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More info at cagebeyondsilence.com

Christ Church Philadelphia
2nd Street above Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106 [g-map]

Part of Bowerbird's Cage: Beyond Silence Festival celebrating the composers centennial. Made possible with major funding from Pew Charitable Trust.

[Complete list of Cage repertoire heard on Oct. 4th performance of Variations IV]

To celebrate iconoclastic American composer John Cage's centenary, local creative music ensemble Ne(x)tworks (with special guest R. Luke DuBois on video) presents the evening-length workVariations IV (1963). Fourth in a series of classic indeterminate works from the 1960's, Variations IV is a seminal exploration of simultaneity and site-specificity, and is Cage's composerly representation of the Hindu/Buddhist concept samsara or "the world of everyday life."

Transparencies with dots and circles are dropped on a map of the David Rubenstein Atrium, the results or which are then used to locate individual "sound sources" within the space. The material heard from these sources is not specified. Ne(x)tworks' realization of Variations IV identifies the individual live musicians as the sound sources, asking each player to present a unique repertoire of exclusively Cage compositions from their chance-determined position in space.

A handful of the works being performed include Music for… (1984-87), various Solo's from Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958), 0'00" (1962), Aria (1958) (performed by close Cage associate, vocalist Joan La Barbara), Experiences II (1948), 27'10.554" for a percussionist (1956), Études Boreales (1978), Atlas Eclipticalis (1961), among many others. The Atrium's theatrical lighting and DuBois' video projections will also occur based on chance operations. Audience is welcome to sit and enjoy the performances or move about the room to experience the music from varying vantage points.

Commissioned by Ne(x)tworks and premiered at The Kitchen in December 2011, Spellbeamed takes inspiration from literary critic Walter Benjamin’s Archive, a published trove of images, texts, and ephemera collected by the author. For Parkins’s new composition, quotidian materials collected by each musician are utilized to form an animated score developed in collaboration with visual artist Cynthia Madansky. The resultant sound is further enhanced with live-processing by Preshish Moments and the composer, creating an ecology of inter-relationships developed between improvisers and readers, sound and score, objects and instruments.

MaerzMusik 2012 Opening
Cage & Consequences

John Cage
Song Books (1970)
with
Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958)
New Production Premiere

Joan La Barbara, artistic direction
Volker Straebel, scenic dramaturgy
Martin Supper, sound direction
Harald Frings, light design

Joan La Barbara
Persistence of Memory
for chamber music ensemble, ‘sonic atmosphere’ and electronics, with a fim by Aleksandar Kostic (2012) WP

In collaboration with DAAD: Berlin Artists-in-Residence programme and The American Academy in Berlin.
Funded by the Capital Cultural Fund

Programed and performed by Ne(x)tworks (GHMS’s Ensemble-In-Residence), Music Without Dance’s two concert programs include music by several ensemble member composers including Joan La Barbara, Miguel Frasconi, Shelley Burgon, and Christopher McIntyre as well as guests such as John King, Jon Gibson, and Annea Lockwood. Before the concert on the 26th, Ne(x)tworks and North River Music host a panel event with several featured composers and local choreographers including Yoshiko Chuma, Nai-Ni Chen, Katherine Beyar, and Erica Essner. Topics for discussion include the evolving dialectic between contemporary dance and music communities, working processes and collaborative models, and how music functions in the context of dance or theater versus the effect of music in concert format.

Music Without Dance Program

Saturday, Feb 25, 7:30
Concert #1
Moving Spaces (2002) by Christian Wolff
created for Merce Cunningham
Migrations (2008) by Miguel Frasconi
created for Alonzo King
Future Sight (2010) by Shelley Burgon
created for Katherine Behar
Relative Calm (1981) by Jon Gibson
created for Lucinda Childs

Sunday, Feb 26, 6:00

Composer and Choreographer Panel
Panel discussion on the relationship between music and dance featuring choreographers Yoshiko Chuma, Katherine Beyar,Nai-Ni Chen, Erica Essner, and composers Joan La Barbara, Miguel Frasconi, John King, Annea Lockwood.

Sunday, Feb 26, 7:30
Concert #2
Stuplimity No. 3 (2007) by Christopher McIntyre
created for Yoshiko Chuma
Desert Myths (2006) by Joan La Barbara
created for Nai-Ni Chen
Jitterbug (2007) by Annea Lockwood
created for Merce Cunningham
DELTA (dreamdeepdown) (2002) by John King
created for Kevin O'Day

Commissioned by Ne(x)tworks, Spellbeamed takes inspiration from literary critic Walter Benjamin’s Archive, a published trove of images, texts, and ephemera collected by the author. For Parkins’s new composition, quotidian materials collected by each musician are utilized to form an animated score developed in collaboration with visual artist Cynthia Madansky. The resultant sound is further enhanced with live-processing by Preshish Moments and the composer, creating an ecology of inter-relationships developed between improvisers and readers, sound and score, objects and instruments.

Both evenings begin with the premiere of three additional works by Ne(x)tworks composers:
Joan La Barbara - Persistence of Memory
Miguel Frasconi - Sitting & Standing: A Memoir
Chris McIntyre - Smithson Project: The Shape of Time

Ne(x)tworks kicks of its 2nd season as Ensemble-In-Residence at historic West Village venue Greenwich House Music School [map] with the premiere of SKY-EARTH FOI TREE-LEAF TALK PIECE, a new composition by legendary British clarinetist Tim Hodginkson. In adddition to the new 30-minute work, this special event will feature several small-group improvisations with Tim and members of the ensemble.

PROGRAM
Earle Brown String Quartet (1965)
Shelley Burgon Lay Down on the Grid (2011, world premiere)
Cornelius Dufallo  Prelude and Passacaglia from Suite for Electric Violin (2008)
Miguel Frasconi Is It Love or Desire (2010)
Yves Dharamraj Hourglass (2011, world premiere)
Cornelius Dufallo Concerto Grosso (2005) 
Wadada Leo Smith In the Diaspora (2002)