“mournful and ecstatic by turns, indelibly an opera, even without characters, plot or readily comprehensible text” — Zachary Woolfe for the New York Times
“Gibson’s work engages with rhythms and temporality existing outside of our socially-constructed rhythms, offering a glimpse of time outside of time.” — Rebecca Lentjes for I Care If You Listen
February 20 to March 5, 2016
8pm, unless otherwise noted
Wild Project
195 East 3rd Street
New York, NY 10009
February 20th – March 5th, 2016 at The Wild Project.
In our seventh festival, we’re breaking new ground, with installations, major collaborations, and three weeks of music. Highlights include a new opera commissioned from John King, the introduction of our Tuesday Night Tangents, a collaborative performance between percussion powerhouse TIGUE and Adrian Knight, and the purest distillation yet of Gibson’s ongoing Apparitions project.
10 hours is just enough time to take a trip elsewhere and back. Day Trip is the concert equivalent, taking 10 hours to survey abstract, unvisitable spaces through a collection of drone inspired compositions and installations.
(please note, entry for this event is tiered. Enter before 4PM and your entry is free, between 4PM and 7PM, $10. Entry after 7PM tickets are full price. Each entry level allows two exits. We encourage you to stay for the full day of performances)
Three 20 Minute "Micro-Operas" performed by Joan La Barbara and Gelsey Bell. Says King: "These small chamber operas employ chance, improvisation, live electronics and randomly controlled lighting in an intimate setting. These mark a new direction in my work, the combining of many different theatrical musical elements within one span of time."
John King’s What Is The Word was commissioned by Avant Media with funds from the New York State Council For The Arts
The World Premiere of a new drone/video Epic from Minimalist composer Randy Gibson: Apparitions of The Four Pillars in The Midwinter Starfield Symmetry under The 72:81:88 Confluence in a setting of Quadrilateral Starfield Symmety A:L Base 11:273 in The 181 Profusion
(please note, because of the duration of this work, the concert will begin at 7PM. Heating cannot be used during this work, so please dress warmly, blankets will be provided and incense will be burned)
Tangents at the 2016 Avant Music Festival with Jude Traxler’s virtuosic Blowback (and other mishaps), for percussion quartet and "roaming click track," and Dafna Naphtali’s Robotica, an evening-length solo show inspired by the work of Al-Jazari, the 13th century Mesopotamian inventor and author of the "Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices."
In conjunction with AMF 2016, an exhibition of works by Kathleen White, created in dialog with the tradition of musical notation, will be on view in Wild Project's gallery space February 16 - March 5. The presentation includes a selection of White's Sound Text drawings alongside a collaborative sound piece created with her partner Rafael Sánchez. This exhibition is curated by Conrad Ventur in conversation with the Estate of Kathleen White.
Public viewing hours are Saturdays from noon to 9 pm and Tuesdays from 7pm to 9pm, or by appointment.
The Avant Music Festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; by generous grants from The Foundation For Contemporary Arts and The Alice M Ditson Fund; and by the support of our members and donors.
