The Interpretations Series 34 season continues on Thursday April 11th, 2024 with a split bill featuring the music of composer/performers David Behrman and Ben Neill.A composer and artist,Behrman will present current updates on a project he did together with Ben Neill and his Mutantrumpet in the 1980s and early 90s. The performers will be Neill on Mutantrumpet and John King on guitar. Also on the program will be an excerpt from My Dear Siegfried (2004) with Thomas Buckner (voice), Peter Zummo (trombone) and Ralph Samuelson (shakuhachi). The composer will run the laptop for both pieces. Composer/performer Ben Neillwill present music for his self-designed Mutantrumpet and electronics, with percussion performed by Chris Nappi. The program will include new pieces based on texts by Terence McKenna, Rupert Sheldrake, and David Wojnarowicz, that use musical cryptography to generate sequences of pitch material that control the live sampled acoustic timbres of the Mutantrumpet. The program will also include Dis-Solution 2, for Mutantrumpet and percussion composed in 1986.

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:

David Behrman has been active as a composer and artist since the 1960s. Over the years he has made sound and multimedia installations for gallery spaces as well as musical compositions for performance in concerts. Many of his works feature flexible structures and a use of technology in personal ways; they rely on interactive real-time relationships with imaginative performers. Working at Columbia Records in the late Sixties, Behrman produced the “Music of Our Time” series of new music recordings. Together with Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma, he founded the Sonic Arts Union in 1966. He had a long association with the Cunningham Dance Company. Long Throw, Unforeseen Events, My Dear Siegfried, Leapday Night, On the Other Ocean, Interspecies Smalltalk, Open Space with Brass and ViewFinder are among Behrman’s works for soloists and small ensembles. His works have been recorded on Lovely Music, Alga Marghen, XI, Black Truffle and other labels. Black Truffle recently released a 1981 collaboration, She’s More Wild, with Terri Hanlon, Fern Friedman and Paul DeMarinis.

Composer/performer Ben Neill is the inventor of the Mutantrumpet, a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument, and is recognized as a musical innovator who “uses a schizophrenic trumpet to create art music for the people” (Wired Magazine). Through his use of interactive computer technologies, Neill generates unique musical and visual experiences that blur the lines between acoustic and electronic music, minimalism, and visual media. Neill has recorded thirteen albums of his music on labels including Universal/Verve, Thirsty Ear, Astralwerks, Six Degrees, and his own Blue Math label distributed by AWAL/Sony. Performances include BAM Next Wave Festival, Big Ears Festival, Lincoln Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Broad Museum,The Tank Center for Sonic Arts, Spoleto Festival among many others. Neill began developing the Mutantrumpet in the early 1980s, initially as an acoustic instrument combining 3 trumpets and a trombone into one. Later he collaborated with synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog to integrate electronics. In 1992, while in residency at the STEIM Amsterdam, Neill made the Mutantrumpet fully computer interactive. In 2008 he created a new version of his instrument at STEIM, and in 2019 Version 4 debuted in the premiere of Fantini Futuro. A native of North Carolina, Neill holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music. Since 2008 he has been a music professor at Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he recently founded an MFA program in Creative Music Technology.
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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.