Ithaca composer and percussionist Sarah Hennies presents a cinematic version of her stunning 2017 video work Contralto, a bracing yet tender meditation on gender dysphoria viewed through the lens of transgender women finding a comfortable new speaking voice. Based on her experience in Ithaca College’s Voice and Communication Modification Program for People in the Transgender…
Since her emergence in New York’s No Wave scene in the late 1970s as a percussionist in DNA, Japanese native Ikue Mori has used auto didacticism to forge one of the most singular aesthetics in contemporary music. Since switching from a richly intuitive approach to drums to electronics during the 1980s she’s refined an elusive,…
Philadelphia's favorite vocal sextet Variant 6 presents world premieres by Joanne Metcalf and Klaus Sandvig on a program that brings light in the dark of winter. Joanne Metcalf's music draws inspiration from Renaissance and medieval polyphony, ancient Georgian music, and contemporary extended techniques. Her new work will set a poem by Denise Levertov: "The Sea’s Wash…
Bowerbird is pleased to present Same Animal, Different Cages, a two night portrait of composer David First. Now based in Brooklyn, First was born in Philadelphia and was active in the city during the 1970s and 80s as the composer and guitarist for the influential avant rock band The Notekillers. His work ranges from pop…
Bowerbird is pleased to present Same Animal, Different Cages, a two night portrait of composer David First. Now based in Brooklyn, First was born in Philadelphia and was active in the city during the 1970s and 80s as the composer and guitarist for the influential avant rock band The Notekillers. His work ranges from pop…
Due to circumstances beyond our control this concert has been postponed to a date to be announced later. George Stavis is a singular player, among the finest 5-string banjo players of his generation. Although trained in the traditions of Pete Seeger and Earl Scruggs, in the late 1960s Stavis developed a unique approach to the…
Bowerbird is pleased to present Philadelphia based piano virtuoso David Hughes performing a "Schubertiade" - a program that explores the music and spirit of Franz Schubert alongside work by contemporary composers inspired by his music. Victor Hugo famously wrote that "forty is the old age of youth, fifty the youth of old age." This program,…
This event was originally scheduled for Feb 26 but has been rescheduled for March 11. Rightfully renowned as a composer, vocalist, choreographer, and stage director, Meredith Monk’s underseen films present their own inventive reflections on the cataclysms of history. Quarry began as a live multimedia opera in 1976 featuring a black and white short film…
Austrian laptop music pioneer Fennesz recently released his first album in nearly five years, Agora, and it reinforces the inscrutable beauty of his aesthetic. His work is steeped in romanticism, with each piece patiently wending its way through meticulously plotted narratives of remarkable concision, marked by orchestral swells and shimmering ambience. Using a blend of…
Bowerbird is pleased to presented the duo of Peter Evans (trumpets) & Levy Lorenzo (percussion/electronics). Evans and Lorenzo began performing duo as part of the International Contemporary Ensemble's OpenICE commissioning series in early 2016. Their music is an otherworldly blur of dense rhythmic frameworks, elaborate notated pieces, open improvisation and weird drones. Lorenzo's complex of…
Introduced by Gregory Zinman, editor, “We Are in Open Circuits: Writings by Nam June Paik” After moving from his native Seoul, first to Germany to study music alongside the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage, and then to the United States, Nam June Paik lived what seems like the romantic archetype of the post-war…
Philadelphia favorites Alash return to The Rotunda for a FREE concert. Alash are masters of Tuvan throat singing (xöömei), 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 Tuvan music and culture. At the same…
Bowerbird is pleased to present New York-based composer, saxophonist, and flutist Anna Webber's Simple Trio. Webber, called “one of the most exciting new arrivals on the New York avant-garde jazz scene” by Peter Margasak in the Chicago Reader, has been working with her Simple Trio since 2013. They have released two albums on Skirl Records:…
Dedicated to Daphne Oram On a celluloid film print, even sound is made of light. Running alongside the picture is the optical soundtrack, an image in itself. A beam of light penetrates it, exciting a photoelectric cell with its sound determined by the pattern of black and white. Ever since sound first joined film, artists…
Bowerbird is pleased to present Timothy McCormack's complete MATTER series - a cycle of four solo pieces for trombone, cello, bassoon, and bass clarinet. Written between 2012 and 2017, the MATTER Series traces McCormack’s evolving relationship with physicality, corporeality, and the relationship between a performer and their instrument. Starting from the proposition that sound is…
Although founded in early 1960s New York, the pioneering interdisciplinary art community Fluxus included participants from around the world, notably several from Japan. Born out of the influence of John Cage and the Dada movement, the loose group included composers, conceptual artists, filmmakers, video artists, sculptors, and performance artists and resulted in new forms of…
This year, Alash was scheduled to perform at The Rotunda on April 2nd but had to instead cancel the rest of their tour and return home. While they cannot perform in concert right now, Alash will present a throat-singing demonstration with Q & A, from their homes in Tuva! This will be a fun way…
Bowerbird is pleased to present Liminal States, a new series of late night, live streamed concerts intended to be listened to as you fall asleep. Aiming to center and calm, the musicians will seek to lead listeners to that magic space between awake and asleep. Tune in and bliss out. Marilyn Nonken will perform Morton…
