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New Music Circle
2007-2008 Season

Updated Calendar – Fresh from the Press (PDF) – From the New Music Circular
Another season of New Music Circle adventure is about to get under way and exciting major innovations are afoot! Our 49th season opens with Konk Pack , with the launch of CAMA, a new initiative to generate and support "homegrown" productions in addition to our "standard" fare of touring artists, and with a series of free classes.

Please note: The season lineup is incomplete, owing to last-minute scheduling problems. NMC plans to present two additional performances by touring artists in the Spring of 2008.

Friday, Sept 21, 2007
"Season Opener: CAN it! (Create Art Now)
Friday, September 21, 2007, 7 PM - 10 PM
142 Willow Brook Drive, St. Louis, MO 63146
Private event for New Music Circle Members and their Guests
Renew your membership tonight!

Come create live improvised art with other local artists from a
variety of media. While you are here, renew your New Music Circle
membership, or join for the first time! Come and bond through sound
and art with your fellow avant garde enthusiasts!!

Create music with instruments, electronics, your voice, or other noise
making devices. Dance, draw, find yoga postures, tai chi flow,
meditate, write poetry, speak poetry, or whatever you consider your
art form! Inside the designated space, speaking will not be
permitted, unless your speaking is your art. Create your own
experience. Create Art Now!!

Wednesday, Sept 26, 2007

"A Guided Tour of The Analog Synthesizer"
Guided by Dr. Mabuse (aka Mike Murphy)
Wednesday, September 26, 2007, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Carpenter Branch Public Library, downstairs meeting room
3309 Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63118
Tickets: Free

Do you own an analog synthesizer with “mystery knobs?” Languish no more in ignominy! Learn to make these oft cold machines “sing, squonk, and blorch” at your command with the help of analog synth veteran Dr. Mabuse. In addition to the hours spent noodling in garages and basements, Doc studied electronic music with Merrill Ellis at University of North Texas and software design at SLU. Mabuse currently composes and improvises music on instruments of his on making, and has appeared as a sideman in many St. Louis bands, including neXt rAdio, SCSI, and the tory z starbuck band. The Good Doctor aims to unravel the mystery of confusing labels and weird wiggly lines on the panel with a practical hands-on approach. Join him for this informal series where you can observe techniques on a demonstration synth, or bring your own! This seminar is the first in a series that continues on the third Wednesday of each month through December 2007 from 6 PM - 8 PM.

Friday, Sept 28, 2007
KONK PACK
Friday, September 28, 2007, 7:30 PM
Kerr Foundation Building (about 4 blocks north of Laclede's Landing at 1st Street)
21 O’Fallon Street, St. Louis, MO 63102
Tickets: $12; $6 students

English-German rock trio Konk Pack has pushed the envelope of collectively improvised music around the globe for a decade. Uncompromising in their trashy overloaded-aesthetic, “a heavy rocking swing echoes out of [Konk Pack’s] loose noise conglomerations.” The group, consisting of Britons Tim Hodgkinson (lap steel guitar, electronics, clarinets), Roger Turner (drumset and percussion), and German-born Thomas Lehn (analog synthesizer), formed in 1997 at the Szuenetjel Festival in Budapest. Extensive touring throughout Europe and North America, including many contemporary music festival appearances, has complemented Konk Pack’s three album releases on the GROB label. The Wire magazine called the group, “utterly awesome,” describing their work as “startling combinations of punkish nuisance, ingenious change-ups, and rolling, stumbling, tripping and flipping sound inventions…[making] Konk Pack one of the most exciting improv groups in the world.” For more information, visit: http://www.myspace.com/konkpack

Sunday, October 14, 2007
Tom Buckner/Dave Wessel
Sunday, October 14, 2007, 8 PM
Christ Church Cathedral
1210 Locust Street, St. Louis, MO 63103
Tickets: $12; $6 students

