Category: Blogcast

Zeena Parkins and Green Dome

What: Avant-harpist Zeena Parkins performs a new solo set, followed by a performance with her band, Green Dome.
When: Wednesday, November 9, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door

Brooklyn, NY – Avant-harpist Zeena Parkins performs The Captiva Pieces, a solo set of new works for acoustic harp developed for In Tow, a collaborative project with choreographer Jennifer Monson, and created at the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva Island, Florida. The performance will be followed by Zeena's band Green Dome (members Ryan Ross Smith and Ryan Sawyer), who will be performing movements from LACE, an ongoing project that uses pieces of lace and knitting patterns as scores.

About Zeena Parkins:

Zeena Parkins is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser and pioneer of contemporary harp practice and performance. She has extended the language of both acoustic harp and an evolution of her original electric ones, through the inventive use of expanded playing techniques, preparations, and custom designed electronic processing. Performances and recordings include: Bjork, Ikue Mori, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Christian Marclay, Elliott Sharp, Maja Ratkje, Nate Wooley, Okkyung Lee, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Matmos, Yoko Ono and Yasunao Tone.

About Ryan Ross Smith:

New York-based composer and performer Ryan Ross Smith has performed as a pianist and electronicist throughout the US, Europe and UK, including performances at MoMA, MoMA PS1, LaMaMa, and Le Centre Pompidou. Smith has presented his work on animated music notation at conferences including NIME, Tenor2015, ICLI, ISEA and the Deep Listening Conference, and has lectured widely at colleges and universities.

About Ryan Sawyer:

San Antonio-born drummer Ryan Sawyer honed his craft through academic orchestra and marching band and was quick to find the colloquial conjunto, zydeco, and punk rock music of his hometown equally inspiring and freeing. Ryan plays and records with an ever-growing group of improvisers and bands: Oso Blanco (members Colin Stetson, Nate Wooley, C. Spencer Yeh), Boredoms, Cass McCombs, Thurston Moore, Matana Roberts, and Rhys Chatham, among others.

New Roulette TV: KEELY GARFIELD // POW

Roulette TV sits down and talks with Keely Garfield about such things as her artistic practice, the power of dance to allow the artist to be fully present in a moment, and the relationship of Frankenstein to the development of POW.

Keely Garfield’s personal and professional engagement in the world at large is the heart of all of her creative work. Alongside her choreographies for her acclaimed company, Keely Garfield Dance, the British-born choreographer, dancer, teacher, and curator has created work for ballet dancers at the Dance Theatre of Harlem, directed the movements of antique puppets for The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre’s production of Golem, and choreographed musical theater productions including Gypsy (Sundance Theatre, Utah), Carnival (New Jersey Shakespeare Festival), and Yeast Nation, The Triumph of Life! (Perseverance Theater, Alaska). Keely has made dances for students (Barnard, Hunter, The New School etc), children (DTW’s Family Matters, Lincoln Center’s Reel to Real etc), and MTV (Adam Ant, Herbie Hancock). Keely holds an MFA from UWM, and is engaged as a visiting professor of dance in many university departments. Additionally, Keely is an E-RYT 500 yoga teacher, a Donna Karan/ Urban Zen Integrative Therapist working in oncology and hospice.

Produced by
Jim Staley

Directed by
Wolfgang Daniel

Photographed by
Wolfgang Daniel
Sonia Li

Optics 0:0 Encoder/Decoder

What: The inaugural Optics 0:0 multimedia festival directed by Victoria Keddie looks into the modalities of creation, production, and performance involving video-based technologies.
When: Thursday, November 4, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors $50 Festival Pass
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door, $50 Festival Pass

