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PERFORMERS
Mustafa Ahmed
Tyler Azelton
Barbara Benary
Andrew Bolotowsky
Meredith Borden
Peter Castaldi
Hai-Ting Chinn
Tom Chiu
Marshall Coid
Elaine Comparone
Elzbieta Czyzewska
Brian DeMaris
Rafael DeStella
Mark Duer
Sherrita Duran
David Eggar
Carol Flamm
Flux Quartet
Gamelan Son of Lion
Jon Garrison
Steven Goldstein
Daryl Henriksen
Jonathan Hirschman
Steven Kalm
Lisa Karrer
Rana Kaye
Donatas Katkus
Peter Kazaras
Ron Kozak
Skip LaPlante
Elodie Lauten
Julie A. Lockhart
Dylan McCullough
Tonna Miller
Carol Monda
Virgil Moorefield
Piera Paine
Rudolph Palmer
Joshua Pierce
The Queen’s
Chamber Band
Bill Raynor
Johnny Reinhard
Arthur Russell
Jody Sheinbaum
Mimi Stern-Wolfe
Michiyo Suzuki
Anastasia Solberg
Charlotte Surkin
Mark Uhlemann
Laura Wolfe
Peter Zummo

A culture in the making: 20 years of Neo-Opera
Screenings of rare documentary footage
Admission-free Saturdays at 2PM
October 6,20,27 November 3,10, 17

Hosted byThe New York Public Library
Hamilton Fish Park Branch
415 Houston Street (Ave C)

PROGRAM

Participating Organizations:
Lower East Side Performing Arts
American Festival of Microtonal Music
American Opera Projects
Downtown Music Productions
Harpsichord Unlimited
4tay Records

DMP

Lucio Pozzi and Frank J. Oteri’s collaborative work MACHUNAS is “a performance oratorio in four colors" (yellow, green, red and blue). It received its world premiere in August 2005 at the Contemporary Arts Center in Vilnius, Lithuania as part of the International Christopher Summer Festival conducted by Donatas Katkus. The life of George Maciunas, founder of the1960s Fluxus art movement, who was born in Lithuania, is viewed as the emblem of the end of twentieth century culture, in all its tragedy, irony, delusions and immense vitality.

DOCUMENTATION ON PARTICIPATING CREATORS

Donatas Katkus (born on September 21, 1942 in Kaunas) is a conductor, musicologist, and the artistic director of St Christopher Chamber Orchestra. In 1965 he founded the Vilnius String Quartet and was a member of it for 29 years. The quartet has won the first prize at the International Liege Competition (Belgium) and toured around the world, appearing in the most prestigious festivals of more than 30 countries. Since 1968 Katkus is a professor at the Lithuanian Music Academy where he gives chamber ensemble and string quartet classes; since 1995 he has given master classes in Pommersfelden (Germany), Spain, and Finland. In 1995 he successfully accomplished his idea to organise the Christopher Summer Festival in Vilnius. In 2001 Professor Donatas Katkus became laureate of the Lithuanian National Premium for his productive creative and musical-public activities and in 2003 he was awarded with the Prize of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).

