Performance Archive

Hans Tammen & Jason Hwang

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 8:00pm Galapagos Art Space

16 Main Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Subway: F to York Street, A to High Street, 2, 3 to Clark Street

In a new collaboration with “Darmstadt—Classics Of The Avantgarde” at Galapagos Art Space, the Manhattan New Music Project presents two ensembles as a part of our New Composers Series, highlighting living composers with new approaches to jazz and other forms of new music.

I have felt that the conditions of spontaneity and mobility of elements which I have been working with create a more urgent and intense “communication” throughout the entire process, from composing to the final realization of a work, I prefer that each “final form,” which each performance necessarily produces, be a collaborative adventure, and that the work and its conditions of human involvement remain a ‘living’ potential of engagement. –Earle Brown

Hans Tammen uses Earle Brown’s open form composition idea as a starting point to create a large multi-movement piece, thoroughly composed and purely improvised at the same time, inspired by west african roots of Jazz, Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, Steve Coleman, and Stravinsky’s layering or Steve Reich’s phase techniques. Drawing from a single repertoire of around 100 pre-conceived musical units, the conductor uses the orchestra as an instrument, while each performer shapes the music through virtuosic improvisation and the individual stylization of musical performance. “Everything about Third Eye Orchestra… indicates mastery and control” (Howard Mandel / CD Liner Notes)

Composer/Violinist Jason Kao Hwang’s Spontaneous River is an orchestra of over 25 string improvisers, including bassist Ken Filiano and along with drummer Andrew Drury, who are also members of his quartet, EDGE. It is only in recent years that so many string players have engaged in the art of improvisational music. Spontaneous River is an ensemble and a community that represents this emerging movement. The power of Spontaneous River is drawn from both the sonic unity of strings and the undeniable individualism of each musician’s “voice.” Mr. Hwang’s compositions are often spontaneous architectures consisting of notated passages and guided improvisations, to express stories abundant with flora, fauna and dreams of the human spirit. This work was funded in part by the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center.

This performance is made possible with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.