An Improvisational Symphony: coordinated by Suzanne Langille

Saturday, December 16th at 8pm, a diverse array of twenty artists come together in An Improvisational Symphony to close ISSUE's 20th Anniversary Season, coordinated by vocalist and longtime ISSUE friend, Suzanne Langille. The celebratory concert will take place at First Unitarian Congregational Society in Downtown Brooklyn. In collaboration with the ISSUE team, Langille has invited a wide range of musicians - many with deep ties to ISSUE’s history - involving numerous master and emerging practitioners. The program is split into four movements, each representing a traditional element that will inspire groups of five musicians to present 20-minutes of improvised sounds. These include:

First movement (Earth): Allegro featuring: Daniel Carter (saxophone & trumpet), Loren Connors (guitar), William Hooker (vocal), Chris McIntyre (trombone) & Lucie Vítková (percussion)

Second movement (Water): Andante or adagio featuring: Che Buford (violin), Madison Greenstone (contrabass clarinet), James Ilgenfritz (bass), Suzanne Langille (voice & maraca) & Joanna Mattrey (viola) 

Third movement (Air): Moderato featuring: Ras Moshe Burnett (flute), Michael Foster (saxophone), Shahzad Ismaily (percussion), Ava Mendoza (guitar) & Aliya Ultan (cello)

Fourth movement (Fire): Finale–allegro featuring: Zoh Amba (saxophone), Nava Dunkelman (percussion), gabby fluke-mogul (violin), Alan Licht (guitar) & Lee Odom (clarinet)

Artist Biographies

A lyricist and vocalist, Suzanne Langille is as devoted to the spoken word as to song. She is known for her work with guitarist Loren Connors and the band Haunted House, as well as overtones singer and percussionist Neel Murgai, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter and poet Yuko Otomo.

Zoh Amba is a saxophonist and songwriter from Tennessee. Her first record, O, Sun was produced by John Zorn and released in early 2022 on Tzadik. She released her second record, Bhakti, later in 2022, with pianist Micah Thomas, drummer Tyshawn Sorey, and guitarist Matt Hollenberg, followed in 2023 by The Flower School, with drummer Chris Corsano and electric guitarist Bill Orcutt. Bhakti is also the name of her band with Chris Corsano and Farida Amadou, which will perform a two-day residency next April at Cafe OTO in London. In addition, she works in a band with Jim White, Steve Gunn, and Shahzad Ismaily, and has collaborated with other artists such as Myriam Gendrom, Tyshawn Sorey, Jon Leidecker (Negativland), Ian Svenonius, and Billy Martin.

Che Buford (he, they) is an NYC-based artist whose work explores creating new narratives within the world of music while engaging in themes of memory and place. Che performs as a violinist in various musical settings such as traditional orchestras, chamber music, solo, improvisational performance, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Their own work explores the possibilities of timbre and acoustical phenomena and connects them to elements of place, memory, poetry, and the quotidian. Che has had the privilege of creating with artists such as Longleash, The Rhythm Method, New York Philharmonic, Castle of our Skins, mal sounds, Steph Davis, Adama Delphine Fawundu, and Deborah Jack. Their work has been presented and performed in spaces that include Roulette, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Joe’s Pub, Antenna Cloud Farm, The DiMenna Center, and David Geffen Hall. Che holds a degree from Boston Conservatory at Berklee as a presidential scholar in violin performance where he studied with Rictor Noren.  He is currently pursuing his DMA in composition at Columbia University. When Che isn’t interacting with music, they enjoy taking long walks, cooking vegan food, and thrifting.

Ras Burnett is a Brooklyn born saxophonist, flutist and composer. His father and grandfather were saxophonist/composers: The latter traveled and recorded with jazz big bands after leaving Jamaica for the states in the 1930's; he functioned 20 years as band director for Brooklyn's New Canaan Baptist Church and directed local calypso bands. In August 2023 Ras received his MFA in Music composition from Vermont College of Fine Arts; and is a recipient of composition grants from The Jerome Foundation, New Music USA and Sanctuary For Independent Media. He is an advocate and practitioner of progressive education through creative music.

