If you are interested in organizing a performance at The Bridge, read our submissions page or email one of our program coordinators. If you are musician interested in scheduling a concert at The Bridge, please contact ourmusic coordinator. If you are interested in scheduling a comedy act or play, contact our comedy and theatre coordinator. Interested in scheduling a literary reading? Contact our literary events coordinator.

Sponsored and initiated by PEP, Assembly is a regular gathering of local artists of all stripes to socialize, find collaborators, get feedback and help with work, and share work in progress. It is our belief that more unity and collaboration among individual artists in our town will lead to a more vibrant and mutually supportive arts scene in Charlottesville, and might yield a voice to speak to local government and funding organizations.

Loud underground music returns to The BRIDGE with 4 bands. There will be 2 PAs set up so that once the first band starts playing, the music won’t stop until the final band is finished. This “ping-ponging” between bands has proven to be super fun at past shows, and means that this 4-band show will be over about 2.5 hours from when it starts!

It’s all ages, $5, and starts around 8:30 or so. Info on the bands:

Worn In Red
(Heavy anthemic punk from Virginia on No Idea Records)
www.myspace.com/worninred

After Colony
(Melodic post-hardcore youngbucks from C’ville, VA)
www.myspace.com/aftercolonymusic

GRIDS
(Pounding discordant punk from NC)
www.myspace.com/gridsnc

Sharkopath
(Spazzy fun DC-style postpunk from C’ville)
Their online identity remains a mystery at this time.

The Friction Brothers (Michael Colligan, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Michael Zerang) are perhaps the only dry-ice/cello/percussion trio in the visible world. Begun in 2005 to perform improvised works that explore their love of scraping, rubbing, hitting and freezing various objects to the point of vibration, they have appeared at a number of questionable venues in Chicago. While often sounding like electronic music, they make all their sounds mechanically. To produce these sounds each member has developed an expansive vocabulary of extended techniques. Zerang has raised the back scratcher to an essential component of the modern drummers stick collection. Colligan, warms up metal objects and the super cools them on a block of dry ice making them vibrate in the audible range. Lonberg-Holm’s grind tone remains an unexplainable phenomena by acousticians.

Although the trio is a relatively new group, the members have worked together extensively for over 15 years in a wide variety of settings from the seminal lower case 4tet Pillow to the internationally known free improvised jazz powerhouse Peter Broetzmann’s Chicago 10tet.

Their first CD was released by the Sort Of Records imprint Abstract On Black. They are currently working on a second release due out on the Flying Aspidistra label in June to coincide with their first North American tour.

Fred Lonberg-Holm currently lives in Chicago where he works with a
wide variety of musicians in as many situations as possible. Current
and ongoing projects include the Valentine Trio (with Jason Roebke and
Frank Rosaly), the Peter Brotzmann Chicago Tentet, Ken Vandermark’s
Territory Band, Frame Quartet and Vandermark 5, Joe Mcphee’s Survival
Unit III (with Michael Zerang), Friction Brothers (Colligan,
Lonberg-Holm and Zerang), The Boxhead Ensemble, Horses Ha (Janet Bean
and Jim Elkington), Flatlands Collective (w/Jorrit Dykstra), Tony
Malaby’s Cello Trio, Vox-Arcana, Sherpa, Keefe Jacksons Fast Citizen’s
as well as numeorous one off ad-hoc groups.
Improvisors he has worked with include Clare Cooper, Charlotte Hug,
Andrea Neumann, Shelly Hirsch, Carrie Shull, Carrie Biolo, Birgitte
Uhler, Rachel Wadham, Mary Halvorson, Joelle Leandre, Joanne Powers,
Zeena Parkins, Judy Dunaway, Lotte Anker as well as a number of guys.
He also leads a revolving cast large ensembles under the name
Lightbox Orchestra.
He has studied composition with Morton Feldman, Anthony Braxton,
Pauline Oliveros, Bunita Marcus and Noah Creshevsky and cello with
Orlando Cole and Ardyth Alton.

