November 6, 2019 | {120 College Street} – The Southeast premiere of Aki Onda’s “Reflections and Repercussions,” a multi-media performance exploring the interplay among luminosity, acoustic, architectural, and emotional relationships within the space. Performing with various types of lighting equipment such as theater lights, flashlights, bare light bulb, mirrors and other objects, Onda arranges and rearranges the tools composing the visual and aural as a total environment.
November 21, 2019 | {120 College Street} – In 2017, Cherokee student leaders assembled a forum for open discussion on what it means for them to be Cherokee in the past, present, and future and how they view their cultural heritage. This new work was created with the words, voices, and vision of the Cherokee Chamber Singers, choral students at Cherokee Central Schools, written by composer William Brittelle. Originally commissioned by the North Carolina Symphony, the BMCM+AC event includes a pre-concert discussion and performance with the Cherokee Singers and music director / pianist Michael Yannette.
August 24th, 2019 – Transfigurations III, Celebrating 15 Years of Harvest Records presents Flaherty/Corsano Duo at BMCM+AC. Saxophonist Paul Flaherty and drummer Chris Corsano are New England-based musicians dedicated to the promise and purpose of free improvisation. Paul has released over 35 recordings since the late 70’s.
August 1, 2019 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – performed Sonatas and Interludes, John Cage’s groundbreaking cycle for prepared piano. The work was composed in 1946–48, shortly after Cage’s introduction to Indian philosophy and the teachings of art historian Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, both of which became major influences on the composer’s later work. Sonatas and Interludes is generally recognized as one of Cage’s most important compositions.
July 18, 2019 | {120 College Street} -Cage Shuffle is a 50 minute dance/theater solo performance by Paul Lazar featuring a series of one-minute stories by John Cage from his 1963 score Indeterminacy, while simultaneously performing a complex choreographic score by Annie-B Parson. Cage’s humor, intellect and iconoclasm find ideal expression in this work which adds dance to his original performance instructions: Read stories aloud, paced so that each story takes one minute, using chance procedures or not.
June 28, 2019 – Currently in residence at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, Gamelan Yowana Sari has recently returned from a tour in Indonesia, performing in Pengosekan, Bali, at the home of the composer I Dewa Ketut Alit. They perform Alit’s work, traditional Balinese arrangements, and a new arrangement of Double Music by BMC composers Lou Harrison and John Cage.
June 8, 2019 – Original performances by Pia van Gelder, Peter Blamey, Nathan Thompson, and Jenn Grossman. Performances will utilize processes that explore the material nature of the instruments employed – handmade electronics, solar power, feedback systems, and contained sound.
Arooj Aftab, Anjna Swaminathan & Rafiq Bhatia TrioFeatured performers, {Re}HAPPENING 9Historic Black Mountain College campus at Lake EdenMarch 30, 2019 Arooj Aftab is a neo-sufi and minimalist composer/singer who gracefully experiments and bends the lines between...
South Indian Classical MusicKiranavali Vidyasankar (Vocals), Sandhya Anand (Violin), Vinod Seetharaman (Mrdangam)Featured performers, {Re}HAPPENING 9Historic Black Mountain College campus at Lake EdenMarch 30, 2019 Award winning Carnatic musician Kiranavali...
April 25 – April 28, 2019 {120 College Street} Neo Pastiche: Changes in American Music Festival with performers: Eugene Chadbourne, Anka (Carmelo Pampillonio + Marcyanne Hannemann), Petr Kotik (“There is Singularly Nothing”), Sarah Louise (Deep Listening inspired exercises), Deforrest Brown Jr. and Nick James Scavo (“Wrecked New American Music of a Cancelled Species”), Theodore Cale Schafer, Kimathi Moore and Elizabeth Lang, Jeff Witscher, Jaclyn Miller (aka Voice Training), S.E.M Ensemble (Julius Eastman’s “Macle” and John Cage’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, and Morton Feldman “For Philip Guston”)
October 19, 2018 {120 College Street} “The Jacob Lawrence of Jacob Lawrence” by Jace Clayton aka DJ /rupture. Presented in conjunction with African Americans in WNC & Southern Appalachia Conference, The Jacob Lawrence of Jacob Lawrence is a video and performance by Jace Clayton. The video is a hand-drawn animation with texts that form part of the script for the performance. As Clayton and vocalist Arooj Aftab perform, their voices will be transformed and processed live, using the sonic mutations to extend and transform the themes of the source text.
