Miller Theatre At Columbia University Kicks Off The 2009/10 With Wordless Music Meets Miller Festival

Miller Theatre at Columbia University kicks off the 2009-2010 season with a new series: Wordless Music Meets Miller Festival.

Ronen Givony and Melissa Smey curate a series blending indie-rock and the new classical, starring:

The 802 Tour

Jack Quartet

Do Make Say Think

Charles Spearin’s “The Happiness Project”

among many others

Wednesday, September 9 to Saturday, September 12

All performances begin at 8:00PM

Tickets: $15-$20
 
From Miller Theatre’s Director Melissa Smey:
“I am incredibly excited to collaborate with Ronen Givony and the Wordless Music series. His unique approach to programming is exactly in line with Miller’s mission. The festival will bring together inde-rock bands and carefully chosen classical musicians, blurring genres and developing new audiences for classical music.”

Wordless Music Meets Miller Festival
September 9-12
presented in collaboration with Wordless Music

After two initial collaborations between Miller Theatre and Ronen Givony’s Wordless Music series this past spring (sold-out shows featuring The Books and Wolfgang Voigt’s GAS), Miller joins forces with Wordless Music to present a festival of specially curated concerts highlighting the best of each organization's aesthetic and mission. For four nights, indie-rock and electronic-music performers share the stage with artists from the classical and new-music world, for a set of unorthodox and unconventional musical meetings.
 
Programs: Wednesday, September 9, 8:00PM
The 802 Tour (Nico Muhly, Sam Amidon, and Doveman)
Tickets: $15

Thursday, September 10, 8:00PM
Do Make Say Think and Charles Spearin’s “The Happiness Project”
Tickets: $20

Friday, September 11, 8:00PM
Tim Hecker, Grouper, and Julianna Barwick
Tickets: $15

Saturday, September 12, 8:00PM
Destroyer, Loscil, and Jack Quartet
Tickets: $20

802 Tour is made up of fellow Vermont-to-New York transplants Nico Muhly, Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman), and Sam Amidon. The three have appeared in each other’s shows, played on each other’s records, and now they are heading on tour, alongside collaborators Oren Bloedow and Nadio Sirota. The performances will feature music from each of them, as well as some sneak previews of future collaborative schemes. Amidon will perform a set of folk ballads, accompanied by Bartlett and Muhly. The microphone will then be passed to Bartlett. Finally, the group will perform a selection of Muhly’s compositions with violist Nadia, culminating in The Only Tune, a piece that Muhly wrote for Amidon, and that he, Amidon, Bartlett, and Nadia premiered last year at Carnegie Hall.

Do Make Say Think started in January 1996 when three Toronto roommates began performing shows based on their experimental 8-track home recordings. The performances, like the recordings, were instrumental, improvised, and steered away from traditional song structuring. In 1997 the band independently released their first recording, Do Make Say Think, which was picked up by Constellation Records. By the summer of 1999 the band had finished recording their second album, Goodbye Enemy Airship the Landlord is Dead, and were preparing for their first European tour. In 2002, the band’s third recording & Yet & Yet was released; in 2004 Winter Hymn, Country Hymn, Secret Hymn; and in 2007 You, You’re a History in Rust. Do Make Say Think’s music has been of interest to many filmmakers, and has been used in films such as Mark Akbar’s The Corporation, Velcro Ripper’s Sacred Sacred, and Stephen Gaghan’s Syriana.

Charles Spearin is a multi-instrumentalist who has been an influential member of Canada’s independent music community since the mid 1990s. He is known as a founding member of Do Make Say Think and an original member of Broken Social Scene. Spearin’s most recent work—his first solo album—titled The Happiness Project centers on recorded conversations with his neighbors and plays with the cadence of their voices as though they were songs. The inspiration behind this project comes from his love of music and from his experience with Buddhism. Spearin was raised by a blind, Buddhist father and, before the birth of his own children, he dedicated much of his time to studying Buddhist philosophy and practicing meditation. The practice puts emphasis on analyzing the nature of one’s own awareness, and includes long periods of silence. Returning home to ordinary life and conversation after periods of quiet is what brought Spearin’s attention to the focus of this new album.

