A Series of Informances on 21 st century music
Rova:Arts is pleased to present Improv:21, a series of “informances” on twenty-first century music that explore the connection between predetermined structure (composition) and performer interpretation (improvisation). Led by master improvisers and composers from the Bay Area and beyond, and hosted by critic and KPFA radio host Derk Richardson, Improv:21 programs look at the many ways of organizing improvisation through a shifting (i.e. “improvised”) combination of onstage lecture and dialogue, musical demonstration and performance, and audience question-and-answer forum. Reasonably priced and easily accessible, these two-hour events are designed to inform, inspire, challenge, and enlighten a wide-ranging audience, from professional and amateur musicians to listeners of all backgrounds and levels of experience. All these informances are also being documented on video for future availability to students and fans alike.
The first five events took place in San Francisco in 2005; they were led by guitar legend Fred Frith (January 30), discussing his composing for film (Rivers and Tides; Step Across the Border) and for large ensembles of improvisers; by L.A.-based guitar pyrotechnician Nels Cline (March 26), discussing the influence on his music of the late great John Coltrane, and including a live duet with tenor saxophonist Larry Ochs; by the members of Rova Saxophone Quartet (June 5), discussing their current music either influenced by or directly involved with vthe visual arts and visual scores; by singer and master violinist Carla Kihlstedt (Sept. 15), discussing herpersonal history and development as an improviser; and saxophonist, poet and artist Oliver Lake (Oct. 17), illustrating with live solo performance and recorded CDs, his compositional artistry.
In early 2006, Improv 21 took place at 21 Grand in Oakland and featured large ensemble composer and percussionist Gino Robair (Feb 1),lecturing on and performing his large ensemble opera with a forty person ensemble of improvisers; the extraordinary saxophone soloist and composer Ned Rothenberg (Feb 15) who discussed his work in Japan with koto as well as his thoughts and processes as a solo improviser;and master koto player, composer, and conceptual artist Miya Masaoka (March 8) who discussed her conceptual compositions for plants, her solo work on koto, and her methods of improvisation.
For the 2006 –2007 season, plans are afoot to host:
1. clarinetist – composer Ben Goldberg. His most recent CD, on the Los Angeles label Cryptogramophone, dedicated to the memory of saxophonist Steve Lac, has received early rave reviews. Currently he is working in Nels Cline’s sextet project, in Tin Hat, and in his own trio dedicated to the music of Thelonious Monk. He also composes for large ensemble. Ben received his undergraduate music degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Master of Arts in Composition from Mills College. He was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano.
2. legendary trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith. A relentless musical innovator since his early days in the Chicago AACM, Wadada Leo Smith is one of the most consistently creative composer/performers in new music and currently teaches on this subject exclusively at California Institute of the Arts. Wadada Leo Smith - trumpeter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser - has been active for over thirty years. With Leroy Jenkins and Anthony Braxton, he was a founder of the Creative Construction Company, and has recorded his own albums on ECM, Black Saint, Nessa, Sackville and other labels. His compositions have been performed by the AACM Orchestra, Kronos Quartet, Ursula Oppens, Marilyn Crispell, Da Capo Chamber Players and others.
3. 2006 winner of the Alpert Award in the arts: Lawrence Butch Morris. Morris' work includes television, film, theatre, dance, radio, interdisciplinary performance based collaborations and concert and recording settings. As a composer he is known most notably for the development and evolution of “Conduction:” conducted improvisation and interpretation that transcends culture and geographics to present a new social-logic to the language of music. To this extent he has led large ensembles of ethnic musicians (ex.: in Istanbul), free improvisers (ex.: in New York and San Francisco) and symphony orchestras (examples: in Rome, Zurich, Salzburg).
Bay Area composer Cheryl Leonard works with string instruments and natural instruments collected and honed from found objects in forests and mountains and beaches to write music of delicate and intricate detail.
Also in the works: