The 2015 Avant Music Festival has announced their lineup for four nights' worth of sonic exploration. Standout performers include Paula Matthusen, Imani Uzuri, Classicalite favorite Randy Gibson and, of course, works by John Cage.
Avant Music began in 2010, as a platform for contemporary American composers to experiment with long-form concerts and the full programmatic experience of their work. Since then, the fest has risen to become one of the only venues where composers have the freedom to program a full night of their own music--unfettered by concerns of duration, scope or aesthetics. While the festival was created to nurture vital new compositional voices, it also hopes to pay tribute to explorers who have paved the way.
The New York Times said of past fetes that it is “…celebrat(ing) uncompromising originality and collaboration in a way that felt distinctly American.”
The Avant Music festival takes place over two weekends, with each of the four concerts devoted to a single, vibrant figure of the American avant-garde. This year’s installment features world premieres by composers Matthusen and Uzuri, along with the only known concert performance of Cage’s complete choral music.
And what we here at Classicalite are most excited about: the most expansive iteration yet of Gibson’s 3.5-hour immersive, evolving, meditative drone-epic “Apparitions of The Four Pillars.”
Other performers taking part in the festival include Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, Mantra Percussion, Philip White, the twelve-member Ekmeles vocal ensemble, cellists Mariel Roberts and Meaghan Burke.
All events will take place at Wild Project in New York’s East Village. A free roundtable discussion with Gibson, Matthusen, and Uzuri will be held on Feb. 28 at 4 p.m.
Matthusen's “Sample of Two Cities” will be featured on Feb. 27 with Cage's works on Feb. 28. Uzuri will perform “Conjure Woman, A Postmodern Cantana" on March 6. Naturally, Avant will end with Gibson's drone epic.
To learn more about the Avant Music Festival, click here.
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