Carol Robinson and Nate Wooley: OCCAM River III / Les si doux redoux

Saturday, October 4th at 8pm, ISSUE Project Room presents an evening of live performances by David Behrman, Franco-American composer and clarinetist Carol Robinson, and renowned trumpeter Nate Wooley, as part of Celebrating David Behrman—a Fall series honoring the groundbreaking composer and 2025 ISSUE Gala honoree. 

The program features works that highlight Behrman’s legacy of collaboration, technological innovation, and influence across generations of experimental music in both the US and internationally. Recalling earlier ISSUE appearances by all three artists who honored the pioneering French composer Éliane Radigue at the 2017 Gala, the program revisits two key works: a restaging of Behrman’s ViewFinder and Radigue’s OCCAM RIVER III. 

To open the evening, Robinson and Wooley revisit OCCAM RIVER III, a strikingly beautiful duet for trumpet and birbynė. First premiered at ISSUE in 2014, their performance pays tribute to Radigue’s expansive OCCAM OCEAN cycle—a monumental body of works composed with a small group of the world’s finest contemporary musical voices. This kind of radical collaboration is emblematic of the spirit shared by both Behrman & Radigue–artists who have redefined what musical co-creation can be.

Robinson follows with a solo performance of her recent work “Les si doux redoux” for basset horn and electronics, from her ongoing series The Weather Pieces. It continues her investigation into subtle shifts in the acoustic field, alternating between icy high notes and lower, more tender sounds—echoing the French expression redoux. 

Working since the 1950s, French composer Éliane Radigue’s profound impact on extended technique and minimalism has developed in parallel to the widely celebrated careers of minimalist composers in New York City. Still, the artistic trajectory of her work remains largely underexposed and her inherent distinctions from the male-dominated classification of minimalism remains underemphasized. With her first compositions presented in the late 1960s, her work was almost exclusively created on a single synthesizer, the ARP 2500 modular system and tape. Since 2005, she has composed mainly for acoustic instruments. Radigue’s enduring artistic history has often intersected with ISSUE. In 2010, she introduced the New York premiere of her 2009 acoustic composition Naldjorlak. She has also presented her masterpiece Songs of Milarepa, as well the U.S. and World premieres of OCCAM XVI, OCCAM X and OCCAM RIVER III, which were performed by Carol Robinson and Nate Wooley at ISSUE Project Room in 2014. In honor of her contributions to electronic music and sound art, Radigue was also awarded Prix Ars Electronica’s Golden Nica in Austria in 2006, as well as the Grand Prize for her oeuvre from the SACEM, the Giga-Hertz Prize from the ZKM in Germany, and the Open Oor composition prize in the Netherlands.

To say that Carol Robinson is a Franco-American composer and clarinetist is perhaps too restrictive to describe the eclecticism of her experience and passion. Whether performing repertoire or experimental forms, she appears in major venues and festivals the world over (MaerzMuzik, Festival d’Automne, Archipel, RomaEuropa, Wien Modern, CTM Berlin, Geometry of Now, Crossing the Line, Angelica, Huddersfield…), working with musicians from a wide stylistic spectrum. Author of over one hundred works, recent compositions include commissions from the French Ministry of Culture (Blanc de Neige - sax, electric guitar, double bass and electronics, or Can You See - choir, mandolin, guitar, harp), the Donaueschinger Musiktage (Occam Ocean Cinquanta - orchestra) - co-composed with Éliane Radigue, and the Brucknerhaus Linz (Under the Bridge are Rapids that Bend - harp, viola). Fascinated by electronic sound manipulation, she often expands acoustic instruments with electronics. Three of these compositions, Nacarat (electric guitar), Black on Green (double bass), and Les si doux redoux (basset horn), were released on MODE RECORDS. Beyond her own compositions, her discography includes award winning monographic recordings of music by Scelsi, Nono, Feldman, Berio, Radigue, Frey or Niblock, as well as classical music, jazz and alternative rock.

New York-based American trumpeter Nate Wooley has performed on over 100 recordings. Increasingly acknowledged internationally, Wooley’s specific style is part of a burgeoning revolution in experimental trumpet technique. His own compositions expand conceptions of linguistic based embouchure manipulation and utilize the trumpet to control amplified feedback. He has performed regularly with such icons as John Zorn, Anthony Braxton, Éliane Radigue, Ken Vandermark, Fred Frith, Evan Parker, and Yoshi Wada, as well as being a collaborator with some of the brightest lights of his generation like Chris Corsano, C. Spencer Yeh, Peter Evans, and Mary Halvorson. He was a 2011 ISSUE Project Room Artist-In-Residence.