On October 21st Harvestworks is inviting you to join our Friends Circle for a special evening of refreshments, an exhibition of Toneburst Maps and Fragments and a special concert of David Tudor’s Toneburst [Untitled] realized by John D.S Adams.
In 1995-96 David Tudor collaborated with Sophia Ogielska on a visual language for representing David’s music compositions created in analog circuits. Focusing on Tudor’s composition Toneburst for Merce Cunningham’s Sounddance, they developed Toneburst Maps and Fragments — a collaborative installation work which used visual elements derived from David Tudor’s scores. The work was first exhibited at the Ezra and Cecile Zilka Gallery at Wesleyan University in 1996.
David Tudor’s Toneburst represents the culmination of a decade of experimentation and is considered to be the definitive Tudor composition. It wraps up in one complex package the mysterious ideas and elusive philosophies behind the conception, realization and performance of his music.
Tonight’s realization embodies the spirit of transformation that Tudor embraced fully in his creative process. It combines a hybrid of pre-processed source material and live electronic processing.
DATES AND TIMES: Friday October 21st 2016 7 pm
Tickets available here: $100 and Toneburst (Untitled] 75/16) – by John D.S. Adams
Cocktails at 7 pm
Performance: 30 minutes starting at 8 pm
LOCATION
22 Boerum Place, Brooklyn NY 11201
JOHN D.S. ADAMS is an award winning producer, recording/mix engineer, sound designer and experimental sound artist having worked on a wide variety of projects in film, television, music and dance. John’s incredible range and experience make him a highly sought after producer / engineer.
John’s client list is broad and impressive including music recording/mixing for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s award winning ‘Beach Birds: For Camera’, twelve CDs and 2 DVDs for Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Sony BMG artists Yo Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax, PSI Factor (Alliance-Atlantis TV series), Anton Kuerti’s final Beethoven Piano Sonatas as well as composition/sound design for Barishnykov’s White Oak Dance Project. In 2000 the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles sought the skills of John when embarking on a massive music archival project. Between 2007 and 2009, John was Senior Recording Engineer at The Banff Centre.
Following the completion of his Masters of Music in Sound Recording (McGill University class of ‘91), John spent an inspirational five years in New York City. While in New York he worked intensively as a musician and multi-channel sound designer for the cutting edge Merce Cunningham Dance Company and acted as a hands-on assistant to electronic music pioneer David Tudor. Adams was requested by Tudor to realize and perform his music in the US, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Taiwan. In 1998 Adams joined ranks with New York based Composers Inside Electronics to perform Tudor’s Rainforest IV at the Lincoln Center Festival 98, and for the 2001 realization of Rainforest IV at the Getty Research Institute (Los Angeles) Symposium on David Tudor. Adams continues to perform the works of David Tudor and creates music using his modular analogue electronics.
Adams has had the privilege of collaborating with some of the great musical pioneers of our time, including John Cage, Pauline Oliveros , Walter Zimmerman, Takehisa Kosugi, Steve Lacy and Stuart Dempster and Christos Hatzis. He is currently affiliated with suddenlyLISTEN (Halifax based improv collective), F.F.O.B. (Toronto based multimedia/electronic ensemble), JERK (Atlantic Canadian experimental improv quintet) and EHRES with Pauline Oliveros.
“… The resulting resulting sonic palette expressed sobriety, nattering drama and winking humor.”
– Josef Woodard, LA Times
“This is a small cosmos of sound where only the unexpected was expected and eagerly awaited”
– Stephaen Pedersen, The Chronicle-Herald
@johndsadams
David Tudor was born in Philadelphia, PA, in 1926. He studied with H. William Hawke (organ, theory), Irma Wolpe Rademacher (piano) and Stephan Wolpe (composition and analysis).His first professional activity was as an organist, and he subsequently became known as one of the leading avante-garde pianists of our time. Tudor gave highly acclaimed first or early performances of worksby contemporary composers Earle Brown, Sylvano Bussotti, Morton Feldman, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Christian Wolff, Stephan Wolpe, and La Monte Young, among others.
Tudor began working with John Cage in the early fifties, as a member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and with Cage’s Project of Music for Electronic Tape. Tudor gradually ended his active career as a pianist, turning exclusively to the composition of live electronic music.
As a composer, Tudor chose specific electronic components and their interconnections to define both composition and performance drawing upon resources that were both flexible and complex. Tudor was one of four Core Artists who collaborated on the design of the Pepsi Pavilion for Expo ’70, Osaka, Japan, a project of Experiments in Art and Technology, Inc. Many of Tudor’s compositions have involved collaborative visual forces: light systems, laser projections, dance, theater, television, film. Tudor’s last project, Toneburst: Maps and Fragments, was a collaboration with visual artist Sophia Ogielska. Tudor’s several collaborations with visual artist Jacqueline Monnier included the development of a kite environment installed at the Whitney Museum (Philip Morris, NYC) in 1986, at the exhibition “Klangraume” in Dusseldorf in 1988, and at the Jack Tilton Gallery in New York City in 1990. Other collaborators have included Lowell Cross, Molly Davies, Viola Farber, Anthony Martin, and Robert Rauschenberg.
Tudor had been affiliated with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) since its inception in the summer of 1953. In 1992, after CageÕs death, Tudor took over as Music Director of MCDC. Merce Cunningham has commissioned numerous works from Tudor, including Rainforest I (1968); Toneburst (1974);Weatherings (1978); Phonemes (1981); Sextet for Seven (1982); Fragments (1984); Webwork (1987), Five Stone Wind (1988), Virtual Focus (1990); Neural Network Plus (1992); and most recently Soundings: Ocean Diary (1994) for what was John Cage’s last conception, Ocean.
David Tudor passed away on August 13, 1996 at his home in Tomkins Cove, NY.
Founded in 2003, ISSUE Project Room is a pioneering nonprofit performance center, presenting projects by more than 200 interdisciplinary artists each year that expand the boundaries of artistic practice and stimulate critical dialogue in the broader community. ISSUE serves as a leading cultural incubator, facilitating the commission and premiere of more than 25 innovative new works each year.
Founded by artists in 1977, Harvestworks is a leader in the art and technology field, educating, commissioning and producing work by composers, sound, visual and multi-disciplinary artists that reach an ever-expanding and receptive audience. The T.E.A.M. (Technology, Engineering, Art and Music) lab is a unique facility that offers technical expertise and resources to support the artist in the creation of new work. Creativity + Technology = Enterprise Program fosters an entrepreneurial spirit that encourages artists to consider new business models to sustain their practice and develop their careers. In line with the historical E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) Harvestworks provides an environment for experimentation with technicians, instructors, and innovative practitioners in the electronic arts. Former residents, who have used new technology in their art include established artists Christian Marclay, Luke Dubois. Pauline Oliveros and Cory Arcangel. Support for this event was provided by the New Music USA’s NYC New Music Impact Fund made possible by the Scherman Foundation’s Katharine S and Axel G Rosin Fund.