Friday, February 1, 2019
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: Fresh Squeezed Opera premieres of new work by female composers Whitney George, Gabi Herbst, and Gemma Peacocke.
When: Friday, February 1, 2019
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: https://roulette.org/event/the-female-gaze/

Brooklyn, NY – Roulette is pleased to present Fresh Squeezed Opera as they premiere works by composers Whitney George, Gabi Herbst, and Gemma Peacocke. Women have always been artists, but for centuries, women were excluded from the records of history—their art was not elevated, being dismissed as unimportant or craft. Now, in the 21st century, we still see these trends, particularly in the field of opera. The exclusion of women’s art has made the male perspective dominant. Through a male lens, we encounter stories about male heroes and women as secondary characters, while exploring the male psyche and leaving women as mere tools to help male characters achieve their ultimate arch.

Drawing on 20th century feminist theory, The Female Gaze flips the male gaze: the creator is a woman, the characters are women, and the spectators are women. Fresh Squeezed Opera (FSO) aims to put women on an equal level to men in the performance of operatic works while celebrating the unique idioms and perspectives that women composers offer in their work. This project will act as a strong symbol in the new music community—a group of women coming together to create an artistic statement about the value of women in the arts. This is a statement about the operatic genre—a vastly male-dominated field—and a demand for the inclusion of women.

The project features the world premieres of three FSO commissions from Whitney George, Gabrielle Herbst, and Gemma Peacocke for female voice, ensemble, and electronics.

Mara Mayer, clarinet
Lish Lindsey, flute
Dan McCarthy, viola
Maureen Kelly, cello
Fred Trumpy  percussion
Joe Tucker  percussion
Sugar Vendil, piano
Nicholle Bittlingmeyer, voice
Jane Hoffman, voice
Chelsea Feltman, voice

Founded in 2013, Fresh Squeezed Opera dedicates itself to providing composers with a platform to present their new music, specifically focusing on vocal works and fully-staged opera. In their five years of operation, they’ve proudly presented over 25 composers’ works, with consistently sold-out houses as a testament to the power of new music. Fully-staged operatic productions include Knot An Opera! (Constantin Basica), Here be Sirens (Kate Soper), Scopes (Spencer Snyder), Prix Fixe (Kevin Wilt), The Yellow Wallpaper (Whitney George), Baby Shower (Bruce Trinkley), and La Zombiata (Jillian Flexner). Forthcoming fully-staged performances include The Switch (John Aylward), Bound (Huang Ruo), and Self.Fembot (Jillian Flexner).

Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: In the first performance of his year-long Van Lier Fellowship, emerging bassist and composer Nick Dunston presents new work with his quintet Atlantic Extraction and the world premiere of his original bass-ensemble composition The Floor is Lava!.
When: Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: https://roulette.org/event/nick-dunston-atlantic-extraction-the-floor-is-lava/

Brooklyn, NY – Ascending bassist and composer Nick Dunston will give the first concert of his year-long Van Lier Fellowship at Roulette featuring Atlantic Extraction, a newly formed quintet, and the world premiere of The Floor is Lava!. The composition, written for five double basses, embodies its childhood game namesake, indulging imagination, obsession, devotion, and playfulness while reflecting Dunston’s high regard for asymmetry and extremity.

Atlantic Extraction brings together musicians with diverse and complex musical vocabularies, drawing from Free Jazz, No Wave, 20th Century Western Classical, and Appalachian folk. Its unique instrumentation fused with an improvisational core seeks to balance urgency with patience and familiarity with discomfort while maintaining a magnetic sound.

