Wet Ink Ensemble Performs NYC Premiere Of Eric Wubbels's IF AND ONLY IF Next Month

New York City-based new music collective Wet Ink Ensemble celebrates the release of Eric Wubbels's new album if and and only if on Carrier Records with the NYC premiere performance of the complete concert-length work on Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. at the Tenri Cultural Institute.

Composed for Wet Ink Ensemble members Josh Modney (violin) and Mariel Roberts (cello) between 2018-2019, if and only if builds on the trio's nearly 15-year history of playing together, a period of joint exploration and consolidation of new approaches to tuning, harmony, and ensemble virtuosity. Josh and Mariel will be joined by Eric Wubbels on piano for this performance.

Written in an extended tonality that hybridizes a resonance-based just-intonation derived from string instruments with the scalar, distortion-oriented temperament of the piano, if and only if unfolds in a gradually intensifying, spiraling progression over the course of an hour, building from moments of bleak transparency reminiscent of Medieval music to dense, saturated string drones, frenetic rhythmic unison, and ecstatic, kaleidoscopic polyphony. Combining technical sophistication with a direct, expressive urgency, the piece is both a major work of contemporary chamber music as well as a joyfully virtuosic showcase for the trio's musical and personal history together.

Wet Ink celebrates 25 years of adventurous music-making in NYC with a three-night Wet Ink 25th Anniversary Festival on Thursday, December 7, 2023 at 8:00 p.m., Friday, December 8, 2023 at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, December 9, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. at Dixon Place. The festival features Wet Ink's octet of composer-performers and guest artists from the group's history. The festival opens with an evening of compositions for large ensemble by creative-music pioneers Anthony Braxton, Pauline Oliveros, Christian Wolff, and others. The second and third nights, focused on works for small ensemble and octet, will include premieres for the Wet Ink band by Kate Soper and Josh Modney, a premiere for voice and piano by 2023 Artist-In-Residence Rick Burkhardt, a rare performance of mathias spahlinger's adieu m'amour for violin and cello, works by Chiyoko Szlavnics, Sam Pluta, Eric Wubbels, Alex Mincek, and more.