Sunday August 18 * 7pm * $10-25 * TICKETS
Matthew Ryals (he, him) is a synthesist, composer, improviser, & educator based in Brooklyn, NY. His music explores improvisation, generative composition, chance, cybernetics, and unfixed forms & release formats. His uniquely tactile approach to the modular synthesizer embraces unusual & extended techniques. Recent accolades include receiving a '22-'23 New Music USA Award & '21 IEA Electronic Media Residency. Matthew has released on Oxtail Recordings, sound as language, SØVN, 3OP, dingn\dents, & other labels. He’s the co-curator of the Brooklyn-based experimental music series, Artifact.
Cleveland-based harpist, improviser, and composer, Stephan Haluska (he/they) draws from the instrument’s unique textural, percussive, and physical qualities. Through an advanced vocabulary of extended techniques, preparations, and electronics, Stephan seeks new ways to expand his sound palette, as heard on releases on Infrequent Seams and Constellation Tatsu. As managing director, Stephan leads Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP), dedicated to strengthening the artistic engagement of the Northeast Ohio community by championing the creation and performance of new and experimental music. Stephan is on faculty at Case Western Reserve University, where he teaches digital music composition.
Tom Borax is a Baltimore native, multi-instrumentalist, performer and artist. In live performances he focuses exclusively on improvisation with a home-made analog synthesizer and harpsichord. His synthesizer playing is highly gestural and responsive, pushing the technical aspects of synthesis to extreme dynamics from gentle to explosive, minimal to chaotic, bass rumble to thin buzz. Sounds are intended to evoke human digestion, nocturnal animals, thunderstorms, broken telephones, motors and car accidents. His harpsichord music uses mathematical and/or experimental tunings to spin webs and streams of dissonant and complex melodies, tone clusters, and intense barrages of sound. He also incorporates his history studying jazz and Hindustani music into his playing. He is a founder of the long-running High Zero Festival of Experimental and Improvised Music and has collaborated with too many musicians to name here.
Sarah Hughes is a performing and visual artist currently living in Washington, DC. She has 26 years of experience playing the alto saxophone and also doubles on the soprano saxophone, flute, and clarinet. She received training in classical saxophone performance from Dale Underwood at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in music education in 2008. In 2015, Hughes earned a master’s degree in jazz saxophone performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she studied with Jerry Bergonzi, Ran Blake, Anthony Coleman, and Donny McCaslin. Hughes’ music is intuitive and genre-liberated while displaying an unquestionable command of her instrument and musical vocabulary. Her improvisations and compositions are infused with knowledge of both traditional and contemporary approaches and combine a love for “The Greats” with a drive to innovate.