fbpx

Category: Press Releases

Samuel Blaser Trio: Taktlos

What: Sam Blaser Trio make a rare New York appearance on the occasion of a new album released by legendary Swiss label HatArt.
When: Monday, June 18, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $25 Door, $20 Presale
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/SP180618

Brooklyn, NY – Samuel Blaser, with Marc Ducret and Peter Bruun will give a rare New York performance at Roulette. Known for “a precise, expressive style on trombone” (New York Times), Blaser utilizes his foundation in jazz and classical music to produce tunes that develop seamlessly through interactions between the players. The international trio released a new album on legendary Swiss label HatArt to coincide with the performance at Roulette.

The Samuel Blaser Trio was founded after a poolside dialogue between Swiss trombonist Samuel Blaser and French guitarist Marc Ducret (known for his work with Tim Berne) in Cabo Frio, Brazil. Danish drummer Peter Bruun (a member of Django Bates’ Belovèd trio) seemed like a felicitous fit for the group, and beginning with an inaugural gig in May of 2013 at the Jazzdor Festival in Berlin, the three players began touring extensively through Europe, Asia and South America.

Line-up:
Samuel Blaser – Trombone
Marc Ducret – Guitar
Peter Bruun – Drums

Roulette joins We Have Voice

Roulette is proud to announce that we have joined a growing number of institutions that stand with We Have Voice and will adopt the Code of Conduct set forth by the collective in order to create positive change in our performing arts community.

We Have Voice, founded by Fay Victor, Ganavya Doraiswamy, Imani Uzuri, Jen Shyu, Kavita Shah, Linda May Han Oh, María Grand, Nicole Mitchell, Okkyung Lee, Rajna Swaminathan, Sara Serpa, Tamar Sella, Terri Lyne Carrington, and Tia Fuller, is a collective of musicians, performers, scholars, and thinkers from different generations, races, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, gender identities, economic backgrounds, religious beliefs, and affiliations. Together, they are determined to engage in transformative ways of thinking and being in their creative professional world, while being ingrained in an inclusive and intersectional analysis.

On creating the recently released Code of Conduct, María Grand, tenor saxophonist and Roulette 2018 Commissioned Artist, told the New York Times, “The idea is to propose solutions, and also open the conversation to go further.” The Code has been described by NPR as “an aspirational document that helps define sexual harassment and consent for the unusual workplaces and unique circumstances of the performing arts, offering clarity and tools for anyone who witnesses or experiences harassment.”

We are so proud to be part of this positive change and hope others will too. Learn more about WHVC on their website and via profiles from NPR, the New York Times, and Jazz Right Now. Catch the collective speak at Roulette as part of Vision Festival on May 24th at 5pm.

[RESIDENCY] Amirtha Kidambi: Lines of Light

What: The composer/vocalist Amirtha Kidambi channels centuries of vocal tradition through electronics and structured improvisation
with inspired, virtuosic collaborators.
When: June 17, 2018. 8pm.
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20 Door, $15 Presale
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: bit.ly/SP180617

Brooklyn, NY – Virtuosic composer/vocalist Amirtha Kidambi continues her 2018 residency with Roulette to present the world premiere of Lines of Light. The piece is inspired by the title of the late Muhal Richard Abrams’s Levels and Degrees of Light and medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen’s reference to her vision of God as “The Shade of the Living Light” and brings together a group of female vocal powerhouses. Featuring Jean Carla Rodea, Anaïs Maviel, Emilie Lesbros, and Charmaine Lee, the quartet is a structured improvisation, intended to allow each vocalist to exercise maximum creativity within the larger framework of the piece. Following the Inauguration of Donald Trump, Kidambi assembled the group to freely improvise in order to form community with female musicians from diverse backgrounds in a time of extreme vulnerability and uncertainty. Developed out of Kidambi’s long-term vision to elevate vocalists within experimental music, as they have been historically marginalized due, in part, to the gendered nature of jazz and the avant-garde, Lines of Light showcases the increasingly high caliber of vocalists currently working in New York. The resident artist will also present a new improvised duo with Lea Bertucci on analog electronics. In the duo, Bertucci manipulates Kidambi’s voice through tactile methods with analog tape machine, by pressing on the reels and physically touching the tape. Kidambi reacts in turn with a vocal arsenal of timbral techniques, creating a literal visceral feedback loop of noise, processed, and amplified voice.

