Christian Wolff and Ordinary Affects
Non-Event and NEC’s Department of Music Theory present
CHRISTIAN WOLFF with ORDINARY AFFECTS
and NEC Students
performing two new pieces
plus works for solo piano and more
Pierce Hall (St. Botolph building)
New England Conservatory
241 St. Botolph Street, Boston
8pm / FREE and open to the public
Christian Wolff will give a short talk at 8pm
Program
37 Haiku (NEC students)
Line Exercise world premiere (Ordinary Affects + Christian Wolff)
Christian Wolff Solo Piano
For Ordinary Affects world premiere (Ordinary Affects + Christian Wolff)
CHRISTIAN WOLFF is a composer, performer, improviser, and author. Early in his career, he was closely associated with John Cage and the “New York School.” At that time, Wolff was pioneering the use of indeterminacy in composition, using open scores that require the performer to interpret them. In the late 1960s, Wolff responded to the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War by incorporating protest music into his work, although it is frequently unidentifiable as such. He often composes for prepared piano and his work demonstrates an interest in the space between sounds.
Though mostly self-taught as a composer, associations with John Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor, Earle Brown, Frederic Rzewski, and Cornelius Cardew were important to his work. Beginning in 1953, Wolff created numerous pieces for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company,and he and Merce Cunningham worked in a uniquely collaborative manner. Wolff performed in the live musical ensemble accompanying the Company’s farewell “Legacy” tour. More recently, he has collaborated with the composers Antoine Beuger and Michael Pisaro, as well as the improvisor Keith Rowe..
ORDINARY AFFECTS is a group of musicians gathered to workshop, explore, commission and perform contemporary experimental music. While the group often focuses on the performance of written compositions, it also serves as a laboratory for improvisation and the compositions of its members. The collaborative nature of the mission ensures a group that is always in flux; instrumentation is open, always changing and dependent on the project, concert and current membership. Current members are: Luke Martin (guitar, electronics), Laura Cetilia (cello), J.P.A. Falzone (vibraphone, keyboards), and Morgan Evans Weiler (violin).
Non-Event’s programming is supported in part by a grant from the Boston Cultural Council, a local agency which is funded by the Massachusetts Cultural Council and administered by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture.