Michael Zerang was born in Chicago, Illinois and is a first generation
American of Assyrian decent. He has been a professional musician,
composer, and producer since 1976, focusing extensively on improvised
music, free jazz, contemporary composition, puppet theater,
experimental theater, and international musical forms. He has
collaborated extensively with contemporary theater, dance, and other
multidisciplinary forms and has received three Joseph Jefferson Awards
for Original Music Composition in Theater, in 1996, 1998, and 2000. He
has over sixty titles in his discography and has toured nationally and
internationally since 1981 with and ever-widening pool of
collaborators. He was the artistic director of the Link’s Hall
Performance Series from 1985-1989 where he produced over 300 concerts
of jazz, traditional ethnic folk music, electronic music, and other
forms of forward thinking music. He continued to produce concerts at
Cafe Urbus Orbis from 1994-1996, and at his own space, The Candlestick
Maker in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood, from 2001 – 2005. He has
taught as a guest artist at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
in performance technique, sound design, and sound/music as it relates
to puppetry; rhythmic analysis for dancers at The Dance Center of
Columbia College, Northwestern University, and MoMing Dance and Arts
Center; courses in Composer – Choreographer Collaborations at
Northwestern University; music to children at The Jane Adams Hull
House. He has held workshops in improvisational music and percussion
technique and teaches private lessons in rhythmic analysis, music
composition, and percussion technique.

Michael Colligan uses dry ice as an instrument. He made the discovery
you could make sound with dry ice while working his first job at
Baskin Robbins as a scooper.
He has also played various homemade and traditional reed instruments.
Past and current projects include Math ( Mr. Quintron, Monotrona), The
Flying Luttenbachers (Weasel Walter, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kurt Johnson),
Pillow ( Liz Payne, Ben Vida, Fred Lonberg-Holm), Corine (Kevin Drumm,
Matt Weston), Friction Brothers (Fred Lonberg-Holm, Michael Zerang),
and other fleeting groups. He has improvised with numerous people over
the years including Taku Sugimoto, Ken Vandermark, Rhodri Davies,
Hamid Drake, Frank Rosaly, John Butcher, Carrie Biolo, Jim O’Rourke,
Jeb Bishop, Phill Niblock, Radu Malfatti, Sean Meehan, Sarah
Washington, Jeff Parker, and many others. He was a host for the
Improvised Music Workshop at Myopic Books in Chicago for many years,
and currently resides in that city.

—

KAMAMA is Luca Marini (drums/percussion) and Audrey Chen (cello/voice/electronics)

kamama in cherokee means both elephant and butterfly. there is no overlap in meaning other than the supposed resemblance of the long trunk and flapping ears to the proboscis and wings of that insect. this duo loosely embodies elements of this kind of disparate pairing. chen and marini combine the raw energies resultant from and continuously growing out of their respective histories and experiences. since their first encounter early this year in 2010, they have been forming a new language which steadily deepens, evolves, converges and exposes their inherent similarities and striking differences. it is ecstatic music. it is contrary music. and at times, they depart completely from one another as two distinct creatures, but then are drawn back into the fold of an undeniable tenderness and comprehension.

— for sound go to: www.myspace.com/audreychen

AUDREY CHEN is a Chinese-American musician who was born into a family of material scientists, doctors and engineers, outside of Chicago in 1976. Parting ways with the family convention, she turned to the cello at age 8 and voice at 11. After years of classical and conservatory training in both instruments, with a resulting specialization in early and new music, she parted ways again in 2003 to begin new negotiations with sound in order to discover a more individually honest aesthetic.

Now, using the cello, voice and analog electronics, Chen’s work delves deeply into her own version of narrative and non-linear storytelling. A large component of her music is improvised and her approach to this is extremely personal and visceral. Her playing explores the combination and layering of a homemade analog synthesizer, preparations and traditional and extended techniques in both the voice and cello. She works to join these elements into a singular ecstatic personal language.

