Full Description:

All-Star quintet: Joey Baron, Robert Black, Larry Polansky, Robyn Schulkowsky, Christian Wolff present the music of Christian Wolff both old and new - including a premiere of new long form piece written specifically for this quintet.

Christian Wolff was born in 1934 in Nice, France. He's lived mostly in the U.S. since 1941. He studied piano with Grete Sultan and composition, briefly, with John Cage. Though mostly self-taught as a composer, the work of John Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor and Earle Brown have been important to him, as well as long associations with Cornelius Cardew and Frederic Rzewski. A particular feature of his music is the various freedoms it allows performers at the time of performance as well as the variable results possible for any one particular piece, for which various new notations have been invented. Underlying notions in the work are shared freedom, self-determination and democratically-spirited collaboration. The music is published by C.F. Peters, New York and much of it is recorded, on many labels. A number of pieces, starting in 1953, have been used and commissioned by Merce Cunningham and his dance company. Wolff has been active as a performer and as improvisor - with Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Lacey, Christian Marclay, Keith Rowe, William Winant, the group AMM, Kui Dong and Larry Polansky. His writings on music (up to 1998) are collected in "Cues: Writings and Conversations", published by MusikTexte, Cologne. He has received awards and grants from the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Ford Foundation, DAAD Berlin, the Asian Cultural Council, the Fromm Foundation, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts (the John Cage Award for music) and the Mellon Foundation. He is a member of the Akademie der Kuenste in Berlin and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2004 he received an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts. Academically trained as a classicist, Wolff was professor of classics and music at Dartmouth College from 1971 to 1999.

Full Description:

Rhythmlab featuring

Ikue Mori (9/7, 9/8) & Jim Staley (9/6. 9/8)

There will be an open house 2pm - 4pm Sept. 6th - 7th (free)

Rhythmlab is an ongoing experiment that explores the processes and dialogues of percussion-based music, by "letting sounds be sounds". Percussion-based for us (Joey & Robyn) is rhythm centered, and also sonic centered in the sense that the music is guided by the sounds of the actual
material (in this case giant wooden bars). This run features two masters of sound and texture: trombone maestro Jim Staley laptop wizard Ikue Mori.

Joey Baron was born 1955 in Richmond ,Va. He started drumming at age 9, performing profesionally the following year. His early musical education included private drum lessons as well as the wide genre radio programing of the 1960s. After finishing high school early through a special accelerated program, Mr. Baron spent time in Boston attending the Berklee School of Music.He settled in Los Angeles,California in 1975 to realize a dream of playing with the great jazz musician Carmen McRae,consequently becoming a much sought after singer's drummer. Since moving to New York City in 1983, Mr. Baron has continued to expand his scope and develope his musical ideas through collaborations with various artists including Red Rodney, Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, Ron Carter, and John Zorn ,with whom the collaboration continues to the present.
Current projects include solo concert tours, duo concerts with Lee Konitz, Bill Frisell, his own band, "Killer Joey",The John Abercrombie Quartet, and the Schulkowsky,Studer,Baron drum trio.

Robyn Schulkowsky was born in Eureka, South Dakota and studied music at the University of Iowa and the music conservatory in Cologne, Germany. She had a brief stint as head of the percussion-department at the University of New Mexico, where she performed with the New Nexico Symphony, the Orchestra of Santa Fe, and the New Mexico jazz workshop. After relocation to Germany in the early 80's she began working with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel, John Cage and Iannis Xenakis, presenting their works in tours that included the former Soviet Union, Korea, China, and major European music festivals. Since the late 80's she has collaborated with Derek Bailey, Nils Petter Molvaer, Kim Kashkashian, Christian Wolff, Sasha Waltz, and the Ghanaien drummer and composer Ghanaba, who she met during an extended stay in Ghana in 1997. Her current projects include the trio with Joey Baron and Fredy Studer (her new work ARMADILLO was premiered in Italy in June), and music theater piece that will be premiered in Germany in February, 2008.