Amirtha Kidambi is invested in the creation and performance of subversive music, from free improvisation and avant-jazz, to experimental bands and new music. She is the creative force behind the band Elder Ones, as well as a key collaborator in Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl, duo with Darius Jones and his groups Elizabeth-Caroline Unit and Samesoul Maker, Maria Grand’s DiaTribe, various groups with William Parker, Charlie Looker’s Seaven Teares and Pat Spadine’s Ashcan Orchestra. As an improviser, she has played with Matana Roberts, Tyshawn Sorey, Ingrid Laubrock, Ava Mendoza, Trevor Dunn, Ben Vida, Tyondai Braxton, and Shahzad Ismaily. Kidambi worked closely with composer Robert Ashley until the end of his life and had the honor of working with Muhal Richard Abrams for the premiere of Dialogue Social. She has performed nationally and internationally in Europe and Asia, with Elder Ones and solo in collaborative formations for the Whitney Biennial, Carnegie Hall, Newport Jazz Festival, Berliner Festspiele (Germany), Festival Jazz Jantar (Poland), Borderline Festival (Greece), Bimhuis (Amsterdam), and Music Unlimited (Austria).

Lines of Light
Jean Carla Rodea
Anaïs Maviel
Emilie Lesbros
Charmaine Lee
Amirtha Kidambi

Amirtha Kidambi/Lea Bertucci Duo
Amirtha Kidambi – Voice
Lea Bertucci – Analog Electronics

Roulette to Receive $22,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

Brooklyn, NYNational Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $22,000 to Roulette Intermedium for the Roulette Concert Archive Radio Project. The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.

“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Through the work of organizations such as Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, New York, NEA funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”

Roulette Co-founder and Director of Special Projects David Weinstein stated: “The Roulette Concert Archive Radio Project makes available musical treasures reflecting both the organization’s 40-year history with adventurous and influential artists—often during their formative years—and the uniquely personal relationship that Roulette cultivates with artists. The blossoming of ideas, the technical discoveries, and the surprising collaborations are all captured in restored, quality recordings made in Roulette’s early performance spaces in Manhattan lofts and galleries, as well as the 400-seat Brooklyn concert hall that Roulette has called home since 2011. Releasing highlights from the collection will illuminate the challenges, potential, and triumphs of American creative life and its resonating impact on us all.”

The Roulette Concert Archive Radio Project is a professionally produced radio series curated from nearly 3,000 sound art and music performances recorded and preserved by Roulette since 1980. The programs will include historic and educational narratives, artist interviews, and musical illustrations to be distributed through Roulette’s radio partners, as a podcast, and as an offering on PRX (Public Radio Exchange), the online marketplace for public radio programming. Roulette is internationally recognized for its support of new and innovative work across all media and its quality of presentation. This project will support the creation of 26 radio segments, each 57 minutes long, as well as the promotional support and permissions clearances necessary to produce the shows. The programs will be available for free on Roulette’s website and will feature exploration of new techniques and technologies, interactive and kinetic work, new instruments and inventions, installation and interdisciplinary projects, hybrid and expanded ensembles, and spatial experiments.

Gemma Peacocke: Erasure

What: New solo and chamber works by New Zealand composer Gemma Peacocke exploring themes of gender, identity and marginalization.
When: Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $25 Door, $20 Online
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/SP180606

Brooklyn, NY – Composed by Gemma Peacocke, directed by Benita de Wit, and featuring string quartet Schiele, saxophonist Shelley Washington and a unique ensemble of performers, Erasure explores the marginalized experiences of women through a new program of solo and chamber works. Gender and identity themes are reflected and refracted across different instruments in a performance that blends live music and electronics, and shimmers with the potential of a new and uncharted cultural landscape.

The evening comprises five works: “Quiver” pierces the undercurrent of rage resulting years of marginalization and abuse; “Mothertongue,” a new work for solo violin and electronics, splinters and reforms under the tension between individual and collective experience; “Erasure” explores how ordinary and extraordinary women have been written out of history; “Skin” looks at the experience of being born a woman into a world where gender, race, size, age and appearance can determine one’s safety; “Aglow” flickers between shadow and light with the hope for change created by the #MeToo movement. These five works make up a tapestry of interconnected themes as we move fluidly through the world of Gemma Peacocke’s compositions.

Program:
Erasure – for amplified string quartet (NYC Premiere)
Quiver – for piano, bass, and percussion (NYC Premiere)
Aglow – for piano, bass, and baritone saxophone
Skin – for saxophone and electronics (NYC Premiere)
Mothertongue – for violin and electronics (World Premiere)

Shelley Washington – baritone and alto saxophone

Schiele String Quartet
Adrianne Munden-Dixon – Violin
Michelle Painter – Violin
Carrie Frey – Viola
Molly Aronson – Cello


Resist x Improvise: An Evening for Roscoe Mitchell

What: An evening honoring legendary American avant-garde jazz and new classical composer, improviser and performer Roscoe Mitchell featuring performances by producer Anna Wray, Michael Lofton, and the Human Time Machine.
When: Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20 Door, $15 Online
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/SP180605

Brooklyn, NY – This special evening focuses on the work of legendary composer and performer Roscoe Mitchell. Rooted in activism, Mitchell’s work has become extremely influential to a new generation of artists who merge their artistic practice with social justice. In these performances by Anna Wray, Michael Lofton, and Brian Adler and the Human Time Machine, the artists join forces with electronics and visuals to explore Mitchell’s work and the injustice being done to the African American community.

