{Re}HAPPENING 9 – featuring Arooj Aftab, Anjna Swaminathan & Rafiq Bhatia Trio; Kiranavalli Vidysankar, Sandhya Anand, and Vinod Seetharaman

March 30, 2019 – The annual {Re}HAPPENING brings together dozens of contemporary artists whose work responds to and extends the legacy of Black Mountain College visionaries such as John Cage, David Tudor, Merce Cunningham, M.C. Richards and Robert Rauschenberg. The 2019 {Re}HAPPENING celebrated the influence of non-western music on such legendary artists by showcasing contemporary musicians who continue the legacy of experimental music within a global context. Featured performers included Arooj Aftab, Anjna Swaminathan & Rafiq Bhatia Trio, Free Planet Radio and Kiranavali Vidyasankar, Sandhya Anand, Vinod Seetharaman.

JOHNNY GANDELSMAN – BACH’S COMPLETE CELLO SUITES ON VIOLIN

December 12, 2019 | BMCM+AC {120 College Street} – Gandelsman is the one of the first to record or perform Bach’s complete cello suites on violin. This is Gandelsman’s second initiative towards adapting Bach’s compositions to violin, following his recordings of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas in 2018. Having worked with incredible masters of various world music traditions, like Bela Fleck, Martin Hayes and Kayhan Kalhor, Gandelsman’s playing of the Suites is equally inspired by folk and fiddling traditions, as it is by historically informed performance.

AKI ONDA – REFLECTIONS AND REPURCUSSIONS

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.

CHEROKEE CHAMBER SINGERS – SI OTSEDOHA (WE’RE STILL HERE), WILLIAM BRITTELLE

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.

FLAHERTY/CORSANO DUO

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.

PERFORMANCES: FLYER IN A DARK CHAMBER // OKAPI + EDWIN SALAS

August 24, 2019 {120 College Street} “Flyer in a Dark Chamber,” a reimagining of the mythology of Lilith, told through spoken-word, dance and music. Ten vignettes explore the stories of Lilith as the first wife of Adam, an empowered and emancipated woman, an outcast from Eden, the original vampire, the black madonna, along with contemporary figures such as Chikesia Clemons and Cyntoia Brown. Words by Alli Marshall, music by Elizabeth Lang/Auracene, movement by Sharon Cooper and Coco Palmer with special guests.

AMY WILLIAMS – JOHN CAGE’S SONATAS AND INTERLUDES

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.

YOWANA SARI GAMELAN ENSEMBLE

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.

Materials, Sounds + Black Mountain College

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 – {Re}HAPPENING 9

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...

NEO PASTICHE: CHANGES IN AMERICAN MUSIC FESTIVAL

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”)