Experiments In Opera Presents A Rare Run Of ANTHONY BRAXTON THEATER IMPROVISATIONS For Comedian & Musicians

In celebration of the 78th birthday (June 4, 1945) of Anthony Braxton-one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of our time, as well as a mentor to EiO-Experiments in Opera presents a rare run of performances of Compositions No. 279-283, composed in 2000 for improvisational actor and improvising musicians. This production was originally scheduled to be part of the Braxton75 festivities in 2020, in collaboration with the Tri-Centric Foundation, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

While these works have been recorded, they have never been performed live. Drawing on Braxton's complex systems of graphic notation, character development, and narrative poetics, these compositions ask performers to engage with newspaper clippings, traditional improv comedy techniques, and historical comedy tropes, all in the name of creating a dynamic and surprising evening of music and theater.

These compositions were originally recorded by Braxton and Alex Horwitz as Four Compositions (Duets) 2000 (CIMP). At the time, many traditionalists derided these performances as a 'leap of faith.' And they are often brought up as an example of the extraordinary risks that Braxton has taken throughout his career to explore a broad palate of performance possibilities.

Anthony Braxton Theater Improvisations will run at The Brick from June 15-17 and will feature director/performer Rob Reese, as well as a different set of musical improvisors for each night of the run: renowned improvisers Kamala Sankaram (vocals), Nate Wooley (trumpet), James Fei (saxophones), and Ingrid Laubrock (saxophones). Sankaram has sung on every recording of vocal music that Braxton has made thus far: Trillium E, Syntactical GTM Choir (NYC) 2011, GTM (Syntax) 2017, and Trillium J. Together, these performers are re-interpreting Braxton's scores through the lens of Experimental Opera traditions and shedding light on the avant garde nature of Anthony's work.

Anthony Braxton taught the three founders of Experiments in Opera (Jason Cady, Aaron Siegel, and Matthew Welch) when they were students at Wesleyan University. Kamala Sankaram has sung under the direction of Anthony for his Trillium J opera.

tricentricfoundation.org

Anthony Braxton (born 1945), the Chicago-born composer and multi-instrumentalist, is recognized as one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of the past 50 years. He is highly esteemed in the experimental 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, 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.

From his early work as a pioneering solo performer in the late 1960s through to his eclectic experiments on Arista Records in the 1970s, his landmark quartet of the 1980s, and more recent endeavors, such as his cycle of Trillium operas and the day-long, installation-based Sonic Genome Project, his vast body of work is unparalleled. His small ensembles of the 1970s through to the present day are considered among the most innovative groups of their respective eras, while his Creative Orchestra Music has brought together the varying streams of American jazz orchestras, marching bands, and experimental practices with the traditions of European concert music in a wholly individual compositional voice. His continuing and evolving current systems of the past 15 years, including Ghost Trance Music, Diamond Curtain Wall Music, Falling River Music, Echo Echo Mirror House Music, and ZIM Music, have served as the artistic incubators for some of the most exciting artists of the current generation. Braxton's many awards include a 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 1994 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a 2014 NEA Jazz Master Award, and honorary doctorates from Université de Liège (Belgium) and New England Conservatory (USA).

The Performers

Rob Reese is a director and writer based in NYC. Opera credits include Kamala Sankaram's Miranda, (Director, Co-Librettist), EiO's Flash Operas (Director, Designer) and Opera On Tap's Murder in the Key of Death (Director, Librettist) also composed by Ms. Sankaram. Reese is the Artistic Director of Amnesia Wars Productions, with which he has written and directed such plays as Keanu Reeves Saves the Universe, Yahweh's Follies, and 101 Reasons to Thank Your God for Donald J. Trump, Vladimir J. Putin, and My Dad Who's a Dick. AW's next project is the immersive patriotic experience The Slightly Silly Party.

Composer/performer Kamala Sankaram has been hailed as "an impassioned soprano with blazing high notes" (Wall Street Journal). Notable collaborations include Anthony Braxton's Trillium E, Trillium J, and GTM (Syntax) 2017; Meredith Monk's Atlas with the LA Philharmonic, The Wooster Group's LA DIDONE, and the PROTOTYPE Festival's THUMBPRINT. Kamala is the leader of Bombay Rickey, an operatic Bollywood surf ensemble whose accolades include two awards for Best Eclectic Album from the Independent Music Awards, the 2018 Mid-Atlantic touring grant, and appearances on WFMU and NPR. Awards, grants and residencies: Jonathan Larson Award, NEA ArtWorks, MAP Fund, Opera America, HERE Artist Residency Program, the MacDowell Colony, and the Watermill Center. Dr. Sankaram holds a PhD from the New School and is currently a member of the composition faculties at the Mannes College of Music and SUNY Purchase.

