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Author: Rachel Lyngholm

Anti-Racism Resources

Roulette stands in solidarity with the protesters and our staff, artists, audiences, and community to denounce racism, white supremacy and complacency, and police brutality. We commit to serve, elevate, and amplify Black voices, work, and stories not only as a fundamental aspect of our ongoing mission but in this critical moment and beyond. We recognize the importance of Black voices in how they have shaped our history, and how they will shape our future.

To take immediate action to fight for Breonna Taylor, please visit FightForBreonna.org.

For centralized infomation and updates on protests in NYC follow @justiceforgeorgenyc on Instagram or visit justiceforgeorge.nyc/join.

Anti-Racism Resources
Anti-racism Guide

We encourage you to donate to these and other organizations doing important work during this time:

The Okra Project
Marsha P. Johnson Institute
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Campaign Zero
Donate to Bail Funds
Reclaim the Block
Black Visions Collective

Anti-Racism Resources

Updated July 16, 2020

Roulette stands in solidarity with the protesters and our staff, artists, audiences, and community to denounce racism, white supremacy and complacency, and police brutality. We commit to serve, elevate, and amplify Black voices, work, and stories not only as a fundamental aspect of our ongoing mission but in this critical moment and beyond. We recognize the importance of Black voices in how they have shaped our history, and how they will shape our future.

To take immediate action to fight for Breonna Taylor, please visit FightForBreonna.org.

For centralized infomation and updates on protests in NYC follow @justiceforgeorgenyc on Instagram or visit justiceforgeorge.nyc/join.

Anti-Racism Resources
Anti-racism Guide

We encourage you to donate to these and other organizations doing important work during this time:

The Okra Project
Marsha P. Johnson Institute
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Campaign Zero
Donate to Bail Funds
Reclaim the Block
Black Visions Collective

Highlight: Pulitzer-winning Roulette Artist Anthony Davis

Seth Colter Walls of The New York Times speaks to Pulitzer-winning artist Anthony Davis and reflects on his experience attending a Roulette performance of improvisations of Davis’s Pulitzer award-winning opera, The Central Park Five. The article contains a recording of the performance, which he describes: “it is a joy to hear in this performance at Roulette how blissfully unencumbered Davis sounds when readapting his own music.”

Anthony Davis, who won a Pulitzer Prize this month for his opera “The Central Park Five,” at Roulette in December 2018. Photo: Joe Carrotta for The New York Times

On May 4, when the composer and pianist Anthony Davis won a Pulitzer Prize for his opera “The Central Park Five,” I rejoiced, as a fan of his work. (The award should augur well for new productions, after lockdowns are lifted.) I also recalled a 2018 concert presented by the Interpretations series at Roulette in Brooklyn. Toward the end of that show, a quartet led by Davis improvised on material from his opera; speaking from the piano, Davis described the enduring influence of Charles Mingus, an artist whose presence could be keenly felt during what followed.

Earlier this month, I spoke with Davis on the phone. “I develop a lot of musical material, doing things for my small ensembles, or piano music,” he said. “I might incorporate it into an opera,” he added, saying that the reverse is true, as well: “I think it’s a philosophical thing for me. Sometimes musical themes have their own identity that travels from piece to piece. In a way they’re signifiers for the connection of the music to the past.”

That approach doesn’t just connect Davis’s operas to his other writing. It also connects “The Central Park Five” to Duke Ellington (particularly when the word “Harlem” enters the libretto). Before the Central Park Five are arrested, there is also a boisterous passage that skates close to Parliament’s “Give Up the Funk.” One aspect of the opera’s genius resides in the way Davis gradually curtails this initial breadth of musical reference, as liberty is curtailed for his characters. Though, outside the context of that narrative, it is a joy to hear in this performance at Roulette how blissfully unencumbered Davis sounds when readapting his own music.

This article appeared in The New York Times on May 14, 2020: Music, Theater and More to Experience at Home This Weekend

Roulette at Home

As we adapt to this challenging and unparalleled moment presented by COVID-19, our greatest priority is to keep everyone safe and healthy. As a result, Roulette has suspended its live programming for the time being. We hope to resume our Spring Season and welcome you back to our venue in mid-May (or as soon as officials and health experts advise that it is safe to gather). Read our official statement here.

In the meantime, we are excited to introduce Roulette at Home — a way for us to stay connected through special digital content in our newsletters and social media channels. We hope you will join us in the discovery and exploration of concert recordings, video, podcasts, Roulette TV, archival photographs, writing, and interviews from Roulette’s 40-year history delivered to you at a social distance.

We believe in the importance of art in difficult times and we remain committed to supporting and nourishing our artists and community. We will see you online, and hopefully in-person very soon.