Anna Wray’s newest chapter has her returning to her roots to New York after earning a BA and MFA in California. Her time on the West Coast provided her with multiple opportunities to improvise and perform with top artists such as William Winant, Zeena Parkins, Roscoe Mitchell, Steven Schick, Julia Wolfe, Christian Wolff, among others. Anna’s primary focus is to embark on a creative collaboration process with composers, musicians, dancers, theatre groups, and artists on the cutting edge of experimental music and experimental art.

Human Time Machine:
Brian Adler – Musical Director, Percussion
Jeremy Smith – Alto Percussion
Elizabeth Pupo-Walker – Tenor Percussion
Ned Haweeli – Soprano Percussion
Anna Wray – Bass Percussion

With Special Guests:
Jesse Neuman – Laptop, Samples, Trumpet
Michael Lofton – Baritone Voice
Crockett Doob – Film/Video/Projection
Red Wierenga – Piano
The program includes the following, among other compositions:

“Sunrise on an Ice Moon” *
Solo Vibraphone by Roscoe Mitchell
* World Premiere, Performed by Anna Wray

“dim,” “this is,” and “because it’s” by Roscoe Mitchell
Scored for baritone and piano
Performed by Michael Lofton and Red Wierenga

Face the Music and Luna Composition Lab

What: Face the Music presents world premiere performances written by the five young female composers selected as 20172018 Luna Lab Fellows
When: Monday, June 4, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost:  $25 Door, $10 Online
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/SP180604

Brooklyn, NY – The student-musicians of Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music present world premiere performances of new works written by the 20172018 Luna Composition Lab Fellows, as well as established composers. The five young female composers chosen as this season’s Luna Lab Fellows were selected from a national pool of applicants, and are mentored closely by established female composers of the contemporary music. Face the Music, an original collaborator of Luna Lab, works with the fellows to read, workshop, and present professional-quality performances of their pieces. This season’s fellows include Caroline Bragg, Maya Johnson, Helen Lyons, Katie Palka, and Aliya Salmanov. Mentors include Ellen Reid, Reena Esmail, Kristin Kuster, Tamar Muskal, and Gity Razaz.

Kaufman Music Center’s Face the Music is the country’s first youth ensemble dedicated to studying and performing music by living composers. Called “a force in the New York new-music world” by the New York Times, Face the Music is a unique youth orchestra: an ensemble and collective music-making program where young and committed musicians use the music of today as a vehicle to explore collaborative decision making and develop leadership skills. Face the Music features a collection of ensembles including chamber orchestras, a jazz big-band, an improvisation collective, string quartets, and mixed chamber-groups.

Luna Composition Lab is a program that provides mentorship, performances and networking opportunities to female composers ages 1319. Luna Composition Lab was founded in 2016 by composers Missy Mazzoli and Ellen Reid in collaboration with Face the Music at the Kaufman Center, and in its inaugural season garnered attention from the New York Times, Musical America, The New
Yorker, Huffington Post, and NY1 News. Luna Composition Lab aims to help close the gender gap in the classical music field by providing participants with one-on-one mentorship with established female composers, performance opportunities in New York City, high-quality recordings, and instant access to a network of like-minded peers and professionals.

Clara Latham: Bertha the Mom

What: World premiere of Bertha the Mom, a chamber opera examining hysteria, feminism, and the birth of psychoanalysis.
When: Sunday, June 3, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost:  $20 Door, $15 Online
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/SP180603

Brooklyn, NY Bertha the Mom merges the histories of hysteria and feminism in a chamber opera that questions the validity of truth and how it relates to what we know about the past. The work is based on the historical accounts of German feminist Bertha Pappenheim—commonly known under the pseudonym Anna O—patient of Dr. Josef Breuer, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud and the first subject of psychoanalysis. Told through four performers, the stories of Pappenheim and Anna O are told in parallel to examine radically different types of female subjects within 1880s Vienna. Employing the fiercely original palates of these four creative performers, Clara Latham merges fantastical sonorities with earnest melodies, creating an uncanny mixture of camp and sincerity.

The well-lauded cast includes soprano Alice Teyssier, baritone Michael Weyandt, trumpet player Peter Evans, and Seth Parker Woods, described by the Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace.”