Daniel Carter, born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1945, is a musician and writer. Since coming to New York City, in 1970, he has sought out musicians and situations that encourage free expression. In the 1950s he sang in so-called doo-wop groups, took clarinet lessons, played in school bands (into the 60s), and the 49th Army Band (ca. 1967-69). When he first came to NYC, he played in soul bands as well as so-called avant-garde jazz groups. He has always tried to transcend genre-boundaries, which is, today, as daunting a challenge as ever, but he's found that the many musicians he's met and played with, and the invaluable treasure of a huge, ever-growing, number of recordings and videos (so many, readily available on the internet, cable t.v., and radio), have recharged and renewed him, all along the way. He lives in Manhattan with his cat, Sophie.

Loren Connors has improvised and composed original guitar music for over four decades. His music embraces the underlying aesthetics of blues, Irish airs, blues-based rock and other genres while letting go of rigid forms. He names abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko as his most important influence. Connors has worked with other inventive musicians such as Kim Gordon, Alessandra Novaga, Jandek, Keiji Haino, and Alan Licht, as well as in duet and band settings with vocalist Suzanne Langille. Since the late 70s, Connors has pushed at the very edges of his chosen instrument, reinventing himself time and time again, to create a body of work that exists as truly singular.

Nava Dunkelman is a percussionist and improviser based in Brooklyn, NY. Born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in a multi-cultural environment by an American father and Indonesian mother. Her musical approach is innovative and dynamic, combining virtuosity and intuition. Meticulous in an intrinsic way, she uses her distinctive sound palette to explore and give life to a vast spectrum of musical possibilities. Nava's current projects are electro-percussion experimental noise duo IMA with Amma Ateria, and percussion duo NOMON with her sister Shayna Dunkelman. She also has performed and collaborated with Fred Frith, John Zorn, William Winant, Ikue Mori, Pauchi Sasaki, Angélica Negrón, gabby fluke-mogul, Brandon Seabrook, Du Yun, and many others. She has performed classical and contemporary pieces with the William Winant Percussion Group, Joan Jeanrenaud, Raven Chacon, San Francisco Girls Chorus, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and others. 

Michael Foster is a NYC-based saxophonist and curator whose work focuses on the radical queer potential in improvisation. His current projects include The New York Review of Cocksucking (duo with Richard Kamerman), duos with Ben Bennett, Leila Bordreuil, Ted Byrnes, and Lydia Lunch. He often works with Brandon Lopez, Nate Wooley, Weasel Walter, Sarah Hennies, Marina Rosenfeld, William Parker, and many others. His work has been called “jaw- dropping” (NYC Jazz Record), “one of the most intimate and gripping performances I have seen,” (Cisco Bradley), “one of the hottest avant-sax players and improvising multi- instrumentalists on the scene,” (Brooklyn Rail, Steve Dalachinsky). In addition to his work as a performer, he is an active curator in NYC, co-founding Queer Trash (2018 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellowship at ISSUE Project Room) and Outlier.

gabby fluke-mogul is a New York based violinist, improviser, composer, educator, organizer, & doula. fluke-mogul weaves within the threads of avant & free jazz with deep roots in improvised & experimental music. Their playing has been described as “embodied, visceral, & virtuosic" & "the most striking sound in improvised music in years..." gabby is humbled to have collaborated with Nava Dunkelman, Joanna Mattrey, Ava Mendoza, Charles Burnham, Fred Frith, Luke Stewart, Zeena Parkins, Tcheser Holmes, Mara Rosenbloom, William Parker, & Pauline Oliveros among many other musicians, poets, dancers, & visual artists. fluke-mogul is a Roulette 2023 Jerome Artist in Residence. “The way they construct sound with their violin is ageless. They are sounds built from the ancient geology beneath us; from shards of broken cosmic glass; from hidden corners within their heart and mind…fluke-mogul plays the moment to its fullest amplitude” (Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis).

