Joe Magnarelli, a world-class jazz expatriate from the Salt City, always makes time for his hometown when on tour. Even with a busy road schedule, the prodigal son will have an upcoming stop at the Jazz Central theater on Saturday, January 21st at 7:30 pm.
Magnarelli, who made his bones with stints in Harry Connick’s band and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, will front his current touring trio of luminaries, including organist Pat Bianchi, veteran of the Pat Martino and Lou Donaldson groups; Eastman School faculty Bob Sneider on guitar, and drummer Joe Strasser, former percussionist for artists as diverse as Harold Mabern, Jane Monheit, David Hazeltine, and Kyle Eastwood; all are leaders in their own right.
We haven’t seen enough of Joe Mags of late, due to pesky conflicts like pandemics. Area fans have been waiting too long for his return, so we expect them to line up for this one as well. The red carpet will be fully rolled out.
Larry Luttinger CNY Jazz founder
Well known to local audiences, Joe has appeared many times at CNY Jazz festivals and concerts, to play with his group, as a guest soloist with other jazz legends, or with the Syracuse Symphony and Symphoria.
Magnarelli’s career output continues to grow as his heavy international schedule continues into its fourth decade, including past experience with leaders Buddy Rich, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Brother Jack McDuff, Maria Schneider, Ray Barretto, his wife, Akiko Tsuruga, and many groups of his own. He has recorded over 15 albums as leader and logged many, many more as a sideman.
If you do attend, mask wearing is encouraged at the cozy downtown venue. Jazz Central is located at 441 E Washington St, Syracuse. Advance sale tickets are available now at cnyjazz.org/tickets
Brooklyn-based bluegrass trio Damn Tall Buildings will bring their fresh bluegrass sound to Caffè Lena on January 20 at 8PM with unmatched energy and enthusiasm that creates a captivating, high-energy sound.
Damn Tall Buildings
Consisting of fiddler/vocalist Avery Ballotta from Bozeman, guitarist/lead vocalist Max Capistran from Bedford, and bassist/lead vocalist Sasha Dubky from Philadelphia, Damn Tall Buildings is a tight, harmonizing, swinging trio that specializes in bluegrass but also expertly ventures through jazz, ragtime, country swing, and contemporary singer-songwriter styles. They have been called “The Carter Family for the millennial generation” by the Boston Globe.
Damn Tall Buildings is a damn fine trio, mixing bluegrass, swing, and foot-stomping old-time music you wouldn’t think possible from a band from Brooklyn.
No Depression, Chris Griffy
Continuing the busk energy in their early days, Damn Tall Buildings still radiates the energy of a ragtag crew of music students playing bluegrass on the street. But anchoring that energy is their instrumental chops, their strong songwriting, and their varied influences that stretch beyond bluegrass. Their latest release was their thrid full length album called Sleeping Dogs including 11 tracks in the summer of 2022.
Holding the mission that “To provide music, connection and learning from a legendary venue”, Caffè Lena presents extraordinary music in Saratoga Springs. It is renowned for its long history on continuously operating folk music venue in the United States. It has been recognized as “An American treasure” by The Library of Congress. The GRAMMY Foundation also recognized for its important contributions to the development of American music. In 2020 they launched a School of Music for the purpose of carrying on the folk tradition of music as a social pastime.
The performance of Damn Tall Buildings will start at 8PM and doors at 7:30PM (EST). Livestream is also available. Tickets for student or child are $10, while $18 for members and $20 for general admissions. For ticket and more information, please visit this link.
In the Washington County town of Hudson Falls, a year of celebration is underway. The Strand Theatre, which opened its doors on January 17, 1923, will kick off a centennial year of celebration, with a series of films that call back to the silent film era, which the Strand Theatre was initially built for.
