Bowerbird is pleased to present a concert of works from Gene Coleman’s recent album Exploratorium and solo performance by Toshimaru Nakamura.

PROGRAM

KATA (2021) film version of the work
Ensemble N_JP
Sansuzu Tsuruzawa (voice and shamisen)
Akikazu Nakamura (shakuhachi)
Adam Vidiksis (percussion and electronics)
Ko Ishikawa (sho)
Naoko Kikuchi (koto)
Nick Millevoi (e-guitar)
Hemmi String Quartet Yasutaka Hemmi (violin 1)
Marino Nagira (violin 2)
Yuta Tsubonouchi (viola)
Yasunori Onishi (cello)
Gene Coleman (composition, video and musical direction)
*US Premiere

Neuro Music I: Dialog of Thought and Intuition (2024)
Tom Kraines (cello)
Toshimaru Nakamura (live electronics)
Adam Vidiksis (neuro electronics)
*World Premiere

Rippling Waves (2024) Text score for ensemble based on haiku by Matsuo Basho
Toshimaru Nakamura (live electronics)
Anne Ishii (percussion)
Adam Vidiksis (percussion)
Nick Millevoi (e-guitar)
Tom Kraines (cello)
Gene Coleman (direction)

The evening will conclude with a solo performance by Toshimaru Nakamura.

Album available here:
https://www.falsewalls.co.uk/release/exploratorium/ 
https://falsewalls1.bandcamp.com/album/exploratorium 

Focused on his recent compositions based on models from auditory neuroscience the album includes Coleman’s 2nd string quartet, three works for voices and electronics and a new work for a large ensemble titled “Across Time (Transonic Symphony #1)”.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Gene Coleman is a composer, musician and video director, who has created over 70 works for various instrumentation and media. Central to his work is the inventive use of sound, image and time, and the desire to create experiences that expand our understanding of the world. Since 2001 he has explored the global transformation of culture and music’s relationship with video, science and architecture. He began composing and performing both composed and improvised music in the late 1980s; founded the groups Ensemble Noamnesia, Ensemble N_JP, and Transonic Orchestra; was artistic director of the Transonic festival at the House of World Cultures (Berlin), Director of the American Composers Forum (Philadelphia), artistic director of the Public Art festival Site/Sound (Philadelphia) and a Creative Arts Fellow of the US Japan Friendship Commission. He has an extensive discography of both composed and improvised music, including the False Walls CD Storobo Imp. with Uchihashi Kazuhisa (2004). Since 2016, his works have explored the concepts of Neuro Music and audiovisual composition based on Neuroscience. Gene is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow and received the 2013 Berlin Prize for Music from the American Academy in Berlin.
www.genecolemancomposer.com

Composer Gene Coleman formed Ensemble N_JP in 2001 as a vehicle for his on going work with musicians from Japan. Through concert programs, multimedia works and educational projects, the group explores connections between contemporary and traditional forms of art. N_JP is made up of musicians who work with Coleman on a project-by-project basis. It unites outstanding Japanese and US musicians from the traditional, experimental and contemporary classical music communities, along with guest artists from Europe. Ensemble N_JP has performed in a number of important festivals and venues since it’s inception, these include the I-House of Tokyo, Pitt Inn Shinjuku, Kidailack Art House (Tokyo), The House of World Cultures Berlin, The Dresden Society Theater, The Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Lake Forest College, The Chicago World Music Festival, I-House Philadelphia, The Blurred Edges Festival in Hamburg, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, The Japan Society NY, University of Illinois Urbana, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, MaerzMusik Festival, Warsaw Autumn Festival and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Toshimaru Nakamura’s instrument is the no-input mixing board, which describes a way of using a standard mixing board as an electronic music instrument, producing sound without any external audio input. The use of the mixing board in this manner is not only innovative in the the sounds it can create but, more importantly, in the approach this method of working with the mixer demands. The unpredictability of the instrument requires an attitude of obedience and resignation to the system and the sounds it produces, bringing a high level of indeterminacy and surprise to the music. Nakamura pioneered this approach to the use of the mixing board in the mid-1990’s and has since then appeared on over one hundred audio publications, including nine solo CD’s.

This program is supported by mediaThefoundation, The Institute for Music and Neuroaesthetics, and The New Jersey Arts Council