Recently, her primary focus has been her SOLO project but she is also involved in many various collaborations. Among musicians, she has worked with Phil Minton, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Ko Ishikawa, Elliott Sharp, Aki Onda, Phill Niblock, Frederic Blondy, Jerome Noetinger, C. Spencer Yeh, Alessandro Bosetti, Mats Gustafsson, Mazen Kerbaj, Michael Zerang, Tatsuya Nakatani, Le Quan Ninh, Joe Mcphee, Susan Alcorn, Michele Doneda, Paolo Angeli, Gianni Gebbia, plus many more. Some current projects include: duos with Phil Minton, Luca Marini (kamama), Frederic Blondy, Robert van Heumen (abattoir), Katt Hernandez (Isabel), Nate Wooley (heave and shudder), and Id M Theft Able. Trio with Nate Wooley and C. Spencer Yeh. Plus three new quartet projects with Jeff Carey/Morten J. Olsen/Raed Yassin, Miya Masaoka/Hans Grusel/Kenta Nagai and also with Frederic Blondy/Michael Johnsen/Jerome Noetinger.

Chen has performed in Europe, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Taiwan, Canada and the USA. She is currently based in Baltimore, MD USA but primarily maintains an active touring schedule throughout Europe.

www.myspace.com/audreychen

LUCA MARINI (1982) is a German/Italian drummer who mostly grew up in France and is now based in New York (USA). After studying jazz and improvised music at various conservatories and music colleges in Europe and North America he developed his own language and approach to percussion while living in Berlin (D).

He performed and toured in Europe and North America playing improvised music, jazz, rock and electronic music with bands and artists like the GRIPI collective, SONIDO13, INEZEBA, Spyros Manesis trio, Nicolas Masson, Roberto Pianca, Tom Blancarte, Dario Fariello, Matan Gov Ari, Louise D.E. Jensen, Johannes Lauer, Raoul van der Weide, Wanja Slavin, Filippo Giuffré, Gael Navard, Natalio Sued etc…

Current bands include the duo HERBERT ECKARDT with Danish saxophonist Louise D.E. Jensen, the duo BLIN with Dutch guitarist Jasper Stadhouders, KAMAMA with Chinese-American cellist and vocalist Audrey Chen, CAVEX from Brooklyn, The LITTLE from Germany and TATUNE from France.

Other collaborations include works with Matt Meade, Kenny Warren, Tom Blancarte, Xavier Lopez, Vilijam Nybacka, John Stanesco, JMSU, Frans van der Hoeven etc …

www.myspace.com/lucamarini

Benjamin O’Brien

Benjamin O’Brien is a composer and performer. His compositions are
inspired by the polarity of chance and certainty that, although are
inherently antagonistic in principle, can be adeptly manipulated to
form a cohesive musical expression. Specifically, he is interested in
composing works which are finite with respect to the sound sources and
transformation procedures, but indeterminate in their performance of
such operations. Benjamin writes both acoustic and
electro-acoustic/computer music (Max/MSP, SuperCollider), and performs
regularly with Vanessa & Her Many Moons, League of Art Game Composers
(LAG), The Sexy Ultimatum All-Star Society, and Moby & The Dicks. His
compositions have been performed in the US, France, Italy, Scotland,
Portugal, and New Zealand.

Benjamin recently received his Masters of Arts in Music Composition
from Mills College. He studied composition and improvisation with Fred
Frith and Roscoe Mitchell, electro-acoustic/computer music with John
Bischoff and Chris Brown, and tonal and post-tonal theory with David
Bernstein.

Benjamin earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from the University
of Virginia in May 2006, though his musical talents and passion were
present even then. As an undergraduate student, Benjamin explored jazz
guitar and improvisation with John D’Earth and Michael Rosensky, as
well as Post-Tonal orchestration and computer music with Ted Coffey.

In Fall 2010 Benjamin will begin course work at the University of
Florida for a Ph.D in Music Composition.

