Calendar

ROULETTE presents

http://www.roulette.org/

Mary Halvorson Quintet
Thu Mar 18 – 8:30 PM
Guitarist/composer Mary Halvorson premieres a set of new pieces for the Mary Halvorson Quintet as well as material from her upcoming release on Firehouse 12 Records. Halvorson has been active in New York since 2002, following jazz studies at Wesleyan University and the New School. In addition to her own band, The Mary Halvorson Trio, she co-leads a chamber music duo with violist Jessica Pavone and the avant-rock band, People, with drummer Kevin Shea. A veteran of the ensembles of esteemed saxophonist/composer Anthony Braxton, she has also performed with groups led by Tim Berne, Taylor Ho Bynum, Trevor Dunn, Tomas Fujiwara, Curtis Hasselbring, Tony Malaby, Myra Melford, Nicole Mitchell, Jason Moran, Marc Ribot, Matana Roberts, Elliott Sharp, John Tchicai and Matthew Welch among many others.

Tom Swafford: The Real (?) Me
Fri Mar 19 – 8:30 PM
Lately violinist/composer Tom Swafford has felt adrift in a sea of musical genres, each one with its own set of aesthetic criteria and performance practice. Tom has reached the point where he wants to define exactly what his compositional voice is. This concert uses this well-worn cliché (The Real Me) as a unifying theme for the variety of his compositions presented. The centerpiece of the concert, This is the Real Me, a distilled opera written for vocalist/performer Gelsey Bell, addresses the issue of not just musical but personal self-definition through extended vocal techniques, a variety of musical styles, facial expressions and physical gestures. The text of Your (so called) Music (for spoken word artist Lee Todd Lacks and 12 piece string orchestra) is a vitriolic piece of hate mail Tom received after his last composition concert. Hecklepiece, for solo performer and hecklers, deals with some of the issues faced by musicians and composers-for-hire who must tailor their art to the demands of others. In this concert, Swafford is asking: “When given absolute freedom to create the music I want, without being subject to anyone else’s aesthetic criteria, what would that music be?” Also on the program is music for woodwind quintet, solo piano, banjo and string orchestra.

Childrens Concert with David Grollman $5
Sat Mar 20 – 2:00 PM
Sock puppets converse and intermingle with the sounds of drums, trumpet, cello, balloons, toys and voices in this exciting concert for kids! David Grollman, Brad Henkel and Valerie Kuehne are a trio of all-purpose drums, trumpet and cello who perform freely improvised musict, supplemented by happy environmental hazards, noisemaking toys and found objects, including audience members, children, and unknown animals. Anything is game. Anything may be a participant as they fearlessly experiment, all but self-flagellating if the musical conversation calls for it. Artist, instrument, audience, and environment become ambiguous terms, conspiring in a theatrical exploration of chance dynamics and serendipitous exchanges, enabled by the skillful ease with which David, Valerie and Brad play.

Deviant Shakti: LaDonna Smith & Michael Evans
Sat Mar 20 – 8:30 PM
Dedicated music moving in the moment. LaDonna Smith, well known as a “devilish” fiddler and exponential avant-gardist on the viola, a forceful proponent of the American free improvisation movement in the South. She is not only a riveting performer, but also an active producer, presenter, and publisher, with plans to host a regional festival celebrating the 30 year anniversary of “the improvisor” in 2010. Michael Evans is an improvising drummer/percussionist/

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