Lucie Vítková: Experimental Folklore Piece

Wednesday, February 6th, ISSUE is thrilled to present a collaborative performance between two of America’s most renowned experimental artists, and members of ISSUE’s Advisory Council, theater director and visual artist Robert Wilson and film director, screenwriter, actor, and musician Jim Jarmusch. In a benefit concert supporting ISSUE Project Room, the two will stage a new collaboration featuring Wilson reading John Cage’s Lecture on Nothing alongside improvised musical accompaniment by Jarmusch. The evening opens with a performance from Czech composer, improviser and performer Lucie Vítková, an emerging artist who presents work with an experimental approach to accordion, hichiriki, harmonica, voice, and tap dance.

Lucie Vítková presents "Experimental Folklore Piece," an extraction of elements of Czech and Slovak folklore, represented by accessories such as a carved wooden ax, an overtone flute made out of plastic pipe, dance, and singing. Vítková combines these elements and accompanies them with feedback which sonifies the artist's movement.

Lucie Vítková is a composer, improviser and performer (accordion, hichiriki, synthesizer, voice and tap dance) from the Czech Republic. During her studies of composition at Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (CZ), she has been a visiting scholar at Royal Conservatory in The Hague (NL), California Institute of the Arts in Valencia (USA), Universität der Künste in Berlin (D), Columbia University in New York (USA) and lately at the New York University. Her compositions focus on sonification (compositions based on abstract models derived from physical objects), while in her improvisation practice she explores characteristics of discrete spaces through the interaction between sound and movement. In her recent work, she is interested in the social-political aspects of music in relation to everyday life and in reusing trash to build sonic costumes. She has been nominated on 2017 Herb Alpert Awards in Arts in category of Music, was commissioned by the Roulette Intermedium in 2017 and has become a Roulette resident artist in 2018. She has put together two ensembles – NYC Constellation Ensemble (focused on music behavior) and OPERA Ensemble (for singing instrumentalists). During the 2017 Mentor/Protégé Residency in Tokyo (JP), she studied hichiriki with Hitomi Nakamura and has been a member of the Columbia University Gagaku Ensemble. As an accordion player, she collaborated with New York based TAK Ensemble, S.E.M. ensemble, String Noise, Du.0, Argento Ensemble, CU Raaga, Ghost Ensemble and Wet Ink.