Cecilia Lopez is a 2019 resident artist.
Fusing architecture, installation, and performance, Argentinian composer, musician, and media artist Cecilia Lopez closes her Roulette residency creating a living acoustic environment that uses the unique architecture of Roulette’s theater. In RED two large woven wire nets hung from Roulette’s ceiling hold instruments to create a complex feedback organism that reflects and refracts the space into a mesmerizing audio experience. The suspended drums and double bass act as resonant bodies intensified by the instruments simultaneously played in the space by percussionist Gerald Cleaver and bassist Brandon Lopez.
The exploration of sonic feedback and resonant objects is a throughline of Lopez’s current body of work which explores perception and transmission processes focusing on the relationship between sound technologies and listening practices. In her year-long Roulette residency, Lopez has developed a series of sound devices and systems at the intersection performance, sound, and installation, culminating in RED where she in invites listeners and performers to become one with the sonic effects occupying the space.
Cecilia Lopez is a composer, musician and multimedia artist from Buenos Aires, Argentina currently based in New York. Lopez studied composition with Carmen Baliero and Gustavo Ribicic. She holds an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College and an MA from Wesleyan University in composition (2016). Her work has been performed and exhibited at Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires (AR), Center for Contemporary Arts (Vilnius, Lithuania), Festival Internacional Tsonami de Buenos Aires (Argentina), Roulette Intermedium, Issue Project Room, Floating Points Festival, Ostrava Days Festival 2011 (Ostrava, Czech Republic), MATA Festival 2012 (NY), Experimental Intermedia (NY), Fridman Galley (NY), Kunstnernes Hus (Oslo, Norway) and Ende Tymes Festival (NY), Festival Punto de Encuentro organized by the Asociación de Música Electroacústica de España (Spain), and the XIV Cuenca Biennial, among others. She was a Civitella Ranieri fellow in 2015 and has participated in various residency programs such as Atlantic Center for the Arts, Ostrava Days Institute, Harvestworks, and Rupert Residency. She has collaborated in projects with Carmen Baliero, Carrie Schneider and others.
Born May 4, 1963 and raised in Detroit, Gerald Cleaver is a product of the city’s rich music tradition. Inspired by his father, drummer John Cleaver, he began playing the drums at an early age. He also played violin in elementary school, and trumpet in junior high school and high school. As a teenager he gained invaluable experience playing with Detroit jazz masters Ali Muhammad Jackson, Lamont Hamilton, Earl Van Riper, and Pancho Hagood. While attending the University of Michigan as a music education major, he was awarded a Jazz Study Grant, from the National Endowment for the Arts, to study with drummer Victor Lewis. He graduated in 1992 and began teaching in Detroit where he worked with Rodney Whitaker, A. Spencer Barefield, Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, Wendell Harrison, and with visiting musicians Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Kenny Burrell, Frank Foster, Cecil Bridgewater, Ray Bryant, Eddie Harris, Dennis Rowland, Howard Johnson, Diana Krall and Don Byron. In 1995 he accepted an appointment as assistant professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Michigan, and in 1998 also joined the jazz faculty at Michigan State University. He moved to New York in 2002. He has performed or recorded with Franck Amsallem, Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, Lotte Anker, Reggie Workman, Marilyn Crispell, Matt Shipp, William Parker, Craig Taborn, Kevin Mahogany, Charles Gayle, Mario Pavone, Ralph Alessi, Jacky Terrasson, Jimmy Scott, Muhal Richard Abrams, Dave Douglas, Tim Berne, Jeremy Pelt, Ellery Eskelin, David Torn and Miroslav Vitous, among others. Cleaver has released two recordings as a leader. His 2001 recording Adjust (Fresh Sound New Talent) was nominated in the Best Debut Recording category by the Jazz Journalists Association. His latest release, Gerald Cleaver’s Detroit (FSNT), is an homage to his hometown and to the late, great Detroit drummers Roy Brooks, Lawrence Williams, George Goldsmith and Richard “Pistol” Allen. Cleaver leads the bands Violet Hour, NiMbNl and Uncle June.
Brandon Lopez (B. 1988) is a musician who deals with the left of center musics. His work has been praised as “brutal” and “relentless”. He’s worked beside many of experimental music’s luminaries; Jooklo Trio, Nate Wooley, Sun Ra Arkestra, Ashley Fure, Okkyung Lee, Gerald Cleaver, Ingrid Laubrock, Tony Malaby, Tyshawn Sorey, Bill Nace, Steve Baczkwoski, Chris Corsano, and many others. He was the 2018 Artist in Residence at Issue Project Room and a Van Lier Fellow at Roulette Intermedium. In September 2018, he was featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic.
This performance is made possible, in part, by the Jerome Foundation. The Jerome Foundation, a long-time supporter of young composers, was a mainstay in Roulette’s early development and continues to help us fulfill our mission by presenting ambitious work by promising artists. Each year, the Jerome Foundation supports five artist residencies and four commissions at Roulette.
Photo: Juliana Paciulli
