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Category: Press Releases

Roulette Launches its Fall 2020 Season: Live Streamed from our Stage

*WATCH THIS SEASON’S LIVE STREAMS HERE*

As Roulette adapts to the new realities and constraints created by the Covid-19 pandemic and implements protocols to operate safely and in accordance with city, state, and federal health guidelines, we also look to the future.

We are forging ahead to present new work, live streamed from our performance space and offered to the public free of charge, beginning in September 2020. We are doing this even amidst the uncertainty and constant influx of new information that has become a feature of life since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic because we at Roulette believe that experimental art has a vital role in imagining and building a new, better path forward. No other art form provides a more relevant, living, breathing space for new thought, and perhaps no time has demanded new ways of thinking more than the present.

While Roulette remains closed to the public, and much of our staff continues to work remotely, we have created a comprehensive reopening plan, instituted special training for staff onsite, increased and intensified the regular cleanings our venue undergoes, and implemented a screening process for anyone entering Roulette. An overview of Roulette’s reopening stages and details on our current operating procedures are available at Roulette.org/reopening.

Building a new future is a joint effort between forward-thinking artists and an engaged and critical public. As we reopen and begin presenting performances again–carefully and with adherence to strict safety protocols–we do so in pursuit of that collaborative process of creation and transformation. For more than 40 years, Roulette has been a home for adventurous artists and audiences. We hope you will join us online and, when it’s safe to gather again, in person. We look forward to announcing our full season line-up on roulette.org in early September.

Robert Dick with Rinde Eckert: Robert: Seriously Amused

Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: Acclaimed flutist Robert Dick and alchemical performer Rinde Eckert present the cross-disciplinary performance Robert: Seriously Amused.
When: Wednesday, February 13, 2019
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: https://roulette.org/event/rinde-eckert-robert-dick-seriously-amused/

Brooklyn, NY – Robert: Seriously Amused will be acclaimed flutist and composer Robert Dick’s first foray into the world of performance art. Developed with the alchemical performer Rinde Eckert, Seriously Amused is part biography, part philosophy, and more than a bit strange and weird. Along with his famous flute playing, Dick will be singing, moving, thinking, monologuing, and giving his inner-voices free play.

World renowned as a leader in contemporary music for flute, Robert Dick embodies the ideal of the Renaissance artist. With equally deep roots in classical music, free improvisation, and new jazz, he has established himself as an artist who has not only mastered but redefined the instrument. Since he began composing and improvising in the 1970s, he has pursued the core idea that acoustic instruments are capable of sonic vocabularies and musical expression extending far beyond their traditional musical roles. Robert’s music carries this vision of continuous transformation into his aesthetics and style. He draws from the jazz tradition, world musics—especially Indian and African—electronic music and natural sounds. Hallmarks of his work are clarity of structure and vivid timbre. His compositions, striking in the intensity and originality of their emotion, have been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA Composers Fellowships and many grants and commissions. In 2014, the National Flute Association honored Robert Dick with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rinde Eckert is a writer, composer, librettist, musician, performer, and director. His Opera / New Music Theatre productions have toured throughout America and to major theater festivals in Europe and Asia. With a virtuosic command of gesture, language, and song, this total theatre artist moves beyond the boundaries of what a ‘play,’ a ‘dance piece,’ an ‘opera’ or ‘musical’ might be, in the service of grappling with complex issues. Eckert describes many of his characters as “little men with big ideas whose consequences of their hubris are often disastrous.” Sometimes tragic and austere, sometimes broadly comedic, entirely grounded in presence, his work is alchemical – moving from rumination and distillation to hard-won illumination, or its lack.

100 for 100: Musical Decades of Freedom

Sunday, November 11, 2018
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: International Contemporary Ensemble performs 100 for 100: Musical Decades of Freedom.
When: Sunday, November 18, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FA181118

Brooklyn, NY – The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) partners with the PWM Edition and Polish Cultural Institute New York to present 100 for 100: Musical Decades of Freedom at Roulette. Conductor Steven Schick will lead performances of works by five contemporary Polish composers in celebration of the Polish centennial of independence: Paweł Mykietyn, Tadeusz Wielecki, Lidia Zielinska, Aleksander Nowak, and Agata Zubel.

