Category — Live Performance

Sunday, June 6, 2010 | 3 pm | $10

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.

$5-$10 donations accepted. Raising money for humanitarian clowns.

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!!!

Saturday, April 17, 2010 | 8pm | $5

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.

Friday, April 9, 2010 | 8pm | $5 general admission, $3 students

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

Thursday, April 8, 2010 | 8pm | $5 general admission, $3 students

The Bent Theatre and Amuse Bouche come together for an amazing night of improv make ‘em ups.

Monday, April 19, 2010 | 7pm

Come celebrate National Poetry Month 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.

Readers will include: Joanne Mosuela, Sarah Rosen, Sean Kelly, Liz Pettit, Browning Porter, Joe Chapman, Julia Hansen, Sierra Bellows, Jazzy Danziger, Christa Romanosky, Aja Gabel, Ebony Walden, Adam Flake, Suzanne Saxon, Atain Ibia, Gary Johnson, and Michele Miller.

Saturday, March 27, 2010 | 8pm

A listening session featuring audio stories from and about Virginia. We’ll explore Virginia’s human and natural landscape with a variety of audio formats: NPR style features, audio art and composition, recorded spoken word, and any other format we find. The audience is invited to participate in discussion and many of the producers/composers will be in attendance.

Friday, March 19, 2010 | 7-11pm | $5

This is the second in a continuing series of Experimental Music Showcases at The Bridge, featuring NINE acts (seven local artists/groups and two touring acts) performing rapid fire back to back to back sets. The first one of these shows in December was such a wonderful success that we’re all very eager to see what will happen this time around. So don’t miss it! Here’s who we have in store:

::: GRAPEFRUIT EXPERIMENT W/ CAUSTIC CASTLE :::

::: MSS. :::

::: MYCEUM :::

::: ULTRA AESTHETICS COMMITTEE :::

::: GREAT DADS :::

::: RHYTHM BANDIT :::

::: LIVING THINGS :::
(Brooklyn)

::: TATSUYA NAKATANI :::
(Pennsylvania)

w/ BIG BIRDS: video and sound by JONATHAN ZORN

and live visuals by CHRIS BALINT and HASSAN PITTS

an audiovisual performance by Jennifer Allen, Chris Peck, and Deke Weaver
Thursday, March 25, 2010 | 8pm | $5

THE LAND OF PLENTY
WHICH GIVES A RICH TASTE+GRAINY TEXTURE YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY WILL LOVE FOR TOAST

A performance with video + real human beings + living sound

Created + performed by Jennifer Allen, Chris Peck, Deke Weaver

There is a Wallace Stegner quote on a plaque in Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument:

“A place is nothing in itself. It has no meaning, it can hardly be said to exist, except in terms of human perception, use and response.”

Manifest Destiny and the American Dream mold the nation – how we imagine ourselves, how we imagine the land. But surely there are places that exist outside “human perception, use and response,” places that have a spiritual existence beyond our presence. Underneath the national myths lie older Judeo-Christian myths, which rest on even older stories, older stories where the land clearly shaped human culture. While clear-cuts and tract-homes are obvious examples of how we shape and imagine the land, how does the land shape us?

Like blind monks describing an elephant with laptops and panflutes, Allen, Peck and Weaver perform live in a multi-projection video environment. With sing-alongs, dancing sandhill cranes, cowboy songs, Led Zeppelin guitar solos, evil bunny prayers, the (fictional) collaboration between John Cage and Karl Marx, a re-enactment of A Discussion of Form juxtaposed with the “sacred geometry” of crop circles, a meditation on the Great Plains, the natural world, and myth, The Land of Plenty hops back and forth over the fuzzy gray line that defines kooks and saints, sentimental mumbo jumbo and deeply felt ritual, New Age cheese and the breathtaking, the haunting, the disturbingly beautiful.

Originally staged as a work-in-progress for Roulette’s 2008 Mixology Festival (NY), Allen joins Peck and Weaver for the Spring 2010 tour of The Land of Plenty. The piece can be adapted to many venues. A six minute video document from the 75 minute work-in-progress is available here.

JENNIFER ALLEN is a choreographer/performer recently transplanted to Champaign, IL. She has created several original evening-length works, her most recent, Open, was performed at The Kitchen (NYC) in April 2007. Her work has been shown at numerous locations in NYC including Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church and The Brooklyn Museum and in Chicago at Links Hall and Millenium Park. Allen was a 2005 MacDowell Colony Fellow and has received support from the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Oregon Regional Arts and Culture Council, Movement Research Artists in Residence and a residency through PICA. As a performer she has worked with such influential artists as Yvonne Meier, John Jasperse, Donna Uchizono, DD Dorvillier and Jennifer Monson among others.

CHRIS PECK is a Michigan-born composer investigating the peculiarities of listening and perception through a diverse practice that includes works for large untrained groups, interdisciplinary performance collaborations, and improvisation with the computer. His frequent work with dance has included scores for RoseAnne Spradlin, Eleanor Bauer, Jasperse, David Dorfman, Jeanine Durning, Ming Yang/Dance Forum Taipei, Abby Yager, and others. Ongoing projects include Listening Music for the Age of Crystal Moon Cone, a series of ambient electroacoustic performances and recordings with Stephen Rush and Jon Moniaci, Brooklyn Adult Recorder Choir, directed with choreographer Beth Gill, the Live Sh– performance series curated with Chase Granoff, Manpack Variant, an electronics duo with Jaime Fennelly, and collaborations with interdisciplinary video/performance artist and storyteller Deke Weaver. Chris is currently working on an MA at the Dartmouth College Digital Musics Program in Hanover, NH.

DEKE WEAVER is a writer, performer, video and graphic artist. Experimental theater, film/video, dance, and solo performance venues have presented Weaver’s interdisciplinary performances and videos in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Europe, Russia, and the U.S. A resident at Yaddo and Ucross, a four-time fellow at the MacDowell Colony, and a 2009 Creative Capital grantee, his work, described as “explosive” (San Francisco Weekly) and “brilliant” (The Village Voice) has “handcuffed a secure storytelling knack to a performance style that pushes the energy envelope toward hyperventilating madness” (Sidewalk.com). He also contributes film/video to dance and theater works in the U.S. and abroad. From 1999-2005 he was the Senior Animator for the Showtime Networks’ Broadcast Design Group. He is currently an assistant professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Sunday, March 21, 2010 | 7pm

Every musical performance is accompanied by an unacknowledged, and yet not-so-silent partner. The built environment reflects, refracts, and reshapes sound, and performer and audience act and listen under the influence of its formal language.

The latest instantiation of a performances series commissioned in 2009 by New York’s MATA Foundation, Architectures of Sound assembles an evening of interventions into the uncanny convergence of sound and built space. It presents new works that take the built environment as a compositional tool, and draw upon its materiality, its geometric form, its historical specters and vanishing present.

Architectures of Sound features new works by Casey Thomas Anderson, G. Douglas Barrett, Cameron Hu, David Kant, Avery Lawrence, Michael Winter, and others.