Anthony Braxton Kicks Off 69th Birthday Season with Tri-Centric Music Festival
By: Caryn Robbins Mar. 10, 2014
Esteemed American composer, musician, educator, recording artist and philosopher Anthony Braxton kicks off his 69th birthday season with the 2014 Tri-Centric Music Festival in New York, running April 10-19 at Roulette in Brooklyn and Eyebeam in Manhattan. The wide-ranging festival pairs rare performances of past compositions and premieres of new work by the prolific MacArthur Fellow, Doris Duke Performing Artist and recently-named NEA Jazz Master, with new projects by noted collaborators James Fei, Nate Wooley, Fay Victor and André Vida. Braxton's latest multimedia opera, Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables), will also receive its premiere. Please see below for schedule and full details.
Crucial to the mission of Braxton's Tri-Centric Foundation is the cultivation of a vibrant community of creative musicians, and Weekend One of the festival is set to highlight a number of examples of the composer's decades-long history of mentorship and support for younger artists. The weekend features the premieres of James Fei's Hysteresis, Nate Wooley's Battle Pieces, Fay Victor's Neighborhood Dynamics and André Vida's Moving Scores performed alongside Braxton's Composition No. 46 (for chamber ensemble), Composition No. 146, "Moogie and Stetson" (for 12 flutes, 2 tubas and percussion), and his Diamond Curtain Wall Nonet. Full instrumentations and performance details listed below. Weekend Two consists of the semi-staged, multimedia concert premiere of Braxton's latest four-act opera, Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables), featuring a cast of 12 vocalists, 12 instrumental soloists and a 36-piece orchestra led by a team including Braxton (composer, librettist, conductor), Acushla Bastible (director), Louisa Proske (associate director), Chris Jonas (lead video artist), Dylan McLaughlin (associate video artist), Rachel Bernsen (choreographer), and Taylor Ho Bynum (producer). Audiences-or "friendly-experiencers," as Braxton likes to refer to his listeners-will have the option of experiencing two acts at a time on two separate evenings or attending a full day with the first two acts presented as a matinee and the second two acts presented that same evening. Following the premiere the project will move into the studio to be recorded and released as a CD/DVD box set the following spring. The set will incorporate both live video and animation in order to fully document this massive work.André Vida: Moving Scores (Solo Interpretations)
12-6 p.m. at Eyebeam Featuring:
André Vida, saxophones
Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon
Jay Rozen, tuba
Brett Sroka, trombone
(additional performers TBA) André Vida's Moving Scores is an installation of films and animated musical notations that focuses on the delicate relationship between performer and score. Unlike typical musical scores these interactive pieces listen to their performers and respond with motion, amplifying the musical gesture and giving the sound a space to develop in equilibrium with the visual. Audiences may visit the gallery during the day April 10-12, as the performers develop their individual interpretations of these pieces. Thursday, April 10
James Fei: Hysteresis
Anthony Braxton: Composition No. 46
8 p.m. at Roulette James Fei: Hysteresis
Featuring:
James Fei, saxophones & contrabass clarinet
Josh Sinton, saxophones & contrabass clarinet
Jen Baker, trombone
Christopher McIntyre, trombone
Kato Hideki, electric bass
Ed Tomney, analog electronics Anthony Braxton: Composition No. 46
Featuring:
Anthony Braxton, conductor & saxophones
Vincent Chancey, French horn
Jacob Garchik, baritone horn
Jim Hobbs, alto saxophone
Ingrid Laubrock, soprano saxophone
Nicole Mitchell, flute
Oscar Noriega, alto saxophone
Dan Peck, tuba
Reut Regev, trombone
Stephanie Richards, trumpet
Katie Scheele, English horn
Josh Sinton, bass clarinet
Libby Van Cleve, oboe About the Program:
