RhizomeDC presents the first in a series of concerts of experimental and improvised music featuring pre-show workshops with world-class improvisers. The workshop is open to all; participants will be invited to perform together as an ensemble following the workshop.
Featuring:
Sarah Hennies (vibraphone) / Dave Gross (saxophone) / Morgan Evans-Weiler (violin)
Weed Tree (Amanda Huron - drums / Layne Garrett - guitar)
Dr. Thomas Stanley (reading/invocation based on his book The Execution of Sun Ra)
Saturday October 24 at Back Alley Theater - 1365 Kennedy St NW DC
Improvisation workshop at 5pm - Email laynegarrett at yahoo dot com to RSVP
Doors open at 7:30, Performances start at 8 - $10 suggested donation
Sarah Hennies ( http://www.sarah-hennies.com ) is a percussionist and composer from Louisville, KY currently residing in Ithaca, NY. Her work is primarily concerned with an immersive, psychoacoustic presentation of sound brought about by an often grueling, endurance-based performance practice that Nathan Thomas of Fluid Radio described as, "a highly sophisticated and refined performance technique...that starts and ends with listening and encourages a different way of listening from its audience." She received her M.A. in percussion from the University of California-San Diego in 2003 where she studied with renowned percussionist Steven Schick and is also a member of Meridian, a percussion trio with Tim Feeney and Greg Stuart. Prior to relocating to Ithaca, Hennies was based in Austin, TX for ten years where she performed with the Austin New Music Co-op, The Weird Weeds and a variety of other projects. Hennies is also an interpreter of the work of other modern composers having recorded and performed music by John Cage, Alvin Lucier, Jandek, Peter Ablinger, Kunsu Shim, Jürg Frey, Ellen Fullman, Radu Malfatti, Arnold Dreyblatt and many others. Her work as both composer and performer can be heard on a wide variety of labels including Quakebasket, Senufo Editions, Accidie, Quiet Design and many others. In 2013 Hennies also founded the record label Weighter Recordings for releasing her own work and other new and unusual music by living composers.
For two decades David Gross has been transforming the saxophone into exactly what it is: a metal tube with keys, mouthpiece, and a reed. Reviews of his recordings have been as varied as "the range of textured noise that he cajoles from his instrument is impressive," "lengthy episodes of fingernails ripping at a blackboard" and "the intimacy with which he approaches the saxophone, each screw in each latch, every fiber in the reed, every pad or valve, and all the negative space in between, is simply astounding.” Having grown frustrated with the “meaning” and “possibilities” of “music” within the last 5 years, Mr. Gross is beginning to form a different relationship to “performance” which includes influences of institutional critique, Lacanian psychoanalysis and identity politics. Get ready, ppl.
Morgan Evans-Weiler ( www.me-w.org ) is a Boston based sound artist, composer and educator who uses violin, electronics and other media to explore the realms of attention, stillness, stasis and listening. His solo work involves compositions, improvisations and environments that explore the physical properties of sound, the experience of space, and experimental performative practices. Since arriving in Boston, Morgan has been actively involved in the creative music scene. He releases tapes by Boston artists on his Individual Lines label and produces shows at Washington St. Art in Somerville, MA. His current projects include the large Boston ensemble Deleuzer, a duo with Jed Speare, his solo work and the Howard Martin Quartet. He maintains a busy performance schedule and has performed all along the East Coast and Midwest. Recently, he performed at the High Zero Festival in Baltimore in the fall of 2014. He has performed with Vic Rawlings, Nick Hennies, Dave Gross, Keith Rowe, Dafne Vincent-Sandoval, Jen Baker, JD Zazie, Andrew Eisenberg, Jack Wright, Bhob Rainey, Michael Rosenstein, Howard Martin, Jesse Kenas Collins, and many others.
Weed Tree ( weedtree.bandcamp.com ) is Amanda Huron and Layne Garrett from Washington DC. We play improvised music on drums, guitars, and other objects.
Dr. Thomas Stanley ( http://onesheet.com/alterdestiny/splash/ ) believes he is changing the world two ears at a time. Most of us will appreciate the capacity of music to serve as an emotional reservoir of past experience, a sonic trigger for a million shades of nostalgic reflection, but Stanley is in hot pursuit of a forward-facing teleology in the most obtuse quarters of audio culture. As an artist and teacher, his work erupts like molten magma at the churning intersection between sound art and experimental music. As thinker, his unique synthesis draws upon the tradition of "serious" philosophy (Bergson, Deleuze, Spinoza, Žižek ) but is also heavily indebted to more accessible thinkers (Sun Ra, Terrence McKenna, Fools Crow, Jesus Christ). Stanley's Anti-Predator-Drone-Tone-Science interventions are rich with broad musical references, sardonic humor, and a genuine love for human beings and their evolving condition away from war and waste and towards some kind of collective renewal. Stanley recently authored and published The Execution of Sun Ra, an elaboration upon ideas embedded in the work of the enigmatic 20th Century jazz icon and teacher. He is also co-author of an oral history of George Clinton and P-Funk, a founding member of the volunteer curatorial collective Transparent Productions, and a weekly music programmer on fm-radio station WPFW.