The Interpretations Series 36th season begins Thursday October 23, 2025, 8:00 PM with a split bill featuring composer and multi-woodwind player JD Parran’s Protestation and Prayer for Peace and Survival, and the collaborative trio One System. Parran will be joined by musicians Nels Cline (guitar), Andrew Drury (drums, percussion) and Hilliard Greene (bass) for an act of musical activism, about which he writes: “Creativity can speak to forces that usurp our resources and freedoms. We may be the only voices that CAN be heard now. Never fear that it won’t count. Say it Loud.” Featuring Juraj Kojs (electronics), Margaret Lancaster (flutes), and Alex Lough (electronics), One System is a geographically dispersed performance collective of self-described artphibians. Their work seeks to dissolve the boundaries between language, physicality, technology, theater, and sound, creating performances that are simultaneously intimate and spectacular.
The concert will take place at Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, NY. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students & seniors, available at Roulette.org and Interpretations.info.
About the artists:
J D Parran’s many recordings include his solo CD Window Spirits, Omegathorp and California Street Sessions both with Mark Deutsch, Spirit Stage with Shirley LeFloreand Kokpilau with Michael Castro. His performing on clarinets, saxophones and flutes is legendary. He teaches these instruments at Greenwich House Music School where he founded the jazz orchestra, Dance Clarinets. The concerts given by the orchestra in Greenwich Village and Brooklyn are in their 12th year. In his hometown, St Louis, J D was a founding member of the Black Artist Group (BAG)where he participated in the early artistic statements of Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, James Jabbo Ware, Hamiett Bluiet and Baikida Carroll. He has made many appearances on the Interpretations series and New York’s Vision Festival, as well as the New York AACM series. In 2023 he appeared as soloist in Metropolitan Opera production of Anthony Davis’ first opera, X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. Parran was hired by the MET to recreate the sound and style of his improvisations in the late 1980’s world premiere of the work at New York City Opera and its subsequent recording. He has performed with Edward Kidd Jordan, Reggie Workman, William Parker, Thomas Buckner, Jason Robinson, Scott Robinson, Lena Horne, Bill Dixon, Lena Horne, Cecil Taylor, Amiri Baraka, Joseph Jarman, Leroy Jenkins, Jamal Moore, Luke Stewart, George Lewis, Henry Threadgill, Wadada Leo Smith, Lester Bowie, Randy Weston, Rosemary George, David Darling, Douglas Ewart andmany others.
Juraj Kojš is an artphibian exploring the fields of music, sound art, theater, poetry, mixed media, multimedia, bioacoustics and technologies as a maker and performer. In Miami, Juraj grows music & orchids spritzed with love & whimsy. Proud friend of 8 cats, opossum Gloria & raccoon Clotilde, he keeps attempting to penetrate the heart of sensorial expressions. Rarely found alone, he curates an ever-expanding network of collaborators on the fringe.
Margaret Lancaster (flutist/performance artist/actor/dancer/amateur furniture designer)has built a large repertoire of cross-disciplinary solo works that employ electronics and mixed media. Margaret’s quirks include enduring small metal enclosures and sheer red fabric. She has a uniquely unfulfilled relationship with documentation, passionately enjoys cellophane, and really likes to laugh.
Alex Lough is: an electronicist; a creative sound designer; a modular synthesizer enthusiast; a very poor dancer; someone who likes to listen to insects and animals and occasionally attempt to communicate with them; a performance artist; a person who possesses several pieces of paper with various academic credentials; a builder of circuits, software, and swimming pools; a fan of performing in unusual spaces and places, particularly those that are unfriendly to electronic devices such as moats, lakes, forests, beaches, cages, and silos; a person involved in an ongoing and deeply passionate affair with sine tones.
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Founded by baritone Thomas Buckner, The Interpretations series is a New York-based concert series focusing on the relationship between contemporary composers and their interpreters. Sometimes the interpreters are the composers themselves; more often, the series features performers who specialize in the interpretation of new music. Since its inception in 1989, Interpretations has featured leading figures in contemporary music and multimedia, including Muhal Richard Abrams, Robert Ashley, Anthony Braxton, Thomas Buckner, FLUX Quartet, Joseph Kubera, Annea Lockwood, and Alvin Lucier, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, Pauline Oliveros, Ursula Oppens, and Morton Subotnick.
Interpretations began as a collaboration with Robert and Helene Browning and the World Music Institute, presenting concerts at Merkin Concert Hall, then at Roulette, at its Greene Street location in Soho. When Roulette moved to the current space in Brooklyn, Interpretations moved with it. Interpretations is thrilled to co-produce at Roulette, which has developed into a premiere venue for new and innovative music, with excellent acoustics and world-class technical facilities.
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ROULETTE:
509 Atlantic Ave. Downtown Brooklyn
2, 3, 4, 5, C, G, D, M, N, R, B & Q trains & LIRR.
Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students for students & seniors, available at Roulette.org and Interpretations.info. All concerts begin at 8pm unless otherwise noted.