A rousing and magical night of performance from one of the world’s most acclaimed experimental theater companies, The Missoula Oblongata. Opening the evening are two special guests: music from Nelly Kate and a performance by Ali Cheff.

:-:-: THE MISSOULA OBLONGATA :-:-:
in:
“The Daughter of the Father of Time Motion Study”

Once there was a time when people knew the difference between sacrifice and compromise. Which is to say, they knew the difference between a walrus and a robot. Which is to say, they knew the difference between a hole in the ice and the ice itself. They knew each of the 18 hand movements prescribed by Time Motion Study, and they knew how to use them in a way that was restful. This play is a television mini-series about that remarkable period of time.

As always, The Missoula Oblongata is asking the big questions here: Can inefficiency be cured? If a robot is smarmy, is it only a reflection of your own smarminess? What exactly does it take to get oneself on a postage stamp?

Debuting May 30th at Southeastern Ohio’s own CrabbFest, comes a new play by The Missoula Oblongata: The Daughter of the Father of Time Motion Study. It’s the company’s sixth touring production–this one half the size of their usual main-stage fare, but with all of the moving parts, twisty dialog, and duct-taped together lighting that the company has become known for. And all of it is created, performed, and operated from the stage (that is, a 6′ x 6′ x ‘6 box) by the three full-time members of the company: Madeline ffitch, Sarah Lowry, and Donna Sellinger.

Written by: Donna Sellinger and Madeline ffitch

Directed by: Emily Pearlman

Performed by: Donna Sellinger, Madeline ffitch, and Sarah Lowry

Praise for The Missoula Oblongata:

“The romance of vaudeville, the adrenaline of punk, and the playfulness of the Children’s Television Workshop…packing the house with theatre buffs as well as with those who tend to fidget in velvet seats.”
–St. Louis Magazine

“Twisted and beautiful…the stage is transformed into a place of magic again and again. 4.5 stars. [out of 5]”
- Edmonton Sun

“A night at the theater has never looked so delightfully weird…Bizarrely frolicsome, cogently playful, sweetly surreal…Such is the genius of The Missoula Oblongata–quirky, but also exquisitely made and elegantly presented.”
– The Santa Fe Reporter

“Gorgeous, poetic, funny, moving…I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.”
–The Urbana News-Gazette

“It’s like arts and crafts on crack…like a bunch of summer camp counselors performing a fairy tale with a set designed by deeply disturbed scrap-bookers…It was a kick-ass, amazing performance.”
–The Seattlest

For more info about The Missoula Oblongata please visit: http://www.themissoulaoblongata.com/

The improvisational competition that has swept Japan comes to Charlottesville. Prepare yourself for Iron Improvisor.

Improv master Yoshikuni Makoto has come to Charlottesville to find the greatest improvisors. Only those who are stout of heart, quick of wit and strong of body will survive to be named the Iron Improvisors. Two teams, each with 23 minutes to perform four scenes will compete for this ultimate honor. Who is the ultimate champion? Which improv scene will reign supreme? Be at The Bridge to find out!

Tickets are pay what you can with a suggested donation of $10. Part of the proceeds go to help The Bridge promote the arts in Charlottesville.

The Charlottesville Gamelan Ensemble returns to perform traditional and contemporary pieces from Java.   The gamelan is a blending of mostly percussive instruments including bronze xylophones, tuned gongs and drums played by 12 musicians.  Indonesian gamelan music has given the world the word for the “gong”.

The percussive gamelan sounds have been compared to the ambient sounds of water –  from the pitter-patter of gentle rain falling to the louder sounds or a gurgling river.  The gong of the Charlottesville Gamelan is aptly named “Honey Thunder”, an allusion to the sweetness of its rumble.  The actual music, in its traditional form, is based around a cyclical repeating melody which is embellished by different kinds of instruments playing rhythmic patterns around the notes of the main ‘tune’.

