FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 1/15/04 For More Information, contact: Emily Krell (646) 249-9085; emilykrell@hotmail.com
Wet Ink Musics presents: TRIO Improvisation by Kui Dong, Larry Polansky and Christian Wolff; with the Ensemble of Wet Ink Musics
When: Friday, February 20, 2004, at 8 p.m.
Where: Greenwich Music House 46 Barrow Street (off 7th Avenue)
Who: TRIO - Kui Dong (piano), Larry Polansky (guitars) and Christian Wolff (piano)
The Ensemble of Wet Ink Musics, Alex Mincek, Director
Program: Sam Hillmer the night sweats, and the day sweats Alex Mincek Yarn
Improvisation by TRIO
Tickets: $10
Information/Reservations: (718) 389-1683
Wet Ink Musics presents its third annual collaboration with TRIO, the improv project of composer/performers Kui Dong (piano), Larry Polansky (guitars) and Christian Wolff (piano) on Friday, February 20 at 8 p.m. at Greenwich Music House. The program also includes the Ensemble of Wet Ink Musics (with members of Zs) performing new works by Wet Ink Composers Collective members Alex Mincek and Sam Hillmer.
However rare, it is not surprising to find Christian Wolff improvising with fellow composer/musicians Dong and Polansky. Much of Wolffs recent work involves the freedom of events for composer, performer, and listener; in fact, many of his traditionally scored pieces also have improvisational aspects. New works by Mincek and Hillmer will precede the TRIO performance, revealing even more of the broad spectrum that exists between improvised and composed music.
Trio began as a group of three friends improvising privately once a week. After a year of playing for themselves, they began to perform occasionally, first appearing in a series of concerts in Beijing and in a documentary on Christian Wolff for German television.
Christian Wolff holds a doctorate in classics from Harvard, where he taught until 1970. Between 1970 and 2000, Wolff was the Strauss Professor of Music at Dartmouth College where he also taught classics. As a composer he is basically self-taught, although his association in the early 1950s with John Cage, David Tudor and Morton Feldman provided a background unmatched by any formal education. He has received a number of commissions, was Ford Composer at Mills College and was composer/lecturer at Darmstadt and at Ostrava Days in the Czech Republic.
Kui Dong composes orchestral and chamber works, as well as works for electronics/computer. She has received honors and awards from Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Meet The Composer USA/Commissioning Program, ASCAP Award for Young Composers, Prix Ars Electronics (Honorary), and First Prize in the Alea III International Composition Competition. Current composition projects include a choral piece for Dale Warland Singers, a mixed large ensemble work for Music from China and a solo piano work for Sarah Cahill.
Larry Polansky has worked extensively in composition, computer music, software development, theory, performance and American musics. He was on the faculty of the Mills College in Oakland, CA, and directed the Center for Contemporary Music there. He is the author of a number of articles, has released several solo CDs, is an editor for a number of major theoretical and computer music journals, and is the founder and director of Frog Peak Music (A Composers' Collective), an organization dedicated to publishing speculative theory and experimental music. He currently teaches in the graduate program in electro-acoustic music, and courses in computer music, theory and composition on the undergraduate level at Dartmouth.
Active as a composer, saxophonist, and improviser, Sam Hillmer came to New York to attend the Manhattan School of Music. His music has been performed in the United States and abroad at a variety of venues, and has been featured at festivals including Columbia University's experimental music series, the VAV gallery (Montreal), Ostrava Days Festival (Czech Republic), the Neon Hates You Festival (Los Angeles), and the Ocularis Rooftop Festival (Brooklyn). Recent works include "...in my dream i shot a monk...", for flute percussion and speaker, ...ASH, BOX, CLAY... for flutes, bassoon, and piano, and Twenty Four Takes on Anne Waldmans Iovis: All is Full of Jove, for 8 improvisers. In 2002 Hillmer was the recipient of a generous grant from Meet the Composer. He is an instructor of saxophone and clarinet at Chaminade High School and Grace United Methodist Church, a member of chamber ensemble/band Zs, and the vice-president of Wet Ink Musics.
Alex Mincek (b.1975) is a New York-based composer and saxophonist. He studied composition with Nils Vigeland at the Manhattan School of Music (BA, MM) and with Christian Wolff and Alvin Lucier at the Ostrava Days New Music Festival. He is a founding member of the experimental ensemble Zs, with whom he performs his own music, the music of others, and improvisations. His music has also been performed by the New Mendelssohn Orchestra Leipzig, the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, Tactus, the Vega String Quartet, the Dorikos String Quartet, and the Janacek Philharmonic. Minceks music has been recorded on the Vothic/TMU and Planeria labels. In 1998, he co-founded Wet Ink Musics, and currently serves as president and music director. Mincek has received grants and fellowships from organizations such as the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Meet The Composer, and the Ostrava Center for New Music.
Wet Ink Musics is a composers collective and presenting organization dedicated to exploring the many definitions of the term new music. We present innovative programs that blur the lines between stylistic camps and defy traditional categorization. By creating a new common ground we offer the public a unique listening experience while providing composers and performers a platform for their work. Since our founding in 1998, we have presented over 50 concerts featuring a range of established and emerging performers and composers. Past concerts have included: the music of Joe Maneri; improvisational ensemble TRIO (Christian Wolff, Larry Polansky, Kui Dong); New Music from New York featuring the Vega String Quartet and works by James Fei, Sam Hillmer, and Alex Mincek; the Washington, D.C.-based experimental punk duo Orthrelm; and New Music from France featuring Argento Ensemble and works by Philippe Hurel, Gerard Pesson, and Gerard Grisey.
Please visit www.wetink.org for more information.