October 2022
Having reopened on October 7, 2016 through the nonprofit Hudson River Music Hall Productions, which came together in 2010 with the goal of helping to rehabilitate old buildings in Hudson Falls. Having a huge calendar each month (see below) with a wide variety of genres, shows and experiences, the Strand Theatre holds the distinction as the only major music venue in Washington and Warren Counties that is open year-round. Part of a chain of Strand Theatres built in the early 20th century, other venues under the name Strand can be found in Plattsburgh and Schroon Lake, as well as others that have closed over time.
1923
The Strand Theatre opening night in 1923 incldued two screenings of One Week in Love. Now in 2023, the Hudson Falls Strand Theatre, starting on January 17th, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the venue’s grand opening with the 1923 comedy classic Safety Last, starring silent-era film star Harold Lloyd. January 19th will feature The General, starring Buster Keaton, with Max Schreck’s Nosferatu the feature film on January 20th, and Fritz Lang’s NYC-inspired Metropolis on January 21.
All movies will start at 7 pm, with admission and popcorn free.
Stay tuned for NYS Music’s full history of The Strand Theatre and more info on the centennial year of this Northeast New York multi-purpose performing arts venue.
French Montana returns with the latest edition of his signature mixtape series. Hosted by DJ Drama, Coke Boys 6: Money Heist Edition, is a combined Gangsta Grillz and Coke Boys presentation, featuring a host of up-and-comers and established names. Bronx native — French Montana — debuted the Coke Boys series in 2010 and followed it with his first national tour. At the time, Montana represented everything authentic coming out of the Bronx, bringing a new sound and wave. In like manner, the “Unforgettable” rapper presents the next generation of trendsetters from the Bronx and the rest of New York.
French Montana’s Coke Boy 6 mixtape features upcoming talent from the Bronx
DJ Drama & French Montana’s Vision
The 29-track LP seems to be a mashup of precocious and established artists from the East and South. While French Montana recruited the best from New York, DJ Drama is no stranger to artist discovery himself. The legendary DJ has hosted projects with some of hip hop’s premier acts and has (despite hailing from Philadelphia) established himself as a major figure in the southern rap scene. Together, the duo bring the essence of the Coke Boys and Gangta Grills era, while showcasing rising stars.
The Grammy-nominated French Montana is one of hip hop’s most recognizable faces
Coke Boys 6: Money Heist Edition sees up-and-comers the likes of Dthang, Bando Gz, King Combs, Rob 49, EST Gee, get to showcase themselves along with more established stars like A$AP Rocky, Kodak Black and French Montana himself.
As always, the Moroccan born Montana will look to provide an authentic street presence to the Coke Boys 6 while bringing a fresh idiosyncratic sound to complement them, the same way he made his name over a decade ago.
I want to accomplish everything off my bucket list. And I’m not talking about like Grammys, because we can’t control that. You can’t control people like you can control the streets. Because, number one, I always wanted to make albums full of all the best music that I love from back in the day.
SUNY Oneonta student Mirabella Phinney has released a brand new EP titled Through Stained Glass, which came out on Nov. 5 2022.
The EP is beautifully written, with smooth and rich vocals. It has the perfect music needed to guide you through your day, through sad moments, or at any time. The record was mixed and mastered by Gabe Angelo, and it features Chris Alvarado on bass during the song “Ignorance is a Gem.” It guides the listener through the feelings of love and relationships, to finally the moments when you can look in their eyes and know all is going to be okay. Each song is a new journey, and Phinney invites you in.
The first song “Ignorance is a Gem” is a slow, nice song with soft guitar strums in the background. Phinney has a beautiful folk voice, that makes me want to sway to the music. I could see myself putting this song on in the background when I am sad, or just studying and doing something as it is so soft and slow. I like the bridge where Phinney’s vocals have some type of effect on them as she sings “Ignore what I said I’m not/I’m nothing what I dreamed of.”
The next song “Think of You Fondly” follows similar slow guitar strums, but has some electric strums in the background, amping the sound more. I interpreted this song as a breakup song, seeing the person you once adored existing in life without you, and how hard it is. I recently went through this, so I resonate with this song a lot more. The lyrics “And I can’t help but think of you fondly/When I finally fake my way to feeling healthy/The wrong time and place never hurt so bad” made me tear up because Phinney put my exact feelings into words, and it is so surreal to hear that, especially in music.
