George Lewis: Recombinant Works 2014-2019, Seismologic, performed by Dana Jessen & Weston Olencki

Friday, October 29th, ISSUE is pleased to present an evening of recent electroacoustic works from visionary composer, trombonist, and scholar George Lewis at the Flamboyan Theater at The Clemente in the Lower East Side. Known for his astonishing level of creativity and expansive critiques of many traditional conceptions about experimental music, Lewis has charted new ground in the fields of improvisation, interactive music, nonhierarchical collaboration, and computer music. Lewis has also worked as a trombonist in bands for years, served as a curator at The Kitchen, developed Voyager (an early and groundbreaking software capable of improvising with live performers), and authored a monumental history of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians).

All tickets buyers from ISSUE’s March, 2020 postponed program will be honored.

Here, Lewis presents a “portrait concert” of four recent works performed by musicians Laura Cocks, Seth Parker Woods, Dana Jessen, Conrad Harris & Pauline Kim. All four of these “recombinant” works use software to draw from acoustic sounds to create multiple digitally created sonic personalities that follow diverse yet intersecting spatial trajectories. The software for all four works was written by Dr. Damon Holzborn.

Emergent, written for flutist Claire Chase, is the first in this series. Here, the delays, trajectories, and timbre transformations combine to create a musical dance of agency. Although the work does not deploy explicit models of self-similarity, the more immediate spatial trajectories expand into larger trajectories of analogous affect across the progress of the piece.

Not Alone, the second work in the series, was written for cellist Seth Parker Woods. The electronics and the cello blend, intersect, and ultimately diverge into multiple digital personalities that can suddenly converge into unified ensembles while shrouding their origin in processes of repetition. The composition is dedicated to cellist Abdul Wadud, one of the leading members of the Black Artist Group.

Seismologic, the third piece in the series, was written for bassoonist Dana Jessen, with inspiration from the musically oriented seismologist Ben Holtzman of Columbia University. Here, foreground and background deliberately conflate, and delays are used create Doppelgängers that blur the boundaries between original and copy, or even transform the bassoon into an ultra-contrabassoon.

Memory/Mutation, written for the duo String Noise (Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim), is the latest in the series, and the first to feature more than one acoustic instrumentalist. Listeners might be surprised to hear that this piece was inspired by the duo’s extraordinary performance at Ostrava Days 2017 of an Alvin Lucier work for two violins.

PROGRAM:

Emergent (2014), for flute and electronics
Laura Cocks, flute

Not Alone (2014-15), for cello and electronics
Seth Parker Woods, cello

Intermission

Seismologic (2017), for bassoon and electronics
Dana Jessen, bassoon + Weston Olencki

Memory/Mutation (2019), for two violins and electronics
String Noise: Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim, violins

George E. Lewis, Professor of American Music at Columbia University, Area Chair in Composition, and member of the faculty in Historical Musicology, is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Member of the American Musicological Society. Lewis’s other honors include a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship (2002), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), and the Doris Duke Artist Award (2019). A member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) since 1971, Lewis's work in electronic and computer music, computer-based multimedia installations, and notated and improvisative forms is documented on more than 150 recordings. His work has been presented by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, Ensemble Intercontemporain, London Philharmonia Orchestra, Talea Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Musikfabrik, Mivos Quartet, London Sinfonietta, Spektral Quartet, and others; his opera Afterword (2015) has been performed in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic. He is the author of the award-winning book, A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and American Experimental Music (University of Chicago Press 2008), and co-editor of the two-volume Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies (2016). An Honorary Member of the American Musicological Society, Lewis holds honorary doctorates from the University of Edinburgh, New College of Florida, and Harvard University. Lewis’s music is published by Edition Peters. See https://music.columbia.edu/bios/george-e-lewis

Laura Cocks is a New York based flutist who works in a wide array of creative environments as a performer and promoter of contemporary music. Laura is the flutist and executive director of TAK ensemble, a group of “young fearless players” (Boston Globe) with whom she “slays the thorniest material like it’s nothing” (WQXR). TAK has been in residence at institutions such as Stanford University, Columbia University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, and the Delian Academy and has released three albums to critical acclaim, with their latest release on the newly founded TAK editions label. Laura is also a member of the Nouveau Classical Project and the Association of Dominican Classical Artists and is a frequent guest with ensembles such as Talea Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, and Wet Ink Ensemble. She can be heard with TAK, International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and others on labels such as Carrier Records, ECM, New Focus Recordings, Sound American, Denovali Records, Orange Mountain Music, Double Whammy Whammy, Winspear, and Gold Bolus.

