima. In their first-ever US performance the group premieres Blues Alif Lam MimM, intended to reveal the blues' origins in the eastern musical traditions of raga and maqam musics.
ISSUE and WSB100 present a celebration of the legacy of William S. Burroughs during the 100th anniversary of the writer's birth. Actor, director, and writer Steve Buscemi and composer/multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp collaborate, creating a collage of sound and words from texts by William Burroughs.
The US Premiere of Evan Calder Williams' film "Violent X" features a live improvised soundtrack by Tokyo-based Taku Unami with Williams, joining a work of pulp and radical history to early instances of cinema narration and accompaniment. In a second set, Unami collaborates with Eugene Thacker and Jarrod Fowler.
ISSUE & Antholgy team up for an eclectic/electric evening with Jason Lescalleet, one of America’s most dedicated sound artists. Lescalleet commissioned 13 artists to create videos for the 13 tracks on the first disc of "Songs About Nothing", tonight features the audio-visual album plus shorts by collaborators.
Leftfield British electronics producer Mark Fell presents a tonal mix of extended duration including new and unreleased works by himself as well as references to the various traditions that have informed his practice, establishing a dialogue between techno, the American minimalists and tonal spectralism.