Following the track is the short yet sweet song “Culpability.” Her vocals are higher pitched in this song, and I find that beautiful. I love the way it is written, especially the lyrics “Stay another minute/So that we’re alone/In this car ride that I looked forward to all day” because it describes that feeling of euphoria you get liking someone new again, and how you always want to be around them. The next song “Sleep” has to be my favorite on the EP because it is different from all the other ones so far. It has this haunting rain effect added, which makes me feel like I need to listen to it during a thunderstorm or something. It is a love song, and Phinney takes the time to compare her lover to sleep, something everyone needs and craves.
The final song on the EP is “Apple Pie,” and it gives me a warm feeling throughout, just like the temperature of a fresh apple pie would. It is a lot more upbeat than the rest of the songs on the EP, and it is a good finale song because it brings all these longing feelings of love together to finally the feeling of being in a relationship. The lyrics “Let’s talk about dreams over tea and apple pie/Let’s talk about love and how it finally came by remember that time/Yes, we’ve changed a lot and well never go back to how it was,” make me feel happy inside and long for this feeling.
Overall, Mirabella Phinney’s voice shines super bright on Through Stained Glass. She talks about love and its feelings, the ups and downs of it, and the magical feelings. I enjoyed listening to it and I think it would be great music to put on when you’re sad or happy, and I can’t wait to have it on repeat and see her at a future show! You can find Mirabella Phinney on social media and stream her music here.
Originally published in The Royal Journal on They Might Be Royalty.
The latest from Jay Sanford’s project, Sanford, is at once an ending and a beginning. “Anymore” is the third release from an upcoming full-length album under Sanford; though just released it has been a staple of his live show sets, included among a wide range of artists in his diverse set lists — Sam Cooke, Joy Division, Fats Waller. “Anymore” has a positive message of optimism and action. It feels like a goodbye, but maybe it’s a hello.
“Anymore” is a twisty word, especially on its own, cut-off and isolated from the rest of his lyric: “Ain’t gonna walk these streets anymore.” Anymore, repeated thereafter on its own, projects almost a yearning, it asks, demands, “is there any more?” Though in the rest of the lyrics, it seems that Sanford is tired and dejected by his current location — “Walking these streets I’ve been a thousand times / Walking these streets got me out of my mind / Same old footprints I have left before / Ain’t gonna walk these streets anymore.” At the same time, he’s noticing the streets, reveling in his own footprints; it seems he’s savoring these last moments as they are fleeting. This duality is true for anyone moving, leaving and changing, you think you’re ready to stay goodbye, but in that farewell the places you feel you’ve been a million times suddenly look brand new. You see them as you never saw them before.
Anyway, “Anymore.” It has the southern twang of Jay Sanford’s hometown in South Carolina and a brooding, bouncing bass-line that evokes Sanford’s current locale, Brooklyn. The stellar horn section — made up of Wayne and Miles Tucker, on trumpet and tenor saxophone respectively — gently guides these two seemingly opposing forces together. Wayne Tucker is lending some star power to Sanford’s latest release, Tucker has played with many jazz, pop and country stars before Sanford, including Al Foster, Elvis Costello and Taylor Swift. His trumpet is subdued on this track, but still offers nuance to “Anymore.”
On January 28 & 30, the gifted Andrew Barth Feldman will be making a performance at the Midnight Theatre in Manhattan, performing Barth Mitzvah Boy: An Evening Of Original Music.
Special guests will join Feldman for these shows, including including Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things, Parade at New York City Center), Shereen Pimentel (West Side Story, Into the Woods at New York City Center), Alex Boniello (Dear Evan Hansen, Spring Awakening), Gian Perez (Sing Street), Heath Saunders (Great Comet, Company) and more.