Brooklyn, NY – Following in Roulette’s strong tradition of promoting video content in collaboration with performing arts, Roulette is pleased to present the inaugural Optics 0:0 multimedia festival directed by sound, video, and transmission artist Victoria Keddie. The three night festival — taking place November 2+3+4, 2016 — looks into the modalities of creation, production, and performance involving video-based technologies. The festival looks to continue a trajectory in the exploration of process, with three curated events featuring live performances, new premieres, and historical works by: Alex Bag, Tom Rubnitz featuring Ann Magnusson, Brenna Murphy, Richard Serra, Rose Kallal, Kenny Curwood, Ben Vida, Jeff DeGolier, Jeremy Couillard, Sabrina Ratté, Roger Tellier Craig, Sara Ludy, peter burr, Xeno & Oaklander, Scott Kiernan, Michael Robinson, Jennifer Juniper Stratford, Elena Romenkova, Takeshi Murata, Damon Zucconi, Sydney Shen, Laurel Schwulst, Erica Magrey, Georgia, Data Garden, Camilla Padgitt-Coles, LoVid Hinkis-Lapidus, MV Carbon, and Lauryn S. Siegel. An ongoing lobby installation by plant-based record label Data Garden with Camilla Padgitt-Coles and LoVid Hinkis-Lapidus and special nightly videos by Brenna Murphy will round out the festival.

The final evening, Encoder/Decoder, will explore creative and systematic investigation of the signal as medium. Through works in both sound and vision, the program focuses on the use of algorithm, sonic to visual translation, and rule-based structures. A program of live performances place process foremost in the compositions. Performing artists include Rose Kallal, Kenneth Zoran Curwood, Ben Vida, and Jeff DeGolier with video by Damon Zucconi, Laurel Schwulst, and Sydney Shen.

Victoria Keddie is an artist working in sound, video, and transmission. Her focus involves analog signal generation and manipulation, the performing body, and relationships of space. For five years, she has been Co-Director of E.S.P. TV, a nomadic TV studio that hybridizes technologies to realize synthetic environments and deconstruct the televisual for live performance. In early 2016, Keddie launched UNIT 11, a mobile transmission based residency operated within and involving an ENG news van. Site specific field work involves concentrated energy fields, fluctuating electronic activity, geographical discontinuity, and time sensitivity.

Optics 0:0 TV EYE

What: The inaugural Optics 0:0 multimedia festival directed by Victoria Keddie looks into the modalities of creation, production, and performance involving video-based technologies.
When: Thursday, November 3, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors $50 Festival Pass
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door, $50 Festival Pass

Brooklyn, NY – Following in Roulette’s strong tradition of promoting video content in collaboration with performing arts, Roulette is pleased to present the inaugural Optics 0:0 multimedia festival directed by sound, video, and transmission artist Victoria Keddie. The three night festival — taking place November 2+3+4, 2016 — looks into the modalities of creation, production, and performance involving video-based technologies. The festival looks to continue a trajectory in the exploration of process, with three curated events featuring live performances, new premieres, and historical works by: Alex Bag, Tom Rubnitz featuring Ann Magnusson, Brenna Murphy, Richard Serra, Rose Kallal, Kenny Curwood, Ben Vida, Jeff DeGolier, Jeremy Couillard, Sabrina Ratté, Roger Tellier Craig, Sara Ludy, peter burr, Xeno & Oaklander, Scott Kiernan, Michael Robinson, Jennifer Juniper Stratford, Elena Romenkova, Takeshi Murata, Damon Zucconi, Sydney Shen, Laurel Schwulst, Erica Magrey, Georgia, Data Garden, Camilla Padgitt-Coles, LoVid Hinkis-Lapidus, MV Carbon, and Lauryn S. Siegel. An ongoing lobby installation by plant-based record label Data Garden with Camilla Padgitt-Coles and LoVid Hinkis-Lapidus and special nightly videos by Brenna Murphy will round out the festival.

