Spectrum Presents New York Progressive and Experimental Festival, 7/12-14

Spectrum presents NYX II: New York Progressive and Experimental Festival celebrating the historical interaction between the genres of classical Experimental Music and Progressive Rock since their beginning and into the 21st century.

Since the last century, these two genres have shared a number of key features: the free use of emerging technologies by way of synthesizers & electronics, ambitious musical structures, asymmetric time signatures and, notably, virtuosic performance involving "traditionally-amplified" instruments (electric guitars, synthsizers, etc.) as well as "traditionally-acoustic" instruments such as piano, violin and so forth. Now in its second year, NYX II takes place over the weekend of July 12-14, 2013 and has a line-up of accomplished, highly- talented, exciting musicians from NYC and elsewhere. This will be an enjoyable, envelope-expanding experience for participants, both audience and performers alike.

Tickets cost $10 for each individual show; $15 on Chapman Stick night; $25 for a day pass; $50 for a 3 day pass. They are available for purchase at Brown Paper Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/410325

Michael Bernier, July 12 at 8 p.m.

NY Multi-instrumentalist Michael Bernier began playing drums at the tender age of 14 in his hometown of Huntington, Long Island, before eventually adding in guitar, Chapman Stick, bass, cello and tablas. Most recently, Michael toured Europe, South America, Japan and the United States with STICK MEN, a project with King Crimson alums Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto. He's also played with such luminaries as Eddie Jobson, Marco Minneman, Trey Gunn, Simon Phillips and Greg Howe. Currently Michael is planning a tour of the material from his newest solo release "Leviathan" with drummer David Bodie (Time of Orchids, Kayo Dot, Infantefant) and Bassist Martin Keith.

http://michaelbernier.bandcamp.com/album/leviathan

Greg Howard's AZUL Trio, July 12 at 9:30 p.m.

AZUL is the new improvisational trio formed by Chapman Stick player Greg Howard with John D'earth (trumpet) and Brian Caputo (drums).

Their music is kinetic, pan-cultural improvisation, incorporating elements of jazz, eastern music, progressive rock, funk, space music and electronica. It's also totally spontaneous, but not in a stereotypical "free improvisational" fashion, as they seek out grooves and thematic elements, not afraid to play a major chord now and again.

D'earth is a veteran jazz and Latin trumpeter and composer, who has explored free improvisation with his own band Cosmology, as well as artists like John Abercrombie and drummer Bob Moses. He and Howard have performed in various groups since the late 1980s. Caputo performed in the progressive jazz Thompson-D'earth band for five years before touring extensively with alt-country band Sons of Bill. Howard has released numerous improvisations as a soloist, in duo with guitarist Tim Reynolds, and the groove poetry trio Code Magenta with vocalist Dawn Thompson and saxophonist LeRoi Moore.

AZUL marks the first time these three central Virginia-based musicians have performed together. Their explosive chemistry, captured in the studio in May, will mark their debut release this summer.

Dalit Hadass Warshaw, July 13 at 2 p.m.

An internationally acclaimed composer, pianist and thereminist, Warshaw's works have been performed by over twenty-six orchestral ensembles, including the New York and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras (Zubin Mehta conducting), the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Y Chamber Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the Albany Symphony and the Grand Rapids Symphony.

Having studied theremin with the renowned Clara Rockmore from an early age, she has appeared as thereminist with such ensembles as the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and has also performed in spaces such as Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall and Alice Tully Hall.

Her CD, INVOCATIONS, was released in January 2011 and is available on Albany Records. Along with providing a diverse representation of her compositional language, this disc integrates the theremin with acoustic ensembles in ways that exhibit the more lyrical, vocal and expressive capacities of this unusual instrument, and that reveal its limitless ways of blending and interacting with different timbral combinations. On it, Warshaw performs on a unique and profoundly historical instrument: Clara Rockmore's theremin, which was built and customized to her specifications by its inventor, Lev Termen, in the early 1930's, and on which she last performed in 1993.

As a pianist, Warshaw has performed widely as soloist, chamber player and improviser, in such diverse concert spaces as Avery Fisher Hall, Miller Theater, the Juilliard Theater, Merkin Hall, Steinway Hall, Tonic, and The Stone.

