New sound and video works by Maria Chavez, New York City based turntablist, with special guests.

In the last couple years, Maria Chavez has compiled an impressive list of residencies and festival appearances including STEIM (Amsterdam), Wien Modern festival of contemporary music in Vienna (performing with fellow turntablists Otomo Yoshihide, dieb13, and ErikM), and was most recently featured as an artist-in-residence with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Dia:Beacon, in which she performed inside one of Richard Serra’s “Torqued Ellipses”.

Aside from a few appearances on compilations and her highly praised sold out solo CD “Those Eyes of Hers”, Chavez has largely forgone any commercial releases of her work, making her live appearances, particularly those in Philadelphia, unique opportunities to enjoy her music.

This evening, in additional to live collaborations with guest musicians, Chavez will present her sound and video piece “ROMA:Economical and Effective”, which addresses her views on the fleeting and ephemeral nature of the roles and ideas of identity, as well as her Peruvian roots. After the performance the audience will be invited to discuss the work and provide the artists feedback.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Maria Chavez is an avant-turntablist from Peru, living in New York City. She focuses on electro acoustic sound of vinyl and needle and has a collection of needles from immaculate to ruined that she calls her “pencils of sound” and a collection of records that provide the palette. She has toured with Christiina Carter (Charlambides, Scorses), performed with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth in her New York City debut, and recorded with London-based laptop artist Kaffe Matthews.

Chavez has curated and performed in galleries and sound spaces around the world, including STEIM (Amsterdam), El Cervatino (Merida, Yucatan), the Kitchen (NYC), and Issue Project Room (Brooklyn), where she was an artist-in-residence for the fall of 2006. In November, she collaborated with fellow turntablists Otomo Yoshihide, dieb13, and ErikM as part of the Wien Modern festival of contemporary music in Vienna. In June and July 2008, she participated in an artist-in-residency program with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Bard College at the Dia Foundation’s museum in Beacon, New York. She performed within one of Richard Serra’s “Torqued Ellipses” along with David Linton, Newton Armstrong and Stephan Moore.

Chavez was recently awarded the Jerome Emerging Artist Grant from Roulette in SOHO, NYC. Currently, she is working on a short film score w/ video artist David Gacs and performing artist Matthew Day entitled “I Run But I Pursue”. Chavez will also be included alongside Ikue Mori, Mira Calix, and Marina Rosenfeld in a book entitled “Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound,” written by Tara Rodgers and due to be published by Duke University Press in 2008.