Interpretations 3/9/23: Michael Byron / Dan Joseph

The Interpretations Series continues on Thursday March 9th, 2023 with a split bill featuring the music of composers Michael Byron and Dan Joseph. Byron’s program will include the premier of his new work In One Second There Will Be A Thousand Plateaus Perhaps for two pianos and small orchestra. A work about “sheer multiplicity which has neither subject nor object,” the piece will be performed by pianists Joseph Kubera and Steve Beck with Petr Kotik conducting members of the S.E.M. Ensemble. Also included will be an encore performance of his 2018 composition Fabric for String Noise performed by violin duo String Noise (Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris). Brooklyn-based Joseph will offer a program of new and recent chamber works that emphasize differing approaches to rhythm and counterpoint, including Underground Suite for marimba and saxophone, Eucalyptus Quartet for violin, cello, saxophone and clarinet, and a new work for piano. The works will be performed by pianist Marija Ilic, saxophonists Erin Rogers and Chris Mannigan, percussionist Danny Tunick, violinist Tom Chiu and cellist Clara Kennedy.

The concert will take place at 8pm 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:

Michael Byron was born in 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the newly opened California Institute of The Arts, where he studied with James Tenney. He was publisher and editor of the acclaimed anthology series, Pieces, devoted to the increased dissemination of American exploratory music. He served on the Board of Directors of the Aesthetic Research Centre of Canada, and edited the first issue of the interdisciplinary Journal of Experimental Aesthetics. Byron was Music Editor at E.C. Kerby, Varese’s original French publisher where he completed a new edition of Varese’s Octandre.  A prolific composer, his music has been performed around the world, and he has received grants and commissions from The Fromm Music Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Roulette Intermedium, Dartmouth College, York University, and private benefactors.  Byron’s instrumental music is rich in complexity and multiplicity. Its formal organization is structured using a network of asymmetrical, ergodic systems. Each score is meticulously notated, and exclusively virtuosic. Many of his works were composed in collaboration with other artists including poet Anne Tardos, pianists Joseph Kubera, Marilyn Nonken, and Steve Beck, The FLUX Quartet, String Noise, the Willian Winant Percussion Ensemble, and The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble. His music has been released on New World Records, Cold Blue Music, Meridian Records, Poon Village Records, Neutral Records, Tellus, and Koch Records. His scores are available from Frog Peak music. Byron lives with his wife, poet Anne Tardos in New York City.

Dan Joseph is a composer, curator and writer based in New York City. He began his career in the early ‘80s as a drummer in the vibrant punk scene of his native Washington, DC. Soon after, he became active in the experimental tape music underground, producing ambient-industrial works for various independent labels. He spent the ‘90s in California where he studied at CalArts and Mills College. His principal teachers include Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran and Mel Powell. Equally influential were his studies with Terry Riley during several workshops in California and Colorado. Embracing the musical multiplicity of our time, Dan works simultaneously in a variety of media and contexts, including instrumental chamber music, electroacoustic computer music, free improvisation, electronica, and sound art. Since the late 90s, the hammer dulcimer has been the primary vehicle for his music, and he is also active as a performer with his own chamber ensemble, The Dan Joseph Ensemble, as well as in various improvisational collaborations and as a soloist. Dan’s work has been presented at Harvestworks, Experimental Intermedia, Issue Project Room Human Resources, Harrison House, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Diapason Gallery for Sound, New Langton Arts and other venues.  He currently produces the monthly music and sound series Musical Ecologies in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and his writings on music have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Musicworks Magazine and NewMusicBox.

UPCOMING INTERPRETATIONS CONCERTS:

THURSDAY APRIL 13, 2023:  ALEXANDRA GARDNER / JOHANNES SIDENIUS

Founded by baritone Thomas Buckner, the Interpretations series, now in its 33rd season, 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.

ROULETTE:509 Atlantic Ave. Downtown Brooklyn2, 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.