THIS IS JUST TO SAY: LIVE ART II Comes to Symphony Space Tonight, 6/16

This is Just to Say: Live Art II, produced and directed by composer Inhyun Kim, features works by Ms. Kim, as well as composers Judith Ring, Nomi Epstein, and Sonia Megias, and performances by soprano Megan Schubert and pianist David Kalhous. This interdisciplinary concert, which also features work by Naho Taruishi, video artist and dancers/choreographers Coco Karol and Luke Gutgsell, takes place at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia theater at Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, New York City tonight, June 16th, 2012 at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $20; Members; Students, Seniors $10; Children are free. For more information, call (212) 864-5400 or visit www.symphonyspace.org.

“This is Just to Say” refers to the poem of the same title by William Carlos Williams – which inspired Ms. Kim and Ms. Karol in putting together this program in terms of its meaning, rhythm, structure, simplicity, and view on a relationship. Kim and Karol describe the program as "music to be seen and dance to be heard."

Ear to Mind (www.eartomind.com) is a New York City based arts organization which strives to present innovative programs that allow the public to experience contemporary music in non-traditional contexts, as well as by producing publications that allow the public to gain intimate knowledge of the contemporary music field, simultaneously providing composers and performers with a platform for their work.

According to Inhyun Kim, founder of Ear to Mind, “in this concert series, Live Art is defined as art work that broadly embraces ephemeral, time-based, performing and visual arts events that include a human presence and broaden, challenge or question traditional views of the performing arts or classical concert music.”

COMPLETE PROGRAM:
Inhyun Kim: This is Just to Say (2012, World Premiere), for voice, piano and dance
Judith Ring: Mouthpiece (2006, US Premiere), for electronics
Nomi Epstein: piano and soprano (2004, NY premiere) for voice, piano, and video
Sonia Megias: as yet untitled music composition (World Premiere) for voice and visual art
Coco Karol: as yet untitled solo dance work (World Premiere)

As a frequent collaborator with choreographers, visual artists, and filmmakers, composer Inhyun Kim challenges her audience think in new and unconventional ways about music as a performing art. Ms. Kim has been commissioned by White Wave Dance Company, The Actor’s Theatre, Hudson Saxophone Quartet and Brooklyn Independent television, and her works have been performed at the DUMBO dance festival, Wave Rising series, Joyce Soho theatre, What We Want!!!, The Tompkins Square gallery at the New York Public Library, Dance New Amsterdam, Ceres Gallery as part of 2008 Make Music NY, the Museum of Modern Arthur as part of the 12th annual Art Under the Bridge festival, Galapagos Art Space, Symphony Space, and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Music degrees, she studied with Julia Wolfe, Susan Botti and Reiko Fueting. Ms. Kim’s music can be heard on her CD "Music =", released in 2010 by Carrier Records. Ms. Kim is a recipient of the Jordan Berk Memorial Prize in composition, Manhattan School of Music president’s award and was recently awarded a NYFA mentorship. Ms. Kim is founder and director of the contemporary music nonprofit organization, Ear To Mind. For more, visit www.inhyunkim.com.

Coco Karol (Dancer/Choreographer) graduated with a BFA in Dance from Tisch School of the Arts. Inspired by many different artistic mediums, Karol has always been compelled to make work that seeks out a collaboration of form through the collaboration of ideas, and has worked with a range of artists from different disciplines. Karol has had the pleasure of getting to work closely with the singer Bjork and film collective Encyclopedia Pictura, designer Jennifer Gonzales, director Steven Cook, architect Marcos Zotes, filmmaker Morrisa Maltz, sculptor Eve Bailey, and magazine Beautiful Decay. Karol is also proud to be an existing member of Misnomer Dance Theater. In Addition to performing works at an experimental performance space she built in Brooklyn, called the Petri Space— a small petri dish concept, dedicated to experimentation, education, community, and roof top gardening, her choreography and collaborations have been shown at the Under the Bridge Festival, New York Studio Gallery, Galapagos, Brooklyn Ballet, Death By Audio, and Aunts collective.

Nomi Epstein is active as a composer, curator/performer, and music educator. In addition to participating in several international composers festivals, which included performances at Ostrava Days, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Darmstadt, and Bang on a Can, she has attended Stuttgart’s Akademie Schloss Solitude summer residency, and has been twice invited as an Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Epstein is a 5-time ASCAPLUS winner, and a 2-time CAP Grant winner (American Composers Forum). Contributing works to Australian flutist Janet McKay’s 2009 US tour “Those Vanished Hands,” guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan’s “New Lullaby Project” and percussionist Joe Bergen’s new works for vibraphone collection “For Semy,” her compositions have been performed throughout the US and Europe by such ensembles as ICE, Ensemble SurPlus, Mivos Quartet, Wet Ink, and Dal Niente.