Hailed by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” who possesses “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” cellist Seth Parker Woods has established a reputation as a versatile artist straddling several genres. In addition to solo recitals, he has appeared with the Atlanta Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Ictus Ensemble (Brussels, BE), Ensemble L’Arsenale (IT), zone Experimental (CH), Basel Sinfonietta (CH). A fierce advocate for contemporary arts, Woods has collaborated and worked with a wide range of artists ranging from the likes of Elliott Carter, Heinz Holliger, G. F. Haas, Helmut Lachenmann, Klaus Lang, George Lewis and Peter Eötvos to Peter Gabriel, Sting, Lou Reed, Dame Shirley Bassey, and Rachael Yamagata to such visual artists as Ron Athey, Vanessa Beecroft, Jack Early, Adam Pendleton, and Aldo Tambellini. In recent years, Woods has appeared in concert at the Royal Albert Hall—BBC Proms, Snape Maltings Festival, the Ghent Festival, Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Le Poisson Rouge and the Bohemian National Hall, Cafe OTO, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Klang Festival-Durham, INTER/ actions Symposium, ICMC-SMS Conference (Athens, GR), NIME-London, Sound and Body Festival, Instalakcje Festival, Virginia Tech, La Salle College (Singapore), and FINDARS (Malaysia), among others. In August of 2021, Woods joined the faculty of the University at Buffalo as a Center for Diversity Innovation Distinguished Visiting Scholar. He previously served on the music faculties at the University of Chicago and Dartmouth College. Woods holds degrees from Brooklyn College, Musik Academie der Stadt Basel, and a Ph.D. from the University of Huddersfield.

Hailed as a “bassoon virtuoso” (Chicago Reader), Dana Jessen tirelessly seeks to expand the boundaries of her instrument through original compositions, improvisations, and collaborative work with innovative artists. Over the past decade, she has presented dozens of world premiere performances throughout North America and Europe while maintaining equal footing in the creative music community as an improviser. Her solo performances are almost entirely grounded in electroacoustic composition that highlight her distinct musical language. As a chamber musician, Dana is the co-founder of the contemporary reed quintet Splinter Reeds, and has performed with Alarm Will Sound, Amsterdam’s DOEK Collective, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Tri-Centric Ensemble, among many others. A dedicated educator, Dana serves as Associate Professor of Contemporary Music & Improvisation at the Oberlin Conservatory, and has presented masterclasses and workshops to a range of students from across the globe.

String Noise, New York’s most daring violin duo, is composed of violinists Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris. Recognized for their distinct blend of disparate genres, from arrangements of songs by punk legends to conceptual minimalist treatises by Alvin Lucier, they have expanded their repertoire with over 50 new works since their debut at Ostrava New Music Days in 2011. Nearly a decade later, they continue to break down the boundaries of traditional expectations and inspire innovative compositions, displaying formidable virtuosity, integrating multimedia art, electronics, improvisation, video projections, opera and dance.

Violinist Conrad Harris has performed new works for violin at Ostrava Days, Darmstadt Ferrienkürse für Neue Musik, Gulbenkian Encounters of New Music, Radio France, Warsaw Autumn, and New York's Sonic Boom Festival. In addition to being a member of the FLUX Quartet and violin duo String Noise, he is concertmaster/soloist with the S.E.M. Orchestra, Ostravská Banda, STX Ensemble, Wordless Music Orchestra and Ensemble LPR. He has performed and recorded with such artists as Elliott Sharp, Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier, David Behrman, "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Jean-Claude Risset, Rohan de Saram and Tiny Tim. His recordings of the Lejaren Hiller Violin Sonatas with pianist, Joseph Kubera will be released in 2018 on New World Records. He has also recorded for Asphodel, Vandenburg, CRI, and Vinyl Retentive Records.

Violinist Pauline Kim Harris, aka PK or Pauline Kim, is a GRAMMY®-nominated recording artist and composer. She has appeared throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia as soloist, collaborator and music director. Known for her work with classical avant-punk violin duo String Noise, she has toured extensively with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and continues to collaborate with leading new music ensembles in New York City. Pauline Kim was the first Music Director for the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company and has been the featured solo artist for choreographers David Parker of The Bang Group and Pam Tanowitz. Active in the experimental music scene, her work extends into interdisciplinary worlds, crossing boundaries and integrating visual art, electronics, media, film and dance to music. She has premiered and recorded works by Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, John Zorn, Philip Glass, Tyondai Braxton, Catherine Lamb, Steve Reich, George Lewis, David Lang, Du Yun, and more. Pauline Kim has recorded for Sono Luminus, Decca, Tzadik, Northern Spy, Nonesuch, New Focus Recordings, Infrequent Seams, New World Records, Chaikin Records, Unseen Worlds, and Cold Blue Music, to name some, and has been heard on PBS, BBC, NPR, WQXR, WNYC, WKCR and WFMU.