Ruckus NYC

I'm extremely excited about Ruckus NYC,  a one-day conference and concert on art and the web happening September 29th at Cooper Union.  Old-friend and former No Signal co-conspirator Kevin Clark has wrangled a FULL day of interesting dialogue about how new media has affected the arts, tied it together with some sessions about making life as an artist work nowadays, and topped it off with a concert, featuring some amazing groups that have harnassed the web to build their ensemble, increase their visibility, and produce their unique art. I'm happy to say that New Morse Code will be playing a short set amidst a great line up featuring Sylvana Joyce and the Moment,  and Deb Oh and the Cavaliers, Florent Ghys, Jody Redhage, Kings, and old pal Zach Herchen.  Hannah and I are on between 8:30 and 9:30, and will be playing some  music by Osvaldo Golijov our own arrangement of one of  Andy Akiho's tunes.

Check out the full concert schedule here, and the conference proceedings here.

Here's what K has to say:

The entire arts world is a million tiny experiments in how to live the life of an artist, and we’re all waiting for the results. Ruckus NYC is our way of sneaking an early look at the data.

We’re bringing together a massive group of artists of all different kinds, and looking at their experiences. How does an animator who lives on grants, fellowships, and one-time gigs create a living and make the art he wants to make? How does a rock-band leader with a day-job find the time for her rehearsals, gigs, and songwriting? How do you balance playing the saxophone, teaching music, and being a recording engineer? How much work does it take to build an ad-supported arts blog? How do you balance different personas online when some of your art isn’t quite Safe For Work? How far will “1,000 True Fans” really get you?"

Kevin, Victoria and Zach made an AMAZING Kickstarter video, which serves Ruckus' box office and marketing department.  Hope to see you there!

Squeak Squeak, Plunk Plunk.

I'm back from six amazing weeks at Norfolk (more on that soon) and all moved out to gorge-s Ithaca (more on THAT soon, as well), but I wanted to share this live recording Hannah and I made of Martin Bresnick's Songs of the Mouse People, a fabulously clever (albeit brief) meditation on Kafka's last short story.  It's one of many shiny new live recordings on the new New Morse Code website.  Like all labors of love, it's a work in progress, so keep checking back as Hannah and I update and tweak things, edit video, and argue about font sizes and margins. If you're more interested in solo music, check out my new video of the vibraphone portion of Manoury's Livre des Claviers.    Enjoy, and stay tuned for more news, a new calendar page, important links, recordings, musings, reports, and complaints!

Gestenstucke & Ruckus

Thanks Kevin Clark for posting and Zach Herchen for sharing this video from the inaugural Ruckus Amongstus show last winter at Exapno. In addition to a ton of other great pieces (check out the youtube channel), I joined forces with some other Peabody Alums—Zach Herchen, and Rhymes with Opera-ites George Lam and Robert Maril—to perform "Canon," a movement from Juan María Solare's Gestenstucke, for a quartet of gesturers. We talk so often about musical gestures that it's easy to forgot that the concept of a sonic gesture is essentially a metaphor.  Very few pieces (save Thierry de Mey's Musique de Tables and the emerging genre of "works for solo conductor") engage directly with the physical gesture as meaningful signifiers outside of their sonic result.  As a percussionist, I deal with the relationship between movement and sound fairly frequently.  Still, Solare's decision to map what is typically a sonic process (canon) directly onto gestures is particularly interesting.

Check out Kevin's videos of the other awesome performances from the show (I played Khan Variations and did some improvising) and get ready for the newly reorganized Ruckus CONVENTION in NY this september!

C is for

Hannah Lash just sent me this recording of Paul Kerekes and I performing her blistering piano/vibraphone duo C at a New Music New Haven concert last November.  Hannah says that "C is a piece about the expansion of material in a motor-like, additive process.  Its anchor and beginning are the C-octaves, which spin out of the rest of the material in relentless perpetual motion."  To me, the overlapping rhythmic groupings in the piano and vibraphone create a dense harmonic texture that gradually comes in and out of focus throughout the piece . Enjoy!

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Norfolk Bound

Just in case you're wondering what I've been up to or getting up to,  I'm celebrating packing up my possessions and moving out of New Haven by spending the next six weeks at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival with New Morse Code peep Hannah Collins.  Hopefully the idyllic surroundings of the stunning Stoeckel Battell estate and the comforts of my host family's home will keep me focused: we came with suitcases of music to learn, and aren't leaving until it's done! While it won't be anything near as ambitious as what these percussionists did the last ten days with James Wood, stay tuned for details and concert specifics.  You can always check out any of the summer's shows from the comfort of your own home with the festival's live video and audio stream.

Come for the concerts, stay for the GIANT slide at a nearby school.