MUSIC OF INVENTION: 2006-07
TICKETS
DIRECTIONS
October 19
BILL ANDERSON AND CYGNUS
Anderson's playing is of a very high order of dexterity, virtuosity, and brilliance, and is indicative of the tremendous advances made in guitar technique over the past four decades.
-- Fanfare magazine
Based around the guitar duo of William Anderson and Oren Fader, Cygnus is one of the premiere chamber ensembles for new music in the world. The group has staged and recorded dozens of premieres, including works Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, Meyer Kupferman, Akemi Naito and others. The Cygnus Music of Invention program, brought to us by the generous support of the Composers Guild of New Jersey, will feature a new Wuorinen work written for Cygnus and a new electric guitar duo by Scott Johnson among other works. The program includes special guest artist Haleh Abghari, a virtuoso vocalist and actress and a member of the New York-based VisionIntoArt performance ensemble.
http://www.cygnusensemble.com/
November 9
MONICA McINTYRE AND FRIENDS
Refusing to be limited by the tradition surrounding the instrument, songwriter and recording artist Monica McIntyre approaches her cello in a way that recalls Jimi Hendrix's guitar playing. Like Hendrix, she draws heavily from roots blues, pop music, sophisticated jazz, world traditions and classical music, while at the same time pushing out into unknown territory. Like Hendrix, too, the power of her musical curiosity carries its own message of virtuosity, supported by an astonishing and seemingly effortless technique. Her style is laid back, tender and emotive, veined with hints of unbridled passion or horror.
Monica's sister, classically trained violinist and vocalist Marcia McIntyre, is a longtime collaborator and will be accompanying her in this performance. Monica has performed at numerous events throughout the country, most notably: The Black Women's Art Festival, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Soul Sista's Jukejoint and The 215 Festival. In 2004, she was featured in Philadelphia's BInformed Magazine and City Paper. "Bars of Gold" is Monica's newest single released in August 2005 from her forthcoming album, "Abuse."
http://www.monicamcintyre.com
December 8
CAR MUSIC PROJECT
If Harry Partch had been a mechanic, then it looks like these guys would have been his race team. Gives new meaning to the phrase garage band, don't you think?
--dev.soundscapes.com
Composer/guitarist Bill Milbrodt leads this ensemble of crack players performing on instruments built almost entirely from the parts of his old Honda by metal sculptor Ray Faunce III. Performers include renown jazz bassist Wilbo Wright on Tank Bass (made from the gas tank), new music percussionist William Trigg and brass player James Spotto on Exhaustophone and other instruments.
http://www.carmusicproject.com/
January 12
CARLTON WILKINSON ENSEMBLE
Composer and Music of Invention curator Carlton Wilkinson performs with an ensemble featuring the composer, fellow Asbury Park resident Terri Thomas, soprano, and Stanley Alexandrowicz, guitar, in new works for narrator, live instruments, electronics and prerecorded sounds. At least one ensemble premiere will be included, with additional solos by Carlton and Stanley. Carlton is an award-winning composer, an educator and author of scholarly articles in music theory and a critic and columnist for the Asbury Park Press.
http://www.slackave.com/carlton
February 9
Special guest to be announced.
March 9
DOUCE, FEATURING GISBURG AND PHIL PAINSON
At times, Douce's combination of electronic scratch sounds, dark-hued timbres and female vocals calls to mind the English band Portishead. But the group's expansive, seductively twisting melodies, its bright keyboard sounds and Gisburg's extraordinary range and agility give the band a distinctive, irresistible sound.
-- The New York Times
Back by popular demand, Douce returns to the Music of Invention series after recent performance series in New York City and Berlin. Labeled post-avant trip-hop, the duo features the beautiful, wide-ranging voice of gisburg, a composer and a native of Salzburg, Germany. Using his own samples, Painson lays down highly original and twisted beats, providing a foundation for gisburg's lyricism. Painson has worked behind the console with well-known musicians such as Public Enemy, Tricky, Dave Matthews Band and others, while gisburg performs as a concert singer with new music performers Anthony Coleman, Dieter Schnebel and others.
April 13
HARRY PARTCH ENSEMBLE
The extent to which an individual can resist being blindly led by tradition is a good measure of his vitality.
-- Harry Partch
[T]he most original and powerful contribution to dramatic music on this continent.
-- Jacques Barzun, critic
Far and away our most popular attraction last season, the Harry Partch Ensemble returns with a reconfigured ensemble performing on a new selection of handmade artifacts from the Harry Partch instrumentarium. Partch was a music theorist, composer, philosopher and explorer of the sound world beyond the boundaries of orchestral instruments. Beginning with imitations of human speech, he constructed an entire orchestra. Based in natural tuning systems, the instruments are flexible enough to capture melodic and harmonic nuances impossible to achieve on well-known instruments like the piano. Out of necessity, he became a Renaissance man: skilled carpenter, luthier, sculptor, acoustician, poet, teacher, author and publisher. During the Depression he was also a hobo, penniless, riding the rails and living on his wits. Led by microtonal composer and Partch protege Dean Drummond, this ensemble of students brings the master's work to life on instruments he built himself.
May 11
STANLEY ALEXANDROWICZ AND SUNGJI KIM
A highlight of last year's Music of Invention series, soprano Sungji Kim and guitarist Stanley Alexandrowicz return with a different program of new music performances. As last year, several premieres and newly completed works will be featured, including Carlton Wilkinson's 2006 settings of poems by John Falk, from his book "The Snow and Other Guises." The duo recently performed at the Embassy of Croatian, Goucher College, the Manhattan School of Music and the Vertical Player Repertory Theater in Brooklyn.
The Black Box of Asbury Park and the Shore Institute of Contemporary Art are both 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.
Read about our past performers:
Music of Invention 2004-05
Music of Invention 2005-06
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Updated 10/12/05