March 26-28, 2020 The Flea Theater
In celebration of the 75th Birthday of trailblazing composer (and EiO mentor) Anthony Braxton, Experiments in Opera will produce a short run of performances of Compositions No. 279-283 composed for improvisational actor and instrumentalists. This production is in collaboration with the Tri-Centric Foundation, which supports the continued evolution of the music of Anthony Braxton.
Drawing on Braxton’s complex systems of graphic notation, character development and narrative poetics, these compositions ask performers to engage with newspaper clippings, traditional improv comedy techniques and historical comedy tropes, all in the name of creating a dynamic and surprising evening of music and theater. These shows will run in the Siggy Theater at The Flea from March 26 – 28 and will feature director/performer Rob Reese, as well as a different set of musical improvisors for each night of the run. Confirmed musicians include renowned improvisers Nate Wooley (trumpet) and Ingrid Laubrock (saxophones) . Other artists will be announced as the performances approach.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Anthony Braxton (born 1945), the Chicago-born composer and multi-instrumentalist, is recognized as one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of the past 50 years. He is highly esteemed in the experimental music community for the revolutionary quality of his work and for the mentorship and inspiration he has provided to generations of younger musicians. Drawing upon a disparate mix of influences from John Coltrane to Karlheinz Stockhausen, Braxton has created a unique musical system that celebrates the concept of global creativity and our shared humanity. His work examines core principles of improvisation, structural navigation and ritual engagement – innovation, spirituality, and intellectual investigation.
From his early work as a pioneering solo performer in the late 1960s through to his eclectic experiments on Arista Records in the 1970s, his landmark quartet of the 1980s, and more recent endeavors, such as his cycle of Trillium operas and the day-long, installation-based Sonic Genome Project, his vast body of work is unparalleled. His small ensembles of the 1970s through to the present day are considered among the most innovative groups of their respective eras, while his Creative Orchestra Music has brought together the varying streams of American jazz orchestras, marching bands, and experimental practices with the traditions of European concert music in a wholly individual compositional voice. His continuing and evolving current systems of the past 15 years, including Ghost Trance Music, Diamond Curtain Wall Music, Falling River Music, Echo Echo Mirror House Music, and ZIM Music, have served as the artistic incubators for some of the most exciting artists of the current generation. Braxton’s many awards include a 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 1994 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a 2014 NEA Jazz Master Award, and honorary doctorates from Université de Liège (Belgium) and New England Conservatory (USA).