Vincent Chancey – Composer, French Horn
Newman Taylor Baker – Composer, Washboard
Cleo F. Wilson – Narrator
Bill Toles – Audio Visual
Tomeka Reid – Cello
Keith Johnston – Guitar, Spoken Word
* Due to an injury, Maria Mitchell is unable to participate in the performance.
At the heart of 2/4/THREE are two musicians, Vincent Chancey and Newman Taylor Baker, in deep exploration of their instruments of choice—the French horn and the washboard, respectively. The evening will offer the first look at the work-in-progress performance, moving through original solo, duo, and ensemble pieces, occasionally punctuated by the choreography, spoken text, and audio visuals and rounded out with guitar and bass. The evening is also a birthday celebration for three musicians friends who share(d) the same birthday — Chancey, Taylor Baker, and John Stubblefield, who passed away from cancer in 2005. With an ensemble cast including Tomeka Reid on cello, Chancey and Taylor Baker will delve into story, fact, mystery, question, and discovery pulled from intimate family history.
Native Chicagoan Vincent Chancey moved to New York after a completion of a bachelor of music degree from the Southern Illinois University School of Music in classical studies. He learned the French horn from Dale Clevenger, principal French horn of the Chicago Symphony. Chancey has performed with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Pan American Symphony, the Harlem Symphony, the One World Symphony, the Zephyr Woodwind Quintet, and the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. He received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to study jazz French Horn with jazz horn pioneer, Julius Watkins. He was awarded a Meet the Composer Grant for workshops and concerts, and a Chamber Music America/FACE French American Jazz Exchange Grant for a collaboration with French guitarist, Serge Pesce.
Newman Taylor Baker is a master percussionist known for his solo drum set project, Singin’ Drums, and Washboard XT, his current pursuit of 21st century music for the washboard. He started on the washboard in 2010 when working with the Ebony Hillbillies. Taylor Baker plays the washboard like a drum set, placing the instrument in his lap and using prepared shotgun shells on his each of his fingers. This year Newman adds the epithet “Washboard XT” to his name in the spirit of 19th century Black String bands players. Baker toured with his Washboard XT Szczecin to five cities in Poland and to three in Japan. Other appearances took place at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Washboard Festival in Logon, Ohio and New York’s Arts for Art. Singin’ Drums is Newman’s enhanced, pitch-specific drum set configuration that has allowed him to develop a broad repertoire of music for solo drum set. This music can be heard on Drum Suite Life and The NYFA Collection on Innova. Baker was awarded a NYFA Music Fellowship and Meet The Composer Grant for this project.
This performance is part of series supported, in part, with funds from GENERATE: The Frances Richard Fund for Innovative Artists of Promise. Instituted in 2014, GENERATE aims to provide immediate, practical assistance to artists, helping them achieve ambitious work to be presented in our theater. Click here for more information about how you can contribute to GENERATE.
GENERATE: The Frances Richard Fund for Innovative Artists of Promise is made possible, in part, with funds from The Arts Council of the Southern Finger Lakes, The Jerome Foundation, mediaThe foundation, Inc., The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, The New York State Council on the Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Roulette’s Board of Directors and the generosity of our New & Adventurous audiences.
