Baryshnikov Arts Center Presents OWLS At Howard Gilman Performance Space, October 17 & 18

Baryshnikov Arts Center presents Owls, a self-described "new kind of quartet," on Monday, October 17 and Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. at its Howard Gilman Performance Space.

The quartet is composed of violinist Alexi Kenney (Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient), violist Ayane Kozasa (founding member of the Aizuri Quartet), cellist Gabriel Cabezas (Sphinx Medal of Excellence), and cellist-composer Paul Wiancko (named one of Kronos Quartet's 50 for the Future) who will perform original arrangements that reimagine works by composers spanning three centuries. Drawing from a deep well of musical passions and backgrounds, Owls weaves together new compositions with original arrangements of music ranging from Baroque to Jazz, allowing them to access beautiful and exhilarating new sound worlds. Known for their original, visceral, and personal performances, Owls challenges the way meaningful concert experiences are conceived.

The program includes Owls member Paul Wiancko's When the Night, which is inspired by the opening line of Ben E. King's Stand By Me, and Vox Petra, a double duo inspired by Isamu Noguchi's iconic stone sculptures. Additionally featured on the program are Chick Corea's Children's Song No. 12; Franghiz Ali-Zadeh's Reqs; François Couperin's Les Barricades Mystérieuses; Terry Riley's Good Medicine; and Trollstilt's (Monica Mugan and Dan Trueman) Ridecar.

Owls

Monday, October 17, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.
Baryshnikov Arts Center
Howard Gilman Performance Space
450 West 37th Street
New York, NY 10018
Link: https://bacnyc.org/performances/performance/owls

Alexi Kenney, violin
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Gabriel Cabezas, cello
Paul Wiancko, cello

Tickets are available for $20 at BACNYC.ORG

Program:
Chick Corea: Children's Song No. 12 (1984)
PAUL WIANCKO: Vox Petra (2018)
FRANGHIZ ALI-ZADEH: Reqs (2015)
FRANÇOIS COUPERIN: Les Barricades Mystérieuses (1717)
TROLLSTILT (MONICA MUGAN & DAN TRUEMAN): Ridecar (2000)
PAUL WIANCKO: When The Night (2018)
TERRY RILEY: Good Medicine (1986)

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Drawing from a deep well of musical passions and backgrounds, Owls is a quartet collective that defies expectations and labels with original, visceral, and personal performances. Each an artistic force in their own right, violinist Alexi Kenney, violist Ayane Kozasa, cellist Gabriel Cabezas, and cellist-composer Paul Wiancko share an uncommonly fierce creative spirit that drives the quartet to challenge the way meaningful concert experiences are conceived. While weaving together new compositions with original arrangements of music ranging from the 1600s to the present, Owls' distinctive instrumentation allows them access to beautiful and exhilarating new sound worlds-effectively guaranteeing that each performance is uniquely them and without limits.

Violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization. The recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, Kenney has appeared as a soloist with the Detroit Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and as guest leader of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

As a recitalist, Kenney has performed at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Phillips Collection, 92nd Street Y, and many more. In 2021, he released his first commercial recording, Paul Wiancko's X Suite for Solo Violin, accompanied by a visual album that pairs each of the seven movements of X Suite with seven contemporary sculptures. Kenney has been profiled by Musical America, Strings Magazine, and The New York Times, and has written for The Strad.

As a chamber musician, Kenney regularly tours with Musicians from Marlboro and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has performed at numerous festivals, including Bridgehampton, Caramoor, ChamberFest Cleveland, Chamber Music Northwest, Festival Napa Valley, La Jolla, Ojai, Kronberg, Music@Menlo, Ravinia, and Spoleto. Kenney is a graduate of the New England Conservatory, where he was a student of Miriam Fried and Donald Weilerstein.

Violist Ayane Kozasa is a chamber musician, collaborator, and educator. Winner of the 2011 Primrose International Viola Competition, Kozasa has been hailed for her "magnetic, wide-ranging tone" and "rock solid technique" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

Kozasa is a founding member of the Aizuri Quartet, who was the 2018 quartet-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the grand prize winner of both the Osaka International String Quartet Competition and MPrize Chamber Arts Competition. The Aizuri Quartet's debut album Blueprinting was nominated for a GRAMMY Award and named one of NPR's top 10 classical albums of 2018. In 2020, the quartet launched AizuriKids, an interactive web series for children that explores relationships between music and themes ranging from astrophysics to cooking.

In 2022, Kozasa joined the viola faculty at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She previously taught at Adelphi University in Long Island and has been a guest professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Kozasa is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Kronberg Academy, and Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied viola with Misha Amory, Roberto Díaz, Nobuko Imai, and Kirsten Docter.

Cellist Gabriel Cabezas is a true 21st-century musician. A prolific and sought-after soloist and collaborator, he is as comfortable interpreting new works as he is with the pillar scores of the cello repertoire. Cabezas has appeared with America's finest symphony orchestras and has premiered dozens of new works by some of the most brilliant composers of his time. He recently released Lost Coast, a dynamic album of original music composed by Gabriella Smith, inspired by her reflections on the devastating effects of climate change. The album was named a favorite album of 2021 by NPR and The New York Times.

Cabezas is a member of the acclaimed chamber sextet yMusic, quartet collective Owls, and is a co-founder of Duende, a new music and contemporary dance collective. In 2016, Cabezas received the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, a career grant awarded to extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians. Cabezas studied at the Curtis Institute of Music under Carter Brey.

Paul Wiancko is a composer, cellist, and serial collaborator. One of the Washington Post's "22 for '22," Wiancko has worked closely with artists ranging from Max Richter, Chick Corea, and Norah Jones to members of the Emerson, Guarneri, JACK, and Kronos Quartets-to bands like Arcade Fire, Dirty Projectors, and The National. Chosen as one of Kronos Quartet's "50 for the Future" alongside composers like Philip Glass and Laurie Anderson, Wiancko's own music was recently celebrated in The New York Times' 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love String Quartets and is featured on numerous albums, including the Aizuri Quartet's GRAMMY-nominated Blueprinting.

Wiancko has been composer-in-residence at Spoleto Festival USA, Music From Angel Fire, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Twickenham, and the Portland, Piedmont, Newburyport, and Methow Valley Chamber Music Festivals. He has composed works for the St. Lawrence, Kronos, Aizuri, Parker, Calder, Attacca Quartets, yMusic, Alexi Kenney, Tessa Lark, and many others. Wiancko currently writes and performs as a member of the viola and cello duo Ayane & Paul and the quartet-collective Owls.

BAC is the realization of a long-held vision by artistic director Mikhail Baryshnikov who sought to build an arts center in Manhattan that would serve as a gathering place for artists from all disciplines. BAC's opening in 2005 heralded the launch of this mission, establishing a thriving creative laboratory and performance space for artists from around the world. BAC's activities encompass a robust residency program augmented by a range of professional services, including commissions of new work, as well as the presentation of performances by artists at varying stages of their careers. In tandem with its commitment to supporting artists, BAC is dedicated to building audiences for the arts by presenting contemporary, innovative work at affordable ticket prices.