September 8, 2018 (120 College Street) – Performance of original works by vocalist Theo Bleckmann and guitarist Ben Monder. For over 15 years, the Theo Bleckmann & Ben Monder Duo has been touring the U.S., Europe, and Asia creating a unique approach to what might be called “jazz art song”, blurring the boundaries between jazz, classical, ambient, and rock.
November 7, 2018 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville presented the Asheville debut of the eclectic string quartet Brooklyn Rider with the premiere of their new project Healing Modes. The healing properties of music have been recognized from ancient Greek civilization to the field of modern neuroscience and expressed in countless global traditions. The slow movement of Beethoven’s Opus 132, a ‘Song of Holy Thanksgiving From a Convalescent to the Deity in the Lydian mode,’ is among the most profound expressions of healing in the string quartet repertoire. This autumnal masterwork is presented in its entirety alongside five compact new commissions which explore the subject of healing from a wide range of historical and cultures perspectives. Composers include Tyondai Braxton, Reena Esmail, Gabriela Lena Frank, Matana Roberts and recent Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw.
June 27, 2018 | BMCM+AC {56 Broadway} – Presented in collaboration with the Asheville Percussion Festival, 51’15.657″ for a Speaking Percussionist is Bonnie Whiting’s realization of a solo simultaneous performance of John Cage’s 45′ for a Speaker and 27’10.554″ for a Percussionist. These are vintage pieces: music from the mid-50’s and part of a series of timed works that Cage enjoyed mixing together and referred to in notes and letters as “the ten thousand things.” A culmination of 14 months of work and study, Whiting is the first performer to execute both pieces in their entirety.
June 6, 2018 | BMCM+AC {56 Broadway} – Conceived in 1969 as an audience participation work, John Cage’s original “score” simply stipulated that the gallery be filled with about a dozen record players and two- to three-hundred vinyl records. Museum visitors were encouraged to act as DJs and create a musical mix by playing records freely and thus performing the work. This realization was performed by María Chávez and an open audience, with 300 records compiled by curator Jade Dellinger, including records chosen by Yoko Ono, Iggy Pop, Graham Nash, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music), Jack White (The White Stripes), Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), Richie Ramone (The Ramones), Jad Fair (Half-Japanese), Alex James (Blur), Meredith Monk, Terry Allen, Irwin Chusid, Arto Lindsay (DNA & Lounge Lizards), Blixa Bargeld (Einsturzende Neubauten), Mike Kelley (Destroy All Monsters), S.A. Martinez (311), David Harrington (Kronos Quartet), Emil Schult (Kraftwerk), Pauline Oliveros, The Residents, Vito Acconci, The Art Guys, Martin Atkins (Public Image Ltd.), John Baldessari, Matthew Barney, Christian Marclay Joan LaBarbara, Jim Rosenquist, Ed Ruscha and William Wegman.
Dance HeginbothamFeatured performers, {Re}HAPPENING 7Historic Black Mountain College campus at Lake EdenMarch 25, 2017 Dance Heginbotham (DH) is a New York-based contemporary dance company committed to supporting, producing, and sustaining the work of...
February 23, 2018 | BMCM+AC {56 Broadway} – The Tesla Quartet performed selections by composer Hugo Kauder. This special program is presented in collaboration with The Hugo Kauder Society. Kauder was a composer-in-residence at BMC in the summer of 1945. The program included Kauder’s String Quartet 4, a piece performed at BMC in 1945, as well as Bartok’s String Quartet 3 and transcriptions of works by Gesualdo and Ravel by Tesla violinist Ross Snyder. Praised for their “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play, regardless of era, style, or technical demand” (The International Review of Music), the Tesla Quartet brings refinement and prowess to both new and established repertoire. The group was formed at The Juilliard School in 2008 and includes Ross Snyder (violin), Michelle Lie (violin), Edwin Kaplan (viola), and Serafim Smigelskiy (cello).
