John King's Residency at The Stone to Feature FLUX Quartet, Jenny Lin and More, 5/5-10

By: Mar. 20, 2015
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John King's residency at The Stone is an immersion into works from the past 20 years from his catalogue, including 7 world premieres performed by FLUX and Secret Quartets, TILT Brass, String Noise, Jenny Lin, Jeanann Dara and Carol To.

The evening sets at 8pm and 10pm range from duos with Jeanann Dara (viola), Kato Hideki (electronics) and Raz Mesinai/Ghost Producer (live processing); to trio combinations with Fast Forward & Gelsey Bell and George Lewis & David Behrman - who reprise past collaborations done with and for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

King's ongoing work for string quartets will be represented by world premieres from both the FLUX Quartet - playing full realizations of his KOSMOS which includes live electronics; and Secret Quartet - playing new works from his Free Palestine set. The KOSMOS works are also included in a night of solo compositions/improvisations for Todd Reynolds, Jeff Zeigler and Gina Izzo.

The ensemble TILT Brass and String Noise will both premiere new works which are Time-based open form compositions, as well as other pieces which King has written for them. Jenny Lin will be bringing back to The Stone King's 23 Rubai'yat for piano and live electronics, as well as a piece King wrote for Merce Cunningham's 90th birthday, plus a world premiere.

Carol To will close out the week singing in the premiere of King's settings of texts by the T'angera poet, Wang Wei for soprano and small ensemble.

The Stone is located at the corner of Avenue C & Second Street NY (F to Second Avenue). Tickets: $15. Visit www.thestonenyc.com.


Overview for John King's Residency at The Stone:

May 5 8pm Jeanann Dara and John King

Jeanann Dara (viola) John King (viola, electronics)
Violapotheosis and new premieres by Jeanann Dara and John King.

May 5 10pm Amorphous=Kato Hideki/John King

Kato Hideki (electronics) John King (guitar, electronics)
Active Installation/live interactive electro-acoustic music.

May 6 8pm TILT Brass Sextet

TILT Brass Sextet, director Chris McIntyre
Past and present brass/brass electronics pieces including a world premiere.

May 6 10pm KOSMOS solos

Jeffrey Zeigler (cello) Todd Reynolds (violin) Gina Izzo (flute) John King (electronics)

May 7 8pm George Lewis/David Behrman/John King

George Lewis, David Behrman (electronics) John King (guitar, electronics)
Trifecta new trio assemblages.

May 7 10pm Gelsey Bell+Fast Forward+John King

Gelsey Bell (voice electronics) Fast Forward (objects) John King (guitar, electronics)

May 8 8pm Jenny Lin

Jenny Lin (piano)
Selections from "23 Rubai'yat" and "Piano Diaries" plus a world premiere.

May 8 10pm Raz Mesinai/John King

Raz Mesinai (electronics) John King (guitar, electronics)
DubDuoGuitorganum.

May 9 8pm String Noise

Pauline Kim Harris, Conrad Harris (violins)
"Triple Helix," "C-H-A-C-O-N-N-E," plus a world premiere.

May 9 10pm FLUX Quartet

FLUX Quartet
"KOSMOS quadrant I" (full realization for string quartet and electronics.)

May 10 8pm Secret Quartet

Cornelius Dufallo, Jennifer Choi (violins) Lev Ljova Zhurbin (viola) Yves Dharamraj (cello)
Selections from Free Palestine string quartets.

May 10 10pm Wang Wei songs from the T'ang Dynasty

Carol To (soprano) Robert Dick (flute) John King (viola)


About John King, Composer/Performer - JOHN KING, composer, guitarist and violist, has received commissions from the Kronos Quartet; Red { an orchestra }, Ethel; the Albany Symphony/"Dogs of Desire", Bang On A Can All-Stars; Mannheim Ballet; New York City Ballet/Diamond Project, Stuttgart Ballet, Ballets de Monte Carlo; as well as the Merce Cunningham Dance Co. His string quartets have also been performed by the Eclipse Quartet (LA) and the Mondriaan Quartet (Amsterdam). His quartet Crucible has premiered many of his compositions at The Stone (June 2007), The Kitchen (April 2009), Lincoln Center Festival (July 2011) and Roulette (2012).