Madison Greenstone is a New York based clarinetist whose “beautiful and haunting” playing “creeps noisily away from the void” (Foxy Digitalis). They perform throughout a wide range of experimental music contexts as a soloist, improvisor, and chamber musician. Madison is the clarinetist of TAK Ensemble, “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen). Madison’s solo performance practice, exstatic resonances, explores the extremes of innate instrumental expressivities by treating the instrument as a site of indeterminacy, chaos, and generative instability. As a soloist, Madison has been presented by the Vigeland Mausoleum (Oslo), ISSUE Project Room (NYC), Fire Over Heaven (NYC), Night of Surprise (DE), with upcoming/recent performances at Four One One (NYC), Non-Event (Boston), KM28 (Berlin), and Körperklang-Klangkörper (Vienna). Other notable performances have been as a soloist in Brian Ferneyhough’s La Chute d’Icare conducted by Steven Schick, as presented by the New York Philharmonic’s Kravis Nightcap Series with TAK Ensemble, and as part of the Merce Cunningham Centennial in Los Angeles.

William Hooker is a musician, composer and a poet recognized as “an iconoclast, and one of the most innovative musicians and drummers of his generation.” With over 70 recordings as a leader - encompassing jazz, new music, experimental music and multi-disciplinary forms of expression ( including dance, silent film and spoken word) he has presented his work in venues that include the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Yoshi’s (SF), ISSUE Project Room, Roulette, Vision Festival, Rhythm in the Kitchen Music Festival, JVC Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, Victoriaville Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, The Walker Art Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall(London), Statgarden (Koln), Hayward Gallery, Wadsworth Atheneum, Jimi Hendrix Tribute Tour (Germany), CBGB’S, Real Art Ways, MTV, Middle East-Boston, SLIM’S, Spaceland, Experimenta Argentina, CMJ Music Festivals, Duke University RISD, Tel Aviv, & others.

Bassist/composer James Ilgenfritz has performed around the US, Europe, and Asia, and has composed for the Ghost Ensemble, the New Thread saxophone quartet, HUB New Music, Hypercube, baritone Thomas Buckner, and the Ostravska Banda. Recent albums include Altamirage (featuring Pauline Oliveros), and #entrainments (featuring drummer Gerry Hemingway, Köln-based cellist Nathan Bontrager, and saxophonist Angelika Niescier). James has solo albums: Origami Cosmos and Compositions (Braxton) 2011 (featuring music by Annie Gosfield, Miya Masaoka, Elliott Sharp, JG Thirlwell, and Anthony Braxton). He holds degrees from University of Michigan and University of California San Diego, and received his PhD at University of California, Irvine in June 2023. James had two residencies at John Zorn’s The Stone in 2015 and 2018, and has composed two operas, The Ticket That Exploded (with text by William S. Burroughs) and I Looked At The Eclipse (with librettist Sarah Krasnow). James was an ISSUE Project Room 2011 Artist-In-Residence.

Guitarist Alan Licht has released nine albums of his own structured improvisations for solo guitar and tape pieces and appears on over 100 other commercially released recordings. He has played with figures in the worlds of jazz, rock and the avant-garde, including Yoko Ono, Rashied Ali, Tom Verlaine and Michael Snow. He works frequently with sound installation, and has made intermedia collaborations with such artists as Charles Atlas and Gary Panter. He co-founded Text of Light, an ongoing ensemble which performs freely improvised concerts alongside screenings of classic avant-garde cinema, with Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo in 2001. He has written extensively about the arts for Artforum, the WIRE, Film Comment, Village Voice, and other publications. Licht is the author of Common Tones: Selected Interviews with Artists and Musicians 1995­–2020 (Blank Forms, 2021); Sound Art Revisited (Bloomsbury, 2019), and the editor of Will Oldham on Bonnie “Prince” Billy (2012, Faber & Faber/W. W. Norton). Alan is a member of ISSUE Project Room’s Artistic Advisory Council.

Chris McIntyre is a Brooklyn-based trombonist, curator, composer, band leader, and educator. Known for his involvement in Julius Eastman’s music, Chris serves as Director of TILT Brass (co-founder in 2003) and as Curator and trombonist for Either/Or Ensemble. He specializes in ensemble work meshing improvisative & interpretive material as a player and as a composer and music director. He regularly performs in groups such as TILT, Either/Or, SEM and Talea Ensembles, and American Composers Orchestra, among many others. McIntyre leads an active career as an independent concert programmer in New York (The Kitchen, MATA Festival, Ne(x)tworks, and ISSUE Project Room) and currently teaches at Mannes School of Music at The New School and in the ACO’s Teaching Artist program. Chris was a member of Ne(x)tworks, an ISSUE Project Room 2006 Artist-In-Residence.

