Tom Plsek Memorial Concert
Photo by Bob Raymond
Mobius inc & non-Event present
Friday, june 12, 2026 at 7:30pm
TOM PLSEK MEMORIAL CONCERT
featuring performances by
Jane Wang
Joanne Rice and Scott Fessler
Steve Norton
Larry Johnson and David Miller
John Voigt and Josh Rosen
The Cambridge Foundry
STEAM set performance space
101 Rogers Street
Cambridge, MA
Admission: $15 general / $10 members and students
No one turned away for lack of funds
For information about accessibility call the Foundry at 617-998-2063 or email susanna@nonevent.org.
Mobius, Inc. and Non-Event are pleased to present this special concert in memory of Tom Plsek. It will feature work by Jane Wang; Joanne Rice and Scott Fessler; Steve Norton; Larry Johnson and David Miller; and John Voigt and Josh Rosen. These are just a few of the many artists in the jazz and sound art communities with whom long-time Mobius Artists Group member Tom Plsek collaborated in more than 40 years of performing in Boston and beyond. Please join us in honoring his legacy.
About Tom Plsek
Trombone explorer Tom Plsek stretched trombones and our concepts of them for years. His compositions included pieces for ensembles and solo trombone which often incorporated improvisation, technology, dance, and performance art. Tom performed with such artists as Jerry Hunt, Malcolm Goldstein, Phill Niblock, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Joe Morris, Marjorie Morgan, Joanne Rice, and with the Outsider Quartet. He performed at New Music American in 1983 and 1986. He was a member of the Mobius Artists Group from 1988-2021 and served as Chair of the Brass Department for many years at Berklee College of Music in Boston.
The Gu series, a monthly performance series created with Marjorie Morgan and based on one of the hexagrams from the I Ching, was selected by the Boston Globe as one of the top ten dance events in Boston for the year 2002. He performed a solo concert at the Forfest Festival in Kromeriz, Czech Republic in the summer of 2004. In May 2005 his piece “Collateral Damage Noted” for 100+ musicians, premiered on Boston City Hall Plaza to critical acclaim. He performed as guest composer/performer with EnsoArts in Galway, Ireland in November 2005, the Hochschule fur Musik in Trossingen, Germany in May 2006 and the Acoustical Society of America in Providence, Rhode Island, in June 2006. He was a member of the Acoustical Society of America for which he gave many presentations on the use of technology with brass instruments.
He is featured on several recording including “Firehouse Futurities” 1999: Rastascan Records (BRD038) and Tautology (005); and “Jump or Die; 21 Braxton Compositions 1992,” Music and Arts (CD-843). The CD “MVP LSD” with Joe Morris, guitar and John Voigt, bass was officially released in April 2009.
About the performers (in order of performance)
Jane Wang is a composer/musician and multidisciplinary artist.
joanne rice is a performance artist who watches the hollow spaces fill with time. And inside all of that, Tom Plsek was a good friend and collaborator. She was a member of Mobius, the artist-run organization in Boston, MA, from 1988 to 2020.
Scott Fessler, a retired professor of music, composer, and trumpet player, spent 45 years teaching music composition and theory at the Berklee College of Music. In addition to classroom instruction, he also provided private lessons and coached chamber ensembles. A classically trained trumpet player, Scott performed for many years in various settings, primarily as a member of The Festival Brass, a Boston-area brass quintet. During his time as a composition student at CalArts in the 1970s, Scott focused on electronic music composition. The performance tonight marks one of the rare occasions when he has returned to the production of electronic music since his college days.
Steve Norton is a sound artist, researcher and educator living in Orono, Maine. His artistic practice is focused on field recording, bioacoustics and soundscape composition, tapping into his life-long interest in biology, ecology and the outdoors. Steve is founding co-director of the Island Soundscape Project and a member of the Bangor Land Trust.
Larry Johnson, born in Oklahoma, came to Massachusetts in 1963. He began composing music and later performances and text-sound. He taught at Boston Museum School for 39 years, and was a Mobius artist for 16 years. He has performed in many places in New England, New York, Chicago and the Grand Canyon, often collaborating with Tom Plsek, David Miller, Joanne Rice and other Mobius artists. He walked 500 miles on the Camino de Santiago in 2005 where he met his true love. He moved to San Sebastian, Spain, in 2008, where his work is focused on how minds construct worlds.
David Miller was a member of the Mobius Artists Group from 1980 to 2007. During that time he created solo performances and collaborated with MAG members on new works. He was privileged to work with Tom Plsek many times, writing two new pieces for him, and bringing out new realizations of several pieces by John Cage, beginning with the all-night performance of Empty Words in the spring of 1993. He, Tom, and other MAG members and artist friends developed their own versions of Cage’s ambient/environmental Variations works. David will always remember their performances of Cage’s Two/5, for piano and trombone.
John Voigt - Biographical Highlights
With: Thurston Moore (Vision Festival NYC). William Parker (CBGB’s). Many New York improvisors. Tom Plsek at Mobius.
“In his hands the bass turns into a mythical creature.” – The Improvisor, 1993.
“An avatar of creative music.” – Cadence, Dec. 1997.
[About Voigt’s CD Outsider Bass] “Tingles the pores and excites the mind to wander in a world of fantasy.”--Gary Karr, world renowned contrabass soloist.
MVP - LSD. Riti Records, 2008. (One of Voigt’s and Plsek’s best performances.)
Story Book, with Josh Rosen (2026)
Josh Rosen is composer, pianist and educator. Rosen has released ten CDs featuring Stan Strickland, Bob Moses, Mick Goodrick, George Garzone, Greg Hopkins, and Eugene Friesen. His latest album is “Storybook,” with bassist John Voigt.
International performances include Japan, Ireland, and Ethiopia with the Either/Orchestra and Ethiopian masters Mulatu Astake and Mahmoud Ahmed. Rosen has composed music and sound design for numerous film and media projects and has been a Professor at Berklee College of Music for 30 years.
“Rosen’s compositions...ranging from sly and funny to warmly, indelibly tuneful... absolutely gorgeous.” – Lucid Culture
“a longtime hero of the Boston creative music scene” – WBUR
