Check it out: http://www.bowerbird.org/newsite/events/111021/
On Friday, October 21, I'll be presenting a hand-picked collection of short experimental documentary films as part of the GATE series at the Rotunda in West Philadelphia. I'm looking forward to another great event, following up on February's screening of experimental animation, also at the Rotunda.
Check it out: http://www.bowerbird.org/newsite/events/111021/ This week I'll be helping out with two great concerts put on by Philadelphia Sound Forum:
Saturday, September 17: Michael Pisaro's A Transparent Gate (with 10 panels), performed by Greg Stuart. Rose Recital Hall, 3340 Walnut Street, Fisher-Bennett Hall, Room 419 (fourth floor), Philadelphia, PA. $7-10, 8:00pm. Preceded by a talk with Greg Stuart at 7:00pm. Thursday, September 22: Mark Trayle and John Bischoff (solo and duet), Joe Lentini and Charles Cohen. 319 N. 11th St., 3rd floor, Philadelphia, PA. 8:00pm. More information at PSF's website. Great news for the Philly new music scene: International House Philadelphia has been awarded a grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage to present a series of events focused on the Sonic Arts Union this fall and winter.
The Sonic Arts Union was a loose affiliation of four American composer/performers (Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, David Berhman, and Gordon Mumma) who were at the forefront of the electronic and experimental music scene of the late 1960s. Among the events--including concerts by Lucier, Behrman, and Mumma--will be a panel discussion in January with David Behrman, Chris Madak, Andrew Raffo Dewar, and yours truly. (Details TBA.) American Sublime, a week-long festival devoted to the music of Morton Feldman, kicked off in Philadelphia last night with a performance of Feldman's mesmerizing 1981 piano composition Triadic Memories at Rodeph Shalom synagogue. This event has served as an opportunity for me to familiarize myself with Feldman's work, which I previously barely knew. Check out my blog post on the festival's website, in which I talk about Feldman's unorthodox approach to musical minimalism.
Marc Weidenbaum of Disquiet recently wrote a blurb about Acousmata as an example of a "PhD blog." Marc's note was thought-provoking in its examination of the relationship between blogging and academic research. I suppose that, in my case, blogging is actually inversely related to my academic work, providing as it does a forum for public and short-as-I-like musings on whatever I happen to be interested in that day. (Truthfully, the act of getting the music "out there," given the obscurity of much of the stuff I work with, is as important to me as the writing itself.) Then there's the question of what exactly holds a blog together. Marc's comment that Acousmata seems "untethered to anything other than the author's ongoing (self)education and unearthings" is quite true by design, but I do hope the blog has a certain underlying coherence by virtue of my persistent thematic interests.
Jesse Kudler's recent sound installation in the SEPTA pedestrian concourse underneath Center City Philadelphia was written up by Elliott Sharp in the "Make Major Moves" blog of the independent newspaper Philadelphia Weekly--check it out!
It was a great experience organizing and taking part in this event with Jesse. Here's hoping it was the first of many such undertakings in experimental public art. |
Archives
October 2023
Categories
All
|