Awards and grants include five ASCAP Foundation Grants to Young Composers, a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel (2001-2002), a Fromm Music Foundation Grant from Harvard University, and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1984, she became the youngest ever to win the BMI Award for Student Composers, with her orchestral piece Fun Suite, written at the age of eight.

A full-time composition faculty member at the Boston Conservatory since September 2004, Warshaw is a graduate of Columbia University and the Juilliard School. She has held residencies at the Yaddo and MacDowell Artist Colonies, as well as at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

SoCorpo, July 13 at 3:30 p.m.

SoCorpo is a vocal duo comprised of Sasha Bogdanowitsch & Sabrina Lastman, whose music stretches the possibilities of the human voice and bridges gaps between contemporary new music, jazz, folk & world music. Their work is often theatrical, incorporating music performance alongside movement & multi-media. They have performed throughout the New York City area in venues like Roulette, Le Poisson Rouge, Iati Theater, and The Tank. www.socorpo.com

Sasha Bogdanowitsch is a composer, vocalist & multi-instrumentalist whose work ranges from writing live and recorded music for theater, dance and film to cross-disciplinary performance to songs with unusual accompaniments to music for unique ensembles, such as gamelan & early music groups. Sasha has a MA from the UCSC and a BFA from the CalArts, where he studied composition and world musics, later integrating the two into multi-movement, interdisciplinary performances. He has composed music for numerous media, such as SoCorpo's ON BECOMING, a vocal theater work, TV & film scores, GRIMM, a multimedia dance theater work; and HIDDEN CIRCLE, an interdisciplinary work for voice, movement & projections.

Sasha is currently active composing & performing solo as well as with the cross-disciplinary theatre ensemble, Loom, the M6, a vocal sextet, and SoCorpo, a vocal duo. He has worked with artists and companies, such as: Meredith Monk, Lou Harrison, SaReel Project, Hesperus, Just Strings, Sabrina Lastman, Gamelan Son of Lion, Pusaka Sunda, Microfest & the American Festival of Microtonal Music. Sasha has performed throughout the world in such varied countries as Australia, Japan, India and Indonesia to throughout the USA and to local venues like New York's Carnegie Hall, Whitney Museum, Symphony Space, BAM, The Tank, Galapagos, Issue Project Room and the Stone. He is co-founder of arts non-profit, World In One and the Vital Vox Vocal Festival. www.sashabmusic.com

Drawing from jazz, Latin American, and contemporary music, often integrating extended vocal techniques, New York based vocalist, performer, and composer Sabrina Lastman (Uruguay/Israel) is described as "perennially eclectic and innovative" and as an artist who "embraces the audience with the sweetness of her voice." Sabrina leads the Sabrina Lastman Quartet, and creates and performs interdisciplinary new music projects incorporating voice, sound, movement, and visuals - these include DIALOGUES OF SILENCE, ON BECOMING (SoCorpo, EWO 2009), RIVER OF PAINTED BIRDS, AN ENCOUNTER WITH 'EL DUENDE' and INELEMENT (SoCorpo, EWO 2013). Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, Sabrina has toured internationally and performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Blue Note, Joe's Pub, La Mama, Blues Alley Jazz, ISSUE Project Room, Juilliard, Roulette, New York University, Yale University, Rutgers University, City University of New York and Classical Guitar Association of New York, among others. She has played with musicians such as Fernando Otero (Grammy Award Winner), Bakithi Kumalo, Meredith Monk (Grammy Award Nominated), Tali Roth, Pablo Aslan (Grammy Award Nominated), Emilio Solla, Pedro Giraudo, David Silliman, The M6, Philip Hamilton, Meg Okura, and Leonardo Suarez-Paz. Her album THE FOLDS OF THE SOUL was nominated by the Graffiti Awards 2008 as one of the best jazz albums of the year, and it was considered of cultural interest by the Ministry of Culture and Education in Uruguay. Sabrina was awarded grants from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council & New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Her new album The Candombe Jazz Sessions with the Sabrina Lastman Quartet was released by ZOHO Music in 2012. Together with Sasha Bogdanowitsch, Sabrina is the co- artistic director of Vital Vox: A Vocal Festival www.vitalvoxfest.com) that explores the myriad power of the human voice in its solo and ensemble forms across a multitude of genres. She graduated from The Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in Israel. www.sabrina-lastman.com

Marilyn Nonken, July 13 at 5 p.m.

