Music in the Fault Zone: Experimental Music at Mills College (April 21-24)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Music in the Fault Zone brings together musical luminaries from Mills’s past, present, and future during four days of concerts featuring music by Darius Milhaud, Lou Harrison, John Cage, Anthony Braxton, Robert Ashley, Terry Riley, Steed Cowart, and Henry Cowell Performances- April 21-24 4 pm and 8 pm Artists: Chris Brown, Alvin Curran, Zeena Parkins, Laetitia Sonami, David Rosenboom, John Bischoff, Annea Lockwood, Ione, Joelle Leandre, Fred Frith, James Fei, William Winant, Larry Polansky, Roscoe Mitchell, Daniel Schmidt, Maggi Payne and Paul DeMarinis.

Concerts:
Thursday, April 21, 2022 LISSER HALL 4pm
IONE with Jennifer Wilsey, Brenda Hutchinson, Anne Hege, and Norman Lowry [film]
Saariselka (Marielle V. Jakobsons and Chuck Johnson)
Gamelan Encinal
Las Sucias (Alexandra Bushman and Danishta Rivero)

Thursday, April 21, 2022 LITTLEFIELD 8PM
Nicole Paiement, conducting works by Darius Milhaud
Roscoe Mitchell
Sarah Cahill and Kate Stenberg
Steed Cowart, conducting works by Roscoe Mitchell

Friday, April 22, 2022 LISSER HALL 4PM
Zachary James Watkins
Larry Polansky, with Jennifer Wilsey
Paul DeMarinis, with Laertitia Sonami, John Bischoff, James Fei, Chris Brown and hans w. koch

The afternoon concert opens with the U.S premiere of a new version by Paul DeMarinis (Mills MFA, 1973) of Robert Ashley’s legendary work for voice and electronics In Sara, Mencken, Christ, and Beethoven There Were Men and Women. The performance will include live electronic music by an extraordinary ensemble including Chris Brown, John Bischoff, James Fei, Maggi Payne, and Laetitita Sonami. Zachary Watkins’ (MFA, 2006) music explores “pure” tuning, live electronics, resonant spaces, and the spatial diffusion of sound. Former Mills faculty member, composer, guitarist, and mandolinist, Larry Polansky will perform a solo work.

Friday, April 22, 2022 LITTLEFIELD 8PM
Fred Frith, with Zeena Parkins
John Bischoff
Alvin Curran
David Rosenboom, Willie Winant, and James Fei

The evening concert features a duo with Fred Frith (Luther B. Marchant Professor of Composition, 1999–2008) and Zeena Parkins (currently Milhaud Professor of Music), former members of Skeleton Crew the legendary experimental rock band and now internationally acclaimed composers/master improvisers. Alvin Curran served as the Milhaud Professor of Composition at Mills from 1991 to 2006. His music “embraces all the contradictions (composed/improvised, tonal/atonal, maximal/minimal…) in a serene dialectical encounter,” a musical diversity, which he calls the “new common practice.” John Bischoff, a master musical alchemist in the tradition initiated by David Tudor, will perform two solo works: Visibility Study posits analog circuit actions in open dialog with laptop synthesis responses. Calliope casts Henry Cowell’s visionary idea of a Rhythmicon in the imperfect form of a digital instrument whose tones lose energy and disassemble as each phrase develops. James Fei, David Rosenboom, and William Winant will play a trio by the legendary composer/multi instrumentalist Anthony Braxton), who served on the Mills faculty from 1985 to 1990 and held the Milhaud Chair from 1985 to 1987.

SATURDAY. 4/23
LISSER HALL 4PM
Annea Lockwood, with Sarah Cahill, Brenda Hutchinson, Laetitia Sonami and Pamela Z
IMA (Nava Dunkelman and Amma Ateria)
Laetitia Sonami and Zeena Parkins
Eclipse Quartet

The afternoon concert presents a stellar multi-generational lineup of women composers and performing artists. New Zealand-born composer Annea Lockwood’s evocative music focuses on environmental sounds and life-narratives. IMA, an electro-percussion duo featuring two extraordinary Mills alumnae, Amma Ateria (aka Jeanie Aprille Tang, BA, 2013) and Nava Dunkelman (BA, 2013), performs expressionistic noise music influenced by Japanese poetry that is both industrial and serene. Acclaimed sound artist, performer, and instrument builder Laetitita Sonami will join composer, harpist, and master improviser Zeena Parkins in a duo that will surely “bring down the house.” And the superb all-women Eclipse Quartet will perform “Good Medicine” from Salomé Dances for Peace by former Mills faculty member Terry Riley.

LITTLEFIELD 8PM
Maggi Payne
James Fei

Joelle Leandre and Willie Winant

SUNDAY 4/24
LISSER HALL 4PM
Paul Flight and Nalini Ghuman
Sally Decker and Brendan Glasson
Company Style Improvisation with Chris Brown, Zeena Parkins, Fred Frith, Kristian Dahlbom, Evelyn Davis, Nava Dunkelman, gabby fluke-mogul, Jordan Glenn, John Ivers, Sudhu Tewari, Theresa Wong

LITTLEFIELD 8PM
Zeena Parkins and Willie Winant
David Rosenboom
Chris Brown
William Winant Percussion Ensemble

URL:
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/1090921-2?pid=4342

Artists: Chris Brown, Alvin Curran, Zeena Parkins, Laetitia Sonami, David Rosenboom, John Bischoff, Annea Lockwood, Ione, Joelle Leandre, Fred Frith, James Fei, William Winant, Larry Polansky, Roscoe Mitchell, Daniel Schmidt, Maggi Payne and Paul DeMarinis, Darius Milhaud, Lou Harrison, John Cage, Anthony Braxton, Robert Ashley, Terry Riley, Steed Cowart, and Henry Cowell.

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.