Composer/pianist Eric Wubbels presents two new collaborations with an all-star lineup of musicians from across the worlds of new music, free improvisation, and noise.
Beings (I.X.) gathers together five unique voices in contemporary brass playing – Nate Wooley, Forbes Graham, David Byrd-Marrow, Weston Olencki, and Dan Peck – drawing on their particular virtuosity with microtonality, extended techniques, timbre, and improvisation. Wubbels is joined by vocalist Charmaine Lee for the first public performance of a collaborative duo project that they have developed together since 2018, working to find shared spaces and meeting points between composition and improvisation, freedom and form in their individual creative practices. Tonight’s concert also celebrates the release of Field of Action / contraposition, a new album featuring duos by Wubbels with Charmaine Lee and Weston Olencki, on Out of Your Head Records.
1st Set: Charmaine Lee / Eric Wubbels Duo
Charmaine Lee, voice/electronics
Eric Wubbels, piano/analog synth
2nd Set: Beings (I.X.)
Nate Wooley, trumpet
Forbes Graham, trumpet
David Byrd-Marrow, horn
Weston Olencki, trombone
Dan Peck, tuba
Eric Wubbels, piano/analog synth
Eric Wubbels (b.1980) is a composer and performer. Since 2004 he has been pianist and Co-Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble (NYC), and he performs regularly in projects with Mariel Roberts and Josh Modney, Weston Olencki, and Charmaine Lee, among others. His music has been presented by LA Phil Green Umbrella series, Huddersfield Festival, ISSUE Project Room, Roulette, Bowerbird, Chicago Symphony MusicNOW, New York Philharmonic CONTACT, Contempuls (Prague), reMusik (St. Petersburg, RU) and Zurich Tage für Neue Musik, among others. Wubbels has been awarded grants and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NYFA, NYSCA, Fromm Foundation, Chamber Music America, ISSUE Project Room, MATA Festival, Barlow Endowment, Jerome Foundation, and Yvar Mikhashoff Trust, and residencies at the MacDowell Colony (’11, ’16, ’20), Copland House, L’Abri (Geneva), Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Civitella Ranieri Center (Italy).He has recorded for hatART, Carrier Records, Out of Your Head, Intakt, New Focus, and quiet design, among others, and has held teaching positions at Amherst College and Oberlin Conservatory.
Charmaine Lee (b. 1991) is a New York-based vocalist from Sydney, Australia. Her music is predominantly improvised, favoring a uniquely personal approach to vocal expression concerned with spontaneity, playfulness, and risk-taking. Beyond extended vocal technique, Charmaine uses amplification, feedback, and microphones to augment and distort the voice. She has performed with leading improvisers id m theft able, Ikue Mori, Sam Pluta, Tyshawn Sorey, Nate Wooley, and C. Spencer Yeh, and maintains ongoing collaborations with Conrad Tao, Victoria Shen, Zach Rowden, and Eric Wubbels. Charmaine has performed at ISSUE Project Room, the Kitchen, Roulette, The Poetry Project, and MoMA PS1, and participated in festivals including Resonant Bodies, Huddersfield Contemporary, and Ende Tymes. She has been featured in group exhibitions including The Moon Represents My Heart: Music, Memory and Belonging at the Museum of Chinese in America (2019). As a composer, Charmaine has been commissioned by the Wet Ink Ensemble (2018) and Spektral Quartet (2018). In 2019, she was an Artist-in-Residence at ISSUE Project Room, and is a current 2021 Van Lier Fellow at Roulette. Charmaine is currently a member of the Editorial Board of Sound American.
