Mu Wi (natural action) is the latest project of composer Adam Rudolph and his Go: Organic Chamber Ensemble. This world premiere piece for the musicians in the ensemble feature guest soloists performing on traditional Korean and Japanese instruments. Using a non-linear score with his unique approach to rhythm as the seed material, Rudolph spontaneously conducts the musicians in concert creating spontaneous orchestrations which serve as both context and inspiration for the musicians improvisational dialogue
Go: Organic Chamber Ensemble composed and spontaneously conducted by Adam Rudolph featuring:
Kaoru Watanabe: shinobue, noh kan, fue (Japanese flutes), taiko, Japanese percussion
gamin: piri, taep yongso (Korean oboes), saenghwang (Korean mouth organ)
Ned Rothenberg: shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute), clarinet, bass clarinet
Sumie Kaneko: koto, shamisen, (Japanese zither and lute), vocal
Michel Gentile: C and alto flute, bamboo flutes
Ivan Barenboim: clarinet, bass clarinet, contra-alto clarinet
Sara Shoenbeck: bassoon
Stephanie Griffin: viola
Adam Rudolph: handrumset
Chieko Kojima: dance
Adam Rudolph is a composer, improviser, and percussionist actively involved in modern music. For the past four decades, Rudolph has performed extensively in concert throughout North & South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Rudolph has been hailed as “a pioneer in world music” by the New York Times and “a master percussionist” by Musician Magazine. He has released over 25 recordings under his own name, featuring his compositions and percussion work. Rudolph composes for his ensembles Adam Rudolph’s Moving Pictures, the Hu Vibrational percussion group, and Go: Organic Orchestra, an 18 to 54 piece ensemble for which he has developed an original music notation and conducting system. He has taught and conducted hundreds of musicians worldwide utilizing the Go: Organic Orchestra concept. In 1995 Rudolph premiered his opera The Dreamer, based on the text of Friedrich Nietzsche’s “The Birth of Tragedy.” Rudolph has performed with Don Cherry, Jon Hassell, Sam Rivers, Pharaoh Sanders, Shankarand Muhal Richard Abrams. He has toured extensively and recorded 15 albums with Yusef Lateef including duets and their large ensemble compositional collaborations.
gamin is one of the most notable wind instrumentalists of South Korea. gamin is a distinguished soloist who tours the world performing both traditional Korean music as well as cross-disciplinary collaborations. Her main instrument is the piri, a double reed instrument similar to the oboe.
Kaoru Watanabe is a Brooklyn based composer and musician, specializing in the Japanese percussion and shinobue flutes. He has spent decades artfully blending the sounds of Japanese instruments with those from around the world, collaborating with such artists as National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo, Jason Moran, So Percussion, Adam Rudolph, Kenny Endo, Stefon Harris, Kiyohiko Semba, Alicia Hall Moran, Tamango, calligrapher Kakinuma Koji, visual artist Simone Leigh, and director Martin Scorsese, and was a featured guest on Yo-Yo Ma’s Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home.
Ned Rothenberg (b. Boston, Massachusetts, September 15, 1956) is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer. He specializes in woodwind instruments, including the alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, and shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). He is particularly known for his work in new music and free improvisation, as well as for his work in expanding the vocabulary of sounds of his instruments through the use of extended techniques (for example, he has developed the ability to play chords on the saxophone). His compositions show influences from such diverse sources as contemporary classical music, jazz, rock, and world music.