Feldman is known for his roles in Dear Evan Hansen, Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.
Barth Mitzvah Boy: An Evening Of Original Music was directed by award winning Marc Tumminelli. Marc was awarded for the direction of Andrew Barth Feldman’s Park Map, as well as the club acts for multiple Broadway stars including: Erika Henningsen, Micaela Diamond and Farah Alvin. Additionally, Tumminelli is the founder and director of Broadway Workshop, NYC’s top training program for young actors.
To raise money for autism research, Feldman founded his own musical theater company, Zneefrock Productions. His performances have been glorified by many including The New York Times. After witnessing his role in, Dear Evan Hansen, on Broadway, the times claimed “Andrew Barth Feldman made me forget where I was, who I was, that I was anything other than part of the world onstage. Feldman’s previous cabaret show, Park Map, also won the BroadwayWorld Cabaret Award for Best Show. Next, he’ll be starring alongside Jennifer Lawrence in the movie No Hard Feelings.
During the production, you will find yourself astonished by the magical capabilities of the Midnight Theatre. There will be 270-degree projection-mapped visuals, D&B surround sound and more. Coming up, the dazzling 160-seat theater will also host podcast tapings with Impractical Jokersstars Q, Murr and Sal, Midnight Theatre Football Club, The Moth Storyslam Open-Mic, psychic channeling with Craig Mcmanus, comedy shows and more. Tickets for all events available here.
Midnight Theatre is a new, intimate performance venue in the heart of New York’s West Manhattan at 75 Manhattan West Plaza. As a guest expect to be met with unique experiences of magic, music, comedy, theater, and performance art by the ever-evolving, 160-seat theater. Inside the glamorous Midnight Theatre is an equally elegant and lively restaurant and bar, Hidden Leaf.
Prior to the shows, guests can dine at pan-Asian restaurant and lounge Hidden Leaf, created by chef/restaurateur Josh Cohen (Chez Ma Tante, Lilia, Saint Vitus). In addition to a kitchen helmed by Chef Chai Trivedi (Pranna, Tamarind, Buddakan, Eventi Hotel), guests can expect a romantic and playfully chic dining room that serves polished, table-sharing, pan-Asian cuisine. Aperitivo bar Midnight Cafe is also open. Here you’ll find a high-energy, fun experience, soundtracked to 70’s Italian disco.
You can find tickets for Barth Mitzvah Boy: An Evening Of Original Musichere.
“Barth Mitzvah Boy: An Evening Of Original Music” Guests:
Alex Boniello (Dear Evan Hansen, Spring Awakening) Zack Calderon (The Wilds on Amazon Prime) Amanda Rose Gross Paul Hogan Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things, Parade at New York City Center) Gian Perez (Sing Street) Shereen Pimentel (West Side Story, Into the Woods at New York City Center) Sam Primack (Dear Evan Hansen) Will Roland (Dear Evan Hansen, Be More Chill, Billions) Heath Saunders (Great Comet, Company) Sadie Seelert Samantha Williams (Dear Evan Hansen, Caroline or Change)
Each Sunday evening from 7-9 p.m. you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up-and-coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear new music from, Timing, Teddy Bear Savage, and Ciarra Fragale.
WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.
Teddy Bear Savage is an indie rock band from Balston Spa, formed in 2019. The group is composed of bassist and singer Paul Lambert, lead guitarist Zak Westbrook, guitarist Ryan Halpin, and drummer Mike Atwood. Their single “Oh do you see me shake” came out in July of 2022, and will be played on EQXposure on Sunday night.
Ciarra Fragale is an indie pop singer/songwriter, producer, and actor from the Hudson Valley. She blends nostalgia with new-wave songwriting, creating a unique blend. In addition to making her own music, she has also composed many works for theater and film. Her newest single “County Line” which came on Dec. 28 will be played on EQXposure.
No one in the world of jazz begat more violent debate and unsubstantiated myths than Albert Ayler. Now the works and life of this fearless musician are being re-told and reassessed in Holy Ghost: The Life & Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler (Jawbone Press), a compact yet comprehensive and impeccably researched biography from Richard Koloda.