Marilyn Nonken, "one of the greatest interpreters of new music" (American Record Guide), is known for performances that explore extremes of virtuosity and musical expression. Solo releases include AMERICAN SPIRITUAL, featuring works written for her by Michael Finnissy, Jason Eckardt, Milton Babbitt, and Jeff Nichols; TRISTAN MURAIL: THE COMPLETE PIANO MUSIC, MORTON FELDMAN: TRIADIC MEMORIES and VOIX VOILÉES: SPECTRAL MUSIC FOR PIANO. Festival appearances include Résonances and the Festival d'Automne (Paris), When Morty Met John, Making Music, Interpretations, and Works & Process at the Guggenheim (all New York), American Sublime (Philadelphia), Unruly Music (Milwaukee), The Festival of New American Music (Sacramento), Musica Nova Helsinki, Aspects des Musiques d'Aujourd-hui (Caën), New Music Days (Ostrava), Musikhøst (Odense), and ATEMPO (Caracas). She records for New World, Mode, Lovely Music, Albany, Centaur, Metier, CRI, BMOP Sound, Tzadik, Bridge, New Focus, and Kairos. Director of Piano Studies at NYU's Steinhardt School, she is a Steinway artist.

The Moirae Ensemble, July 13 at 6:30 p.m.

The Moirae Ensemble is a Non Profit Chamber Music Organization that focuses on classical contemporary music while simultaneously awareness and support for women's issues, worldwide. They are currently fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas and will be acquiring our 501(c)(3) status soon.

The Ensemble was founded in 2011 by Harpist Caroline Cole, Soprano Catherine Hancock, and Flutist Fiona Kelly. While completing their Master of Music degrees at The Juilliard School, Caroline, Catherine and Fiona discovered a mutual love of contemporary music and a desire to serve their community. They have performed at The Tank, The Underground, and at The Juilliard School and are currently scheduling their 2013-2014 Concert Season. A portion of all ticket sales goes towards Women for Women International.

This Summer they will be collaborating with violist Crista Kenda in two concerts, dedicated to the 1,127 victims of the factory collapse in Savar, Bangladesh, most of whom were women.

Additionally, The Moirae Ensemble is committed to the development of contemporary classical music. They have already premiered works by Evan Fein, and have several exciting commissions in progress, including THE 10TH MUSE by internationally acclaimed composer, Libby Larsen. The piece was conceived in a collaboration between Ms. Larsen and Ms. Hancock and is set to ten fragments of ancient texts by women that were written in areas of the world that are currently suffering from political unrest and warfare. THE 10TH MUSE will be premiered in 2014. www.moiraeensemble.com

Ron Anderson with Sylvie Courvoisier, Chuck Bettis and Michael Evans, July 13 at 8 p.m.

Ron Anderson was born in Jersey City, New Jersey in 1959. He is a self- taught rock composer who starting experimenting with new rock concepts, noise, free improvisation while in high school in the mid 1970's. In 1980 he was one of the founding members of Rat At Rat R in Philadelphia. He moved to New York City's Lower East Side in 1982. He started working in his home recording studio experimenting with tape editing, found sounds, noise, and improvisation. He combined these elements with composition and released his first LP entitled Fever Dream in 1987. Ron moved to Oakland, CA in 1989 and shortly thereafter formed The Molecules; they released a total of 6 CDs. He and The Molecules were introduced to the European music community at the Musique Action Festival in Nancy, France in 1993 and since then he has been a regular on the European festival and club circuit, as well as touring in Japan, Canada and the United States. After living in Geneva,

Switzerland for one year, he moved back to New York City in 1999 where he formed PAK. He has collaborated with many musicians on numerous projects. He appears on over 60 releases, most recently Ron Anderson's PAK - Secret Curve on Tzadik.

Toby Driver / Kayo Dot, July 13 at 9:30 p.m.

Kayo Dot is an American experimental music group formed in 2003 by Toby Driver. They released their debut album CHOIRS OF THE EYE on John Zorn's Tzadik Records label that year.