He has written 3 operas: herzstu?ck/heartpiece, based on the text of Heiner Mu?ller, premiered at the 1999 Warsaw Autumn Festival and presented at the Kitchen NYC in 2000 (a double-opera, co-written with Krzysztof Knittel); la belle captive based on texts by Alain Robbe-Grillet, premiered at Teatro

Colon/CETC in Buenos Aires in 2003, and toured to London's ICA (Fronteras Festival) in 2004 and The Kitchen in 2005; and also his most recent opera, Dice Thrown, based on the Ste?phane Mallarme? poem, an excerpt of which was performed by New York City Opera as part of its VOX series in May 2008. The complete staged version was presented at CalArts April 23-24, 2010.

He has 3 recent CD releases of music for string quartet; 10 Mysteries and AllSteel (Tzadik); and Ethel (Cantaloupe). He was Music Curator at The Kitchen from 1999-2003 and from 2002-2011 was a co- director of the Music Committee at MCDC. He received the Music/Sound Award for 2014 from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and also he is the recipient of the 2009 Alpert Award in the Arts for Music. johnkingmusic.com https://www.facebook.com/john.king.1023 http://guitorganum.bandcamp.com/album/guitorganum https://soundcloud.com/johnkingmusic

About Jeanann Dara, Violist - Jeanann Dara is a force in modern creation, collaboration and performance. She has developed her own sound with modern viola performance, improvisation and composition. Engaging sounds and manipulating the instrument with extended techniques, she pulls from her strong classical training and invites the listener to participate in the dynamic range from silence to noise and the anticipation in between.

Jeanann is a sought after violist playing the works of numerous artists including work done for and with Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead), MONO, and just recently with Max Richter at The Sydney Opera House, Australia. All this presented by Wordless Music.

In 2012 she co-founded The Western Enisphere, an improvisational drone ensemble, with composer and performer David First. In her exploration of improvisation collaborations, she has taken the opportunity to perform with some of the finest artists such as Brian Chase (YYY's), Lea Bertucci, Sam Hilmer (Z's), Zack Layton, John King, David Linton, Jherek Bischoff, Dary John Mizelle, Spencer c Yeh and more.

Currently she is finishing up her double EP under the name KO that includes captured improvisations and collaborative concrete recordings.

About Kato Hideki, Bassist - Kato Hideki (Kato: family name; Hideki: given) is a musician, composer & producer, who lives in Brooklyn, NYC. His music is often based on narrative elements and topical issues, with a wide range of forms and sounds. His own projects are: Death Ambient with Ikue Mori & Fred Frith; Green Zone with Otomo Yoshihide & Uemura Masahiro; Tremolo of Joy with Charles Burnham, Briggan Krauss, Ed Tomney & Calvin Weston; OMNI wtih Nakamura Toshimaru & Akiyama Tetsuji; Plastic Spoon with Karen Mantler, Douglas Wieselman & Shahzad Ismaily; and the solo works Hope & Despair and Turbulent Zone. As a bassist, he has worked with Eyvind Kang, Karen Mantler, Zeena Parkins, Jim Pugliese, Marc Ribot and John Zorn among many others. Collaborators include Nicolas Collins, James Fei, John King, Christian Marclay & Ursula Scherrer. He co-produced Karen Mantler's Business is Bad for XTRAWATT / ECM Records, and music for the Bessie Award-winning THEM with Chris Cochrane.

