Violinist/multi-instrumentalist Laura Ortman returns to Roulette to present new material in collaboration with long-time collaborator, drummer Ryan Sawyer.
Laura Ortman amplified violin, vocals, windchimes, electric guitar Ryan Sawyer drums, percussion, vocals
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.
A member of the White Mountain Apache tribe, Laura Ortman is a musician and composer who creates across multiple platforms, including albums, live performance, field recordings, and video works. As a soloist, Ortman performs on amplified and Apache violin, vocals, piano, electric guitar, and keyboard.
In 2008, Ortman founded the Coast Orchestra, an all-indigenous orchestral ensemble. She has also collaborated with artists such as Tony Conrad, Jock Soto, Raven Chacon, Okkyung Lee, and Jeffrey Gibson. She has performed and presented work nationally and internationally at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2021); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2019); the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, Toronto, Canada (2017, 2011); Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada (2017); the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2009); and countless other established and DIY venues in the US, Canada and Western Europe. Ortman is the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants for Artists (2022); United States Artists Fellowship (2022); a Jerome Foundation, Jerome at Camargo Residency (2020); the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, National Artist Fellowship (2016); and a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency (2014).
Born in 1976 in San Antonio, Texas, Ryan Sawyer started playing drums at 11, learning his craft through an early exposure to not only rock and jazz but also the colloquial conjunto, zydeco, and punk rock musics of his home town. He moved to New York in 1997 to pursue his interest in improvised music.
Years of peerage in underground and jazz scenes with enormously high-grade collaborators has informed Ryan’s performance and arrangements, helping to shape the output of a supremely talented musician into a rare channel of vast textures, dynamics and moods formed from drumkit alone. Ryan has played alongside Marshall Allen, Boredoms, Thurston Moore, TV On The Radio, Charles Gayle, Nate Wooley, Rhys Chatham among countless others. He joined a fledgling At The Drive-In as a teenager and played on their debut LP Acrobatic Tenement. He also writes and performs for dance and other extra-disciplinary forms, including Anna Sperber’s acclaimed ballet Prize, performed in NYC in 2016. Currently he is in Gang Gang Dance.
Violinist/multi-instrumentalist Laura Ortman returns to Roulette to present new material in collaboration with long-time collaborator, drummer Ryan Sawyer.
Laura Ortman amplified violin, vocals, windchimes, electric guitar Ryan Sawyer drums, percussion, vocals
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.
A member of the White Mountain Apache tribe, Laura Ortman is a musician and composer who creates across multiple platforms, including albums, live performance, field recordings, and video works. As a soloist, Ortman performs on amplified and Apache violin, vocals, piano, electric guitar, and keyboard.
In 2008, Ortman founded the Coast Orchestra, an all-indigenous orchestral ensemble. She has also collaborated with artists such as Tony Conrad, Jock Soto, Raven Chacon, Okkyung Lee, and Jeffrey Gibson. She has performed and presented work nationally and internationally at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2021); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2019); the imagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival, Toronto, Canada (2017, 2011); Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada (2017); the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2009); and countless other established and DIY venues in the US, Canada and Western Europe. Ortman is the recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants for Artists (2022); United States Artists Fellowship (2022); a Jerome Foundation, Jerome at Camargo Residency (2020); the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, National Artist Fellowship (2016); and a Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency (2014).
Born in 1976 in San Antonio, Texas, Ryan Sawyer started playing drums at 11, learning his craft through an early exposure to not only rock and jazz but also the colloquial conjunto, zydeco, and punk rock musics of his home town. He moved to New York in 1997 to pursue his interest in improvised music.
Years of peerage in underground and jazz scenes with enormously high-grade collaborators has informed Ryan’s performance and arrangements, helping to shape the output of a supremely talented musician into a rare channel of vast textures, dynamics and moods formed from drumkit alone. Ryan has played alongside Marshall Allen, Boredoms, Thurston Moore, TV On The Radio, Charles Gayle, Nate Wooley, Rhys Chatham among countless others. He joined a fledgling At The Drive-In as a teenager and played on their debut LP Acrobatic Tenement. He also writes and performs for dance and other extra-disciplinary forms, including Anna Sperber’s acclaimed ballet Prize, performed in NYC in 2016. Currently he is in Gang Gang Dance.
