Despite being one of the most radical and revolutionary 20th century European avant-garde composers, Mauricio Kagel’s music has remained relatively obscure, especially here in the US. In an attempt to change this, two musicians from New York City have spent the last 3 years researching Kagel’s massive body of work, seeking out rare scores, recordings, and videos of his bizarre, often hysterically theatrical compositions. The result is the performance-event known as Kagel Nacht. Joining them will be a stacked deck of musicians from Brooklyn’s artistic multiverse, performers deeply situated in the theater, performance art, classical, and experimental music worlds. They will be performing a very diverse selection from Kagel’s grand oeuvre, including “classical” works (Music For Rennaissance Instruments), electro-acoustic compositions (Acustica), multi-media pieces (Schattenklänge), radio plays (Der Tribun), and some of his most daring and hilarious works of “instrumental theater” (Staatstheater, Con Voce). With interpretations ranging from strict to fully recontextualized, Kagel Nacht breathes new life into these important and underperformed works by joining them into one, multi-stage, panoramic, evening-length event that brings a new meaning to “musical theater.” Review from the first performance of Kagel Nacht described it as “simply impressively spectacular” (DuYun, ICE composer), the “best evening [of new music] in New York…in a long time” (Daria Fain, choreographer), and as “bewunderswerte” (Beth Griffith, vocalist/collaborator of Kagel).

Kagel Nacht will feature the musical and theatrical artistry of:

* Rick Burkhardt – orator, accordion
* Stephe Cooper – producer, glockenspiel
* Roberta Michel – flute
* Jordan Mclean – trumpet, conductor, arranger
* Geoff Nosach – lighting, set design
* Sam Kulik – trombone
* Dennis Sullivan – percussion
* Sam Sowyrda – producer, conductor, percussion