The Rubin Museum of Art

photography by Ed Berger

I’m very excited to be performing at the Rubin Museum on Friday, August 5th at 7pm.

This performance will feature new music inspired by Himalayan artwork.  The band will be exploring the theme of impermanence while composing new pieces for improvisation.  It will surely be a special performance, one of which I am honored to present.

for cherice

Got a call from frequent collaborator and esteemed choreographer Cherice Barton a few weeks ago when she was in seeking original music to compliment Edith Piaf‘s Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (translation: No Regrets):

To precede Edith’s song, I composed a piece with a similar yet modern vibe; a piano solo with accompanying brushes on a snare drum:

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This is for a solo, modern dance program featuring Lauren Gaul, as choreographed by Cherice and premiered May 13 & 14 at Purchase College.
Stay tuned for a video!

music for dance – aszure barton’s “untouched”

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Using music by saxophonist and composer Curtis Macdonald; pianist and musical director Njo Kong Kie; and Russian-born violist Lev “Ljova” Zhurbi, the illustrious choreographer Aszure Barton has collaborated with each dancer independently and built a shared vocabulary for the ensemble based on these personal interactions. Inspired by collaboration, Barton is interested in creating dense environments on stage in which each performer is an individual and all are united by a shared language. Barton’s new work, Untouched, will receive its world premiere at the Harris Theater June 3-6, 2010. Tickets and more information here.

From Time Out Chicago:

“In between the two is Barton’s Untouched, a world premiere. Like Bardo, it’s for twelve dancers and moodily-lit. Otherwise, it’s from the other side of the universe. Its decor (uncredited) is lit (by Nicole Pearce) such that it appears we are looking onto a stage through its back wall. A heavy red curtain hangs, just partly opened, upstage. The floor is lit by shafts of light from beyond this curtain. There’s the sense another house, another audience, is back there sitting quietly, with only a small window onto the action we see clearly, thus, the work is our secret. On top of that atmosphere, Barton builds a world of bodily language suggesting rapidly-shifting power structures lightly dusted with the folkloric. The ambiguity of the work’s title echoes in your head as you watch: They’re immaculate. They’re virgin. They’re alone, above, below. They’ve yet to be experienced. It’s somehow about dancers. It features beautiful ideas about how and when dancers can enter and exit the stage. Its closing duet is spellbinding.”

“I can’t describe it.”

Other reviews:
Chicago Sun Times
Gapers Block Chicago