Title: Pandaemonium - Rova at Other Minds 15
Rova Premieres Carla Kihlstedt's Pandaemonium at Other Minds Festival 15
Date: Saturday, March 6, 2010 8:00pm
Address:
Kanbar Hall
Jewish Community Center, SF
3200 California Street
http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Concerts15.shtml
7:00 panel discussion with Carla Kihlstedt, Tom Johnson and Gayan Riley
Description:
At the Other Minds Festival 15 in early March, the Quartet will premiere
Pandaemonium, a new piece written by composer, improviser, violinist and vocalist
Carla Kihlstedt for the ROVA Saxophone Quartet. It is inspired by a book of the same
name compiled by Humphrey Jennings which illustrates ''the imaginative history of the
Industrial Revolution" through the voices of the people who most closely watched its
speedy approach. The piece is based on a handful of letters and documents written
between 1660 and 1880 in response to the coming of the machine. Composed in
opposition to our current age of infinite reproducability, Pandaemonium is a
one-of-a-kind piece of tactile art made from individually sewn cloth graphic scores.
It is also a vehicle for the well-honed chemistry of ROVA, world-class improvisors.
The texts will be read by actors Joan Mankin and Matthias Bossi. Pandaemonium was
made possible by a grant from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation.
Joan Mankin has performed with the American Conservatory Theater, the Center Theater Group in L.A., California Shakespeare Theaater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, San Diego Repertory Theater, Marin Theater company, The Magic Theater, Aurora Theater, Theaterworks, A Traveling Jewish Theater, and the San Jose Stage Company. She has been a company member of several leading Northern California physical theater ensembles, including the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Pickle Family Circus, and the Dell'Arte Players Company. Film credits include appearances in Bee Season, Made in America and Desert Hearts. She has directed for the Magic Theater, Travelling Jewish Theater, San Francisco Shakespeare Festival, Make-A-Circus, the Phoenix Theater, Th eaterworks of Colorado Springs, and the Bricks and Earth Circus of Calgary, Canada; as well as several workshop productions at the Mark Taper Forum. She directed performances for the San Francisco New Vaudeville Festival which were made into an HBO special, and has worked extensively with solo performers and improvisationsal comedy troupes. Joan has taught at San Francisco State University, University of California at Santa Cruz, Antioch University in Ohio, the American Conservatory Theater, the Dell'Arte School of Physical Performance, the High School of Performing Arts in San Francisco, and the Clown Conservatory at the San Francisco Circus Center.
Matthias Bossi, a graduate of the New England Conservatory, is the drummer for
Rock-Against-Rock pioneers Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and was a member of NYC's
Grammy-nominated Skeleton Key. As a founder of The Book of Knots, a Brooklyn-based
recording collective, he has had the pleasure of collaborating with Tom Waits, Mike
Watt, Jon Langford, David Thomas, Carla Bozulich, Zeena Parkins, and author Rick
Moody. He is currently touring with guitarist Fred Frith in his new project, Cosa
Brava. In recent years he has contributed to the recordings of John Vanderslice,
St. Vincent, and the Tiger Lillies.
Equally at home in the theatre, Bossi has worked with the Pickle Family Circus,
Oakland Metro Opera, Shotgun Players, Blixa Bargeld and Nanos Operetta, Berkeley's
Central Works, and Erica Schuch's Performance Project. Choreographers Jo Kreiter,
Joe Goode, Deborah Slater, and Shinichi Iova-Koga have commissioned music from Bossi
and his wife, violinist Carla Kihlstedt.