Subscribe to our Mailing List to keep in touch!

COVID-19

Roulette has suspended its live programs

In an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and keep our artists, staff, and larger community safe and healthy, Roulette has suspended live programming for the time being. We hope to resume programming as soon as officials and health experts advise that it is safe to gather. 

We will continue to stay alert to information and guidelines offered by city, state, and federal officials, as well as the Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and we will update this space as any new developments affect our operational decisions. 

If you purchased tickets to a Roulette performance originally scheduled between March 13 and June 30, please contact us at boxoffice@roulette.org for an exchange or refund. Alternatively, if you are in a position to convert your ticket purchase into a tax-deductible donation or make a tax-deductible gift to Roulette, please know that your support would mean so much to us and the community of artists that we serve. 

We believe in the importance of art in difficult times and we remain committed to supporting and nourishing our artists and community. While live programming is suspended, we invite you to subscribe to Roulette’s newsletter for special digital content drawing on our archive, community news and resources, and the most up to date information on our programming.

We wish you all good health!

Resources:

Our 2020 Van Lier Fellows

Roulette is proud to present our 2020 Van Lier Fellows: composer and audio technologist Anastasia Clarke and composer, musician, and multidisciplinary artist Anjna Swaminathan.

A longtime partnership with the Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of the New York Community Trust has enabled Roulette to offer year-long fellowships to a number of outstanding young artists to create, rehearse, experiment, and investigate new directions in their craft. Past Roulette Van Lier Fellows include Matthew Welch, Matana Roberts, Tyshawn Sorey, Ha Yang Kim, Paula Matthusen, Darius Jones, Maria Chavez, Mary Halvorson, Brandon Lopez, and Kelly Moran.

Anastasia Clarke is a New York-based composer, performer, and audio technologist working in live embodied electronic music performance. Her sprawling custom instrument-interfaces and deliberately confusing sound performing systems make theatre out of human-instrument interaction; therapy out of earnest sound exploration; and jokes out of the impossibility of ever understanding exactly what is going on. In addition to custom electronics, monologues, movement, and the destruction and repurposing of sound-generating materials figure heavily into Anastasia’s whimsical sonic textures, guiding performers and audiences into complex plays of attention without any hand-holding.

Clarke’s work is performed in galleries, concert halls, DIY venues and unsuspecting community spaces across the United States. Clarke has also engaged audiences through speaking and pedagogy, most recently at Cycling ’74’s Expo ’74, NIME 2018, The School for Poetic Computation, and various colleges and universities.  Clarke earned an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College in 2018, and has received support for subsequent work and research from the Queens Arts Fund, EMS (Stockholm), CCRMA, and a 2020 Van Lier Fellowship at Roulette.

Anjna Swaminathan is a queer multidisciplinary artist, composer, violinist, vocalist, writer, theatre artist, educator, and dramaturg. As an artist with a passion for sociopolitical work, community building, and critical consciousness, Swaminathan’s artistic practice is an extension of her activist spirit. Informed by her rigorous training in the Carnatic and Hindustani music traditions of India, Anjna creates in New York’s vibrant creative music and improvisatory scene, in hybrid classical compositional work, and in her own multidisciplinary projects. Since 2018, Anjna has been under the compositional mentorship of Gabriela Lena Frank and continues her training in Hindustani music with Samarth Nagarkar. Swaminathan holds a BA in Theatre from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Make a Difference for Artists Like Mary Halvorson

Everything we present at Roulette is underscored by two questions: “What do you want to do, and how can we help?” To us, this question will always be fundamental for the healthy longevity of art and—most importantly—for the wonderful people who make and enjoy it.

One of these extraordinary artists, 2019 MacArthur Award Winner Mary Halvorson, shares just how broadly your support has strengthened the lives of so many, including her own:

I have been going to shows at Roulette since 1999, when it was located in Jim Staley’s loft in TriBeca. For these 20 years, Roulette has been going strong—supporting and encouraging creative and experimental artists in all stages of their careers.

Roulette was one of the first organizations to award me a commission in my twenties. This commission was hugely important to me and was the push I needed to form my longstanding quintet. Since then, Roulette has invited me to present diverse projects of my choosing, allowing me complete artistic freedom to experiment and explore.

I am also a member, and enjoy attending concerts. There is a real feeling that Roulette is 100% a platform for artists, run by artists. They always have terrific programming. Within any given season, it’s particularly exciting to see Roulette nurture and support emerging artists, alongside many of my musical heroes.

Roulette would be nothing without the people—like Mary, like you—who have come together in curiosity with us over the past 41 years. As long as we’re here, Roulette will never stop supporting artists, will never stop shining as a beacon for the underground, and will never stop needing the amazing community of people who make this work possible.

2019 MacArthur Genius Mary Halvorson is a guitarist, ensemble leader, and composer who is pushing against established musical categories with a singular sound on her instrument and an aesthetic that evolves with each new album and configuration of bandmates. She melds her jazz roots with elements of experimental rock, folk, and other musical traditions, reflecting a wide range of stylistic influences. One of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, over the past decade Halvorson has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot and John Zorn.

Spotlight On Brandon Lopez

On December 16 2019, bassist and composer Brandon Lopez presents sun burns out your eyes, a new work for trio and 4tet developed as part of his Roulette Residency and made possible with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.

Tell us about yourself and what you’re planning for Roulette.

I’m a bassist and composer and my work deals with improvisation. This coming December, I’ll present music for trio and quartet. The work, I think, will involve repetition and stasis and also none of it.

Who would be your ideal collaborator?

The ideal collaborator has little problem with frustration and the wrong choices being the right ones and the right ones needing a little shit on them.

What is influencing your work right now?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the intangible, the left hand path, and how to make a cat happy. Unsure how that cocktail is influencing me, but I need to stand up. The level of inebriation can only be seen then. Unsure if the legs work. Will see in December.

What is your first musical memory?

Swearing off the stuff after getting a D in 3rd grade music class. My recorder had melted next to the family’s wood stove, and I was too sheepish to ask my mother to order a new one. That was maybe the first time I muttered, “fuck music”—and by no means the last of the sentiment.

How would you describe the New York music scene?

The New York music scene seems, by the grace of god, a fertile valley. Have to admit, all these condos feel like watching the fast-motion bleaching of the great barrier reef that creates a sometimes overwhelming sense of dread.

Brandon Lopez: sun burns out your eyes takes place on Monday, December 16, 2019 at 8pm with performers: drummer Gerald Cleaver, electronicist Cecilia Lopez, and saxophonist Steve Baczkowski.

The New Yorker —Roulette: A Steadfast Bastion of Experimental Music

Illustration by Molly Snee

In the course of Roulette’s evolution, from its humble beginnings in a Tribeca loft, in 1978, to its present home in Brooklyn, the venue has become one of New York City’s most steadfast bastions of experimental music; there’s so much going on this week that you scarcely need to look elsewhere for aural intrigue or edification. On Dec. 5, the excellent Momenta Quartet collaborates with the composers Elizabeth Brown and Frances White in pieces that draw on Japanese folk music, Persian poetry, and a W. G. Sebald novel. The following night celebrates Sylvano Bussotti, a trailblazing Italian avant-garde composer and queer activist; Gamelan Kusuma Laras, a group that specializes in courtly Javanese repertoire, performs on Saturday. On Dec. 9, the Anagram Ensemble introduces “I Looked at the Eclipse,” a new opera by James Ilgenfritz and Sarah Krasnow which incorporates improvisation and video, and, on Dec. 10, Judith Berkson, a distinctive composer, vocalist, and cantor, presents new music with the protean ensemble Ordinary Affects.

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This article originally appeared in The New Yorker, December 2019

Matana Roberts — “I’m traveling the world, doing my work because of Roulette.”

Artists are thought leaders and culture producers who challenge us to think, talk, and engage with one another in openness and curiosity. Yet they and their work remain fundamentally undervalued and underfunded in the very society they so strongly enrich. Put simply: artists can’t thrive without committed organizations on their side, and Roulette can’t thrive without caring individuals like you on ours.

Roulette had the privilege of commissioning the extraordinary Matana Roberts when she first moved to NYC in 2007, and for many iterations since. Matana recently shared onstage how much that initial support meant at a time when she needed it most:

I get a phone call from Artistic Director Jim Staley, and I might be paraphrasing but I think he said, “Would you like some money?” I’ll never forget it, I was like, “YES. I would like some money! What am I supposed to do with it?” And he said, “Anything you want to do.” From that initial commission, I was able to create the work that I’m still working diligently on: COIN COIN.

I cannot impress upon you enough that I have a career because of Roulette. I’m eating regularly because of Roulette. I’m traveling the world, doing my work because of Roulette.

The thousands of artists Roulette welcomes to its stage each year, like Matana, deserve serious, lucrative opportunities to get started, and just as many opportunities to keep going. Your support makes this all possible—and it makes all the difference.

Matana Roberts is an internationally recognized, Chicago-born saxophonist and multidisciplinary sound conceptualist working in various mediums of performance inquiry. She is well-known for her acclaimed Coin Coin project, a multi-chapter work of “panoramic sound quilting” that aims to expose the mystical roots and channel the intuitive spirit-raising traditions of American creative expression.

 

Roberts celebrated the record release of Coin Coin Chapter IV: Memphis at Roulette on November 17, 2019.