About TILT Brass - Led by trombonist and composer Chris McIntyre, TILT Brass is a Brooklyn-based organization dedicated to creating new content and contexts for contemporary brass music by producing inventive concert programs, recording projects, and commissioning initiatives. It boldly positions itself as the vanguard presenter, educator, and advocate for new brass music in New York City. Founded in 2003 by McIntyre and Greg Evans, TILT primarily presents the work of living composers, having premiered over

40 compositions thus far. Its personnel includes many of the brightest stars from the local brass community in ensemble configurations ranging from solo and chamber groupings to experimental brass orchestra. TILT's work is heard on releases by Tzadik, Non-Site and POTTR. www.tiltbrass.org

About Jeffrey Zeigler, Cellist - For eight seasons, Jeffrey Zeigler was the cellist of the internationally renowned Kronos Quartet. One of the most celebrated and influential ensembles of our time, Zeigler has performed over a thousand concerts worldwide, has premiered over 200 works and has collaborated with many of the world's most versatile and innovative composers and performers. In the process, Zeigler has played an integral role in redrawing the boundaries of the string quartet medium.

Zeigler has been the recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize, the Polar Music Prize and the President's Merit Award from the National Academy of Recorded Arts among others. He has also given many notable premiers including works by John Adams, Laurie Anderson, John Corigliano, Philip Glass, Henryk Gorecki, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and John Zorn.

Mr. Zeigler has released over two dozen recordings for Nonesuch Records, Deutsche Grammophon, Cantaloupe and Smithsonian Folkways and has appeared with Norah Jones on her album Not Too Late on Blue Note Records. Zeigler can also be heard on the film soundtrack for Paola Sorrentino's Academy Award winning film, La Grande Bellezza, as well as Clint Mansell's Golden Globe nominated soundtrack, The Fountain, featuring performances with the Scottish band, Mogwai.

Something of Life, a collaborative release between Innova Recordings and VisionIntoArt, is the debut solo album of Jeffrey Zeigler. The album features world premier recordings of works by Philip Glass, Glenn Kotche, Felipe Perez Santiago, Paola Prestini, Gity Razaz and John Zorn.

About Todd Reynolds, Violinist - Todd Reynolds is known as one of the founding fathers of the hybrid-musician movement and one of the most active and versatile proponents of what he calls 'present music'. For years the violinist of choice for Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Bang on a Can, and a founder of the string quartet known as Ethel, his compositional and performance style is a hybrid of old and new technology, multi-disciplinary aesthetic and pan- genre composition and improvisation. His double-disc debut album Outerborough was released in 2011 on the Innova label.

About Gina Izzo, Flutist - Flutist Gina Izzo has won acclaim for combining her classical training with elements of electronic and jazz. The Independent Music Awards named the New York-based musician as a 2011 "Best Instrumentalist" and she is a recent recipient of a 2015 New Music USA Project Grant. She is the cofounder, with pianist Erika Dohi, of RighteousGIRLS, a duo that fuses classical, contemporary, and jazz while inviting some of today's most prominent composers and artists to create genre-blurring new music.

About George Lewis, Composer/Trombonist - George E. Lewis (b. Chicago, 1952) is active in 21st Century art and music as a composer, performer, and computer/installation artist. A 20-year member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Lewis studied composition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the AACM School of Music and trombone with Dean Hey. He holds a B.A. in philosophy from Yale College.

A recipient of several awards from the National Endowment for the Arts in both music and inter-arts categories, Lewis has presented his interdisciplinary compositions across Eastern and Western Europe, North America and Japan. His computer compositions have been premiered at the Banff Centre (Canada), IRCAM (Paris) and the Studio voor Elektro-Instrumentale Muziek (Amsterdam). Lewis' intermedia installations have been shown at the Randolph Street Gallery in Chicago and Musee de la Villette in Paris, and his "interactive music videos", combining the mediums of theatre, video and computer music, have been presented at the Arte Elettronica Festival in Camerino (Italy) and The Kitchen (New York).