Since then, Kayo Dot's music has undergone several identity shifts, largely influenced by the band's constantly changing lineup and instrumentation. One predominant element of Driver's compositional voice which remains consistent throughout all of

Kayo Dot's output, however, is the band's use of abstract timing and performance cues.

The band have released six studio albums: CHOIRS OF THE EYE in 2003, DOWSING ANEMONE with COPPER TONGUE in 2006, BLUE LAMBENCY DOWNARD in 2008, COYOTE in 2010, STAINed Glass in 2011, and GAMMA KNIFE/GREY DREAM in 2012.

Jesse Kranzler, July 13 at 11:30 p.m.

Jesse Kranzler is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer hailing from San Diego, CA, currently based in New York. Jesse has toured America and Europe in the realms of both experimental music and pop music; with his avant-rock trio WITT, experimental folk band, Snuffaluffagus, and his indie/folk trio Town Hall. He has participated in many other musical projects as a performer, arranger, composer, and guitarist. Jesse also serves as booking agent and manager for many of his bands and is currently working on developing a music curriculum to be taught throughout Kenya as well as a songbook of traditional folk music that he recorded and transcribed while in the country. Jesse will spend the Fall preparing new music for his instrumental trio Social Meteors and new chamber works to be premiered in Winter 2012. He will also be raising money to produce and release a compilation of traditional Kenyan music.

Sarah Cahill, July 14 at 2 p.m.

Sarah Cahill, recently called "fiercely gifted" by The New York Times and "as tenacious and committed an advocate as any composer could dream of" by The San Francisco Chronicle, has commissioned, premiered, and recorded numerous compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to her include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Annea Lockwood, and Evan Ziporyn. Upcoming performances include a concert at San Quentin of music Henry Cowell wrote while he was incarcerated there, a minimalism series at King's Place in London, and Lou Harrison's Piano Concerto with Steven Schick and the La Jolla Symphony. Most of Sarah's albums are on the New Albion label. Her radio show, REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE, can be heard every Sunday evening from 8 to 10 pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and curates a monthly series of new music concerts at the Berkeley Art Museum.

Grey McMurray, July 14 at 3:30 p.m.

Brief auto-sketch: I am Grey McMurray. I live in Brooklyn and play guitar in few different situations and play guitar and sing in a couple situations. I have had the privilege of playing music with many wonderful people. I am slowly but surely working on being able to make strangers cry, in a positive way, with the power of music. I am a member of (k)nights on earth, The Exit, itsnotyouitsme, Beyondo, Bell, Naked Brunch, alligator eats fish and sometimes play with So Percussion, Lenka Dusilova, and some other potatoes.

Diabolicus, July 14 at 5 p.m.

Diabolicus is a 5-piece Death Metal band from New York, New York, which combines many different influences and elements to create a unique-blend of music. The band's drummer, Leo Didkovsky, is the son on guitarist Nick Didkovsky, who is also playing at NYX II.

Other band members are:

Nyajah Souder - Vocals

Owen Lukashok - Bass

Edwin Jacobellis - Guitar

Josh Veal - Guitar

Nick Didkovsky, July 14 at 6:30 p.m.

Nick Didkovsky is a guitarist, composer, bandleader, and software programmer. In 1983, he founded the avant-rock octet Doctor Nerve. He presently resides in New York City, where he composes, creates music software, and teaches computer music composition at New York University. He is the principle author of the computer music language Java Music Specification Language (www.algomusic.com). He has composed music for Bang On A Can All-Stars, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, California EAR Unit, New Century Players, Ethel String Quartet, Electric Kompany, ARTE Quartett, and other ensembles. His Punos Music record label offers CD releases of his more extreme musical projects. He is director of bioinformatics for the Gensat project at The Rockefeller University.

Didkovsky's work with Doctor Nerve joins the furious energy of rock with intricate composition, some of which finds its origins in rich software systems of his own design. His non-didactic approach to combining human and machine creativity is his unique fingerprint in a musical world that pushes the boundaries of rock music, algorithmic composition, and contemporary music. Doctor Nerve has performed at a number of music festivals, including the Composers' Showcase at The Whitney Museum of American Art, FIMAV Festival (Victoriaville, Quebec), MIMI Festival (Arles, France), Creative Time (Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage), Rumor Festival (Holland), Moers Festival (Germany), Festival Musique Actuelle (Victoriaville, Canada), and Festival des Musiques Innovatrices (France). In 1995 Didkovsky released a score book containing full ensemble scores for all the compositions from the CD SKIN.