The second night of the festival, TV EYE, will focus on artists using the medium of broadcast in their work. An exploration of the variables that make up the televisual as well as the shifting visual language present within the medium, performances will consider audience / live audience involvement, studio set, framing the video, serials, and timing. The program will feature performing artists Scott Kiernan with Xeno & Oaklander, followed by screenings from Michael Robinson, JJ Stratford, Alex Bag, Tom Rubnitz featuring Ann Magnusson, Erica Magrey, and Richard Serra.

Victoria Keddie is an artist working in sound, video, and transmission. Her focus involves analog signal generation and manipulation, the performing body, and relationships of space. For five years, she has been Co-Director of E.S.P. TV, a nomadic TV studio that hybridizes technologies to realize synthetic environments and deconstruct the televisual for live performance. In early 2016, Keddie launched UNIT 11, a mobile transmission based residency operated within and involving an ENG news van. Site specific field work involves concentrated energy fields, fluctuating electronic activity, geographical discontinuity, and time sensitivity.

Optics 0:0 Parallax View

What: The inaugural Optics 0:0 multimedia festival directed by Victoria Keddie looks into the modalities of creation, production, and performance involving video-based technologies.
When: Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors $50 Festival Pass
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door, $50 Festival Pass

Brooklyn, NY – Following in Roulette’s strong tradition of promoting video content in collaboration with performing arts, Roulette is pleased to present the inaugural Optics 0:0 multimedia festival directed by sound, video, and transmission artist Victoria Keddie. The three night festival — taking place November 2+3+4, 2016 — looks into the modalities of creation, production, and performance involving video-based technologies. The festival looks to continue a trajectory in the exploration of process, with three curated events featuring live performances, new premieres, and historical works by: Alex Bag, Tom Rubnitz featuring Ann Magnusson, Brenna Murphy, Richard Serra, Rose Kallal, Kenny Curwood, Ben Vida, Jeff DeGolier, Jeremy Couillard, Sabrina Ratté, Roger Tellier Craig, Sara Ludy, peter burr, Xeno & Oaklander, Scott Kiernan, Michael Robinson, Jennifer Juniper Stratford, Elena Romenkova, Takeshi Murata, Damon Zucconi, Sydney Shen, Laurel Schwulst, Erica Magrey, Georgia, Data Garden, Camilla Padgitt-Coles, LoVid, MV Carbon, and Lauryn S. Siegel. An ongoing lobby installation by plant-based record label Data Garden with Camilla Padgitt-Coles and LoVid and special nightly videos by Brenna Murphy will round out the festival.

The first night of the festival, Parallax View, will feature artists exploring ways of seeing and new worlds through video-based technologies. The evening will serve as an investigation of imagined and real spaces, VR, rendering architecture, and objects both real and fantastical. Performing artists include virtual reality artist Jeremy Couillard and New York-based electronic duo Georgia. The program will also feature screenings of new works from artists Sara Ludy, Peter Burr, Elena Romenkova, Takeshi Murata, Brenna Murphy, Sabrina Ratté, and Roger Tellier Craig.

Victoria Keddie is an artist working in sound, video, and transmission. Her focus involves analog signal generation and manipulation, the performing body, and relationships of space. For five years, she has been Co-Director of E.S.P. TV, a nomadic TV studio that hybridizes technologies to realize synthetic environments and deconstruct the televisual for live performance. In early 2016, Keddie launched UNIT 11, a mobile transmission based residency operated within and involving an ENG news van. Site specific field work involves concentrated energy fields, fluctuating electronic activity, geographical discontinuity, and time sensitivity.

New Roulette TV: ROBIN HOLCOMB // Solo

Roulette TV sits down and has a discussion with Robin Holcomb about her solo performance at Roulette, her history with New York, and her lyrical process.