Program:
Agata Zubel: Double Battery
Tadeusz Wielecki: Liczne odnogi rozgałęzionych splotów
Aleksandr Nowak: Quantemporette
Pawel Mykietyn: Klave for harpsichord and ensemble
Lidia Zielinska: Siedem wysp Conrada

The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is an artist collective that is transforming the way music is created and experienced. As performers, curators, and educators, ICE explores how new music intersects with communities across the world. The ensemble’s 35 members are featured as soloists, chamber musicians, commissioners, and collaborators with the foremost musical artists of our time. Works by emerging composers have anchored ICE’s programming since its founding in 2001, and the group’s recordings and digital platforms highlight the many voices that weave music’s present. A recipient of the American Music Center’s Trailblazer Award and the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, ICE was also named the 2014 Musical America Ensemble of the Year. The group currently serves as artists-in-residence at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Mostly Mozart Festival, and previously led a five-year residency at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. ICE was featured at the Ojai Music Festival from 2015 to 2017, and at recent festivals abroad such as gmem-CNCM-marseille and Vértice at Cultura UNAM, Mexico City. Other performance stages have included the Park Avenue Armory, The Stone, ice floes at Greenland’s Diskotek Sessions, and boats on the Amazon River.

Darius Jones: For The People

Darius Jones: For The People
Monday, November 5, 2018
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: Part concert and part community event, For the People, organized by Darius Jones in collaboration with The Wet Ink Large Ensemble brings together musicians and activists on the eve of the upcoming midterm election.
When: Monday, November 5, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FA181105

Brooklyn, NYFor the People is a community-based event and concert organized by Darius Jones on the eve of the November midterm election. The evening is centered around a collection of compositions by Jones—in collaboration with The Wet Ink Large Ensemble—that uphold the belief that artists have the duty and power to inform, inspire, and empower their community. The evening includes the world premiere of Being Caged In ICE, followed by the second performance ever of America The Joke, and concludes with the return of LawNOrder (pronounced “law no order”), a game piece examining social justice and American History in which each player represents a separate character and is handed a law to follow at the beginning of the piece. Onnesha Roychoudhuri, Brooklyn-based activist, editor, educator, and author of The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America to speak.

Appearances by:
Eric Wubbels: piano
Ian Antonio: percussion
Josh Modney: violin
Weston Olencki: trombone
Amirtha Kidambi: voice
Gelsey Bell: voice
Nina Dante: voice
Sugar Vendil: piano
Sean Conly: bass
Michael Vatcher: drums
Daniel Givens: electronics
Jean Carla Rodea: voice
Shelley Nicole: voice
Jonathan Finlayson: trumpet
Leia Slosberg: flute
Jessica Jones: tenor sax
Sam Newsome: soprano sax

For more information about this project visit votefordarius.com.

Darius Jones is a critically acclaimed alto saxophonist and composer. In 2008, Jones was awarded the Van Lier Fellowship by Roulette, which he used to launch the Elizabeth-Caroline Unit, a project dedicated to new works for voice. Roulette continued to support Jones’ work through a Jerome Foundation Commission, awarding Jones an Artist-in-Residence opportunity for the Elizabeth-Caroline Unit to premiere his vocal composition, The Oversoul Manual, in2014. Jones made his compositional debut at Carnegie Hall with The Oversoul Manual in October 2014. In 2013, Jones was nominated for Alto Saxophonist of the Year, and for Up & Coming Artist of the Year two years in a row by the Jazz Journalists Association Jazz Awards. He was one of Jazz Times’ Debut Artists of the Year for 2009, and his 2012 release, Book of Mæ’bul (Another Kind of Sunrise), was listed among NPR’s Best Top 10 Jazz Albums of that year.

Elliott Sharp: IrRational Music

Elliott Sharp: IrRational Music
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: A concert celebrating the release of Elliott Sharp’s forthcoming album Dispersion and the publication of his book, IrRational.
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FA181101

Brooklyn, NY – Seminal composer and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp returns to Roulette to mark two important forthcoming releases: IrRational Music, Sharp’s memoir and rumination on thought, music, and art published by Terra Nova Books with Found Sound Nation, and the release of his latest album Dispersion, a collaboration with the Vendi Ensemble on Mode Records.

The evening features a solo set by Sharp on 8-string guitarbass, playing selections from his album Octal, in addition to the realization of his graphic score Mare Undarum. The second half of the program brings SysOrk, Sharp’s ensemble dedicated to performing algorithmic scores and graphic notations together with the members of Veni Ensemble to perform three of the pieces included on the Dispersion: The Hidden Variable, Dispersion of Seeds, and Flexagons. Sharp and Veni’s collaboration comes out their residency in Kosice, Slovakia in 2015.

A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City for over 30 years, Elliott Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from orchestral music to blues, jazz, noise, no wave rock, and techno music. He is is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow, and a 2014 Fellow at Parson’s Center for Transformative Media. He received the 2015 Berlin Prize in Musical Composition from the American Academy in Berlin.