Baritone Thomas Buckner and computer music performer/composer David Wessel have been active in contemporary avant-garde and improvisational music for thirty years. The New York Times called Buckner “a pillar of the experimental music nonestablishment,” describing his extraordinarily flexible voice as “fluent and smooth.” His performances often include use of a wide range of extended vocal techniques. Buckner has traversed the globe as a performer, while working regularly with composers such as Robert Ashley and Alvin Lucier. David Wessel, currently co-director of the Center for New Music Audio Technology (CNMAT) at Berkley University, has devoted his life to research, composition, and performance of contemporary music and the study of music perception/cognition. While studying mathematics and experimental psychology at the university level, Wessel fell in with the jazz avant-garde, and started working in the electronic medium. After receiving his PhD in mathematical psychology from Stanford, Wessel landed a position at IRCAM in Paris, where he worked with Berio and Stockhausen, among others. Since the 1980’s, Wessel’s specific niche has been in live performance computer-music in which improvisation keeps the listener eagerly anticipating his next twist. Buckner and Wessel will perform using a combination of interactive software written by Wessel using Max/MSP, and a tactile controller developed by Buchla. For web information:

on Buckner: http://www.thomasbuckner.com
on Wessel: http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/~wessel

Sunday, October 21, 2007
C.A.N it! Night
Sunday, October 21, 2007, 7 PM - 10 PM
NMC Halloween Costume Party and Benefit!
Kerr Foundation Building
21 O’Fallon Street, St. Louis, MO 63102
Tickets: $12 (or more!), $6 for students, NMC members, and starving artists.

Improvise and artistify your night through whatever sounds and art you
choose to come make! This includes your costume . . . . Halloween
goodies are provided!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

CIRCLE/CINEMA 21 & S.L.I.F.F. Jujiro (“Crossroads”), a silent film, live new music

(Teinosuke Kinugasa, silent, 1928, 78 min.)
With musical accompaniment by New Music Circle
Saturday, Nov. 10 – 7 PM
St. Louis Art Museum Auditorium
Tickets: $10, $8 for members

For the first time, the popular Circle/Cinema collaboration between New Music Circle and the St. Louis Art Museum will be part of the St. Louis International Film Festival. The stunning Japanese classic silent film Jujiro will be accompanied by innovative music from an ensemble of national scope assembled by New Music Circle’s own Rich O’Donnell (Japanese percussion). Other musicians include Carol Genetti (voice)—Chicago, Philip Gelb (shakuhachi)—San Francisco, and St. Louisan Debora Summers (yang qin).
Director Kinugasa tells the tale of an 18th century ronin who, after committing an act of murder must turn to his sister for help—putting her in grave danger. The ensuing chaos leads to delusion and sacrifice as the siblings’ lives become emotionally and metaphorically contorted through Kinugasa’s brilliant artistry. Years ahead of its time, Jujiro showcases Kinugasa’s ability as an innovative and visionary director by using striking techniques such as a moving camera, intense close-ups, and hallucinatory shots. In its day, Jujiro enjoyed commercial success in Japan, as well as Europe, as it was the first Japanese film to be widely shown there.
A special 20-minute presentation of seven short films created by local artists that all glorify water will precede Jujiro. Rich O’Donnell will accompany the piece (originally solicited by Cinema St. Louis and premiered at the Pulitzer Foundation on September 20, 2007) using instruments of his own creation, which require water to sound.
For information about Jujiro, http://www.cinemathequeontario.ca/filmdetail.aspx?filmId=442

* Please check http://www.cinemastlouis.org/fest.html for final schedule

Sunday, December 2, 2007
Laetitia Sonami, "Lady's Glove"
Sunday, December 2, 2007, 7:30 PM
Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts at Forest Park
5600 Oakland Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110
Tickets: $12, $6 students

Born in France, Laetitia Sonami is a talented composer, performer, and sound installation artist. Sonami’s works have been described as “performance novels,” which use technology in combination with dance to create intimate, yet spontaneous pieces. The Los Angeles Times noted (of Sonami) that “...experimental music is rarely this visceral and engaging.” Sonami will perform using her unique creation: the lady’s glove. Constructed of black Lycra and embedded with sensors, the apparatus is worn on Sonami’s hand and allows her movements to control sounds, mechanical devices, and lights in real-time. Her dance becomes the music, as her control of the lady’s glove dictates the sonic and visual environment.

Sunday, December 9, 2007
C.A.N it! Night - Holiday Havoc Heraldry!!
Sunday, December 9, 2007, 7 PM - 10 PM
Kerr Foundation Building
21 O’Fallon Street, St. Louis, MO 63102
Tickets: Free.