The twelve musicians in the Charlottesville Gamelan ensemble include local players as well as guests from eastern Virginia, Maryland and Chicago.  It is directed by Cynthia Benton-Groner, who acquired the instruments while doing field work in Java.

Thursday, April 22, 2010 | 6pm-9pm

Hoola hooping workshop with the ladies from Sintilation! HOOP HOOP BASICS at 6pm. Then try some TRICKS at 8pm for more advanced Hoopers. Lead by Jessica Baraff and Betsy Gilbertson.

Saturday, April 24, 2010 | noon-6pm

Noon to 1pm
MEET & GREET | SIGN-UPS

1pm to 2pm
MIME MIME MIME BASICS
Joe Pat studied mime in Portland, Oregon for one and a half years with a member of the Portland Mime Troup. “I was invited to join them, but I was committed to studying to become a chiropractor.
I’ve also studied with Dr. Tom and Suess in Atlanta, Georgia for two years while I finished chiropractic college. Over the years I’ve done small non-paid performances for friends and family. I’m enthralled at the physical expression of mime for health and art. Plus it’s a lot of fun.”

2pm to 4pm
CLOWNING FOR CHANGE
Way back in 2005, Kristina ran away from the circus to enlist in the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA), an international social movement that brings the magic of buffoonery to the struggle for social change. Passionate about offering groups the transformative experience of accessible “clown training,” Kristina has introduced the power of the red nose to activists (and other likeminded folk) in the US, UK, and Nigeria. The Rebel Clown Army has changed and adapted in myriad ways since its early years, but click here to see pics of Kristina in action with her original Glasgow “gaggle.” (She’s the one with the big pink fluffy hat.)

4pm to 5pm
THE ADVENTURE OF JUGGLING: Dancing With Gravity!
The practice of juggling offers many benefits physical, mental spiritual and social. Join us for a demonstration and introductory laboratory that will be fun and provocative for both both beginners and experienced jugglers ages 10 and up.

Bio: Mercury Morningstar is an emissary of the Healing Carnival Juggling Dojo, a pangalactic fellowship dedicated to proliferating joy and ripening wisdom throughout the universe.

5pm to 6pm
Basics of Fire Spinning with Jessie and Carrie!!! Poi Poi Poi!!!

IGNAZ SCHICK & KEENAN LAWLER met for the first time about 10 years ago in Louisville, KY when Keenan set up a show for Perlonex during their legendary X-Noise tour in 2001. At the time they had a chance to rehearse and record and found that they share the same approach towards drone music which is deeply rooted in noise and electro-acoustic music but also encourages subtle folk elements. Since the first meeting they had been trying to record & perform which until this tour failed for several times due to logistic problems. So they will use the chance and record all 10 live concerts and they will go to mix and edit the material directly after the tour in Louisville.

IGNAZ SCHICK (BERLIN)

* 1972 in Germany [turntablist, sound artist]
In his youth, he studied the saxophone and performed in free jazz and
avant rock bands. At the same time, he was getting obsessed with
multitrack tape machines, record players and effect boxes and he
started experimenting with many different instruments and sound making
devices. After college he briefly studied at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Munich and worked for several years as an assistent for the
contemporary composer Josef Anton Riedl.
Since the late 1995 he works and lives in Berlin where he became an
active and integral force of the so-called “Berlin Nouvelle Vague” and
the blossoming “real time music” scene. From the middle of the
nineties onwards his interest and activities almost completely shifted
towards live-electronics and after testing various instrumentations
(hard- & software samplers, signal processing, contact mics, field
recordings, …) he developed his own and quite unique
electro-acoustic set-up which he calls “rotating surfaces”. Various
objects and materials (from wood, metal, plastic, paper or violin bows
and cymbals) are played directly on the rotating metal plate of the
turntable and the vibrations are simply amplified with a small
condensator microphone. With this set-up he covers many different
styles of contemporary experimental music – ranging from extreme
reductionism via ambient, industrial, musique concrete, electronica to
harsh noise.