Atlantic Extraction:
Louna Dekker-Vargas, flute alto flute, piccolo
Ledah Finck, violin, viola
Tal Yahalom, guitar
Nick Dunston, bass, compositions
Stephen Boegehold, drums

The Floor is Lava!
Kanoa Mendenhall, bass
Almog Sharvit, bass
Eva Lawitts, bass
Lisa Hoppe, bass
Nick Dunston, bass, compositions

Nick Dunston is a Brooklyn-based composer, bassist, and scholar. His performances span a variety of venues and festivals across countries in North America and Europe. He has performed professionally with Tyshawn Sorey, Vijay Iyer, Marc Ribot, Imani Uzuri, Anthony Coleman, Amirtha Kidambi, Dave Douglas, Matt Wilson, Jeff Lederer, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Darius Jones, and more. As a composer, he’s written for and collaborated for a wide range of artists, from solo instrumentalists to his own bands, to chamber orchestras, performance artists. He’s been commissioned by entities such as the New York Public Library of Performing Arts, the Joffrey Ballet School, The Witches, violist Joanna Mattrey, the ESMAE Jazz and Chamber Orchestras, and more. His currently leads two bands: Atlantic Extraction and Truffle Pig, and is a co-leader of Feral Children (with Noah Becker and Lesley Mok) and Aurelia Trio (with Theo Walentiny and Connor Parks). As a writer, he’s contributed monthly to Hot House jazz magazine since 2016.

Friday, January 25, 2019
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: Album release event for Anthony Braxton’s GTM (Syntax) 2017 performed by the Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble, followed by Carl Testa and Cory Smythe performing Braxton’s Echo Echo Mirror House Music.
When: Friday, January 25, 2019
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: https://roulette.org/event/the-music-of-anthony-braxton-syntactical-ghost-trance-echo-echo-mirror-house/

Brooklyn, NY – The 11-person Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble perform works from Anthony Braxton’s Syntactical Ghost Trance Music system—demonstrating the unique sonic tapestry of Braxton’s compositions and the possibilities of the vocal choir in celebration of the release of GTM (Syntax) 2017: an album documenting all twelve compositions of his system recorded under the guidance of Anthony Braxton himself.

The evening closes with a performance of another Braxton music system: Echo Echo Mirror House Music, by Carl Testa on electronics and Cory Smythe on piano.

Tri-Centric Vocal Ensemble (voices)
Roland Burks
Tomas Cruz
Lucy Dhegrae
Chris DiMeglio
K Fung
Nick Hallett
Kyoko Kitamura
Adam Matlock
Anne Rhodes
Kamala Sankaram
Elizabeth Saunders

Carl Testa/Cory Smythe Duo
Carl Testa (electronics)
Cory Smythe (piano)

The Tri-Centric Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that supports the ongoing work and legacy of Anthony Braxton while also cultivating and inspiring the next generation of creative artists to pursue their own visions with the kind of idealism and integrity Braxton has demonstrated throughout his distinguished career. This event is part of Braxton75, an initiative of the Tri-Centric Foundation leading up to the composer’s 75th birthday in 2020, funded in part by the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation.

Friday, December 21, 2018
Performance 6pm / Doors 5pm

What: Downtown legend and intermedia artist Phill Niblock presents his annual 6-hour Winter Solstice concert.
When: Friday, December 21, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FA181221

Brooklyn, NY – As the longest night of the year unfolds and the journey of our planet nears the point when Winter commences in the Northern Hemisphere, Phill Niblock stages his annual Winter Solstice concert for the 8th consecutive year at Roulette. Starting at 6pm, the performance will comprise six sublime hours of acoustic and electronic music and mixed media film and video in a live procession that charts the movement of our planet and our progress through art and performance at its maximal best.

Niblock’s minimalistic drone approach to composition and music emerged from the musical and artistic activities of New York in the 1960s – from the art of Mark Rothko, Carl Andre, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, and Robert Morris to the music of John Cage and Morton Feldman. Niblock’s music is an exploration of sound textures created by multiple tones in very dense, often atonal tunings (generally microtonal in conception) performed in long durations.

Phill Niblock is an intermedia artist using music, film, photography, video, and computers as his medium. Since the mid-1960s, he has been making music and intermedia performances which have been shown at numerous venues around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Kitchen, The Institute of Contemporary Art in London, and World Music Institute at Merkin Hall. Since 1985, Niblock has been the director of the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York where he has been an artist and member since 1968. He is the producer of Music and Intermedia presentations at Experimental Intermedia since 1973—with 1000 performances to date— and the curator of EI’s XI Records label. Niblock’s music is available on the XI, Moikai, Mode and Touch labels. He is the recipient of the prestigious 2014 Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage award.

