Composer and pianist Wayne Horvitz presents an evening with two of his ensembles, Collective Music Ensemble and Electric Circus, both incorporating his friend and mentor Butch Morris’s technique “Conduction®.” This event follows Horvitz’s workshop on “Conduction®” on April 15th.
Collective Music Ensemble is the New York City version of The Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, Horvitz’ regular Monday night band based in Seattle for over a decade. Using arrangements of Horvitz’s compositions for large ensemble, the charts are also constructed to reinvent and rearrange the music via conduction®.
Electric Circus takes minimal motifs from soul, funk, rock and groove classics from 60’s, 70’s and beyond, including riffs from Sly Stone, Sister Sledge, Los Lobos, The Meters, Captain Beefheart, Sun Ra, The Bangles, Electric Miles, James Brown, The Grateful Dead and more. Each piece is a conducted improvisation. The chart for each event is 10 motifs, some or all of which may or may not be played.
Electric Circus also originated at The Royal Room in Seattle, and has recently been presented with local musicians at Porgy and Bess (Vienna), Angel City Jazz (LA) and The Vancouver Folk Festival. The band features luminaries of New York’s improvised music scene, many of whom worked with Butch Morris.
Shara Lunon voice
Mazz Swift violin Riley Mulherkar trumpet Ivan Arteaga alto sax Ingrid Laubrock tenor sax Sara Schoenbeck bassoon Terry Greene II trombone Michael Coleman keyboard Wendy Eisenberg guitar Brandon Ross guitar Tony Scherr acoustic bass Jerome Harris electric bass Elizabeth Pupo Walkerpercussion
Kenny Wolleson drums
“there’s nobody else out there I hear even attempting to cover some kind of similar range, and do it so convincingly” —All About Jazz
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.
Recipient of the 2019 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, composer Wayne Horvitz performs extensively throughout Europe, Japan, and North America. In addition to creating work for his own ensembles, he has created new work for The Kitchen, BAM, Seattle Symphony, Berlin Jazz, Nocco, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Centrum, and ACT among others. He has received awards from Doris Duke, MAP, McKnight Foundation, the NEA, Meet the Composer, and The Shifting Foundation, among others.
Horvitz’s narrative works include pieces centered around the life of Joe Hill, the story of the Everett Massacre, and the poems of Richard Hugo. His installation work has been presented at Ft. Worden, Seattle Asian Art Museum and Arizona State Museum of Art. He is the recipient of the 2016 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
Recent works include a collaboration with the Seattle Opera and the Seattle Modern Orchestra. “188 Sullivan: Charlie Parker’s New York in the ’50s” was premiered by Horvitz with the SMO conducted by Julia Tai, imagining the meeting of Charlie Parker and composer Edgar Varese in a piece that included notated passages, improvising soloists, and interstitial passages of “conduction®”, directed by the composer.
During Covid, Horvitz focused on archival projects, published a book of compositions for intermediate pianists entitled Little Pieces for the Piano, and created a new ensemble and EP with vocalist Ayesha Brooks and cellist Ha-Yang Kim. He is currently the program director and principal curator for What’s Going On?, a creative music festival that premiered in October 2024. The debut festival focused on the creative legacies of Julius Hemphill, Sun Ra, and Butch Morris.
Horvitz’s past collaborators include Robin Holcomb, Bill Frisell, Reggie Watts, Butch Morris, Alex Guy, Ikue Mori, George Lewis, Steve Swallow, Tucker Martine, Yukio Suzuki, Billy Bang, Carla Bley, Eyvind Kang, John Zorn (Naked City etc.), Bill Irwin, Gus Van Sant, Paul Taylor, Beth Fleenor, Rinde Eckert, Yohei Saito, Barbara Earl Thomas, David Moss, Carey Perloff, Paul Taylor, Dayna Hanson, and Gus Van Sant. He has produced recordings for the World Saxophone Quartet, Butch Morris, Human Feel, Fontella Bass, Marty Ehrlich, John Adams, Bill Frisell, Robin Holcomb, and Eddie Palmieri.
