Category — Live Performance

Wednesday, October 13, 2010 | 8pm | $10 suggested

Jason Ajemian has acquired a high profile in the improvised music scene over the years, performing with Rob Mazurek’s Mandarin Movie, Exploding Star Orchestra, and the Chicago Underground Trio, Ken Vandermark’s Crisis Ensemble, and currently with Marc Ribot’s Sun Ship. Ajemian’s curiosity has ranged far and wide – he’s just as comfortable in the hushed, folksy setting of Born Heller, his duo with Josephine Foster, as he is in the breath-processed arrangements of his large ensemble Who Cares How Long You Sink. Given such a variety of musical interest, a detour like “From Beyond,” Ajemian’s backwards version of Back Sabbath’s ‘Into the Void’ for chamber ensemble, begins to seem like an obvious stop on this bassist’s journey from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Chicago and his current home in New York City.

The HighLife is a home where the concepts behind all of his previous music can comfortably reside. Formed at the Harold Arts Residency in rural Ohio, Jason Ajemian & the HighLife features a carefully structured approach to improvisation that nevertheless leads to music that sounds immediate and effortless. Ajemian’s poems serve as signposts; the scores, created in the architectural drafting program AutoCAD, guides the musicians through musical hallways to unexpected locals. His blueprints dictate the flow and direction of the set, opening the performers up to visual and descriptive influences, leading them through a unique musical landscape of American folk forms, Native American chants, Canadian sea shanties, jazz expressive motion and balladry.

Thursday, September 23, 2010 | 7pm

Come celebrate local writing with a quick-moving and casual poetry reading. Ten to twenty readers, each bringing to the podium one poem of their own, and one beloved piece by another poet. A collision of writing worlds, this reading will feature folk from all corners of Charlottesville and other nooks of Virginia, and beyond. It will include both the unaffiliated, and those with affiliations ranging from UVA’s undergraduate and MFA programs to WriterHouse to WordSmith Poetry and more. With this many voices in the room, you will find at least one new loved poem you didn’t even know you were looking for. We present you with the polyphony of contemporary American poetry, the gems we ourselves couldn’t forget, a series of poems as varied as any Ginsberg litany. Please lend us your ears.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 | 9pm

Hear new poetry and fiction by students in the University of Virginia Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. Every Tuesday now through December except for October 12 and 19. Check back for reschedulings on those two readings. Readers scheduled as follows:

Sept 7: Zayne Turner, poet & Joe Sills, fiction writer
Sept 14: Lisa Fink, poet & Sierra Bellows, fiction writer
Sept 21: Sam Taylor, poet & Dave Serafino, fiction writer
Sept 28: Christa Romanosky, poet & Maria Adelmann, fiction writer
Oct 5: Jonterri Gadson, poet & Matt Silva, fiction writer
Oct 14: Guion Pratt, poet & Greg Sieb, fiction writer
Oct 21: Austin Smith, poet & Stephanie Miller, fiction writer
Oct 26: Marielle Prince, poet & Kidda Johnson, fiction writer
Nov 2: Wanling Su, poet & Greg Jackson, fiction writer
Nov 9: Cecilia Llompart, poet & Alexis Shaitkin, fiction writer
Nov 16: Melissa McNulty, poet & Caitlin Kindervatter-Clark
Nov 30: Julianne Daughtery, poet & Lulu Miller

Friday, October 8, 2010 | 6pm

Both local and international, Colin Cheney and Erika Meitner share the space at The Bridge for a reading from their most recent collections. Both were recently selected for the National Poetry Series.

Colin Cheney’s debut collection of poems, Here Be Monsters (University of Georgia, 2010), was selected for the National Poetry Series. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Notre Dame Review, Crazyhorse, and Gulf Coast. In 2006, he received a Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and his poem, “Lord God Bird,” received a 2010 Pushcart Prize. He currently lives in Bangkok, Thailand.

Erika Meitner is the author of Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore (Anhinga Press, 2003), and Ideal Cities (HarperCollins, 2010), which was a 2009 National Poetry Series winner. Meitner’s poems have appeared most recently in APR, Virginia Quarterly Review, Indiana Review, The New Republic, and on Slate.com. She is currently an assistant professor of English at Virginia Tech, where she teaches in the MFA program.

Friday, August 13, 2010 | 8pm | $5 | AT RANDOM ROW BOOKS

The Bridge Film Series is pleased to welcome filmmaker Bill Daniel back to Charlottesville for his presentation of lost and found music films, SONIC ORPHANS: Lost Music Films From 1965-87. This evening of film will include a program of recently unearthed 16mm footage and a discussion of “orphan films” as well as a one-night photo exhibit and a live musical performance by local drone musician Myceum.

SONIC ORPHANS is a compilation reel of lost and found clips projected on 16mm – some silent, some that rock. Abandoned, lost, found, and now presented raw without editing, these are all celluloid gems. Daniel curates an unlikely collection of film that exists in an impossibly strange space between entertainment and the stupefying bewilderment of Useless Cinema – clips of silent outtakes, un-contextualized news, lab mistakes, abandoned student films. There is a flavor of goofy nostalgia to much of the footage, but the images are also haunting – pogoing, sneaking hits on cigarettes, meeting the gaze of someone from 20 or even 40 years ago. Part of the evening’s presentation will talk about the stories behind the films and the relationship between underground music and film cultures.

Featuring footage of: The Beatles, The Avengers, The Huns, Boy Problems, Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, and Johnny Cash

Bill Daniel is a filmmaker and artist who makes work that connects with an outsider audience while he continues to experiment with survivalism and bricolage in attempts to record and report on the various social margins he often finds himself in. His documentary subjects have included bicycle messengers, radical environmentalists, hobo graffiti artists, swap meet guitar players, and rural drag racers. Daniel’s work has received awards from Creative Capital, Film Arts Foundation, and the Texas Filmmaker Production Fund, among others.

Sunday, September 12, 2010 | 8pm

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.

Friday, July 16, 2010 | 8:30pm | $5

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.

Saturday, June 26, 2010 | 8pm | $5

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.

Thursday, June 17, 2010 | 8pm

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/

Saturday, June 5, 2010 | 8pm | $10

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.