Frank J. Oteri's voracious musical appetite finds many avenues of expression, but ultimately all lead back to his musical compositions which range from full-evening stage works to chamber and solo compositions. In all of these works, Oteri (b. 1964) combines emotional directness with an obsession for formal processes incorporating techniques from styles of music as seemingly-unrelated as minimalism, serialism, Broadway show music and bluegrass. His music has been performed in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and the Knitting Factory in New York City to the Theatre Royal in Bath, England, and the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art to a Baptist church in the middle of Emanuel County, Georgia. Among his compositions are: In Watermelon Sugar (a Richard Brautigan opera in 31-tone equal temperament); The Return of the Rivers (a Brautigan cycle for solo voice and keyboards); Two Transfers (a Brautigan cycle for tenor and string quartet); Pity The Morning Light That Refuses to Wait for Dawn (a Brautigan requiem for soloists, chorus and orchestra); if by yes (an e.e. cummings cycle for tenor and harpsichord), Take Me (a piano sonata); Brinson's Race (for trumpet and string quartet); Walking Naked (a Yeats cycle for baritone, alto recorder, mandola, eight cellos and double-bass); The Impatient Explorer (a Kenneth Patchen cycle for countertenor, theremin, clarinet, kalimba, banjo and trombone); is 5 (for solo harpsichord); and The Other Side of the Window (a Margaret Atwood cycle for female voice, two flutes, toy piano, guitar and cello) which has been performed at La Mama La Galleria in New York City and at Bennington College in Vermont. His most recent works include: circles mostly in wood (a 1/4 tone wind quintet); as long as forever is (for two singers, two recorders, crumhorn and violone, based on the poetry of Dylan Thomas and commemorating the 50th anniversary of his death); six of one, half a dozen of another (for two harpsichords), presented by the Miami Bach Society in January 2004; Manipulacao (for solo guitar) which was published in the Summer 2004 issue of Guitar Review magazine; and Fair and Balanced? for saxophone quartet in 1/4-tones which the Prism Quartet will perform in New York City and Philadelphia in May 2005. Other musicians who have performed Oteri's works include pianists by Sarah Cahill, Jenny Lin and Guy Livingston, harpsichordist Rebecca Pechefsky, guitarist Dominic Frasca, Pentasonic Winds, Sylvan Winds, the Roebling String Quartet and the Magellan String Quartet. His Just Salsa, for microtonal salsa band in just intonation was premiered at the American Festival of Microtonal Music.In addition to his activities as a composer, Oteri is a frequently published music journalist, a pre-concert lecturer at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Columbia University's Miller Theatre, and the Editor of NewMusicBox, the Web magazine from the American Music Center (www.newmusicbox.org). Described as "passionate and knowledgeable" in the San Francisco Chronicle , Oteri is an outspoken crusader for new music who has given presentations about the importance of contemporary music and the breaking down of musical barriers on television and radio talk shows as well as in conferences of musical organizations around the world. His musical articles have appeared in BBC Music, Chamber Music , Ear Magazine , Stagebill/Playbill , Symphony , Time Out New York and the Revised New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and his comments about music have been quoted in The New York Times , the Washington Post , the Wall Street Journal , U.S. News and World Report , Billboard , the Guardian (U.K.) and Jazz Times , among other publications. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies for ASCAP's Thru The Walls showcase in New York City and Meet The Composer's " The Works " in Minneapolis. Oteri holds a B.A. and a M.A. (in Ethnomusicology) from Columbia University where he served as Classical Music Director and World Music Director for WKCR-FM.

Lucio Pozzi was born in 1935 in Milan, Italy. After living a few years in Rome, where he studied architecture, he came to the United States in 1962, as a guest of the Harvard International Summer Seminar. He then settled in New York and took the US citizenship. After a while, his art began to be seen here and abroad in galleries such as Bykert, John Weber, Gianenzo Sperone, Yvon Lambert, Leo Castelli. Pozzi is a painter who likes to paint and pursue his painterly concerns in other media as well. In 1978 the Museum of Modern Art, New York, exhibited his early videotapes in one of the first single-artist exhibitions of the Projects: Video series. He also sets up large installations and organizes performances. He occasionally writes and has taught at the Cooper Union, Yale Graduate Sculpture Program, Princeton University and the Maryland Institute of Art. He currently is an instructor at the MFA and BFA programs of the School of Visual Arts, in New York. His art is represented in the collections of The New York Public Library; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; The Fogg Museum, Cambridge Mass.; Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy; Giuseppe Panza Di Biumo, Lugano, Switzerland; Herbert and Dorothy Vogel, New York; PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Museum of New Art, Detroit, MI.; Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ.; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI; Hartford Atheneum, Hartford, CT; Marzona Sculpture Park, Italy; Portofino Sculpture Museum, Italy; Museo de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires, University of California Art Museum (Berkeley) and in various corporate collections. Pozzi was honored with a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1983. Retrospectives of his art were held at Kunsthalle Bielefeld (1982) and Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe (1983), Germany, and at the Museum of New Art (2001), Detroit, MI, Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Michigan (2002). His work has been presented at Documenta 6 (1977) and at the Venice Biennale (American Pavilion) in 1980. A selection of recent and current events by Pozzi includes: - a retrospective of his Photoworks at The Staller Center for the Arts, Stony Brook University, '04 - besides shows of paintings at various galleries in the US and abroad, major exhibitions at: Marist College Art Gallery, Wm. Paterson University, New Jersey, '02; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI, with a performance at the University of Western Michigan, '02; Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, '02. - a re-make of "10 Color Combinations", an installation from the original 'Rooms' exhibition, at PS1, Contemporary Art Center, New York. - performances at the Paula Cooper, '91, and Holly Solomon, '92, galleries; 8-hour actions: "Paperswim" at the DIA Center for the Arts, '91, "Arkisex" at the Storefront for Art and Architecture '95, "Newsbands: a reading" at Esso Gallery, NYC, '98, at the Charlottesville Mall, VA, '00 .