Besides his favorite setting – the direct duo-confrontation with the
likes of Chris Abrahams (AUS), Andrea Belfi (I), Alexei Borisov (RUS),
Sebastian Buczek (PL), Phil Durrant (GB), Gunnar Geisse (D), GX
Jupitter-Larsen/The Haters (USA), Sven Ake Johansson (S/D), Andrea
Neumann (D), Dawid Szczesny (PL), Martin Tetreault (CAN), Marcel
Türkowsky (D) or Sabine Vogel (D) – he is member and founder of many
different ensembles like Perlonex, Snake Figures Arkestra, Phosphor,
Blind Snakes, Tree People, Decollage, Berlin Sound Connective, N.I.E.,
….
He has collaborated with numerous international artists (most notably
Don Cherry & Charlemagne Palestine) and toured and performed clubs &
festivals all over Eastern and Western Europe, Australia, Israel,
Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Ukraine & the USA. He released many
albums on labels like Zarek, Edition Zangi, edition x, Irrah,
Potlatch, Bad Alchemy, Charhizma, Staalplaat, Nexsound, Non Visual
Objects, Improvised Music From Japan, Absinth or Ambiances Magnetiques
and he was part of radio/television broadcasts and productions on
Arte, ORF-Kunstradio, ORF-Zeitton, BR2, DLR, DLF, WDR3, DRS2, SR, HR,
Radio Copernicus, CBC Canada, (…)
Furthermore he has been curating festivals of experimental music from
the early 90s onwards (FAM, Erase & Reset, Time Shifts & T.I.T.O.,
…) and has been realizing with increasing intensiry sound
installations and conceptual works since 2005.

R KEENAN LAWLER (Louisville, Kentucky)

is a musician, sound artist, improviser and
composer. For nearly thirty years he has been a restless explorer of
sound from rock to electroacoustic improvisation and many points in
between. Since the late nineties he is best known for developing a
highly idiosyncratic difficult to categorize language on the metal
bodied resonator guitar fueled by minimalism, blues, Asian and African
musics, ancient and modern classical, psychedelia and jazz. Lawler is
known for solo performances and recordings and also as a collaborator
and perfomer working with a diverse range of like-minded artists among
them: Matmos, Rhys Chatham ensembles, Charlambides, Pelt, My Morning
Jacket, Tatsuya Nakatani, Paul K and the Weathermen, Connor Bell, Mike
Tamburo and the Universal Orchestra of Pituitary Knowledge, David
Watson, Helena Espvall, Lukas Ligeti, Ut Gret, Ignaz Schick, John
Butcher, Christian Kiefer and Jon Mueller. Lawler’s music can be found
on such labels as Important, Tompkins Square, New American Folk Hero,
Music Fellowship, Rebis, Eclipse and Table of the Elements who
released the acclaimed,”Music for the Bluegrass States”. He performs
live regularly and has participated in such festivals as High
Zero, Fantastic Voyagers, Time of Rivers, Transmissions, Greetings Fellow
Pickers, Terrastock 7 and Table of the Elements Bohrium. His sound art
has been presented in PS1 Brooklyn,Henry Art Seattle.and in Louisville
via collaboration with artists Thaniel Ion Lee, Valerie Fuchs and
Russell Hulsey.

CORY O’BRIEN/MYO (Washington, D.C.)

Myo is the solo project of Cory O’Brien (b. 1980), a self taught
hacker, computer musician and electro-acoustic improviser. Contact
mics on polycarbonate sheets and feedback networks programmed in Pd
and Max/MSP are the preferred tools. His music has been described by
Vital Weekly as “louder, dirtier, gritty and angular, but still with
ingredients of microsound”.

Other projects and collaborations include Never Work (with Kenneth
Yates), Makioki Sisters (with Jeff Surak) and Clouds-Out (with video
artist Jesse Hartgraves).

He currently lives and works in Washington, DC.

The Wu Prov Academy brings their Improv 3.0 show to the Bridge joined on stage by UVA’s oldest improv troupe The Whethermen.