Irish Composer Judith Ring has received commissions from ensembles including Concorde, Crash Ensemble, Trio Scordatura and Percusemble as well as composing a series of works with performers such as singer Natasha Lohan, clarinetist Paul Roe, percussionist Damien Harron and pianist Rolf Hind. Her works have also been used in works by the Dance Theatre of Ireland. Her piece ‘Accumulation’ won first prize in the 2000 Concorso Internazionale Luigi Russolo in Varese, Italy, and was subsequently performed in Dublin, Belfast and at EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany. She has written music for two short films, and she co-composed music for video artist Clare Langan’s work ‘Glass Hour’. The work was exhibited at the Tate Liverpool, RHA Dublin and MoMa New York. Ring recently completed her PhD in composition at the University of York, England. Born in Dublin, Judith graduated with a MPhil in Music and Media Technologies from Trinity College Dublin.

Spanish composer Sonia Megias has been living in New York since 2010 as part of a Fulbright Grant. Her works have been performed in different music halls and festivals, including Auditorio 400 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art “Queen Sophia”; Houston University, at Opera Vista Festival; Consulate of Argentina in New York, at a Tribute to Alfonsina Storni; Embassy of France in Spain; United Nations Headquarters; Carlos Arniches theater, at Festival de Música Contemporánea de Alicante; City Museum of Aosta (Italy), and at Festival des Jeunes Musiciens Européens. Her work has been supported by the Ministry of Culture of Spain, Casa de Velázquez, the National Orchestra of Jazz of Spain, Doce Notas, Gruñidos Salvajes, Fundación Entredós , Associazione Nuova Consonanza, I-Park artists residency, Cervantes Institute of New York, and the Erasmus Foundation. She conducts the experimental vocal group CoroDelantal.

A collaborator with over 40 premieres to her credit, vocalist Megan Schubert is a devoted ambassador of new and experimental music. Versatile and sensitive to style and context, she has been heard singing everything from jazz standards to Webern to solo works of Meredith Monk. Schubert has shared the stage at Zankel Hall and Merkin Hall with such luminaries as Meredith Monk and the Bang on a Can All Stars, and Schubert's solo show at John Zorn's venue The Stone was listed as a Critic's Pick in Time Out New York Magazine. Schubert performed music by Stockhausen in Sakura Park; world premieres at Carnegie Hall; with robots while locked inside a Van de Graaff Generator at Boston's Museum of Science; on a bike flying by the audience in an installation piece at McCarren Park Pool; a tribute to Pablo Neruda at the Winter Garden; and with many New York-based ensembles championing art music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Pianist David Kalhous has appeared as a soloist with Prague Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, Israel Symphony Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic, Chamber Philharmonia Pardubice, West-Bohemia Symphony Orchestra, Northwestern New Music Ensemble, and Plze? Philharmonic, among others, performing piano concerti by Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Brahms. As a recitalist and a chamber musician, he performed at the Prague Spring Festival, Gilmore Keyboard Festival, Bargemusic, Czech Philharmonic Chamber Music Series, and Czech Radio's Studio Live Rising Stars Series. He also performed at the Prague and Vienna Academies and at the Tel-Aviv, Northwestern and Yale Universities, among others. He has recorded for Czech Radio and Television, and has created programs devoted to piano music for Prague’s Classic FM Radio. Kalhous resides in New York City and is currently an Assistant Professor of Piano at Florida State University.

Born in Tokyo, videomaker Naho Taruishi lives and works in New York City. Her site-specific installations and video projections have been exhibited at Exit Art, Ise Cultural Foundation, Artists Space, White Box and PS122 in New York; RK Projects in Providence, RI; 1708 gallery in Richmond, VA; and RealArtWays in Hartford, CT. Her single-channel video work has also been presented at international film and video art festivals in the US, Canada, France, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Norway and Japan. Her recent collaborative Livres d’Artistes is in institutional collections, including New York Public Library, Library of Congress, Harvard University and Rochester Institute of Technology.

Luke Gutgsell is a 2004 B.F.A. graduate in Dance Performance from Ohio State University and also attended the Naropa Institute. Arriving in New York City in 2004, he trained on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham Studio and apprenticed and performed with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Shen Wei Dance Arts. He has worked with such artists as David Dorfman, Chris Elam, Risa Jaroslow, Joanna Mendl Shaw, Tiffany Mills, Jody Oberfelder, Laura Peterson and Christopher Williams . Danspace Project, LaMaMa Theater, and West End Theater have produced Luke's work.