Full Description:

Composing music is a quest in which the composer is trying to realize his/her vision. It’s a challenging process of writing and re-writing. The performer, who is bound by the instructions given to him by the composer, will interpret the written result.  The interpreter’s challenge is to perform the piece on its highest possible level.  In improvised music, composer and interpreter become one person.  The compositional decisions are ad hoc and can’t be changed.  The quest is to react spontaneously to an inner idea or sound from another player, emotions coming from the surrounding space or any other influence and create sensible music from it.  Both distinctly different approaches to music making will come together in this program, Art songs for soprano and piano by Andrew Imbrie, Ned Rorem, Otto Luening and Sergius Kagan will be answered by free improvisations. The musicians are: Rosi Hertlein, soprano and violin, Joe Kubera piano and Joe McPhee reeds.

Violinist and singer Rosi Hertlein divides her devotion between the worlds of classical music, free improvisation and jazz. Her work in recent years includes collaborations with Joe McPhee, Pauline Oliveros, Reggie Workman, Howard Johnson, David Taylor, Vincent Chancey and others. Her acclaimed CD, ROSI HERTLEIN’S IMPROVISING CHAMBER ENSEMBLE (ICE) “Two Letters I’ll Keep” got released in November 2001. She also recorded as special guest on Joe McPhee’s “TRIO X” CD, “Rapture.”   “Rapture is hijacked by the astonishing violinist and singer Rosi Hertlein who is destined for great things.” (Penguin Guide for Jazz CD’s, Fifth Edition) “… Her earlier participation on Trio X’s ‘Rapture,’ another Cadence-funded release offered the impetus for this debut as a leader. The assemblage of New York based players that takes to Hertlein’s challenging and deceptive charts with a concentrative zeal repays the faith in her.”

Hailed by Village Voice critic Kyle Gann as one of “new music’s most valued performers,” Joe Kubera has been recognized as a leading interpreter of contemporary music for the past 30 years. He has been soloist at such festivals as the Berlin Inventionen, the Warsaw Autumn and Prague Spring, Miami’s Subtropics Festival and Berkeley’s Edgefest. He has been pianist in residence at the Ostrava Days New Music Festival since its inception in 2001. Mr. Kubera has been awarded grants through the NEA Solo Recitalist Program and the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, and was a Creative Associate with the Center for the Creative and Performing Arts at SUNY Buffalo in its heyday.

A thoughtful conceptualist, deeply emotional composer and improviser, Joe Mcphee has long championed the creative jazz and new music scene. Appearing on over 70 recordings, Mcphee has collaborated with Peter Brotzmann, Ken Vandermark, Dominic Duval, Evan Parker, Jay Rosen, Jeb Bishop and Mat Maneri among others. He  has earned such accolades as "... his magical take on avant-garde sax remains one of the wonders of the scene. He still has one of the most beautiful tones on the planet, even when he’s reaching for jazz’s outer limits." - Time Out New York, and continues to set the globe on fire with frequent appearances at major festivals, concert halls and New York City venues.

Full Description:

In Chakra Tuning, Rozanne Levine brings her love of improvisational spontaneity and organic, subtly shifting sounds to the fore. Sonic conversations emerge and develop as the group explores textures, sonorities and space. The "hauntingly beautiful" music of Chakra Tuning weaves in and out of melodies, exploring rhythms, moods and inner space in a transforming, unfolding journey. Ms. Levine performs on alto clarinet, clarinet and bamboo flute, and her long-time band mate Mark Whitecage joins her on clarinet, soprano saxophone and electronics. Adding their totally original voices to Chakra Tuning are clarinetist Perry Robinson and violinist/vocalist Rosi Hertlein. Rozanne Levine's compositions form the thematic material from which the musicians improvise. Electronic manipulation plays a part in the group sound, as do bird whistles, ocarinas, half horns and percussion. Chakra Tuning recorded their debut CD in January/April 2008 and plan to release it soon.

All the members of Chakra Tuning are acclaimed composers and bandleaders. Clarinetist/composer/improviser Rozanne Levine has worked with dancers, poets, actors, vocalists, and sound sculptors, in bands large and small, and with some of the most creative musicians on both coasts, including Anthony Braxton, William Parker, Jason Kao Hwang, Nick Mathis, The New Reed Quartet, The Bi-Coastal Orchestra, Robert (Mike) Mahaffay, and the Improvisors Collective Orchestra, among others. She was a founding member of William and Patricia Nicholson Parker's Improvisors Collective, and performed on Whitecage's sound sculptures in the Glass House Ensemble. She is also a noted photographer and received a commission grant from Philadelphia's Painted Bride Art Center for both her music and photographs. Mark Whitecage is internationally known as an innovative instrumentalist and composer in the fields of jazz and new music. He has performed internationally and recorded with some of the leading artists of our time, including Jeanne Lee, Anthony Braxton, Jacques Coursil, The Nu Band, Lane / Grassi / Whitecage, Gunter Hampel, Mario Pavone, Joe McPhee, William Parker, Marshall Allen and Steve Swell. Perry Robinson is the sui generis master of the clarinet in jazz, folk and avant-garde music who has worked with everyone from Dave Brubeck and Bill Dixon to Pete Seeger, George Clinton, Badal Roy and Anthony Braxton; and Rosi Hertlein is a breathtaking improviser on both violin and voice who has performed and recorded with Cecil Taylor, Pauline Oliveros, Joe McPhee, Joe Giardullo, Ivo Perelman, Wendy Osserman Dance Company, and Howard Johnson, to name a few.

"a surprising and wonderful evening of music...In the past, groups of this size and style have tended towards explosive outbursts like a battery of cannons. This group can certainly explode and erupt...Still"¦ words like bright, clever and meditative seem more apt for description. The...audience that gathered to witness this event...appeared completely entranced."

http://www.erjn.it/mus/whitecage/projects.htm

http://www.erjn.it/gallery/levine.htm

Full Description:

Violinist and singer Rosi Hertlein divides her devotion between the worlds of classical music, free improvisation and jazz. Her work in recent years includes collaborations with Joe McPhee, Pauline Oliveros, Reggie Workman, Howard Johnson, David Taylor, Vincent Chancey and others. Her acclaimed CD, ROSI HERTLEIN'S IMPROVISING CHAMBER ENSEMBLE (ICE) "Two Letters I'll Keep" got released in November 2001. She also recorded as special guest on Joe McPhee's "TRIO X" CD, "Rapture." "Rapture is hijacked by the astonishing violinist and singer Rosi Hertlein who is destined for great things." (Penguin Guide for Jazz CD's, Fifth Edition) " Her earlier participation on Trio X's 'Rapture,' another Cadence-funded release offered the impetus for this debut as a leader. The assemblage of New York based players that takes to Hertlein's challenging and deceptive charts with a concentrative zeal repays the faith in her." (Derek Taylor, http://www.allaboutjazz.com)

Full Description:

The Improvising Chamber Ensemble is Dave Taylor, bass trombone; Vincent Chancey, French horn; Howard Johnson, bass clarinet; Jay Rosen, drums; Charlie Burnham, violin; and the composer on violin and vocals. The idea for the group was born out of Hertlein's wish to hear more melody in improvised music than is common. The musicians are familiar with the world of classical music, straight-ahead jazz and free improvisation and have developed a unique orchestral sound leading to surprising ad hoc compositions which go far beyond the initial idea.