Composer & Performer Anthony Braxton to Celebrate Birthday with Performances, Events & More

Esteemed American composer, musician, educator, recording artist and philosopher Anthony Braxton will celebrate his 69th birthday with a series of premieres, performances and events encompassing every facet of his decades-long career, from improvisational pieces with small ensembles to full-scale orchestral works and operatic compositions. Taking a cue from Braxton's "Tri-Axium" philosophical writings exploring the "partials" of his life's work-music (sound logic) systems, thought (philosophical) systems, and ritual and ceremonial (belief) systems-the decision to celebrate his 69th birthday publicly (a number divisible by three) is a natural one. The season will pair rare performances of past compositions with premieres and recordings of new work by the prolific MacArthur Fellow, Doris Duke Performing Artist and recently-named NEA Jazz Master, simultaneously paying tribute to Braxton's career so far and looking forward to what's to come.

The celebration begins with the Tri-Centric Music Festival in NYC (April 10-19), which spans two full weekends of performances at Roulette in Brooklyn and includes an ongoing performance installation at Eyebeam in Manhattan. Weekend One is set to feature Braxton's Composition No. 46 (for chamber ensemble), Composition No. 146 (for 12 flutes, 2 tubas and percussion), and his Diamond Curtain Wall Nonet, presented alongside new projects by James Fei, Nate Wooley, Fay Victor and Andre Vida. Crucial to Tri-Centric's mission to cultivate a vibrant community of creative musicians, these collaborations also speak to Braxton's decades-long history of mentorship and support for younger artists.

Weekend Two consists of the semi-staged, multimedia concert premiere of Braxton's latest four-act opera, Trillium J (The Non-Unconfessionables), featuring a cast of 12 vocalists, 12 instrumental soloists and a 36-piece orchestra led by a team including Braxton (composer, librettist, conductor), Acushla Bastible (director), Louisa Proske (associate director), Chris Jonas (lead video artist), Dylan McLaughlin (associate video artist), Rachel Bernsen (choreographer), and Taylor Ho Bynum (producer). Audiences-or "friendly-experiencers," as Braxton likes to refer to his listeners-will have the option of experiencing two acts at a time on two separate evenings or attending a full day with the first two acts presented as a matinee and the second two acts presented that same evening. Following the premiere the project will move into the studio to be recorded and released as a CD/DVD box set the following spring. The set will incorporate both live video and animation in order to fully document this massive work.

Braxton's birthday season continues through the fall of 2014 with the release of a series of CD box sets of new material, two on Tri-Centric's own New Braxton House label, and the third on Firehouse 12 Records. Trio (New Haven) 2013 is a 4-CD set of Braxton performing with two of contemporary improvisation's leading drummers, Tom Rainey and Tomas Fujiwara. Using Braxton's evocative Falling River Music graphic scores as a launching pad, the recording is Braxton's first with this unusual lineup, though reminiscent of his legendary duets with percussionists like Max Roach, Andrew Cyrille and Gerry Hemingway. 12 Duets (DCWM) 2012 is a 12-CD set presenting Braxton in dialogue with three distinctive duet partners: violinist Erica Dicker, vocalist Kyoko Kitamura and bassoonist Katherine Young. The performances also feature Braxton's Diamond Curtain Wall Music, which combines intuitive improvisation with interactive electronics. And finally, 3 Compositions (EEMHM) 2011 (to be released on Firehouse 12 Records) is a 3-CD set documenting Braxton's newest composition system, Echo Echo Mirror House Music, featuring Braxton's long-running septet with Taylor Ho Bynum (brass), Jessica Pavone (viola), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Jay Rozen (tuba), Carl Testa (bass) and Aaron Siegel (percussion). All the musicians wield iPods in addition to their instruments while navigating scores that combine cartography and symbology, creating an immersive sound environment that combines live performance and sampled sound from Braxton's extensive recorded discography.

Braxton is recognized as one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of the past 50 years, highly esteemed in the creative music community for the revolutionary quality of his work and for the mentorship and inspiration he has provided to generations of younger musicians. Drawing upon a disparate mix of influences from John Coltrane to Karlheinz Stockhausen to Native American music, Braxton has created a unique musical system that celebrates the concept of global creativity and our shared humanity. His work examines core principles of improvisation, structural navigation and ritual engagement-innovation, spirituality and intellectual investigation. His many accolades include a 1981 Guggenhiem Fellowship, a 1994 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award and a 2014 NEA Jazz Master Award.

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