Perhaps you will come with your favorite holiday tunes (or atonal
winter groans) to deconstruct and reconstrue into improvisational
mistleshoo!! At least just bring you! Cider and munchies provided
too! NMC members, students, and starving artists: Free.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

"A Guided Tour of The Analog Synthesizer"
Guided by Dr. Mabuse (aka Mike Murphy)

Thursday, January 17, 2008, 6:45 PM - 8:45 PM
Carpenter Branch Public Library, downstairs meeting room
3309 Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63118
Tickets: Free

The Analog lecture series will continue on the third THURSDAY of each month through 15 May 2008, 6:45 PM - 8:45 PM. In addition to the hours spent noodling in garages and basements, Doc studied electronic music with Merrill Ellis at University of North Texas and software design at SLU. Mabuse currently composes and improvises music on instruments of his on making, and has appeared as a sideman in many St. Louis bands, including neXt rAdio, SCSI, and the tory z starbuck band. The Good Doctor aims to unravel the mystery of confusing labels and weird wiggly lines on the panel with a practical hands-on approach. Join him for this informal series where you can observe techniques on a demonstration synth, or bring your own! Time:6:45pm to 8:45pm

Dates:Thurs 17-Jan-2008 Thurs 21-Feb-2008 Thurs 20-Mar-2008 Thurs 17-Apr-2008 Thurs 15-May-2008

Friday, February 1, 2008
CAMA Event! - Kai Wan Sing
Rich O’Donnell and friends
Friday, February 1, 2008, 7:30 PM
Satori
3003 Locust Street, St. Louis, MO 63103
Tickets: $12, $6 students

Long-time avant-garde improviser and seesaw-drumming inventor Rich O’Donnell will recreate his work, Kai Wan Sing. Originally conceived for export to China during the summer of 2007, Kai Wan Sing (translated as “open play sound”) features a combination of percussion and poetry. Throughout his illustrious professional career first as a jazz drummer, then as Principal Percussionist for the St. Louis Symphony, O’Donnell has emerged as one of the elite percussion improvisers in the world. Performing with many self-made instruments and a myriad of extended techniques, O’Donnell’s seesaw-drumming uses reciprocal motion on both the hands and feet, allowing him to use two sticks, or beaters per appendage. Performers include O’Donnell (seesaw drums), Deb Summers (percussion), Glen “Papa” Wright (percussion), and Anna Lum (poet).

Friday February 29, 2008
CAMA Event! - SYNAESTHESIA
Van McElwee and friends
Friday February 29, 2008, 7:30 PM
Saint Louis Art Museum
Tickets: $12, $6 students

Van McElwee’s SYNAESTHESIA is a four-part concert of original music compositions set to experimental video works by McElwee himself, Peter Rose, and Roy Zurick. The program will feature some of St. Louis’ most innovative musicians, including James Hegarty and Rich O’Donnell. “Relentless kinetic energy by Rose (The Geosophist’s Tears) and Zurick (Stop) will be given exotic music expression by the Semi-Acoustic Noise Ensemble (S.A.N.E.).” In addition, McElwee’s hypnotic video work, Vat, will be musically-revamped by digital synthesis guru James Hegarty. The evening will climax with the world premier of Wavicle, a video work of pure color created by McElwee specially for Rich O’Donnell’s percussion genius. In McElwee’s words, “The term synaesthesia is used here in a special sense to refer to patterns that underlie all time-based ideas. I believe that all of the artists and composers in this program approach their work in ways that include and go beyond image and sound. They think in terms of form in time; they create gestalts.”

Sunday, Mar. 9 2008
The Lemp Free Improvisation Workshops
Sunday, Mar. 9 – 11 a.m. (concert – 8 p.m.)
Featuring Dan Kozak
Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center
3301 Lemp Ave.
Workshop: Free; Concert: $5
The Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center will present daylong workshops to provide exercises in improvisation with touring performers. The series will be geared to provide maximum feedback on the nature of free improvisation. Each event will culminate at 8 p.m. with a performance of the workshop participants, and featuring the touring artists. Workshops are open to the public free of charge but participation will be limited. To register for the event, please email contact@lemp-arts.org and provide information on what instrument(s) you play, your level of ability, and experience with improvisation. For more info visit www.lemp-arts.org or call 314-771-1096.