Pianist/vocalist/composer Robin Holcomb has performed internationally as a solo artist and the leader of various ensembles. Following Sundanese gamelan performance studies at UC Santa Cruz and several years spent sharecropping tobacco in North Carolina, she was active in New York for many years as a composer and performer with deep roots in the downtown avant-garde as one of the original Studio Henry mavericks. She has recorded her music for Songlines, Tzadik, Nonesuch and New World records. Currently living in Seattle, she composes and performs music for ensembles of all sizes, theatre, film and dance productions as well as several major song cycles including We Are All Failing Them, a sidewise regard of the Donner Party for film and magic objects, The Utopia Project concerned with utopian societies in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1800s and O, Say a Sunset reflecting the life and work of environmentalist Rachel Carson. She is a founder of the New York Composers Orchestra and now is a co-director of the Washington Composers Orchestra (WACO). She is currently recording with cellist Peggy Lee, a long-time collaborator.

Produced By
Jim Staley

Directed by
Wolfgang Daniel

Dame Electric: Dorit Chrysler

By Mia Wendel-DiLallo

dorit_chrysler2

Organizer of the September 14, 2016 Dame Electric festival, Dorit Chrysler is perhaps best known as a virtuoso theremin player (or “theremin goddess,” if you will.) She has placed a spotlight on the often-sidelined instrument in her own mesmerizing performances, and through the projects she helms such as the New York Theremin Society and KidCoolThereminSchool. In honor of her one-day festival, Roulette had the pleasure of asking Dorit about her history in the musical world, how she happened upon the forlorn theremin, and what led her to the empowering line-up of Dame Electric.

MWD: What is the motivation behind the Dame Electric festival?

DC: I wanted to see strong, hands-on females operating analog synthesizer machines and producing their own original sounds on stage. Not surprisingly, there are many women represented in the field of analog synthesis, but they are not featured and celebrated often enough. Headliner and pioneer legend Suzanne Ciani’s story is a good example of her struggle in a male dominated field, and to this day not enough women are building their own hardware such as Antenes.

I saw Suzanne Ciani perform at Namm Fair two years ago. The day featured a list of several performers, but Suzanne stood out like a gleaming light, connecting with the Diodes in such a personal, unassuming, professional, and extraordinary musical way. Her performance and craft inspired the idea for “Dame Electric” and we are so thrilled to bring her to New York and to have her headline the festival at Roulette. It turns out, she has not performed a solo concert on her Buchla here since 1975! Congruently, Suzanne has a documentary coming out about her life — a fascinating story about what it is like to be a woman in this new field of a male-dominated analog and synth world. As part of the Dame Electric festival, there will also be a short preview of the upcoming film, to be screened at the Austrian Cultural Forum on Tuesday, September 13th.

Antenes and Electric Indigo will collaborate for the first time together, opening for Suzanne Ciani at Dame Electric. Antenes (Lori Napoleon), builds her own synthesizers inspired by outmoded technologies, including using old patch telephones in her work. Electric indigo is an Austrian performer working with granular synthesis. She has founded an internationally growing network called female:pressure, that collects statistics of representation of woman in electronic music. They will also hold workshops on synth building and granular synthesis at Pioneer Works on September 17th.

While thinking about the festival, I kept in mind the idea of nurturing the community. So, I paired Austrian artists, that are flown in for the festival, with local artists. Each will collaborate with a chosen partner, featuring premieres of new works that leave comfort zones and push boundaries.

MWD: Can you talk about performing at a young age and how you got started?

DC: I was a child performer. I have been on the stage since the age of seven at the local opera house in my Austrian hometown. The colorful world of props and drama, orchestra and ballet, and paper-maché and stucco, was all so exciting and inspiring to me. At the age of ten I sang twelve tone music by Alban Berg with a fake hunchback on by back in Woyzeek — who would not want to be a musician/performer after that?

MWD: How did you discover the theremin?

DC: I was in New York playing guitar and singing in a band called Halcion. A friend of mine, Lary 7, has a wild collection of assorted analog instruments at his house, and he took me to a corner where a theremin stood, that he was repairing and he demonstrated it to me. It was a life-changing experience and I can’t thank him enough for introducing me to this instrument. I felt the theremin deserved much more attention than it had previously gotten. I had studied musicology and was intrigued by its odd history and status in the pantheon of musical instruments. It was a challenge to explore the theremin and to see what it was capable of.

