Next week I’ll be performing at Yeshiva University Museum at the Center for Jewish History in NYC. The performance is part of a collaboration with artist Quintan Ana Wikswo, composer Isaac Schankler, and choreographer Alexandra Shilling. More info about the event can be found here. The event is free but tickets must be reserved in advance (get them here).

A few weeks ago I went to see Christian Marclay’s new work, The Clock, at LACMA.  A departure from his more well known role as a sound artist/turntablist, Marclay’s The Clock is a 24 hour film, synchronized to the local time of the location at which it is screening.  It is a collection of brief moments from thousands of films, assembled into a narrative which seemingly places time itself as the main character.  Every single moment is related in some way to time, and as such, the viewer is unable to avoid thinking about the passing seconds.  Suspense begins to be built upon the minute hand, with a series of climaxes occurring every hour on the hour.  For someone obsessed with the concept of passing time (like myself), it’s a pretty awesome experience.

What Marclay has created is essentially a cinematic mash-up.  Despite the fact that the medium is film, it is still composed like a piece of music.  He is sampling video rather than audio, but they’re still samples and they function in the same way.  Seeing a “sample” you recognize brings in a flood of personal associative meanings and their juxtaposition creates new connections between them. I suspect that this results in each viewer having a rather unique viewing experience.  It’s like the visual equivalent of a Girl Talk song.  I may recognize half the samples, while you recognize a completely different set of samples, and thus, the work can mean one thing for you and another thing for me.

The film was shown in its entirety during its opening weekend, and is currently screening during museum hours until July 31st. LACMA has also just announced that the film will be shown again from beginning to end on Thursday July 28th starting at 5:00p.m.  The screening will take place in the Bing Theater and is free (seating on a first come first serve basis).  More info can be found here.

This Friday night I will be joining Chris Kallmyer and Tempwerks for a performance/installation/cheese tasting at the Berkeley Art Museum.  I’ll be playing violin, probably some guitar, and a whole instrument made of cowbells.

Here is some more information written by someone other than myself:

FERMENT[cheese]

April 29, 2011; 7:30 p.m.; Gallery B

(Doors 5 p.m., Tasting 6–9 p.m., Performance and presentation, 7:30 p.m.)
Programmed by Mark Allen

FERMENT(cheese) is a multimedia performance/presentation/tasting exploring milk’s leap into immortality. The evening will feature a milk-to-cheese tasting accompanied by field recordings of cows eating grass, curd draining, cheese aging, and an oral history with local dairyman, John Taverna. Within this environment, Los Angeles–based sound artist Chris Kallmyer will create site-specific and dispersed soundworks with the experimental ensemble TempWerks. Sue Conley, cofounder of the renowned Cowgirl Creamery, will speak about the art of cheese making, and the sustainable qualities of artisan and farmstead agriculture. Through an immersive sound environment, we invite visitors to more fully experience the fermented arts. FERMENT(cheese) is a collaboration between Conley and Kallmyer, who is Curator of Sound Programming at Machine Project.

I’m playing in three radically different concerts this week.

1.

This evening, I will be playing the Schumann Piano quintet with the formalist quartet and pianist Richard Valitutto.  We will be performing on the tail end of the CalArts cello studio concert.  The show begins at 5:00 in the Wild Beast.

2.

This Tuesday night (April 12th) in San Diego,the formalist quartet will give a late night post-concert concert of Arthur Jarvinen’s 100 cadences with four melodies, a chorale, and coda (with bells on !).  The show starts at 10:15 at the Conrady Preby’s Music Center on the UC San Diego campus.

3.

The next night, Weds. April 13th, the formalist quartet will give a full concert performing  works by Wadada Leo Smith, Daniel Tacke, and Nicholas Deyoe.  This is part of the Wed @ 7 series in the CPMC Concert Hall.  More info here: http://musicweb.ucsd.edu/concerts/index.php?i=804

Tomorrow night at the Bootleg Theater wildUp will present its second concert of the season: “Le Bouef”
Featured on the program will be Art Jarvinen’s Egyptian Two-Step, Andrew McIntosh’s Sextet, Ravel’s Tzigane with Nigel Armstrong on violin, Tom Johnson’s Narayana’s Cows, and my own work, not a place to build monuments or cathedrals.

Also on the bill are The Seasons, David Shane Smith, and Entropy Ensemble.  Tickets can be found here.

1. Schubert – “An die Musik”

2. Wilco – “Radio Cure”

1. wildUp

wildUp is beginning it’s second season with an awesome program.  Andreissen’s Workers Union, Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony, a set of songs arranged by Chris Rountree and myself, Hartke’s awesome violin duo Oh Them Rats is Mean in my Kitchen which will be performed by Andrew McIntosh and myself, and a few other surprises.  It’s tonight (Sat. Feb 5th) at Jensen Rec Center Studio in Echo Park at 8:00pm.  Tickets and more info can be found at www.wildUp.la

2.Tholl/McIntosh at Machine Project

Andrew McIntosh and I will be performing selected pieces from our residency that took place last year in the Hammer Museum’s coat closet.  We’ve picked about 15 pieces from the 100 that were commissioned for us to play at Little William Theater Festival of New Music. We will be playing them at Machine Project this Sunday Feb. 6th at 2:00pm.  Also on the program will be the other 3 duos that participated in the festival.  Works by Mark Applebaum, Peter Ablinger, Scott Cazan, Casey Anderson, Danny Holt, Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Mark Menzies, Andrew McIntosh, Nicholas Deyoe, Andrew Tholl, and more. Info can be found be found here.  This concert is free.

If you are free, please come and support live music.

Sonny Smith’s 100 Records Volume 2: I Miss The Jams – I Wanna Do It – Earth Girl Helen Brown by Turn Up Records