The music of Elodie Lauten has been presented by the Lincoln Center Festival, the New York City Opera, WNYC, The Kitchen, the Performing Garage, the Dance Theater Workshop, La Mama, the Soho Baroque Opera, Downtown Music Productions, the American Festival of Microtonal Music, Interpretations, the SEM Ensemble, The Whitney Museum, and at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. The current discography includes 26 titles to-date, released on Lovely Music, O.O. Discs, Point/Polygram, New Tone (Italy), 4-Tay, Tellus, Nonsequitur, Capstone, Frog Peak, Pitch and Studio 21. No stranger to visual and media arts, Lauten has had solo, collaborative and group gallery showings in New York and Boston including sound installations, drawings, as well as computer-based art and animation. The musical oeuvre includes many electronic and electro-acoustic pieces, as well as chamber and orchestral music. Her landmarks are unique neo-operas evolving or deconstructing the classic form: The Death of Don Juan (1985), Existence (1991), The Deus Ex Machina Cycle (1997), Orfreo (2004) and Waking in New York, portrait of Allen Ginsberg (1999), which appeared on a list of the most influential works of the last three decades. (Sequenza21, by Lawrence Dillon, April 2005) Lauten received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Council on the Arts, ASCAP, Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, and The Music Liberty Initiative. Lauten is currently on the composition faculty at New York University. She is a regular contributor to the classical music internet publication Sequenza21. She is a member of the boards of the American Festival of Microtonal Music and Lower East Side Performing Arts, and a writer/publisher member of ASCAP.

Among Michael Andre's books of poetry are Experiments in Banal Living and Studying the Ground for Holes. His art criticism has appeared in ArtNews, The Village Voice and Art in America. He recently edited Archifanfaro, a libretto by Carlo Goldoni, translated by W.H. Auden. He is the publisher UnMuzzled Ox, a magazine of poetry and art.

Meredith Borden, a graduate of New England Conservatory in Boston, found her way into the mysterious world of microtonal music via Joe Maneri's microtonal music class where he taught his students to defy the 12-Tone music "standard" in order to sing and play 72-Equal Tempered notes to the octave. From this point on, Borden began developing her own uniquely virtuosic microtonal singing style, along the way performing works by Philip Glass and Meredith Monk, and other new music composers. Defining herself as a "blues coloratura," Borden combines her classical virtuosity with a blues passion. Although Borden is sought afterfor her ability to master challenging microtonal works, Borden's vocal repertoire ranges from early music to contemporary musical theatre, featured in works as diverse as Bach's Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen to touring with the musical HAiR in Europe. Paul Griffiths of the New York Times described her performance of Harry Partch's The Potion Scene as "gripping."