SysOrk
Elliott Sharp – Guitar, Clarinet
Rachel Golub – Violin
Shayna Dulberger
Terry L. Green II

Veni Ensemble
Brano Dugovič – Clarinet
David Danel – Violin
Fero Kiraly – Synth
Lenka Novosedlikova – Percussion
Juraj Berats – Guitar
Ivan Siller – Piano
Daniel Matej – Objects

Roulette’s 40th Anniversary Gala Honoring Hal Willner

Roulette’s 40th Anniversary Gala Honoring Hal Willner
Thursday, October 25, 2018

What: Roulette honors eclectic and prolific musician/producer Hal Willner at its 40th Anniversary Gala
When: Thursday, October 25, 2018. 7–11pm.
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: Remaining tables start at $5,000, Tickets at $100
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: https://roulette.org/gala/

Roulette’s Director Jim Staley and Board of Directors are thrilled to announce Roulette’s 40th Anniversary Gala honoring eclectic and prolific musician/producer Hal Willner. The evening will feature performances by artists from Willner’s extensive career, including avant-pop icon Laurie Anderson, incomparable performance artist and filmmaker Kembra Pfahler, Joan Wasser (Joan as Police Woman) of Antony and the Johnsons, composer and slide-trumpeter Steven Bernstein, SNL Musical Directors Lenny Pickett and Eli Brueggemann, singer Janine Nichols, singer/songwriter Teddy Thompson, actress Chloe Webb, saxophonist Doug Wieselman, and more.

Mr. Willner’s unexpected approach to curation and music production has made him one of the most refreshing musical connectors of our time. His many concept albums and live events celebrate unlikely collaborations—his Kurt Weill tribute records feature the likes of Sting, Charlie Haden, Lou Reed, Nick Cave; while his Amarcord Nino Rota tribute album features Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Bill Frisell, Muhal Richard Abrams; his Disney album features performances by artists like Sun Ra and Ringo Starr; and his live events bring together dozens of leading creative voices across film, comedy, music, and theater. He has been the sketch music producer of Saturday Night Live for the past 30 years and is currently working on his next concept album celebrating the music of T. Rex.

All proceeds from the evening go to the creation of Roulette’s Future Fund—a multi-purpose reserve fund to help build a strong, sustainable future for our organization and the artists we present. Support for the Future Fund will be matched up to $150,000 by the Howard Gilman Foundation.

BENEFIT COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS
Meredith Monk
Joseph Walker

BENEFIT COMMITTEE
Sean Buffington
MV Carbon
Dick Connette
Mario Diaz de Leon
Robert Flynt
Paul + Rochelle Gertner
Mary MacArthur Griffin
Simon Hanes
Anne Hemenway
Pauline Kim
John King
Gordon Knox
John Madsen
Stéphanie Palmer
Zeena Parkins
Catherine Pavlov
Tomeka Reid
Ned Rothenberg
Jason Weiss
Scott Wollschleger

 

Ken Thomson: Sextet Album Release Show

Ken Thomson: Sextet Album Release Show
Sunday, October 7, 2018
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: Ken Thomson debuts new project and album: Sextet on New Focus Recordings.
When: Sunday, October 7, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FA181007

Brooklyn, NYRoulette welcomes Brooklyn-based clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer Ken Thomson for an evening of music featuring the New York premieres of  “Ripple” and “Pall”, followed by a performance by Thomson’s ensemble project, Sextet as they celebrate their latest album, out now on New Focus Recordings.

“Ripple” for bass clarinet and string quartet (2017)
“Pall” for clarinet and string quartet (2018)
New York Premieres

Ken Thomson, clarinet
Katie Hyun and Lena Vidulich, violins
Wendy Richman, viola
Jeffrey Zeigler, cello

Ken Thomson: Sextet
Ken Thomson,alto saxophone
Anna Webber, tenor saxophone
Russ Johnson, trumpet
Nick Finzer, trombone
Adam Armstrong, bass
Daniel Dor, drums

Ken Thomson is a staple of NYC’s contemporary music and jazz community, known for performing with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and composing and playing with the bands Slow/Fast and Gutbucket. He has written music for the JACK Quartet, Ashley Bathgate, American Composers Orchestra, and others. Thomson is known for a unique voice that blends a variety of styles, with the Chicago Reader exclaiming that “few musicians travel as assuredly and meaningfully between jazz and new music as saxophonist Ken Thomson.” Guided by a desire to create music in which composition and improvisation are equally important and codependent, Sextet is the latest in a series of recordings the composer has made unifying these traditions. With this project, Thomson aims to fuse the  intensity and thematic cohesiveness of modern composition with jazz’s spontaneity and openness.