Composer and pianist Wayne Horvitz presents an evening with two of his ensembles, Collective Music Ensemble and Electric Circus, both incorporating his friend and mentor Butch Morris’s technique “Conduction®.” This event follows Horvitz’s workshop on “Conduction®” on April 15th.
Collective Music Ensemble is the New York City version of The Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble, Horvitz’ regular Monday night band based in Seattle for over a decade. Using arrangements of Horvitz’s compositions for large ensemble, the charts are also constructed to reinvent and rearrange the music via conduction®.
Electric Circus takes minimal motifs from soul, funk, rock and groove classics from 60’s, 70’s and beyond, including riffs from Sly Stone, Sister Sledge, Los Lobos, The Meters, Captain Beefheart, Sun Ra, The Bangles, Electric Miles, James Brown, The Grateful Dead and more. Each piece is a conducted improvisation. The chart for each event is 10 motifs, some or all of which may or may not be played.
Electric Circus also originated at The Royal Room in Seattle, and has recently been presented with local musicians at Porgy and Bess (Vienna), Angel City Jazz (LA) and The Vancouver Folk Festival. The band features luminaries of New York’s improvised music scene, many of whom worked with Butch Morris.
Shara Lunon voice
Mazz Swift violin Riley Mulherkar trumpet Ivan Arteaga alto sax Ingrid Laubrock tenor sax Sara Schoenbeck bassoon Terry Greene II trombone Michael Coleman keyboard Wendy Eisenberg guitar Brandon Ross guitar Tony Scherr acoustic bass Jerome Harris electric bass Elizabeth Pupo Walkerpercussion
Kenny Wolleson drums
“there’s nobody else out there I hear even attempting to cover some kind of similar range, and do it so convincingly” —All About Jazz
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.
Recipient of the 2019 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, composer Wayne Horvitz performs extensively throughout Europe, Japan, and North America. In addition to creating work for his own ensembles, he has created new work for The Kitchen, BAM, Seattle Symphony, Berlin Jazz, Nocco, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Centrum, and ACT among others. He has received awards from Doris Duke, MAP, McKnight Foundation, the NEA, Meet the Composer, and The Shifting Foundation, among others.
Horvitz’s narrative works include pieces centered around the life of Joe Hill, the story of the Everett Massacre, and the poems of Richard Hugo. His installation work has been presented at Ft. Worden, Seattle Asian Art Museum and Arizona State Museum of Art. He is the recipient of the 2016 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.
Recent works include a collaboration with the Seattle Opera and the Seattle Modern Orchestra. “188 Sullivan: Charlie Parker’s New York in the ’50s” was premiered by Horvitz with the SMO conducted by Julia Tai, imagining the meeting of Charlie Parker and composer Edgar Varese in a piece that included notated passages, improvising soloists, and interstitial passages of “conduction®”, directed by the composer.
During Covid, Horvitz focused on archival projects, published a book of compositions for intermediate pianists entitled Little Pieces for the Piano, and created a new ensemble and EP with vocalist Ayesha Brooks and cellist Ha-Yang Kim. He is currently the program director and principal curator for What’s Going On?, a creative music festival that premiered in October 2024. The debut festival focused on the creative legacies of Julius Hemphill, Sun Ra, and Butch Morris.
Horvitz’s past collaborators include Robin Holcomb, Bill Frisell, Reggie Watts, Butch Morris, Alex Guy, Ikue Mori, George Lewis, Steve Swallow, Tucker Martine, Yukio Suzuki, Billy Bang, Carla Bley, Eyvind Kang, John Zorn (Naked City etc.), Bill Irwin, Gus Van Sant, Paul Taylor, Beth Fleenor, Rinde Eckert, Yohei Saito, Barbara Earl Thomas, David Moss, Carey Perloff, Paul Taylor, Dayna Hanson, and Gus Van Sant. He has produced recordings for the World Saxophone Quartet, Butch Morris, Human Feel, Fontella Bass, Marty Ehrlich, John Adams, Bill Frisell, Robin Holcomb, and Eddie Palmieri.