Didkovsky is a member of the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, which to date has released two CDs, entitled AYAYA MOSES and UPBEAT (Ambiances Magnetique). Didkovsky has contributed twelve compositions to the ensemble. His new trio Bone with bassist Hugh Hopper (ex Soft Machine) and drummer John Roulat released their first record on Cuneiform Records. The CD features intricate, high-energy compositions and improvisation. Bone recently enjoyed its premiere performance at "December 2006 at The STONE" curated by Bruce Gallanter, and in 2008 performed at The Whitney Museum of American Art.

With Phil Burk, Didkovsky created Java Music Specification Language (JMSL), a language for computer music composition written in the Java programming language. JMSL was premiered at Circuits: The Governor's Conference on Arts and Technology, in Palisades, NY in March, 1998. In 2003, Minnesota Public Radio commissioned Didkovsky to design a JMSL version of the Rhythmicon, an electronic musical instrument originally designed by Henry Cowell and Leon Theremin in 1930. It is hosted at www.musicmavericks.org/rhythmicon and was featured on The Art of the Virtual Rhythmicon (Innova , 2006). Didkovsky has presented papers on JMSL at three International Computer Music Conferences (2001, '04, '06), & the JavaOne Conference (2003).

Didkovsky has received commissioning grants from The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Meet the Composer's Commissioning/Music USA, the Jerome Foundation, and numerous privately funded initiatives. He has received recording grants from The Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and the Aaron Copland Fund. He was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Computer Arts Fellowship to support his work in computer music composition and performance.

His Black Sabbath Guitar Lessons on YouTube have been received with great enthusiasm by metal fans all over the world.

Doug Balliett, July 14 at 8 p.m.

Doug Balliett is a prolific artist whose career has spanned classical performance, composition, rap, rock, spoken word, period performance and conducting. As a double bassist he has performed with Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Modern, the Ensemble Modern Orchestra, the San Antonio Symphony (principal and assistant principal) and the Metropolis Ensemble.

He has earned fellowships at Tanglewood, where he performed as principal bass under James Levine, Aspen (principal under Jane Glover), National Orchestral Institute (principal under Andrew Litton) and the Lucerne Academy (principal under Boulez). He also maintains an active life as a recitalist, including live radio recitals, solo recitals throughout New York, and recital tours. Recent engagements have included double bass concerto performances at Alice Tully Hall and the ACFNY, commissions for new works from SOLI San Antonio and New York's The Millenials, and tours with his band The Oracle Hysterical in Germany and Switzerland.

Mr. Balliett's compositions have been heard throughout the US, garnering several awards, including prizes in the Frederick Delius Competition, the Leonard Bernstein Scholarship, the Kirkland House Music Award and Harvard's first annual Artist Development Grant. Recent compositional projects include a late-night event at the Chelsea Art Museum (as part of his continued residency at the Chelsea Music Festival) and the composer-in- residence Spotlight with The Oracle Hysterical at the Lucerne Festival, where he and his collaborators presented an evening of Grimm songs and a new hip-hopera based on Melville's Billy Budd. Mr. Balliett graduated from Harvard in 2007 with high honors and has recently completed a master's at The Juilliard School in Historical Performance.

Alexander Sigman July 14 at 9:30 p.m.

Alexander Sigman's instrumental, electroacoustic, film, multimedia, and installation works have been featured at major international festivals, exhibitions, institutions, and venues across Europe, Asia, and the US. In June 2007, Sigman was Composer-in-Residence at the Musiques Démesurées festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Subsequently, he was awarded residency fellowships by the Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, Germany) the Djerassi Foundation, and the Paul Dresher Ensemble Artists Residency Center. In 2013 and 2014, he will be undertaking a musical research residency at IRCAM. http://www.lxsigman.com/

For more information, visit www.spectrumnyc.com/blog.