Saturday, March 15, 2008
CAMA Event! - Sp(l)aces
James Hegarty and Mary-Jean Cowell
Saturday, March 15, 2008, 8 PM
Annelise Mertz Dance Studio
(Located in Mallinckrodt Center at Washington University)
Tickets: $12, $6 students

James Hegarty, associate professor of music at Principia College, has been a frequent performer at New Music Circle concerts. Hegarty has also been the recipient of numerous commissions and grants, including support from the National Endowment for the Arts, allowing his work to be showcased at electronic music festivals around the world. Mary-Jean Cowell, associate professor of dance and coordinator of the dance program at Washington University, began her professional career in New York City where she studied under Merce Cunningham and Alwin Nikolais. She has choreographed more than fifty works for international productions. Hegarty and Cowell will premier a multimedia piece, Sp(l)aces, which “explores the dynamics of interconnections and personal intensity.” Sp(l)aces takes the form of music and movement, sound and video, projections and live action, color and grayscale. Through image capture, Cowell’s movements help dictate and manipulate the live and processed music that emanates from Hegarty’s computer.

Saturday, Apr. 5, 2008
Chris Mann – Solo performance
Rob Voisey's 60x60 (2007 / International Mix ), video collaboration with Zlatko Cosic
Saturday, Apr. 5, 2008 – 7:30 p.m.
Mildred Bastian Center (Forest Park CC)
5600 Oakland Ave.
Tickets: $12, $6 students

Australian composer, poet, and performer Chris Mann has operated on the boundaries of the art music scene for more than three decades. A pioneer in the field of compositional linguistics, Mann describes the discipline as, "the mechanism whereby you understand what I'm thinking better than I do." Mann's ability and style of reading dense texts at high speeds has earned him an international reputation as a performer. Currently teaching at The New School in New York, Mann has performed in collaboration with Tomas Buckner, Annea Lockwood, and Larry Polansky. A host of individuals and institutes have commissioned Mann to create work, including BBC, NPR, John Cage, and Ars Electronica.

The evening's bill will also feature Rob Voisey's 60x60 (2007) music project. Voisey, artistic director of 60x60, founder of Vox Novus, and vice-president of programs at the Living Music Foundation works tirelessly as a composer, performer, promoter, and presenter of post-modern contemporary art music. 60x60 features 60 electronic works, 60 seconds in length (or less) each by a different composer, and played in succession to create a one hour concert. Experimental filmmaker and St. Louisan Zlatko Cosic has created video art to accompany 60x60 (2007), adding a visual element to the evening. Cosic, an accomplished multimedia artist, has been commissioned by the Pulitzer Foundation and the Regional Arts Commission, among others.

Sunday, Apr. 13 2008
The Lemp Free Improvisation Workshops
Sunday, Apr. 13 – 11 a.m. (concert – 8 p.m.)
Featuring Theo Katsaounis and Carol Genetti
Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center
3301 Lemp Ave.
Workshop: Free; Concert: $5
The Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center will present daylong workshops to provide exercises in improvisation with touring performers. The series will be geared to provide maximum feedback on the nature of free improvisation. Each event will culminate at 8 p.m. with a performance of the workshop participants, and featuring the touring artists. Workshops are open to the public free of charge but participation will be limited. To register for the event, please email contact@lemp-arts.org and provide information on what instrument(s) you play, your level of ability, and experience with improvisation. For more info visit www.lemp-arts.org or call 314-771-1096.

Saturday, Apr. 19, 2008
Tatsuya Nakatani
Saturday, Apr. 19, 2008 – 7:30 p.m.
Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center
3301 Lemp St.
Tickets: $12, $6 students

Japanese improvising percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani incites new thinking about possibilities in percussion. Using a variety of instruments including drumset, bowed gongs, singing bowls, and many found objects, Nakatani creates intense organic soundscapes that defy category or genre. Nakatani explores form and function with extremely dynamic work that develops through careful layering. The Wire magazine noted that "Nakatani's sparse punctuation suggests observance of esoteric ritual." In addition to his solo work, Nakatani has collaborated with hundreds of artists worldwide, has been featured on more than fifty released recordings, and regularly conducts clinics and master-classes. The concert is a part of Nakatani's cross-country tour in support of his new solo percussion album, Primal Communication, and is co-sponsored by Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center.

April 25, 26, 2008
CAMA Event! - METAMORPHOSIS
Kelsey LaPoint and friends
Friday & Saturday, Apr. 25 & 26 - 8 p.m.
The New City School Theater
5209 Waterman Blvd
Tickets: $12, $6 students

Kelsey LaPoint is a master at combining cross-discipline art forms into inspiring and meaningful pieces. Her work often includes original music and writings with video projection, dance, and sculptural scenery that encompasses the audience. Some of LaPoint's past themes have included our relationship to animals and the unfolding of spiritual paths. LaPoint's current project, Metamorphosis, explores the concepts of formation and transformation.

