Quentin Tolimieri with Forbes Graham
quentin tolimieri
performing solo & with Forbes graham
Wednesday, december 9, 2026 at 8pm
Goethe-Institut Boston
170 Beacon Street, Boston
Music: 8pm (Doors: 7:30pm)
Admission: $20 general | $15 for students and Non-Event members
No one turned away for lack of funds
MCC Card to Culture holders get in free
For information about accessibility call the Goethe-Institut Boston at 617-610-9398 . Questions about tickets, contact susanna@nonevent.org.
Non-Event and the Goethe-Institut Boston present an evening of experimental composition and improvisation with the pianist, composer, and improviser QUENTIN TOLIMIERI. Tolimieri will perform a selection of pieces from his most recent album Monochromes II (Elsewhere) and will also play an improvised set with local trumpeter FORBES GRAHAM.
About the Artists
The music of pianist, composer, and improvisor Quentin Tolimieri is extremely minimal and reduced, sitting closer to a kind of sound sculpture than to traditional concert music. Through the removal of various syntactical structures from his compositions (for example harmony, melody, counterpoint, or rhythmic gesture) his work attempts to reveal the depth and range of complex sounds that the piano is capable of producing, sounds that are oftentimes obscured or overwhelmed by these various syntaxes. In recent years he has performed on stages throughout Europe, including Cafe OTO, KM28, Hebbel am Ufer, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Volksbühne Grüner and Roter Salons, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm, Sanatorium of Sound Festival, Steirischer Herbst Festival, and the Fusion Festival. Dusted Magazine has called him "a stunning compositional voice," while Musique Machine called his album Monochromes a "future classic," and Salt Peanuts said it was an "exquisite work...(that) allows us - the listener - to rediscover the piano." He is currently touring in support of the recording of his second volume of Monochromes pieces, Monochromes II, recently listed by The Quietus as one of the best albums of 2026. He lives in Berlin.
Forbes Graham (b. 1977) is a composer, musician, sound artist, and visual artist whose work explores themes of simultaneity, perceptibility, transformation and collage. He was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Silver Spring, MD. He attended American University, studying music composition, in the mid to late 90s and was involved in the DC and Maryland hardcore scenes, playing in a number of bands and releasing music on his label RiceControl. In the early 2000s, he moved to New England, where he got involved with Boston's free jazz and improvised music scenes. His work Encounters I for trumpet, electronics, and voices premiered at Roulette in 2019. In 2020, he was selected to work with the JACK Quartet as a part of JACK Studio. The JACK Quartet premiered String Quartet no. 3 that year, which was dedicated to LaToya Ruby Frazier. The piece For Sam Gilliam I, meant to be a tribute to the pioneering painter as well as a meditation on color, was premiered by loadbang in 2022. Earlier that year, [Switch~ Ensemble] premiered Inflection: Beacon Hill/Roxbury, which was commissioned by a LAB Grant from The Boston Foundation. Inflection: Beacon Hill/Roxbury, was written in honor of the migration of the last African American institution to leave Boston's Beacon Hill neighborhood, the Charles Street AME Church. The Overlook Quartet performed his string quartet Crossing in 2021 at Mass MoCA amongst Linda Sormin's installation Stream. He performed with Michael Pisaro at (the) co-incidence festival in 2017 and has appeared at other music festivals including High Zero, Vision, The Thing In The Spring, and The Festival of New Trumpet. Graham has appeared on over 40 albums, primarily on trumpet, but also on electronics. He is a member of Mobius Artists Group, a collective of experimenting artists. Past composition teachers include Chaya Czernowin, Eric Wubbels and Julia Werntz.
