Multi-Genre Music Ensemble International Street Cannibals Presents FISHY BIZNESS, 10/14

The International Street Cannibals (ISC), the multi-genre new music ensemble of seasoned chamber musicians/composers directed by Dan Barrett and co-directed by Dan Cooper and Chala Yancy, will inaugurate its 2012-13 season with Fishy Bizness in the main performance space of St. Mark's in-the-Bowery tonight, October 14 at 7:30 p.m. A 70-minute mosaic of short works centered around water and fish symbolism, the multi-faceted event will mix classics with new music compositions from some of today's most dexterous composers, and will include a dance component directed by Megan Sipe, which serves to "translate" the music, and vice versa.

St. Mark's in-the-Bowery is located at 131 East 10th Street, NYC. Tickets are $15 ($10 for students and seniors). For more information, call 646-431-2818 or go to www.streetcannibals.com.

Fishy Bizness is part of ISC's Holding Tank series, which offers a mix of traditional and non-traditional chamber works by European masters, contemporary American composers and satirists, as well as improvised and semi-staged works exploiting the spatial qualities of the venue in novel ways. Technical/stage director for Fishy Bizness is Tyler Learned.

The evening will feature several works by ISC's resident composers, including the premiere of Dan Barrett's "Dagon's Cradle Song" – an homage to the Babylonian god-fish Dagon set to a well-known text by German romantic poet Eduard Mörike and scored for soprano (Lynn Norris) and mixed electro-acoustic ensemble – and the premiere of Dan Cooper's "Gelfilte Funk," performed by the ensemble, along with his "Anemones" (piano, flute and cello). Critically acclaimed pianist Taka Kigawa will perform the premiere of Daniel Palkowski's "Paraphrase of Ravel's 'Une Barque sur l'océan,'" accompanied by the ensemble; and alto flutist Linda Wetherill will celebrate another water deity in Dary John Mizelle's solo work,
"Shakti's Womb of the World." Paul Lee's expressionist "Duo for Violin and Cello" will be played by Chala Yancy (violin) and Tish Edens (cello); and the ensemble will premiere Jill Jaffe's new composition, "Look Sea, She Lives."

Spanning several centuries and modalities, the program will feature a few classics in their original version or in fresh electro-acoustic arrangements. Taka Kigawa is the soloist in Chopin's "'Ocean' Etude, Op. 25, No. 12 in C Minor" and Debussy's "Poissons d'or." Soprano Lynn Norris will join Kigawa in Ives' elegiac "The Pond" and will sing in a novel setting of Schubert's lied, "Der Fischer." The ensemble will also present an electro-acoustic arrangement of Couperin's "L'anguille (The Eel)" from the 22e Ordre ("Pièces de clavecin, Book IV").

Also included in this eclectic program are the jazz vibraphonist Red Norvo's signature work, "Dance of the Octopus," in a new rendering for the ensemble, and the Negro spiritual "Wade in the Water," performed by R+B/Gospel singer Robert Solomon, with Chala Yancy on violin and Cesare Papetti on hand drum. The evening will conclude with blues singer Taj Mahal's paean to angling, "Fishin' Blues," interpreted by Solomon, accompanied by the dance ensemble.

Musicians for Fishy Bizness include Taka Kigawa (piano), Lynn Norris (soprano), Robert Solomon (R+B/Gospel singer), Dan Barrett (conductor), Rachel Golub, Annette Homann, and Chala Yancy (violin), Jill Jaffe (viola), Tish Edens (cello), Troy Rinker (electric bass guitar), Linda Wetherill (flute, piccolo, and alto flute), and Cesare Papetti (hand drum).

Dancers are choreographer Megan Sipe, Carolyn Ellis, Silvia Brodi, Amanda Mottur, Kristin Hatleberg, Catherine Murcek, Jenny Campbell, Keeley Walsh, and Kaley Pruitt.

The International Street Cannibals is a collective of acclaimed instrumentalists, singers, composers, videographers, audio technicians, dancers, puppeteers and visual artists, directed by Dan Barrett with co-directors Dan Cooper and Chala Yancy, Dance Director Megan Sipe, and Technical Director Tyler Learned. In the spirit of Montaigne's 1580 essay, "Of Cannibals," in which the French philosopher derides the status distinctions and disingenuous mores of modern society, the ensemble presents a mix of fresh compositions and the more arresting in classical music, showcasing diverse modalities while challenging assumptions about the concert space. Since its inception in 2005, ISC has performed at The Outreach Festival (Schwaz, Austria), HOWL! Festival (New York), Le Poisson Rouge, St. Mark's in-the-Bowery, the Austrian Cultural Forum, and the boxers' legendary boxing ring, Gleason's – home of 127 world champions – in which ISC holds its annual STRIKE! concert series. ISC can be heard on two CDs released in 2010-11 by Composers Concordance Records: Ballets & Solos (Music by Dan Cooper, Part Hardish, Otto Luening, Joseph Pehrson and Gene Pritsker), and The International Street Cannibals Present The Music of Gene Pritsker. Composers Concordance Records/Naxos will release Non Western Omelette (Music by Luciano Berio, Dan Cooper, Paul Hindemith, Guillaume de Machaut/Barrett, Dary John Mizelle, Arvo Pärt, Gene Pritsker, James "Nyoraku" Schlefer, and Tyrolian folk tunes) in November 2012, and Beethoven: Works for Pianoforte and Violoncello (Twelve Variations on a Theme from Judas Maccabaeus; Opus 64, in D minor; Opus 17, in F major) performed by Dan Barrett on cello and Joshua Pierce on piano, in January 2013.

For more information, go to www.streetcannibals.com.