Performers:
Alice Teyssier – Bertha
Michael Weyandt – Doctor Josef Breuer
Peter Evans – Character’s Unconsciouses
Seth Parker Woods – Character’s Unconsciouses

Directed by Katherine Brook
Composed by Clara Latham
Libretto by James Currie

Kit Fitzgerald and Peter Gorgon: Into the Hot, Out of the Cool

What: Large-scale video paintings by Kit Fitzgerald accompanied by six-piece musical ensemble directed by Peter Gordon.
When: Sunday, April 22, 2018, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20 Online $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org // (917) 267-0368

Brooklyn, NY – Long-standing collaborative duo Peter Gordon (keyboard, sax, electronics) and Kit Fitzgerald (video) present Into the Hot, Out of the Cool. The performance will feature large-scale video paintings by Fitzgerald accompanied by a six-piece musical ensemble directed by Gordon. Fitzgerald’s visual imagery will include video drawings, animations, and camera imagery—mixed and processed live—combining early analog and current digital technology. The dialogue between the early and the contemporary video aesthetic is part of Fitzgerald’s signature look and is at the heart of the Hot/Cool dialogue. Into the Hot, Out of the Cool is a new work that marks the 35th year of collaboration between Fitzgerald and Gordon, a pioneering duo incorporating live video and musical performance. Read

Kit Fitzgerald has collaborated with composers Max Roach, Peter Gordon, Ned Sublette, and Ryuichi Sakamoto; choreographers Donald Byrd, Bebe Miller, and Bill T. Jones; poets Sekou Sundiata and Bob Holman, and theater companies The Wooster Group and The Talking Band. She directs award-winning documentaries on art and culture, music videos, dance videos, video installations, live performance, and album covers. Her work is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art and has been featured twice in the Whitney Biennial. Her work has been commissioned by Tokyo Broadcasting, Fuji TV, SONY Japan, and Northern Netherlands Theatre. Fitzgerald is the recipient of prizes at international film and television festivals and awards from The Rockefeller Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and Japan Foundation. Her work is distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix, New York. Fitzgerald is Professor of New Media at Concordia College-New York.

Peter Gordon moved to New York in 1975, where his Love of Life Orchestra first gained attention at downtown venues such as The Kitchen, CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, and the Mudd Club. An early proponent of the recording studio as a compositional tool, Gordon produced recordings for LOLO, as well as Robert Ashley, Arthur Russell, Rhys Chatham, Laurie Anderson, Jill Kroesen, David Van Tieghem, and “Blue” Gene Tyranny. He was music producer for Robert Ashley’s video opera Perfect Lives, as well as the recent Spanish-language version, Vidas Perfectas (presented at the Whitney Museum in 2014). A friend and frequent collaborator of the late Arthur Russell, Gordon has recently been touring Arthur Russell’s INSTRUMENTALS at several international festivals. Gordon is Professor of Music at Bloomfield College.

Lineup:
Kit Fitzgerald – Video Artist
Max Gordon – Keyboards, Trumpet
Peter Gordon – Composer, Saxophone, Keyboards, Electronics
Matt Mottel – Synthesizer
Michael Attias – Saxophone
Paul Nowinski – Bass
Ron Blake – Saxophone
Bill Ruyle – Percussion

ECCE and Court-Circuit: French/American Music in Dialogue

What: A tour de force of French and American repertoire by two leading ensembles from America and France.
When: Thursday, April 19, 2018, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $15 Online, $20 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: https://roulette.org/event/ecce-and-court-circuit-french-american-music-in-dialogue/

Brooklyn, NY ECCE and Court-Circuit join forces to present works by Christophe Bertrand, Philippe Hurel, David Felder, Philippe Leroux, and John Aylward. The ensembles themselves will present smaller chamber works featuring members of each ensemble. Then, Maestro Jean Deroyer from Court-circuit will lead the combined ensembles in performances of Philippe Hurel’s Figures Libre and the world premiere of John Aylward’s Narcissus.

Founded by composer John Aylward, ECCE is an East Coast-based ensemble of culturally and socially engaged musicians. The French ensemble Court-Circuit has been dedicated to experimentation and intense risk-taking in contemporary music since its founding in 1991.

Performers

ECCE
Jennifer Choi — Violin
John Popham — Cello
Roberta Michel — Flutes
Carlos Cordeiro — Clarinets
Hassan Anderson — Oboe
Julia Den Boer — Piano
Dennis Sullivan — Percussion
Nicholas Demaison — Conductor

Court-Circuit
Jeremie Fèvre — Flute
Pierre Dutrieu — Clarinet
Tom Kolor — Percussion
Jean Marie Cottet — Piano
Alexandra Greffin Klein — Violin
Frédéric Baldassare — Cello
Jean Deroyer — Conductor