MWD: What is the “odd history” of the theremin?

DC: Léon Theremin invented the TermenVox in 1919. It was the first electric music instrument  featuring a unique new interface that allowed it to be played without touching anything — waving hands in electromagnetic fields based on the heterodyne system. Theremin was a prodigy of Lenin, and the termenvox fit perfectly into the Russian Revolution, and was even featured in several soundtracks for promotional movies. Theremin was sent on tour to represent Russian technical accomplishments across the globe.

After touring in Europe, he settled in New York. His theremin patent was produced by RCA, and the instruments were promoted as easy to play at home —which was of course proved wrong. Production had also gone quickly into debt after the market crashed. Theremin himself married Lavinia Williams, one of the members of the first African-American ballet troupe in New York. Then, all of a sudden, he disappeared one day. Maybe he was kidnapped by the KGB, or maybe he returned to Russia voluntarily. He ended up working in a secret science prison camp where he developed the brand new technology of listening devices, the BUG, to be installed in a seal that hung behind the desk of the American ambassador in Moscow. This allowed the Russians to listen in to conversations until the British discovered a signal — this very seal was held up at a meeting at the UN when the Cold War was declared.

Theremin’s absence in the U.S. stopped the growing popularity of the instruments and efforts of contemporary composers writing for it. Some popularity occurred in the 1950s, when Hollywood used its signature sounds for horror and suspense themes such as The Day the Earth Stood Still or Hitchcock’s Spellbound. To this day the theremin is still gravely underestimated as a musical instrument and has not been able to establish itself in either popular or classical music. Due to its unusual interface, that differs gravely with traditional sound production, a theremin is not easy to play, and whoever has witnessed a theremin producing noise might think that this is all it can do. Platforms such as the NY Theremin Society and KidCoolThereminSchool (which I founded) help the instrument find greater popularity.

MWD: What do you love most about working with the theremin?

DC: What keeps me engaged with this unique device is its extraordinary dynamic capacity — unparalleled by any other music instrument. You enter micro-space and learn more about your own body, just by playing. It’s physicality is revealed through the slightest movement of your hand. You can literally sculpt the notes with your own hands, shaping sound this way. I love this primal directness of motion and sound, its drama and the ultimate challenge of attempting to control it — that impossibility appeals to me! It’s like fighting windmills…

Vicky Chow: Piano

What: Vicky Chow presents a suite of solo piano works featuring both New York and world premieres from top composers in the new music world.
When: Thursday, October 27, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door

Brooklyn, NY – Canadian pianist Vicky Chow premieres new solo piano works by Rome prize winner composer Christopher Cerrone, Fjola Evans, David Brynjar Franzson, and Bang on a Can founders David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Michael Gordon.

Described as “brilliant” by The New York Times and a “new star of new music” by Los Angeles Times, Vicky Chow is the pianist for Bang on a Can All-Stars, Grand Band, New Music Detroit, and has collaborated with ensembles such as ICE and Wet Ink Ensemble. She has performed internationally in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, including esteemed venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Barbican Centre in London, Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, and Tongyeong Concert Hall in Korea.

In 2013, she gave the North American premiere of Steve Reich’s work “Piano Counterpoint,” the world premiere of John Zorn’s new piano trio “The Aristos,” Michael Gordon’s “Ode to La Bruja, Hanon, Czerny, Van Cliburn and little gold stars” written for Grand Band, and an evening length work by artist and composer Tristan Perich for solo piano and 40 channel 1-bit electronics titled “Surface Image,” presented at Roulette.