Joanna Mattrey is a violist working in free improvisation, new music, and classical music. She uses extended techniques, modern compositional approaches, and electronic alterations to challenge the conventions of the viola. Joanna creates an embodied performance practice centered on ceremony and ritual. Recent solo works include, 'Soulcaster' (Notice Recordings), ‘Dirge’ (Dear Life Recs 2021), 'Veiled’ (Relative Pitch Records, 2020). Mattrey is a current Roulette Resident, and past residencies include ISSUE Project Room, Banff's Creative Gesture for Composers and Choreographers, 14th Street Y, Wild Project, and MoMa PS1's ALLGOLD. Mattrey has performed with icons Tyshawn Sorey, Henry Threadgill, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Mary Halvorson, Billy Martin, Elliott Sharpe, Miya Masaoka, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Joanna was an ISSUE Project Room 2021 Artist-In-Residence.

Ava Mendoza is a guitarist, songwriter and composer. Her guitar work has received acclaim for its technique and viscerality. She is best known as a solo performer on guitar/voice, and as bandleader of experimental rock band Unnatural Ways. Performing/recording credits include work with Carla Bozulich, Fred Frith, Malcolm Mooney, Mike Watt, Nels Cline, John Zorn, Negativland, the Violent Femmes, and more. She has received composition commissions from film distributor Kino Lorber, Jazz Coalition, New Music Creator Development Fund, and John Zorn’s Stone Commissioning Series at National Sawdust.

Lee Odom is a multi-reed instrumentalist, band leader and composer. A native of NC, Lee received a bachelors in music industry while also studying clarinet performance at Appalachian State University, Boone NC then later moving to NYC where her performances include The Jazz Foundation, New York City Winter Jazz Festival, New York City Vision Festival, Bang on a Can Music Festival, the Harlem Jazz Boxx, The Enjoy Jazz Festival (Germany), Music Connect (Nairobi Kenya) and other cities across the US and countries including Argentina and Scotland Lee has performed in theatre productions which include “The Rosenberg/Strange Fruit Project'' which received 5 stars from the British Theatre Guide. Lee was an Artist-in-Residence at Holmes Presbyterian Camp Holmes, NY and at Art Omi in Hudson NY; also the clarinet instructor for The Jazz House Kids music program in Paterson NJ, and as lead musical instructor for the Poly Prep Summer Theatre Camp in Brooklyn.

Aliya Ultan is a composer-improviser, cellist-vocalist, and video artist from Brooklyn, NY based in Brooklyn, NY. Growing up homeless with her mother and sister, Aliya entered music as a means of escape and emergence from severe poverty. Her playing reads as both playful and cathartic through her physicality, rigorous classical training, and use of preparations such as fishing line, glass, aluminum, and more. In the last two years, Aliya has been a highly active performer both in New York and overseas with musicians such as Tyshawn Sorey, Calvin Weston, Anthony Coleman, David Behrman, Yasunao Tone, Douglas Ewart, and Aaron Dilloway among others. Aliya currently performs in Hadestown on Broadway and is a member of Yoshiko Chuma’s School of Hard Knocks. This past summer Aliya released her debut album of solo improvisations titled Live, and will be releasing an EP of her septet known as Seven this Fall.

Lucie Vítková is a composer, improviser, and performer (accordion, drums, hichiriki, synthesizer, harmonica, voice, and dance) from the Czech Republic, living in New York. In Lucie’s recent work, they are interested in the social-political aspects of music in relation to everyday life and in reusing materials to build sonic costumes. In their pieces, they use combined notation, such as graphic, audio, video, text, and staff notation, to achieve a diversity of ways to communicate a musical thought. Their pieces range from DIY cyborg solo performances to orchestral pieces, and in their dissertation, Lucie has analyzed the music of Christian Wolff, researching compositional techniques that change relationships between players to reform established hierarchies in music. They have put together two ensembles: the NYC Constellation Ensemble (focused on musical behavior) and the OPERA Ensemble (for singing instrumentalists). They are also a leader of the progressive rock opera band Sea Section.