STEIM on Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:54:07 +0100 (CET)


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[Nettime-nl] [ STEIM ] STEIM announcement: Lecture/Concert by Judy Dunaway and Tom Chiu


STEIM presents a Lecture/Concert by:

Judy Dunaway (US) & Tom Chiu (US)

Date: Thursday, November 8
Venue: STEIM, Utrechtsedwarsstraat 134, Amsterdam
Time: 20.30 hrs.
Entrance: 5 euros
Reservations and more information: knock@steim.nl or 020-6228690

One of the significances of experimental artistic practice is its motivation to challenge conventions and social norms. New movements and shifts in standards are often conceived in these practices. For example, the recent release of Radiohead and Saul Williams' album available for free download comes with no surprise if one has been sensitive to the climate that has built up over the years by artists like Negativland and Bob Ostertag. The reason to why an artist decides to deal with a specific theme or choose a certain tool often represents a shared consciousness (or unconsciousness) that is brewing within a specific time period. I believe that experimental art give us the earliest glimpse of what our contemporary life is dealing with.
Judy Dunaway is a composer and improvisor who works mainly with balloons. She is also the founder of S.W.I.R.L. - Sex Worker Internet Radio Lounge which is an organization and platform for sex workers around the world to express themselves. Although her duo with Tom Chiu (founder of the critically acclaimed FLUX Quartet) is not electronic, we felt that their music was compelling and that it would be a great opportunity to listen to the artists talk about the context of their work.


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LINKS:
Judy Dunaway http://jdunaway.web.wesleyan.edu/
SWIRL http://emedia.art.sunysb.edu/swirl/
FLUX Quartet http://www.fluxquartet.com/

BIO:
Judy Dunaway
Since 1990, Judy Dunaway has created over forty pieces for balloons as sound producers, and has also made this her main instrument for improvisation. She has presented her work throughout North America and Europe at many venues and festivals including Lincoln Center Out- of-Doors, The Roy and Edna Disney Center, the SoHo Arts Festival, the Alternative Museum, the Knitting Factory, Performance Space 122, Roulette, Experimental Intermedia, Soundlab, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Bang on a Can Festival, the Guelph Jazz Festival, Podewil and ZKM. She has performed as a balloon player in compositions by John Zorn and Roscoe Mitchell, and in improvisations and/or collaborations with the FLUX Quartet, performance artist Annie Sprinkle, video artist Zev Robinson, visual artists Nancy Davidson and Ken Butler, percussionists John Hollenbeck and Matt Moran, the Illuminati big band, DJ Singe, and numerous others. Her compositions for balloons include electronic and multi-media works, sound installations, and works that incorporate more traditional instrumentation such as string quartet, chorus and Japanese koto. Her discography includes âMother of Balloon Musicâ (Innova, 2006), âShar: Pop Musicâ (Outer Realm, 2002) and âBalloon Musicâ (CRI, 1998), as well as appearances on numerous other CDs.


Dunaway has a Ph.D. (doctorate) in Music Composition from State University of New York at Stony Brook, where she studied with analog electronic music composer Daria Semegen and multi-media artist Christa Erickson, and a M.A. in Experimental Music from Wesleyan University (Connecticut) where she studied with composer Alvin Lucier. She is currently a Visiting Lecturer in the Critical Studies Department at Massachusetts College of Art.

Tom Chiu
Violinist Tom Chiu is the founder of the FLUX Quartet, which has been called âone of the most fearless and important new-music ensembles around,â (Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle) âwho has a brought a new renaissance to quartet music,â (Kyle Gann, The Village Voice). The FLUX Quartet has performed to rave reviews at many music centers around the world, including Da Camera of Houston, Miller Theater, the Walker Art Center, the Library of Congress, and Carnegie Hallâs When Morty Met John Festival. FLUX captivates its audiences worldwide with a vivid repertoire balanced between notable pioneers as well as visionaries of tomorrow. From "classics" by Conlon Nancarrow, Giacinto Scelsi, and Iannis Xenakis, to new works by Leroy Jenkins, Elliott Sharp, and John Zorn, FLUX brings to all of its performances a âboundless, uninhibited energy.â (New York Times) The quartet avidly seeks out collaborative relationships with genre- transcending artists such as Ornette Coleman, Joan LaBarbara, Oliver Lake, balloon artist Judy Dunaway (new CD on Innova Recordings), and musical-visual artist collective, the Slave Pianos. The FLUX Quartetâs discography includes Morton Feldman's six-hour marathon "String Quartet No. 2," on Mode Records, which they presented live at Carnegie Hall on September 27, 2007. FLUX is the only group to have ever played the complete âString Quartet No. 2â score in one performance.


As a solo artist, Chiu has performed over 100 premieres worldwide and has worked closely with many distinguished composers including Virko Baley, Dean Drummond, Oliver Lake and Chen Yi, among others. He has worked closely with Ornette Coleman, with whom he appeared at the 2000 Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival. Tom's discography includes recordings for the Asphodel, Cambria, Koch, Mode, Sombient, and Tzadik labels. His original works as composer/improvisor have been performed in numerous countries, including Mongolia and Uzbekistan. Having also composed for motion pictures, his first soundtrack for the short film Boris (written and directed by Francesca Galesi) won the top prize at the NY Expo Festival of Shorts. Chiu holds degrees in music and chemistry from Juilliard and Yale.

Dunaway/Chiu Duo:
Judy Dunaway (balloons) has been working with Tom Chiu (violin) since the mid-1990âs. Both in improvisational duo and in collaboration with Chiuâs FLUX Quartet, Dunaway and Chiu have performed frequently in New York City at many venues including Roulette, The Stone, The Living Room, Greenwich House, The Brecht Forum and Soundlab. Dunaway composed her 30 minute epic âFor Balloon and String Quartetâ especially for the FLUX Quartet. The work was premiered at Roulette in 2001 and subsequently recorded and released by Innova records in 2006, supported by a grant from the Aaron Copland Fund. Dunaway and Chiu are now touring Europe together for the first time, including presentations on German Radio and at STEIM in Amsterdam.


âDunaway's two duo improvisations with Tom Chiu also use the primary balloon music technique of rubbing (or otherwise agitating) the surface (a technique insightfully labelled by Dunaway as an "orb- shaped string"), which allows for a flexibility of sound production far exceeding any other known instrument, but the big surprise here is the flexibility of the violin because Chiu somehow manages to make it sound like a balloon! The high-pitched acrobatics and sound mergers they achieve are breathtaking and will surely change many people's lives.â
- from review of Judy Dunawayâs CD âMother of Balloon Musicâ by Michael Anton Parker, Downtown Music Gallery



The STEIM concerts are made possible by the Municipality of Amsterdam.

More information on concerts: http://www.steim.org/steim/activity.php

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STEIM (studio for electro instrumental music) (studio voor elektro instrumentale muziek)

Achtergracht 19
1017 WL Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Tel: 020-6228690
Fax: 020-6264262
Email: knock@steim.nl
Website: www.steim.nl


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