A lawyer by trade and jazz musicologist by passion, Koloda spent over two decades researching Holy Ghost. It follows Ayler from his native Cleveland to France, where he received his greatest acclaim, to his mysterious death by drowning in the East River in November 1970.
Ayler synthesized children’s songs, the French national anthem “La Marseillaise,” American march music, funeral dirges and gospel tunes into uniquely powerful, sprawling and squalling free jazz improvisations. His overblown tenor honking and high-register squealing made some critics consider him a charlatan or simply insane. Others considered him a genius. One such man was John Coltrane who tirelessly championed Ayler to other musicians, critics and record label heads. Indeed, ‘Trane thought enough of Ayler to request he play at his funeral, alongside that other titan of free jazz, Ornette Coleman.
It was his aspiring songwriter dad who set Albert on the musical path, forcing him to practice hours a day and attend the Cleveland Academy of Music beginning at age 10. By the early ‘50s, he was gaining experience playing with artists like blues harmonica wizard Little Walter. His time in the Army would bring him to France in the latter ‘50s, where he saw Coltrane and Miles at the Paris Olympia and developed an unexpected love for French military music, including the national anthem “La Marseilles” which he quoted in his classic “Spirits Rejoice,” while playing in the 76th U.S. Army Band in Orleans.
His breakthrough, and perhaps his best times overall, would come in Europe, firstly in Scandinavia. Here he would meet and come to play with likeminded explorers like pianist Cecil Taylor and trumpeter Don Cherry and cut his first albums including My Name in Albert Ayler which contained his freewheeling interpretation of the classic “Summertime.”
By 1963, he was in New York City serving up music that was “playing pyramids and geometric shapes” while attired in a green leather suit, Cossack hat and slippers. His meeting with ESP-Disk head Bernard Stollman would lead to his best documented year of recording in 1964, one capped by “Spiritual Unity,” the classic trio disc with drummer Sunny Murray and bassist Gary Peacock, and the skronk-heavy film soundtrack, “New York Eye and Ear Control.” Even with growing press attention, New York City clubs were hesitant about booking this “New Thing” and Albert would head back to Scandinavia to record albums like The Hilversum Sessions and Ghosts.
In 1965, he returned to New York to lead a fierce quintet now featuring his younger brother Donald on trumpet. Albums like “Bells” and “Spirits Rejoice” continued to divide critics. Albert was labeled “further out than Coltrane” by Time Magazine and “a bizarre artifact, not art” by Downbeat. With Coltrane’s championing, he moved from the tiny ESP-Disk to the larger ABC Impulse! label. He went on to wax even more fierce and outré discs like “Live in Greenwich Village,” one that captured performances at The Village Gate and Village Vanguard. This album contains one of my favorite Ayler pieces, “Angels,” a duet featuring a kind of silent movie-styled accompaniment by pianist/harpsichordist Cal Cobbs to Albert’s balladeering tenor.
The last chapter of Ayler’s recorded life was perplexing, when he was moved to create a sort of accessible rock/R&B with vocals featuring “hippy dippy” lyrics by his new girlfriend Mary Parks. Love Cry and New Grass were albums that made no one happy, least of all Ayler, who blamed the commercial move on his producer at Impulse!, Bob Thiele. Albert would have one final victory when he took a turn back to his freer self in a July 1970 performance at the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, something captured on a duo of fantastic 1971 albums.
With his return to New York City in fall 1970, his depression deepened as did his tenuous grasp on reality. There was increased talk about UFOs and spiritual visions, something that had been in the mix since his childhood. He would disappear on November 5 and be found 20 days later floating in the East River. Some said it was a hit for messing with a mobster’s woman or a drug deal gone wrong. One stubborn myth said he was found chained to a juke box. But Koloda works to put these long-held fallacies to rest. He concludes that the depressed 34-year-old jazz man most likely jumped from a ferry near the Statue of Liberty. This was in part due to the guilt of firing his brother from his band and the ceaseless financial pressures and criticism caused by a high-profile/low-profit life on the tip of the free jazz spear.