May 4, 2008
CAMA Event! - HaZMaT
Sunday, May 4, 2008, 7:30 PM
Mildred E. Bastian Center (Forest Park Community College)
5600 Oakland Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110
Tickets: $12, $6 students

Formed in 2005, the duo HaZMaT (Thomas Zirkle and Matt Henry) brings ethnic percussion traditions into the concert hall, through performance, composition, adaptation, and invention, “using improvisation in thought-provoking ways.” Zirkle, music coordinator at Forest Park Community College, is an active clinician, private instructor, and composer. He was recently a member of the Fulbright Delegation to China, where he sought to research traditional percussion music, culture, and language. Dr. Zirkle is also in the process of writing a three-volume instructional text on the marimba. Matt Henry, current head of the percussion department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, is particularly interested in the drumming of Africa and Latin America. Henry is currently writing grants for travel to Cuba and West Africa to enhance his knowledge of the culture and musical traditions found there. In addition to a recent stint as the principal timpanist for the Gateway Festival Orchestra, Henry performs regularly with Solucion Latina, Cherri Octopi, and the Nuclear Percussion Ensemble.

 May 11, 2008
An Illustrated Survey of Electro-Acoustic Stimulae on Mammalian Extrasensory Perception; The Musical
(a lecture in one act by dr. Alphonse Caspar Mabuse (aka Mike Murphy) and  rev. Eric Matthew)
Sunday, May 11 - 7:30 p.m
Tietjens Hall (Washington University)
6500 Forsyth Blvd
Tickets: $6

Dr. Mabuse and Rev. Eric Matthew present a one-act musical on "mammalian extrasensory perception," performing on modular analog synthesizers.

May 17, 2008
CAN it! #4 (Create Art Now)
Saturday, May 17, 2008 – 3-8 p.m.
Hosted by Dr. Bill Russell
in the "urban guerilla art park"
aka Miss MacCormack’s Yard
2927 Texas  (at the corner of Crittenden)
Free and open to the public

Come create live improvised art with other local artists from a variety of media – but without talking.  Bond through sound, movement, or visual beauty with your fellow avant garde enthusiasts!  Create
music with instruments, electronics, your voice, or other noise making devices.  Dance, draw, find yoga postures, tai chi flow, meditate, write poetry, speak poetry, or whatever you consider your
art form.  Inside the designated space, speaking will not be permitted, unless speaking is your art.  Create your own experience.
Create Art Now.

There are some power outlets available, though bring whatever you need to set up outdoors.  Tarps will be up-- so come Rain or Shine!  Feel free to bring some food to share!

The Premise:

To gather in one location, bringing any instruments, art supplies, yoga mats, or other things we are inspired to bring. 
To not talk through verbal conversation, but rather to communicate via music, dance, art, poetry, or any other improvisatory medium that arises, as well as eye-contact, body language, meditation, etc.
All styles of music art and creation are welcome as long as they respect space and people.

The Purpose:

Through the process of creative exploration and expression, to be present in the moment to ourselves and others as creative beings.  To Collaborate by proximity and playfulness, allowing our various art forms to merge into an event that transcends any genre.   To make music, art, and whatever together in a spirit of joyfulness and experimentation.

www.newmusiccircle.org
www.myspace.com/mrsmacmormicksyard

May 25, 2008
CAMA Event! - Spring into June
Rich O’Donnell, Anna Lum, and friends
Sunday, May 25, 2008, 5 PM
Laumeier Sculpture Park
12580 Rott Road, St. Louis, MO 63127
Tickets: Free

Inspired by the misty gardens and distant drumming present at a Japanese temple in Kyoto, Japan, “Spring into June” recaptures the magic experienced by O’Donnell and Lum by bringing that moment to Laumeier Sculpture Park—the event co-sponsor. Stroll the woods while the visual feasts of nature and sculpture are heightened by drummers, distant and near, dancing banners, tai chi players and other surprises. Spring into June features Rich O'Donnell, (seesaw drums), Deb Summers (percussion), Anna Lum, (tai chi player), and a host of additional drummers and dancers.