92NY Presents Wild Up: Radical Adornment - The Music Of Julius Eastman: I — Femenine

The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY), one of New York's leading cultural venues, presents Wild Up performing Radical Adornment: The Music of Julius Eastman with special guests Devonté Hynes and Adam Tendler on April 21 & 22, 2023. Tickets start at $25 and are available at 92ny.org/event/wild-up-plays-julius-eastman.

Program:

Eastman: I- Femenine

Fri, Apr 21, 2023, 7:30 pm ET

Kaufmann Concert Hall

An immersive two-day celebration of a musical visionary. From leading Eastman interpreter Wild Up - an unprecedented NYC retrospective of this musical genius, featuring his most incandescent and influential works. Opening the festival: Femenine, the spellbinding work widely regarded as Eastman's masterpiece.

The extraordinary music of Black, gay experimental composer Julius Eastman remained at the margins during his life and through his death in 1990 at the age of 49, against a backdrop of mental illness and homelessness, the bulk of his scores tossed by law enforcement into the winter snow.

What I am trying to achieve is to be what I am to the fullest. Black to the fullest, a musician to the fullest, a homosexual to the fullest. - Julius Eastman, quoted in the Buffalo Evening News, 1976

The resurgence of Eastman's music over the past five years has uncovered a vital and distinctive artistic voice. In this major NYC retrospective of his music, the omnivorous Los Angeles-based music collective Wild Up - an early champion of Eastman's work - presents three concerts over two days and two stages. On Friday, April 21 on the 92NY mainstage, Wild Up performs Femenine - the work widely regarded as Eastman's masterpiece. The first of two concerts on Saturday, April 22 begins with one of Eastman's best-known works, the joyful party that is Stay On It. Select chamber works round out the afternoon, including Eastman's vibrant solo piano piece Piano 2. This concert features special guests Devonté Hynes and Adam Tendler and is held in the intimate Buttenwieser Hall. On Saturday evening, they will present Buddha, Eastman's egg-shaped open-score epic.

Additional events over the two days, including a photo exhibit in 92NY's Weill Art Gallery and panel discussions with scholars and those in Eastman's circle, result in a weekend offering a 360-degree view of one of the most iconoclastic voices of the 20th century. Additional details to be announced.