Bowerbird is pleased to present Svitanya, a Philadelphia-area women's vocal ensemble that specializes in folk music of Eastern Europe. Founded in 2001, the ensemble started with six singers performing purely a cappella arrangements. The early members included two mother-daughter pairs, fitting for a genre in which songs have been passed from mother to daughter for…
Bowerbird and The Rotunda are pleased to welcome back a Philadelphia favorite: The Alash Ensemble. ABOUT THE EVENT ALASH are masters of Tuvan throat singing, a remarkable technique for singing multiple pitches at the same time. Masters of traditional Tuvan instruments as well as the art of throat singing, Alash are deeply committed to traditional…
ABOUT THE EVENT Join us for an evening with Philadelphia's Daedalus Quartet in the Penn Museum's breathtaking Chinese Rotunda. Experience the demonic brilliance and visionary beauty of George Crumb's "Black Angels: Thirteen Images of the Dark Land for Electric String Quartet" as string sounds, chanting, eerie glass harmonicas, and gongs resonate under the 90 foot…
Bowerbird is pleased to present a screening of David Scott Kessler's evolving documentary The Pine Barrens: Whitesbog Edition with a live score performance by The Ruins of Friendship Orchestra. Guiding the viewer through the New Jersey Pineland's winding, rust-colored rivers; its dark, sandy forests and slowly developing towns, The Pine Barrens creates a contemplative, complex,…
ABOUT THE EVENT Bowerbird is pleased to present the first event of the newly rebooted BEGIN ANYWHERE series, a performer-driven, salon-style concert series curated and performed by the musicians of the Arcana New Music Ensemble. With appropriate irony for our current political climate, the concert will feature a variety of works by American composers and…
ABOUT THE EVENT The Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) created some of the most severe, brutalist classical music of the 20th century. Favoring stark textures and unusual combinations of instruments-- she never formally studied orchestration-- her music unfolds in ruthlessly throbbing rhythms, angular melodic shards, and resonant caverns of silence. Though she mostly avoided programmatic…
Bowerbird is pleased to present the duo of Loren Connors and Chris Forsyth and a performance by Philadelphia's Taiwan Housing Project LOREN CONNORS has improvised and composed original guitar music for over four decades. His music - which embraces the aesthetics of blues, Irish airs, blues-based rock and other genres while letting go of…
ABOUT THE EVENT Arcana joins forces with the Prometheus Chamber Ensemble to perform two politically charged works of modern music. Dutch composer Louis Andriessen's 1975 composition Workers Union is notated as a single part that can be played by any kind of instruments, melodic or percussive. Noisy, hypnotic, and powerfully dramatic, Workers Union is a…
Roll strikes, spares, and even gutter balls, while you support Bowerbird's ARCANA NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE. We've rented the whole PEP Bowl facility - which means admission gets you two hours of unlimited bowling *AND* supports our mission of performing beautiful, unconventional music in beautiful, unconventional spaces. ABOUT PEP BOWL Conveniently located in South Philadelphia…
Bowerbird's Arcana New Music Ensemble joins forces with Variant 6, a vocal sextet specializing in contemporary music, for a program of Steve Reich, Morton Feldman, Salvatore Sciarrino, and more. THE PROGRAM Morton Feldman: Voices and Instruments II for three voices, flute, two cellos, and double bass Steve Reich: Proverb for three sopranos, two…
ABOUT THE EVENT The evening features two sets by Moor Mother, working under the theme of Community Futurism, in collaboration with Black Quantum Futurism and the Community Futures Lab. The first set includes improv collaboration of live instrumentation with drums, saxophone, bass, synth, and text. The second features music from the album Fetish Bones as…
NODAL EXCITEMENT for prepared Double Bass with Piano Wire REPERTOIRE for prepared Double Bass with Piano Wire, Laptop MAGNETOM for laptop THE EVENT Bowerbird is pleased to present a rare performance by composer-performer Arnold Dreyblatt (b. New York City, 1953). Dreyblatt studied music with Pauline Oliveros, La Monte Young, and Alvin Lucier and has been…
ABOUT THE EVENT Bowerbird is pleased to present the sixth event of the BEGIN ANYWHERE series, a performer-driven, salon-style concert series curated and performed by the musicians of the Arcana New Music Ensemble. THE PROGRAM Karlheinz Stockhausen: Tierkreis Melissa Dunphy: Handshake: a scherzo Padma Newsome: My Mr. Neverending Kiss Michael Finnissy: Green Meadow Jennifer…
ABOUT THE EVENT Bowerbird is excited to launch a new series - Commonwealth Dinner Theater - a night of genre bending performances combined with a delicious meal. Perfect for the curious of mind and palate. The night includes a vegetarian friendly meal served family style and three wonderful acts: Philly favorite Beth Nixon, a beautifully…
ABOUT THE EVENT Three Voices, written in 1982 for Joan La Barbara, was the last solo vocal piece he wrote before his death in 1987 (For Stefan Wolpe, dedicated to his composition teacher and written for chorus and two vibraphones, post-dates it). It sets part of Wind, a poem by his friend Frank O'Hara that…
presented by Bowerbird and Slought, curated by Tiona Nekkia McClodden; part of "Julius Eastman: That Which Is Fundamental" A Recollection. and Predicated. - feature archival traces and work by ten contemporary artists that engages with Julius Eastman and the fragmented nature of his legacy. A Recollection. approaches a historical exploration and remembrance of Eastman as…
ABOUT THE SERIES Julius Eastman: That Which is Fundamental is an interdisciplinary, multi-artist project that examines the life, work, and resurgent influence of Julius Eastman, a gay African American composer and performer who was active internationally in the 1970s and 80s, but who died homeless at the age of 49, leaving an incomplete but compelling…
ABOUT THE SERIES Julius Eastman: That Which is Fundamental is an interdisciplinary, multi-artist project that examines the life, work, and resurgent influence of Julius Eastman, a gay African American composer and performer who was active internationally in the 1970s and 80s, but who died homeless at the age of 49, leaving an incomplete but compelling…