About David Behrman, Composer/Artist - David Behrman has been active as a composer and artist since the 1960s -- making sound and multimedia installations for gallery spaces as well as compositions for performance in concerts. My Dear Siegfried, Leapday Night, On the Other Ocean, Unforeseen Events, Interspecies Smalltalk, Long Throw and Open Space with Brassare are among Behrman's works for soloists and small ensembles. In the 1970s, he collaborated with Robert Watts and Bob Diamond on the video and sound installation Cloud Music; in the 1980s, with George Lewis and Paul DeMarinis, he made installations for the DeCordova, Hudson River and La Villette museums. His most recent installations were Pen Light (2002) and View Finder (2006). Together with Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma, Behrman founded the Sonic Arts Union in 1966. Sonic Arts performed extensively in North America and Europe from 1966-76. It presented programs again recently at the MaerzMusik Festival in Berlin and The New School, new York. Behrman worked extensively with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, creating music for several repertory dances, from Walkaround Time (1968) to EyeSpace (2007). In 2004, he became a member, with Christian Wolff, Takehisa Kosugi and John King, of the company's music committee, which oversaw music issues during the last seven years of MCDC's existence. During the 1960s and 1970s, he assisted John Cage and David Tudor with several projects, like 9 Evenings: Theatre and Engineering (EATJ in 1966).

About Gelsey Bell, Soprano - Gelsey Bell is a singer, songwriter, and scholar. Described by The New York Times as a "brandy-voiced" "winning soprano" whose performance of her own music is "virtuosic" and "glorious noise," she has released two studio albums, Under A Piano (2005) and In Place of Arms (2010), two experimental albums, February (2008) and Love Is Just a Crack In the Space of You (2009), and the digital album SCALING live at Roulette (2012). Her work has been presented internationally in Performa 11 & 13, the Vital Vox festival, the BEAT festival, the LUMEN festival, the SITE festival, the Resonant Bodies festival, Les Rencontres Chore?graphiques in France, and Voice - Creature of Transition in Amsterdam. Gelsey is a core member of thingNY and Varispeed. She has worked with numerous composers, choreographers, and performance creators including Robert Ashley, Matthew Barney and Jonathan Bepler, Ne(x)tworks, Kimberly Bartosik, Yasuko Yokoshi, Dave Malloy, Rachel Chavkin, Alec Duffy, John King, Chris Cochrane and Fast Forward (as the Chutneys), Kate Soper, Rick Burkhardt, Miguel Frasconi, Anthony Gatto, Paul Pinto, Erin Rogers and the Panoply Performance Laboratory. Gelsey recently completed a doctorate at New York University in Performance Studies. www.gelseybell.com

About Fast Forward, Composer/Performer - Fast Forward is a New York based composer and performer who makes music with almost anything. He has worked closely with Merce Cunningham, Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Takehisa Kosugi, Pauline Oliveros and a myriad of other talented composers, musicians and artists.The sonic properties of metal objects has been his particular interest since 1981. He is best known for his music-theatre works for diverse instrumentation and compositions for large ensembles. "Feeding Frenzy," a culinary concert for 5 musicians, 5 cooks, 5 waiters, and the audience has been performed in Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany and the USA. It ran for three seasons at the Kitchen Center in New York and was performed at The Museum for Contemporary Art in Berlin for the 15 year celebration of Freunde Guter Musik. As a teacher, he teaches master classes in composition, improvisation, and music/theater at various institutions including: The Time of Music Festival (Viitassari, Finland), Bergen and Trondheim Art Academies (Norway), STEIM (Amsterdam, Holland), Wien University (Vienna) and Podewil (Berlin).

About Jenny Lin, Pianist - Jenny Lin is one of the most respected young pianists today, admired for her adventurous programming and charismatic stage presence. Her ability to combine classical and contemporary literature has brought her to the attention of international critics and audiences. She has been acclaimed for her "remarkable technical command" and "a gift for melodic flow" by The New York Times. The Washington Post praises "Lin's confident fingers... spectacular technique... ", "...surely one of the most interesting pianists in America right now..." and Gramophone Magazine has hailed her as "an exceptionally sensitive pianist." Her performances have taken her to Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Miller Theatre, MoMA, as well as at Mostly Mozart, Chopin, Flanders, Ars Musica,

Winnipeg New Music, BAM's Next Wave and Spoleto Festivals, with orchestras such as American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Nationale della RAI and SWR Rundfunkorchester. Jenny's extensive discography includes over 20 albums on Ha?nssler Classic, Steinway & Sons, Koch/E1, and BIS Records, since 2000. She is the central figure in "Cooking for Jenny," a documentary film about the world premiere of a Piano Concerto in Spain. Born in Taiwan and raised in Austria, she also holds a degree in German Literature from The Johns Hopkins University and makes her home in New York. Jenny is a Steinway Artist.

