The Interpretations Series 33rd season concludes on Thursday April 13th, 2023 with a split bill featuring the music of composers Alexandra Gardner and Johannes Sidenius. Composer Alexandra Gardner will present new and recent works for instruments and electronics, including Juniper for solo shakuhachi, and Ayehli for marimba and electronics, Seduction Involves Patience for viola & soundtrack, Cypress for baritone sax and soundtrack, and Lantana for soprano saxophone and soundtrack. With Elizabeth Brown, shakuhachi, percussionist Jeff Stern, violist Edwin Kaplan and saxophonist Doug O’Connor. Composer and performer Johannes Sidenius will share Lines in states of explosion/implosion (2022), a new work for electronically generated sounds based on the notion of one-dimensional lines reacting to gravitational forces by means of implosion and explosion.
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:
Well-known for her works mixing acoustic instruments with electronic music and field recordings, the music of composer Alexandra Gardner has been praised as “highly lyrical and provocative of thought” (San Francisco Classical Voice), “mesmerizing” (The New York Times), and as having a “particular alchemy of craft, whimsy, and sensual appeal” (The New Yorker). Drawing inspiration from sources such as mythology, the natural sciences, contemporary literature, and her background as an audio engineer and percussionist, her compositions are regularly featured at festivals and venues around the world, including the Aspen Music Festival, Beijing Modern Festival, Centro de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Festival Cervantino, The Kennedy Center, The Library of Congress, Merkin Hall, the Warsaw Autumn Festival and many others. Her music has been commissioned and presented by leading organizations and ensembles such as the National Flute Association, the American Harp Society, Astral Artists, the Boulanger Initiative, Chicago Composers Orchestra, String Orchestra of Brooklyn, SOLI Chamber Ensemble, Strathmore Music Center, Town Hall Seattle, and the United States Navy Band. She spent two years as a visiting composer at the Institut Universitari de l’Audiovisual in Barcelona, Spain, and served as Composer-In-Residence for the Seattle Symphony during the 2017-2018 concert season. Her music is recorded on the Innova, Ars Harmonica, Naxos, and Neuma labels. She currently lives in Baltimore, MD.
Johannes Sidenius is a cellist and performer, composer and artistic director. His interests include music in just intonation, improvisation as a discrete art form, pieces of furniture as instruments, installation and performance art, and non-hierarchical, free- association-based art experience. As a cellist Sidenius focuses on multisensory performances of large-scale works of the avantgarde and modernism. He is one of a handful of cellists worldwide who has taken on Giacinto Scelsi’s Trilogy and presents it alongside poetry, tai chi and sonic meditation. In his compositions Sidenius elaborates on various ambiguities, such as multiphonics of a string instrument, artefacts produced by inbreath-singing or the unpredictable musical behaviour of electronic equipment. Tulkinnanvaraista, the concert series led by Johannes Sidenius, has brought to Finnish audiences over 100 performers of experimental music from 15 different countries. Sidenius has studied in Turku, London, New York and Helsinki. In 2013 he graduated with a doctorate from Sibelius Academy where he explored aspects of experimental composition as well as argued for a holistic, process-based presence in music in his Manifesto on Sounding. Sidenius also teaches at Sibelius Academy and has written some 100 articles for various music publications. Currently Sidenius is focused on questions of communal learning as part of a complete study and performance of Cornelius Cardew’s music theatre work The Great Learning, a joint venture of Tulkinnanvaraista and Uniarts Helsinki.
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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.