Over the past decade, James Fei has worked in several distinct streams of activities-notated works for contemporary music ensembles, improvisations, live electronics and sound installations. Hysteresis brings together collaborators from these various fields, not so much to find a common ground among the possibilities, but to make a new work that retains the complexities and intensity of the individual components. Anthony Braxton will conduct and perform with a chamber ensemble featuring the improvising soloists from his Trillium J opera, leading the group through a set of language music improvisations and works including Composition No. 46 (1975). Friday, April 11
Nate Wooley: Battle Pieces
Anthony Braxton: Composition 146 for 12 flutes, 2 tubas, and percussion
8 p.m. at Roulette Nate Wooley: Battle Pieces
Featuring:
Nate Wooley, trumpet
Ingrid Laubrock, saxophones
Sylvie Courvoisier, piano
Matt Moran, vibraphone Anthony Braxton: Composition 146, "Moogie and Stetson" for 12 flutes, 2 tubas, and percussion
Featuring:
Taylor Ho Bynum, conductor
Jamie Baum, flute
Domenica Fossati, flute
Michel Gentile, flute
Adrianne Greenbaum, flute
Margaret Lancaster, flute
Erin Lesser, flute
Aleksandra Miglowiec, flute
Leah Paul, flute
Helene Rosenblatt, flute
Peter Standaart, flute
Heather Stegmaier, flute
Sarah Bouchard Stockton, flute
Joseph Daley, tuba
Jay Rozen, tuba
Chris Dingman, percussion About the Program:
Nate Wooley's Battle Pieces was conceived as a background for an improviser, working with linguistics, tape processes and aleatoric concepts to fashion an ever-shifting composition that supplies the soloist with specific musical information within the context of an ever-changing series of densities, velocities and silences. Each member of the quartet is soloist for one piece, written to highlight and push the limits of their improvising vocabulary, switching to play with the notated trio on the others.
Anthony Braxton's Composition No. 146 follows in the composer's tradition of pieces for highly unusual instrumentation (such as Composition No. 19 for 100 tubas, Composition No. 103 for 7 costumed, choreographed trumpeters, or his early Composition No. 9 for four amplified shovels and a pile of coal). This work, written for 12 flutes, two tubas, and percussion, premiered at Memphis State University in 1988, and will receive its long overdue second performance this evening. Saturday, April 12
Roulette Kids! presents: Taylor Ho Bynum
1 p.m. at Roulette Taylor Ho Bynum leads a workshop using Anthony Braxton's principles of Language Music to introduce young people to ideas of group improvisation and composition-using sound as a "lego set" to create structures for play. All ages welcome, with special guests from the upcoming production of Braxton's opera Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables). Presenting artists who push the imagination and revel in the wonderful world of sound and vision, Roulette Kids! is a family-friendly, kid-approved educational programming series that fosters enrichment, curiosity and wonder through music and the free-play of the imagination, experimentation and creative interaction. Saturday, April 12
Fay Victor: Neighborhood Dynamics
Anthony Braxton: Falling River Music Nonet
8 p.m. at Roulette Fay Victor: Neighborhood Dynamics
Featuring:
Fay Victor, vocals
Nicole Mitchell, flute
Vincent Chancey, French horn
Anders Nilsson, guitar
Ken Filiano, double bass Anthony Braxton: Falling River Music Nonet
Featuring:
Anthony Braxton, saxophones
James Fei, saxophones
Ingrid Laubrock, saxophones
Jasmine Lovell-Smith, saxophones
Mary Halvorson, guitar
Brandon Seabrook, guitar
Tomeka Reid, cello
Nate Wooley, trumpet
Taylor Ho Bynum, cornet About the Program:
Neighborhood Dynamics, collaboratively composed by Fay Victor and her husband Jochem van Dijk, is a musical observation of gentrification drawing from the composers' ten years of living in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The project adds two special guests (Mitchell and Chancey) to the long-running Fay Victor Ensemble, and uses a graph depicting the flux of residents over time as the basis for a score that combines composition, improvisation, graphic notation and text. Anthony Braxton will premiere a nonet of mirror-image instrumentation (doubled saxophones, reeds, brass and guitars) that will explore his Falling River Music, working off of the composer's evocative graphic scores (which will also be on display in Roulette's lobby). Sunday, April 13
André Vida: Moving Scores
8-11 p.m. at Eyebeam Featuring:
André Vida, saxophones
Sara Schoenbeck, bassoon
Jay Rozen, tuba
Brett Sroka, trombone