Thursday, December 20, 2018, and Saturday, January 5, 2019
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: Legendary guitarist and composer Bill Frisell performs new work in two special evenings at Roulette.
When: Thursday, December 20, 2018, Saturday, January 5, 2019
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $35 presale, $45 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FA181220

Brooklyn, NY – Legendary composer and veteran guitarist Bill Frisell returns to Roulette, home of his first-ever solo show in 1989, to present two special evenings of music. On December 20th, in celebration of Roulette’s 40th year, Frisell plays a benefit concert featuring new work from his recently released album Music IS, as well as vintage compositions. This is Frisell’s first solo concert since 2017 and is the only solo New York City performance since the album’s release. All proceeds from the concert will go to support Roulette’s artists and performances.

Roulette’s Winter season debuts on January 5th with a duet performance by Frisell and bassist Thomas Morgan. The duo celebrates of their forthcoming album, Epistrophy, to be released in April 2019 on ECM Records. Their previous duo recording, Small Town (2017), was received to much acclaim and was described by All About Jazz as “intimate, beautiful and deep, while at the same time knotty, witty and curiously skewed.” Both albums were recorded live at the Village Vanguard in 2016.

Bill Frisell’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 35 years, expanding from small loft performances, including Roulette’s Tribeca location in the early 1980s, to international tours and large concert halls. His performance and recording collaborators include Paul Motian, John Zorn, Elvis Costello, Ginger Baker, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Suzanne Vega, Loudon Wainwright III, Van Dyke Parks, Vic Chesnutt, Rickie Lee Jones, Ron Sexsmith, Vinicius Cantuária, Marc Johnson, Ronald Shannon Jackson and Melvin Gibbs, Marianne Faithfull, John Scofield, Jan Garbarek, Lyle Mays, Vernon Reid, Julius Hemphill, Paul Bley, Wayne Horvitz, Hal Willner, Robin Holcomb, Rinde Eckert, The Frankfurt Ballet, Gus Van Sant, David Sanborn, David Sylvian, Petra Haden, Bono, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, and numerous others. Frisell has a long and rich history with ECM, making his debut on the label in 1983 with the critically acclaimed In Line. The guitarist’s history with the label also includes multiple recordings by his iconic cooperative trio with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano, culminating in Time and Time Again in 2007. His catalog has been cited by Downbeat as “the best recorded output of the decade,” and he was the recipient of an inaugural Doris Duke Artist grant in 2012.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: Michaël Attias brings together a nonet of master improvisers for an evening of boundary-pushing sonic exploration.
When: Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: https://roulette.org/event/michael-attias-nine/

Brooklyn, NY – Roulette is pleased to present the music of Nine, a seamless weave of free improvisation and notated scenarios, textures and grooves, dissolving soundscapes, spontaneous kaleidoscopes of instrumental recombination, the coiling and uncoiling of melody, rhythm, polyphony as prismatically refracted through the mirrored orchestration of two reeds, two brass, two strings, two percussions, and one piano. The evening is composed of nine moments — some heavily textured, others extremely sparse and thin, some intricately notated and rhythmically specific, others lightly sketched forms for floating improvisations. In response to the first performance of the group, poet Marjorie Welish wrote that it was “ a privilege to hear such musicianship enabling the mental life of sound!”

The nonet developed at Michaël Attias’s Stone Residency in August 2018. At its core, the group is the trio of John Hébert, Satoshi Takeishi, and Attias, which has performed and recorded three albums since 2003 under the name of Renku. The remaining members have all been drawn from Attias’s many groups and collaborations over the years. These players, among the most rhythmically advanced and inventive in the world, are also timbral wizards and passionately lyrical improvisers, painters in sound that fill the spaces of an ensemble with liquid light and color beyond any such closed terms as solo or ensemble playing.

NINE
Michaël Attias: alto saxophone
Tony Malaby: tenor and soprano saxophones
Ralph Alessi: trumpet
Ben Gerstein: trombone, electronics
Jacob Sacks: piano
Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello, electronics
John Hébert: bass
Satoshi Takeishi: percussion
Eric McPherson: drums