Program

Christopher Cerrone – The Arching Path (2016) *
Fjola Evans – New Work (2016) **
David Brynjar Franzson – New Work (2016) **
David Lang – “cage,” “beach” (1997) and new work (2016) **
Julia Wolfe – Compassion (2001)
Michael Gordon – Sonatra (2004) (pre-record release performance)

* New York Premiere
** World Premiere

Amorphous IV

What: John King’s Amorphous IV present their first collaboration: a performative installation of sound, light and movement.
When: Wednesday, October 26, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door

Brooklyn, NY – Amorphous IV, consisting of Kato Hideki, John King, Ursula Scherrer, and Nana Tsuda, present their first collaboration, a performative installation of sound, light, and movement in which temporal and spatial changes (or no changes) are determined in real time. The audience is encouraged to walk around during the installation. This first-time collaborative project will combine all forms of media within the live installation format.

Brooklyn-based musician, composer, and producer Kato Hideki utilizes a wide range of forms and sounds to create music often based on narrative elements and topical issues. Kato has released 14 albums, including three on Tzadik Records with his trio Death Ambient (members Fred Frith and Ikue Mori). In addition to his own projects, Kato actively collaborates with composers, visual artists and choreographers, including Chris Cochrane, John King, Karen Mantler, Christian Marclay, and John Zorn.

John King is a composer, guitarist and violist who has worked collaboratively with and been commissioned by Kronos Quartet, Bang On A Can All-Stars, Avant Media, and more. The writer of several operas, King recently presented the world premiere of Piano Vectors for six grand pianos at Knockdown Center in Queens, New York. King was the Co-Director of the Music Committee for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 2003 until MCDC’s closing at the end of 2011.

The poetic quality of Ursula Scherrer’s work reminds one of moving paintings, drawing the viewer into the images, leaving the viewer with their own stories. Scherrer transforms spaces and landscapes into serene, abstract portraits of rhythm, color and light. A Swiss artist living in New York City, Scherrer’s aesthetic training began with dance, transitioned to choreography, and has now expanded to photography, video, text, mixed media and performance art.

Nana Tsuda explores the authentic physical responses to the subtle qualities of the conceptual and physical world. She has worked with TAKE Dance (2004-12), Robert Wood Dance, Christopher Williams, Mina Nishimura, Adams Company Dance, and Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theater. Most recently, Nana performed with Juri Onuk in a music video for Blood Orange, and collaborated with for the multimedia production, In the Box, directed by nissy.

  • Kato Hideki – bass, modular synthesizer
  • John King – guitar, viola, live electronics
  • Ursula Scherrer – video projections
  • Nana Tsuda – dancer, choreographer

The Westerlies: Album Release Show

What: Brass quartet The Westerlies celebrate the release of their self-titled sophomore album.
When: Tuesday, October 18, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door

“What a distinctly American twist: to flip a story of sorrow on its head, opening it up to a future bright with possibility.” NPR Music

Brooklyn, NY – Following their well-received tribute show to Wayne Horvitz last fall, Roulette welcomes back brass quartet The Westerlies to celebrate the release of their self-titled sophomore album. Already garnering early praise from NPR, the album features original music by each member of the ensemble alongside songs by Duke Ellington, Charles Ives, and an English folk song arranged by Nico Muhly and Sam Amidon. On the heels of their critically acclaimed debut album Wish the Children Would Come On Home: The Music of Wayne Horvitz, the new album is a boldly personal set of music that is equally virtuosic and vulnerable. The Westerlies perform without sheet music, allowing a direct connection to the audience.

The Westerlies (“prevailing winds from the West to the East”) are a New York-based brass quartet comprised of four childhood friends from Seattle: Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler on trumpet, and Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch on trombone. The Westerlies explore jazz, roots, and chamber music influences to create the rarest of hybrids: music that is both “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). Equally at home in concert halls and living rooms, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along.

  • Riley Mulherkar – trumpet
  • Zubin Hensler – trumpet
  • Andy Clausen – trombone
  • Willem de Koch – trombone