(additional performers TBA) André Vida's Moving Scores is an installation of films and animated musical notations that focuses on the delicate relationship between performer and score. Unlike typical musical scores these interactive pieces listen to their performers and respond with motion, amplifying the musical gesture and giving the sound a space to develop in equilibrium with the visual. Beginning at 8 p.m. on the evening of April 13-and following a series of "solo interpretations" (see above)-the musicians will converge as an ensemble to perform as part of the CT-SWaM series, along with spatialized reconfigurations by Daniel Neumann. Thursday, April 17
Anthony Braxton: Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables) (Acts I & II)
8 p.m. at Roulette Anthony Braxton, conductor/composer
Acushla Bastible, director
Louisa Proske, associate director
Chris Jonas, video director
Dylan McLaughlin, associate video director
Rachel Bernsen, choreographer
Amy Crawford, sound design/assistant producer
Kyoko Kitamura, assistant producer
Taylor Ho Bynum, producer/assistant conductor Vocalists:
Roland Burks, bass
Kelvin Chan, baritone
Tomas Cruz, tenor
Lucy Dhegrae, soprano
Chris DiMeglio, baritone
Kristin Fung, mezzo-soprano
Nick Hallett, tenor
Kyoko Kitamura, soprano
Kamala Sankaram, soprano
Elizabeth Saunders, mezzo-soprano
Jen Shyu, soprano
Vince Vincent, tenor Instrumental Soloists:
Vincent Chancey, French horn
Jacob Garchik, baritone horn
Jim Hobbs, alto saxophone
Ingrid Laubrock, soprano saxophone
Nicole Mitchell, flute
Oscar Noriega, clarinet
Dan Peck, tuba
Reut Regev, trombone
Stephanie Richards, trumpet
Katie Scheele, English horn
Josh Sinton, bass clarinet
Libby Van Cleve, oboe Friday, April 18
Anthony Braxton: Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables) (Acts III & IV)
8 p.m. at Roulette (See Thursday, April 17 for full cast & crew) Saturday, April 19
Anthony Braxton: Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables) (Acts I & II)
3 p.m. at Roulette (See Thursday, April 17 for full cast & crew) Saturday, April 19
Anthony Braxton: Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables) (Acts III & IV)
8 p.m. at Roulette (See Thursday, April 17 for full cast & crew) ABOUT ANTHONY BRAXTON Braxton is recognized as one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of the past 50 years, highly esteemed in the creative music community for the revolutionary quality of his work and for the mentorship and inspiration he has provided to generations of younger musicians. Drawing upon a disparate mix of influences from John Coltrane to Karlheinz Stockhausen to Native American music, Braxton has created a unique musical system that celebrates the concept of global creativity and our shared humanity. His work examines core principles of improvisation, structural navigation and ritual engagement-innovation, spirituality and intellectual investigation. His many accolades include a 1981 Guggenhiem Fellowship, a 1994 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and a 2014 NEA Jazz Master Award. ABOUT TRI-CENTRIC The Tri-Centric Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that supports the ongoing work and legacy of Anthony Braxton while also cultivating and inspiring the next generation of creative artists to pursue their own visions with the kind of idealism and integrity Braxton has demonstrated throughout his distinguished career. The term "Tri-Centric" derives from Braxton's three-volume collection of philosophical investigations, The Tri-Axium Writings. Braxton believes creative thinking cannot be reduced to dichotomies, but must embrace multiple perspectives. For instance, music is not only composed or improvised, but also includes intuition. We must not only consider the past and the present, but also the future. It is not always this or that, it is often the other. Tri-Centric exists to vigorously advocate for the crucial role risk-taking art plays in maintaining the health and vibrancy of our culture. Through a commitment to innovation, self-sufficiency, and artistic ambition, the organization looks to create a new model of artist empowerment and offer a supportive community to those in pursuit of "trans-idiomatic" creativity. http://tricentricfoundation.org
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