Avant Music News

From the Irondale Ensemble Project:

The Irondale Center Presents:

Anthony Braxton and Walter Thompson Premiere
A New Soundpainting Composition
Performed by Anthony Braxton, Walter Thompson, and the Walter Thompson Orchestra
April 16, 17 & 18, 2009

What: Anthony Braxton and Walter Thompson Premiere – A New Soundpainting Composition
When: April 16, 17 & 18, 2009 @ 7:30pm
Where: The Irondale Center, Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY
Cost: $20/$15, to purchase tickets go to www.irondale.org or call 212.352.3101

In celebration of their recent opening, the BAM cultural districts first new performing arts destination, The Irondale Center, premieres an exciting new work from two highly acclaimed artists.

Anthony Braxton, one of music’s most original composers and instrumentalists, has composed a new work in collaboration with Soundpainter Walter Thompson and the Walter Thompson Orchestra. Mr. Thompson will combine Mr. Braxton’s Language Music System with Soundpainting – the multidisciplinary live – composing sign language created by Mr. Thompson. The concerts will feature performances by Anthony Braxton, a woodwind virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist and the fifteen musicians and actors of the Walter Thompson Orchestra. Performances will run from April 16 to April 18, 2009 at 7:30 pm at The Irondale Center in the historic Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY, between Lafayette and Fulton Streets. Tickets are $20/$15 (for students and working artists) and can be purchased by going to www.irondale.org or by calling 212.352.3101.

Mr. Thompson will soundpaint Mr. Braxton’s notation, text, and drawings (called Palettes in the Soundpainting language) and then transform them in the canvas of the work. They become the colors and textures used by Mr. Thompson to shape and guide the overall direction of the piece. The resulting composition will be created entirely in the moment. Each of the three performances will assume a unique shape dependent on the recombination of the Palettes, the Soundpainter’s gestures, and the response of the performers. In this unique form of artistic collaboration, the components of the Soundpainting coalesce to saturate the performance in a dynamic interplay.

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