Brandon Seabrook Trio: Convulsionaries Album Release

Brandon Seabrook Trio: Convulsionaries Album Release
Monday, October 1, 2018
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: The Brandon Seabrook Trio celebrates the release of their newest album Convulsionaries now out on Astral Spirits.
When: Monday, October 1, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FA181001

Brooklyn, NY The Brandon Seabrook Trio celebrates the release of their latest album Convulsionaries on Astral Spirits. For this all-string group, guitarist and composer Brandon Seabrook is joined by two revolutionary players – rising upright bassist Henry Fraser (Anthony Coleman, The Full Salon) and Daniel Levin (Tony Malaby, Mat Maneri) on cello. The trio aims to decipher Seabrook’s thorny compositions, which perpetually surprise and unseat the listener and audience through rhythmic precision oscillating between ominous repeating ostinatos; angular, intricate, and with a massive dynamic range which changes rapidly. Seabrook’s imaginative compositions are a study in transforming sense of impending doom into a cathartic release, allowing equal space for improvisation and rigid execution of the complex scores.

Brandon Seabrook Trio

Brandon Seabrook  Guitar/Compositions
Daniel Levin Cello
Henry Fraser – Double Bass

Brandon Seabrook is a guitarist, banjoist, and composer living in New York City whose work focuses on the intersections between improvisation and structure through fragmented and rapidly changing soundscapes. Described by Spin as “An apocalyptic, supersonic general of the banjo…” Seabrook has established himself as one of the most unique and volatile guitarists and banjo players working in New York today.

VX Bliss: Audiovisual Arrangements by Ginny Benson

VX Bliss: Audiovisual Arrangements by Ginny Benson
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

 

What: Roulette welcomes back intermedia artist Ginny Benson, deploying a new immersive project in sound and video.
When: Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FA181107

Brooklyn, NYVX Bliss is the solo project of intermedia artist Ginny Benson. Her live performances use analog synthesis to create densely layered electronic music that drifts between melodic soundscape and atonal noise, integrated with video collages made from VHS tapes, circuit bent mixers, and feedback.

VX Bliss explores techniques of blending and juxtaposing sound and video to create an immersive abstract environment where audio and control-voltage signals fuse modular synthesis with analog video technology. Found images from VHS tapes, layered and woven into video feedback, are distorted into shapes and patterns – samplers and synthesizer glitches, drones, and other electronic ephemera create lush compositions that stimulate and disrupt the viewer’s perception.

VX Bliss on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/vxbliss

Tomas Fujiwara: 7 Poets Trio

Tomas Fujiwara: 7 Poets Trio
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Performance 8pm / Doors 7pm

What: Tomas Fujiwara presents new music with Patricia Brennan and Tomeka Reid.
When: Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $18 presale, $25 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: http://bit.ly/FA181010

Brooklyn, NYDrummer and composer Tomas Fujiwara premieres new work for his latest ensemble project, 7 Poets Trio. Composed specifically for this ensemble, with Fujiwara on drums, Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, and Tomeka Reid on cello, Fujiwara aims to utilize the distinct musical personalities of his collaborators as well as the unique instrumentation of the trio. 7 Poets Trio seeks to strike a balance between composition and improvisation, to offer each musician a number of roles—foreground and background, soloistic and supportive, melodic and percussive—and, most importantly, to provide an environment for a truly collaborative ensemble sound.

Tomas Fujiwara: drums
Patricia Brennan: vibraphone
Tomeka Reid: cello

7 Poets Trio formed in April 2018 during Fujiwara’s residency at The Stone. The rapport was instantaneous and the trio’s debut was described by All About Jazz as “a meshing of chamber jazz, modern classical composition, and improvisation, although most of Fujiwara’s music sounded well organized in advance. All three players rose to an individual expression, working as a composite unit to deliver solo embellishments. Roles were malleable, as the listener decided whether everyone was soloing, or no-one. All three members were devoted to establishing a sensitive group consciousness, and they succeeded eminently.” The trio is a continuation of several of Fujiwara’s musical interests – the flexible roles and multifaceted possibilities of a particular instrument, the sounds of multi-percussion ensembles, drawing from his days as a performer in Stomp and his bands Triple Double and Double Double, as well as other double-drummer ensembles he’s been a part of such as Living By Lanterns, No Moto, and the Taylor Ho Bynum 7-tette.