March 16 + 17, 2018 | The Wortham Center for the Performing Arts {Downtown, Asheville} – BMCM+AC, in partnership with UNC Asheville, presented the Southeast Premiere of Dance Heginbotham and Maira Kalman’s The Principles of Uncertainty, a new evening-length dance theater work by choreographer John Heginbotham and author/illustrator Maira Kalman. Adapted from Kalman’s New York Times column turned book of the same name and described by the two artists as an “absurdist travelogue,” Principles of Uncertainty marries the nostalgic whimsy of Kalman’s illustrations with Heginbotham’s controlled yet playful choreography to create an evening that explores life, death and everything in between. Heginbotham directs and choreographs the work, while Kalman oversees all elements of design—sets, props, projections and costumes, bringing her 2D illustrations to life on the stage. Kalman is also present on stage, alongside Dance Heginbotham, actor Daniel Pettrow and members of The Knights. Composer Colin Jacobsen—a member of string quartet Brooklyn Rider, chamber ensemble The Knights, and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble—serves as Music Director of the project. Principles of Uncertainty premiered August 17, 2017 at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival followed by a New York Premiere at BAM Next Wave Festival and travelled to Durham, North Carolina after this Southeast Premiere in Asheville.
Related Events Included:
Wednesday, March 14th – Maira Kalman Reading and Book Signing at Malaprops Bookstore for The Principles of Uncertainty (2007) and her new book, Beloved Dog (2017.)
Wednesday, March 14th – Dance Heginbotham Workshop at NC School for the Deaf
Wednesday, March 14th – Dance for PD Masterclass with John Heginbotham
Saturday, March 17th – Coffee + Conversation with John + Maira
Commission | November 17 + 18, 2017 | BMCM+AC {69 Broadway} – ACTIVE ARCHIVE is a stream of programs that pairs the museum’s extensive collection with contemporary artists, curators, and cultural thinkers. It launches with an exhibition featuring the museum’s permanent collection curated by Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist Martha McDonald.
McDonald brought the ideas of Black Mountain College alive through an exhibition of artwork and ephemera from BMCM+AC’s collection and a live performance drawing on the rich history of experimental performance at BMC. The exhibition, across both galleries, focused on the importance of process and material exploration at BMC.
McDonald’s performance activated her installation of objects and costumes drawn from Xanti Schawinsky’s 1936 experimental theater piece, Spectodrama, which formed the basis of his Stage Studies course at BMC. McDonald’s piece, in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Laura Baird featured music inspired by John Evarts’ collaborations with Schawinsky at BMC from 1936-38.
October 27 + 28, 2017 | {22 London Rd} – Silvana Cardell’s Supper, People on the Move is a dance performance inspired by themes of migration and the complex experience of dislocation. Physical bodies moving between physical places define migration and the immigrant journey at the heart of humanity’s ability to survive. This Asheville engagement was accompanied by an exhibition of photographs and narratives by Philadelphia-based artist Jennifer Baker and local photographer Steve Mann, “Portraits of People on the Move” featuring stories of those in our WNC community. Audiences were invited to share in a group meal to discuss and connect over the themes brought forth by Cardell Dance Theatre’s performance. Supper, People on the Move was hosted at Randy Shull and Hedy Fischer’s 22 London Road Studio/ Exhibition Space.
What began for choreographer Silvana Cardell as dance borne of her personal history, evolved into an examination of the human experience of all people on the move, looking for new horizons. The immigrant journey is at the heart of a human’s ability to survive. Physical bodies moving between physical places define immigration. It is only appropriate that dance performed by virtuosic, striking dancers, is the art form to explore this experience and create a work of art from it. From the beginning of history people have migrated; it is at the soul of human evolution. Supper takes the movement of migration and transforms it into art, into a dance that transcends its literal origins yet is grounded in them. In performance, the art of the movement of human migration is revealed.