Tim Hecker is a Canadian-based musician and sound artist, born in Vancouver. Since 1996, he has produced a range of audio works for Kranky, Alien8, Mille Plateaux, Room40, Force Inc, Staalplaat, and Fat Cat. His works have been described as “structured ambient,” “tectonic color plates,” and “cathedral electronic music.” He has focused on exploring the intersection of noise, dissonance, and melody, fostering an approach to songcraft which is both physical and emotive. His Harmony in Ultraviolet received critical acclaim, including being recognized by Pitchfork as a top recording of 2006. Radio Amor was also recognized as a key recording of 2003 by Wire magazine. His work has also included commissions for contemporary dance, sound-art installations, minimal techo works under the name ‘Jetone’, as well as other various writings. Hecker has presented his work in a live setting around the world, including performances in Barcelona, Montreal, Quebec, Vancouver, and Berlin.

Grouper is the assumed name of Northern Californian artist Liz Harris, who over the last few years moved into the underground spotlight with her peculiarly disarming music. Her journey began with the ambience of Way Their Crept released on ex-Deerhoof member Rob Fisk’s Free Porcupine Society label in 2005. What followed over the next few years was a handful of stunning releases, from Wide (again on FPS) to the haunting collaborative recording with Xiu Xiu entitled Creepshow. With each release Harris grew in confidence and refined her unique style, coming to a head with the limited Cover the Windows and the Walls LP on Root Strata which sold out in a matter of weeks. In 2008 she released the album which defined her sound, Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill, and through cult British imprint Type Records she finally reached the wider audience she deserved. In 2009 she toured the United States in support of Animal Collective and released split 7”s with City Center and Pumice.

Julianna Barwick is a Brooklyn-based musician who has self-released two records, 2007's Sanguine, a collection of loop-based vocal arrangements made in her bedroom and completely improvised and 2009's Florine EP, which adheres to the same loop-based, mostly vocal structure with a little added instrumentation. Pitchfork recently recognized Barwick as a 'rising' artist and named one track from Florine as 'Best New Music.’

Dan Bejar started Destroyer as a home-recording project in the early to mid-1990s. In 1996, he released his debut full-length album of stripped-down, lo-fi electric folk, We’ll Build Them a Golden Bridge. Soon the Destroyer template expanded to include a rhythm section, and Bejar was compelled to head into a proper studio to record City of Daughters in 1998. It was with City of Daughters that Bejar began to develop his own lyrical voice, a voice that continued to evolve over the course of his next two records, Thief and Streethawk: A Seduction. This Night is an epic full of indulgences that seemed the perfect foil to the sleek and streamlined approach of earlier recordings. Destroyers Rubies was hailed as the second coming by many fans and established Destroyer as a critical and commercial success. Trouble in Dreams continues Bejars lyrical and musical assault on all that is stagnant in modern popular music.

Loscil is the recording name of Canadian artist Scott Morgan who produces minimal ambient electronic music. The name Loscil is taken the name from the “looping oscillator” function (loscil) in Csound—a computer music programming language. Loscil has released a series of albums on Kranky Records beginning with Triplepoint in 2001. The 2002 album Submers plumbed the ocean depths for inspiration (every track takes its name from a submarine) and included a eulogy to the victims of the Kursk tragedy. More recent releases, First Narrows and Plume, incorporate live musicians for a more varied and dynamic sound. Loscil’s fifth Kranky release is scheduled for release in early 2010 and includes a collaborative piece with Destroyer’s Daniel Bejar.

Jack Quartet has quickly established a reputation for giving high-energy performances of today’s most demanding works for string quartet. In 2009, the quartet received an ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. The quartet has performed at Carnegie Hall, La Biennale di Venezia in Italy, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, and the Festival Internacional Chihuahua in Mexico. The commissioning and performance of new works for string quartet is integral to the JACK’s mission, leading them to work closely with many composers. Upcoming premieres include works by Johannes Schöllhorn, Martin Smolka, Caleb Burhans, Peter Ablinger, and Alan Hilario. The quartet has lead workshops with young composers at Columbia University, New York University, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Victoria, and the University of Washington.

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