In his 20 years of research, Koloda has become the world’s foremost authority on all things Albert Ayler. He was a contributor to the critically-acclaimed documentary, My Name Is Albert Ayler, and a consultant on Revenant Records’ ten-CD retrospective of Ayler, Holy Ghost: Rare and Unissued Recordings (1962–70), which has been called “the Sistine Chapel of box sets.” His book includes quotes from his and others interviews with many of Albert’s closest collaborators, most notably from the writer’s long friendship with Albert’s brother Donald. There’s also a carefully balanced array of quotes from critics that demonstrate the reaction to Ayler throughout all the chapters of his short but action-packed recording and performing career. the book concludes with a pained portrait of the post-musical years of Donald Ayler, with his frequent hospitalizations for mental problems and fits and starts at reviving his career.
I had a decent knowledge of Ayler before reading Koloda’s Holy Ghost. But like any great touchstone musician biog, it set me off on a few weeks of very deep listening to the many well-trod and obscure corners of Ayler’s discography. In this way, Koloda has done a great service to both Ayler and every music lover with the curiosity to open up a pathway into this uniquely deep and spiritual canon of jazz.
EMPAC, located at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, has unveiled their Spring 2023 season of performances. This series of events is a special opportunity to experience synthesizing productions that integrate artistic practices, and fuses both art and technology. Starting in January and running through May, artists in residence at EMPAC premiere shows that span dance, visual arts, performance-installations, multimedia concerts, new music, film, and hybrid theatrical productions.
Since its first commission in 2006, the EMPAC curatorial program has supported the commissioning, production, and presentation of ambitious performances and artworks that span time-based visual art, music, theater, and dance. The program’s polyvocal curatorial approach resonates through each project, generating time-based artworks that are diverse in content, method, technology, and audience experience. Alongside the curatorial program, researchers at Rensselaer use the infrastructure of EMPAC to expand the discourse at the intersection of digital technology and the human condition through a broad range of research projects in science and engineering that include cognitive computing, immersive visual and auditory environments, and physical computing.
This spring season at EMPAC hosts some of our largest and most intimate projects to date, all of which stretch sensory exploration and technical research in the arts in new ways. As we continue to welcome audiences back to EMPAC, our curators and engineers are excited to connect the people of our region to this polyvocal program of expansive new works by our artists in residence, many of which have been in development for several years at the Center.
Vic Brooks, EMPAC Associate Director of Arts and Senior Curator of Time-based Visual Art.
EMPAC (The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) grants artists the creative sovereignty to pursue collaborations with others working not only in the fields of visual and performing arts, but also in science, new media, and technology. T
he Spring 2023 season showcases programs by worldwide artists that binds disciplines, medium, and subject matter–sculptors working with composers, visual artists with sound artists, a music/documentary-theater hybrid with an 18-person live orchestra, and a large-scale dome installation currently being designed to host performances with integrations of immersive VR, projection, and spatial audio. With the assistance of new and evolving technology developed by EMPAC, artists explore political, social, and global issues. Alongside this search, artists are also attentive to how new art forms can open imaginative spaces for rethinking the future.
On January 11, Daina Ashbee,a Canadian choreographer, recognized and admired for her innovativeness will make the US Premiere of her first group show J’ai pleuré avec les chiens(Time, Creation, Destruction)at EMPAC in Troy, NY.. You can expect a transformative experience about the rebellious potential of the human body in performative spaces, which has already been staged in a handful of major cities outside the US. Two more performances follow at Gibney: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center in New York City (January 13 & 14).