Marshall Coid has a multi-faceted career as a counter tenor, violinist, composer, writer and actor. Since graduating from the Juilliard School in 1979 he has appeared as a soloist for Lincoln Center Great Performers, Spoleto Festival, the Kennedy Center, the New York Shakespeare Festival, New York Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra,His television credits include Fame, Another World, Guiding Light, and Nosferatu on MTV. On Broadway he has appeared in Rags, Ghetto, Barnum (), Sunset Boulevard and Chicago. Currently he is a soloist with the Queen's Chamber Band and the New York Ensemble for Early Music at St. John the Divine. He is on the music faculty of Columbia University.

Since her acclaimed New York debut as a Concert Artists Guild award winner, harpsichordist Elaine Comparone has maintained a varied career as recitalist, soloist with orchestra, chamber musician, recording artist, teacher,collaborator with composers, choreographers and video artists, and founder-director of Harpsichord Unlimited, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the harpsichord, its history and its music. "Elaine Comparone Plays Red-Blooded Harpsichord" headlined The New York Times review of her recital debut and Pulitzer Prize-winner Donal Henahan called her a "harpsichordist with few equals..." (The New York Times) Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts into a family of musicians, she began piano studies at age four with her mother. As a child she played violin, flute (with her father, a professional flutist, as teacher) and pipe organ; but it was not untill her student years at Brandeis University that she discovered and fell in love with the harpsichord. Her success with that instrument resulted in a Fulbright Fellowship to study with harpsichordist Isolde Ahlgrimm at the Academy of Music in Vienna. As founding member of "Bach with Pluck!", Trio Bell'Arte and The Queen's Chamber Band, she has taken her harpsichords to performances in every state of the continental US. She has served as organist/choir director of the First Moravian Church in New York City for over ten years. A recipient of Solo Recitalist and Recording Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, she has given solo recitals at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street YW-YMHA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dayton Art Institute and the Library of Congress, to name a few. She has enjoyed guest appearances with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York Virtuosi Chamber Symphony, Washington Chamber Symphony and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra among others. Her collaboration with the New York Virtuosi included an annual series and residency at Columbia University's Miller Theater. In October, 1993, she stepped in at the last minute to replace the harpsichordist of the all-woman Vivaldi Orchestra of Moscow for its first American tour and Lincoln Center debut. Since 1974 when she won an unprecedented grant for the purchase of a van from the Rockefeller Fund for Music, she has taken her harpsichords to performances in every state of the continental US.

Charlotte Surkin, mezzo-soprano, holds BMEd and MA degrees from Temple University and New York University. A Santa Fe Apprentice Artist, she has performed in operas across the United States. She is also on the faculty of Wagner College and is an alto soloist at Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. "The brightest moment of Friday evening's performance was created by the excellent voice of Charlotte Surkin" - Bernard Hollard - The New York Times.

Paris-born baritone Peter Castaldi was raised in Milan and finished his education in Washington D.C. and New York. His recent operatic engagement include Malatesta in Don Pasquale with Concert Opera Philadelphia; a return in 2003 as Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus; Marcello in La bohème for both Opera Northeast and Lyric Opera of Waco, appearances with Opera Brooklyn - Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette in April 2003 and the title role in Rigoletto in June. In Fall 2003, Peter Castaldi returned to Lyric Opera of Waco as Germont in La traviata. This season the baritone appeared on Aegisthus in Taneyev's Agamemnon; in March on a tour of Poland and in June at Carnegie Hall, with Peter Tiboris and the Silesian Philharmonic. This Fall he will sing the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto with Opera Roanoke and appear at Alice Tully Hall with Teatro Grattacielo in Giordano's La cena delle beffe.