About Raz Mesinai, Composer/Performer - NY based producer, composer, musician, science fiction writer & underground film maker; Raz Mesinai (aka Ghost Producer) has produced over 100 solo albums under the monikers Badawi, Sub Dub, X-On, Psyche Co, The Heretic Of Ether, LadyMan among others, on such diverse labels as ROIR, Instinct, Asphodel, Tzadik & the Agriculture. His recent film; Tunnel Vision was hailed as a "21st Century Classic" by John Zorn.

About String Noise - String Noise is an "enterprising violin duo" in NYC. Classical avant-garde violinists Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim, who are married, have expanded the two violin repertoire to include over 40 new works written for them since their debut at the Ostrava Days in 2011. String Noise was highlighted in Performa 2011 and was the featured ensemble for the launch of composers collective Index 0. Premieres include works by Christian Wolff, Elizabeth Hoffman, John King, Phill Niblock, Annie Gosfield, Caleb Burhans, Spencer Topel, David Lang, John Zorn, Bernhard Lang, among others. String Noise has performed at Issue Project Room, Roulette, EXAPNO, Rockwood Music Hall and The Stone and has been heard on WNYC and WKCR. First feature album to be released this Spring [2015] of music by Eric Lyon.

About FLUX Quartet - The FLUX Quartet has performed to critical acclaim at the Park Avenue Armory, Kennedy Center, EMPAC, Bowerbird, The Kitchen, and numerous festivals worldwide. The group's discography includes recordings on the Cantaloupe, Innova, Tzadik, and Cold Blue Music labels, in addition to two critically acclaimed releases on Mode Records that encompass the full catalogue of string quartet works by Morton Feldman. Strongly influenced by the irreverent spirit and "anything-goes" philosophy of the fluxus art movement, violinist Tom Chiu founded FLUX in the late 90's. The quartet has since cultivated an uncompromising repertoire that combines late 20th-century masters with today's foremost innovators, resulting in premieres of more than 100 works. The long list of creative artists with whom the quartet has collaborated include Thomas Buckner, Michael Byron, Ornette Coleman, Julio Estrada, David First, Oliver Lake, Alvin Lucier, Mark Neikrug, Wadada Leo Smith, Matthew Welch and more. FLUX discovers future musical visionaries through active commissioning and dedicated residency work at colleges throughout the US and abroad. Also interested in mixed-media projects, the quartet has recently worked with genre-transcending artists such as Judy Dunaway, OpenEnded Group, Matthew Barney and choreographer Pam Tanowitz.

About Secret Quartet - Secret Quartet is resident new music ensemble at Vermont College of Fine Arts. During the 2014-2015 season they will be performing new and recent works by John King, Raz Mesinai, Michael Vincent Waller, Joan Jeanreneaud and Evan Joseph Beigel.

About Carol To, Soprano - Carol To, Soprano, is a versatile musician singing music from early Baroque to contemporary works. She has performed an array of genres including operas, musical theaters, concerts and recitals. She made her debut on Broadway in the production of the 1996 revival of The King and I as Tuptim. She has collaborated numerous times with Susie Ibarra and Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa; performed numerous world premieres of new compositions including works by Chen Yi, Bright Sheng, Zhou Qin-Rou, Robert Zaidam at the Tanglewood Music Center, American Opera Projects, the New Music Consort, Music From China and at the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. To has also soloed with the Santa Barbara Orchestra, Collegium Antiquum and concertized with the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble throughout the United States. She has performed solo recitals for various concert series including Trinity Church, Saint Paul's Chapel, Saint Peter's Church at CitiCorp Center, American Landmark Festivals, Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, and also performed in Italy and the Vatican City. Ms. To, a Taiwanese descendent, born and raised in Hong Kong, received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music; and completed fellowships at the Aspen Music Festivals, Tanglewood Music Center and the Music Academy of Santa Barbara. Ms. To currently teaches and resides in New York City.

Photo Credit: Anna Finke



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