James Fei is a composer, saxophonist, and live electronic musician. Works by Fei have been performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, MATA Micro Orchestra, and Noord-Hollands Philharmonisch Orkest. Recordings can be found on Leo Records, Improvised Music from Japan, CRI, Krabbesholm and Organized Sound. Fei has taught at Mills College since 2006, where he is Professor of Electronic Arts and Director of the Center for Contemporary Music.

Ingrid Laubrock is an experimental saxophonist and composer. She has performed with Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Jason Moran, Kris Davis, Nels Cline, Tyshawn Sorey, Mary Halvorson, Myra Melford, Zeena Parkins, Tom Rainey, Tim Berne, Dave Douglas, Wet Ink, and many others. Laubrock has composed for ensembles ranging from solo to chamber orchestra. Awards include Fellowship in Jazz Composition by the Arts Foundation, BBC Jazz Prize for Innovation, SWR German Radio Jazz Prize, and German Record Critics Quarterly Award. She won best Rising Star Soprano Saxophonist in the Downbeat Annual Critics Poll in 2015 and best Tenor Saxophonist in 2018.

Nate Wooley was born in Clatskanie, Oregon. He is known for his idiosyncratic trumpet language and mastery of extended techniques. Wooley made his debut as soloist with the New York Philharmonic at the opening series of their 2019 season. He is the editor of Sound American Publications, a journal dedicated to featuring the ideas and work of musicians in their own words. The journal has released 28 issues to date. He is the recipient of the FCA Grants to Artists Award and the Spencer Glendon Award for Ethics in the Arts. Wooley currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

The Brick

bricktheater.com The Brick enters its third decade with a bold new vision and an abiding belief in the power of art. With a renewed focus on multi-week theatrical runs and a dynamic line-up of singular one-off events, The Brick is Williamsburg's primary incubator of innovative theater and performing arts.

The Brick Theater is located at 579 Metropolitan Avenue, Brooklyn, NY. Take the L Train to Lorimer or the G Train to Metropolitan. experimentsinopera.com

Co-founded in Brooklyn in 2011 by composers Aaron Siegel, Matthew Welch, and Jason Cady, Experiments in Opera (EiO) has commissioned 85 new works in nine years, from 55 composers collaborating with over three hundred performers, designers, and directors from the New York City artists community. In fall 2018, EiO welcomed composer/vocalist Kamala Sankaram onto staff as Co-Artistic Director.

Experiments in Opera is focused on re-writing the story of opera and believes that new operas can be adventurous and fun, focused on strong and intimate storytelling, while also challenging notions of what experimental music can be. EiO invites composers, directors, designers, and performers to create new work that embraces unconventional mediums, a range of durations and production scales, and explores collaboration between all types of artists working to share their visions. EiO brings new operas to the stage as quickly as possible, marking the urgency of artists with something important to say and the desire of audiences to be a part of the excitement of risky and rewarding work.

EiO has produced events at Roulette and Issue Project Room in Brooklyn, as well as at Symphony Space, HERE, Merkin Concert Hall, The Stone, Le Poisson Rouge, Anthology Film Archives, and Abrons Arts Center in Manhattan. Since 2018, EiO has been an anchor partner in residence at The Flea Theater in Tribeca. Experiments in Opera has presented the work of 55 composers since their first presentation including Jason Cady, Aaron Siegel, Matthew Welch, Kamala Sankaram, Tariq Al-Sabir, Georges Aperghis, Robert Ashley, Clarice Assad, Roddy Bottom, Gelsey Bell, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Joe Diebes, Natacha Diels, Melissa Dunphy, Lainie Fefferman, Miguel Frasconi, Anne Guthrie, James Ilgenfritz, Paul Kerekes, Pauline Kim Harris, John King, Phil Kline, Daniel Kushner, Ruby Fulton, Gabrielle Herbst, Nick Hallett, Travis Just, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Joan La Barbara, Lukas Ligeti, Charlie Looker, Cristina Lord, Emily Manzo, Paula Matthusen, Anna Mikailhova, Jonathan Mitchell, Nicole Murphy, Jascha Narveson, Pauline Oliveros, Jessica Pavone, Paul Pinto, Erin Rogers, Dave Ruder, Elliott Sharp, JG Thirlwell, Justin Tierney, Leaha Maria Villarreal, Dorian Wallace, Shelley Washington, Michi Wiancko, Katie Young, John Zorn, and the Cough Button collective.

All of the work developed with Experiments in Opera is documented extensively in videos, images, and writings that are available in an online catalogue at experimentsinopera.com. These insightful looks into the origins of artists' ideas and their working habits help to support EiO's mission of building a more robust conversation about how and why opera works the way it does.

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