January 23 brings the live performance Cuando las nubes eran las olas / When the clouds were the waves by two EMPAC artists in residence, the Venezuelan-Ecuadorian artist Ana Navasand Venezuelan composer Mirtru Escalona-Mijares. The production explores the afterlives of the Venezuelan modernist art movement during a time of political and economic turmoil for the country. They pay homage to Alexander Calder’s panels in the Aula Magna, the main auditorium in the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, and the commonalities the Aula Magna shares with the EMPAC concert hall, where the show will be installed and performed.
At Empact, the first program, A Kind Of Ache by music curator Amadeus Julian Regucerawill be delivered on January 27. The production will be an hour-long performance by the contemporary, experimental chamber music duo The Living Earth Show. This duo is on a mission to emphasize the voices, perspectives, and bodies of non-white and queer artists that mainstream classical music traditionally exclude. Sarah Hennies, a composer and percussionist whose works explore queer and trans identity, composes the original score. Terry Berlier, who investigates queerness and ecologies in her art, designs a sculpture-turned-instrument that the duo and Hennies will perform on. This is the kick-off to The Living Earth Show’s multi-season residency with EMPAC, with another engagement slated for Fall 2023.
On February 25, the world premiere of Paper Pianosby Mary Kouyoumdjian, an Armenian-American composer and documentarian and Nigel Maister, a South African- American director and writer will be performed live on EMPAC. The production will be delivered by the acclaimed 18-person Alarm Will Soundorchestra with projections by Syrian visual artist Kevork Mourad. The evening-length music and documentary-theater hybrid explores the dislocation, longing, and optimism of refugees and the experiences of those who provide services to them.
Bora Yoon, a Korean-American electroacoustic composer, vocalist, and sound artist, and Joshue Ott,a creative technologist who designs custom softwares, apps, and interactive visual and audio experiences for concert halls, join forces to premiere their multimedia concert SPKR SPRKL, on March 18. Yoon and Ott use EMPAC’s Wave Field Synthesis Array to produce a visually and sonically stimulating composition based on a new imminent album by Yoon.
Later in the season, Transtraterrestrial, a prequel and premiere of The Unarrival Experiments – Unconcealment Ceremonies(April 6), a long-term collaboration between EMPAC and queer/nonbinary/trans multidisciplinary artist Sage Ni’Ja Whitson, is installed in the EMPAC building. The installation features embodied performance, integrations of immersive VR, projection, and spatial audio in a custom-built 40’ x 15’ dome covered in painted organic matter. The performance dome structure was developed by Whitson through discourse with architects, engineers, and astrophysicists. In dialogue with Yorùbá Cosmology, astrophysics, and research on the “blackest black,” this iterative artwork is designed to magnify the dark, centering the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy through a black, queer, and trans embodied lens. For the fifth year, EMPAC is collaborating with graduate students from Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) on a public exhibition. This year focuses on the black body in Detroit techno music, and is inspired by the work of scholar and music artist DeForrest Brown, Jr. The project engrossed recordings from the artist’s new album Techxodus, which operates as a musical successor to the ideas in his recent publication Assembling a Black Counter-Culture (2021). The world premiere of DeForrest Brown’s Speakers That Speak To Youat EMPAC (April 28) makes use of EMPAC’s extensive spatial audio capabilities and is curated by Katherine Adams, Liv Cunibert, Mary Fellios, Abel González Fernández, and Sidney Pettice.
On May 8, 2023, the Canadian bilingual, multidisciplinary live art ensemble and winner of an EMPAC open call with CINARS, Theatre Junction, will be at EMPAC for a residency and work-in-progress showing. The production will guide an audience through four distinct rooms that feature live video feeds and live actors. The work is being developed at EMPAC and will premiere in Montreal in the Fall of 2023.
EMPAC’s Spring 2023 season also includes public tours, screenings, and conversations with film director Ayo Akingbade, artist Armando Guadalupe Cortés, artist/DJ M. Elijah Sueuga, and EMPAC’s Senior Curator for Theater/Dance Ashley Ferro-Murray, among others; and events presented in collaboration with iEAR Presentsand the Sanctuary for Independent Media.