Castaldi's concert engagement include a Carnegie Hall appearance as baritone soloist in the Fauré Requiem, a return to Carnegie in February and again in May 2003 in the world premiere of John Rutter's Mass for the Children; the release of the first recording of Handel's Diedamia on Albany; and the Brahms Requiem with both AmorArtis and New York Chamber Arts Ensemble. In December 2003 Castaldi made an Avery Fisher Hall debut as soloist in Handel's Messiah and returned to Carnegie Hall for Haydn's Theresien Mass and Mozart's C Minor Mass with David Randolph. He participated in the 80th Birthday Celebration at Merkin Hall, Lincoln Center, of composer Ned Rorem, featuring his Opera A Childhood Miracle. In Spring 2004, the baritone records and performs Rorem's song cycle Aftermath with the Aurelia Piano Trio at Merkin Hall. Castaldi has been invited back to Carnegie to sing the title role of Mendelssohn's Elijah in Fall 2004. Peter Castaldi began his singing career as principal baritone for the Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble from 1989 to 1994. He created the roles of Garcia Lorca for Kenneth Guilmartin's City of Gypsies, as well as the Devil in Guilmartin's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell to critical acclaim in both The New York Times and Opera Monthly. In 1997, Mr. Castaldi made his Carnegie Recital Hall debut with a solo cantata composed for him by Howard Cass. He also debuted in Europe that year singing as baritone soloist in the Brahms Requiem with Aldo Ceccato, in performances in both Bergen and Milan. His European recital debut followed in Bergamo and at the Festival di Gavarno to rave reviews in L'eco di Bergamo. Peter Castaldi has also performed with such orchestras as the Opera Français of New York, Bergen Philharmonic, I Verdiani di Milano, I Pomeriggi Musicali, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Brewer Chamber Orchestra, New England Chamber Orchestra and St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra. The baritone was featured in more than 70 performances with the Ohio Light Opera, performed with New England Lyric Opera, toured as baritone soloist for American Bolero Dance Company in Europe and the US, and made his debut as Germont in La Traviata for Opera Northeast. His discography includes leading roles for such labels as Newport Classic, Albany, Vox and Koch for which he has earned critical acclaim from Opera News, Opera Digest and Fanfare. His recorded repertoire includes Lukas Foss' The Jumping Frog of Calaverras County, Ned Rorem's A Childhood Miracle, the Kurt Vonnegut/Edgar Grana Requiem as well as a number of Handel operas and oratorios - among them Tolomeo, Faramondo and Alexander Balus, Rudolph Palmer conducting. Mr. Castaldi is also featured on a compilation titled The American Singer with such illustrious colleagues as John Aler, Brenda Harris, John Cheek, Julianne Baird and John Ostendorf.

Robert Lawson is a writer, director, composer, screenwriter & visual artist who has been on faculty at Franklin Pierce University for the last decade where he has created numerous original theater works - at times in collaboration with his wife, choreographer Sally Bomer. His music/theater work - …but the rain is full of ghosts - was performed at the Kennedy Center as part of the National American College Theater Festival (April 2003). Other free lance theater work includes a staged reading of Dominic Orlando's Terror of the Physical Being for the MacDowell Colony's Downtown series. He is the author of dozens of performance texts that have been produced in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, New Haven and at the Milwaukee Rep. His work has been published in American Writing and Poems & Plays, and he was a finalist/recipient of an artist's grant from NH State Council on the Arts in 1999. Screenplays, in collaboration with writer/director Jonathan Glatzer: Safety Glass, optioned in 2000 by GoodMachine (NYC) and Industry Entertainment (LA); King Callow commissioned by Starboard Entertainment (LA); Fear Itself, currently in development. Recent work includes direction & set design of The Magic Flute for the Granite State Opera - for which he also directed the 2001 production of The Barber of Seville; an ongoing series of workshops in Creative Process and film for the Donau University in Austria; and co-writing and producing an independent feature film - Safety Glass - slated to begin shooting later in 2005. Art projects include an art/science installation based on the Camera Obscura (whose year and a half run at the Historical Society in Peterborough ended in May 2004); another installation Recently Discovered : use unknown ran for half a year at the same Historical Society; and plans for the Museum of the 5 Senses - to be located in Peterborough - received seed money and are ongoing. He has, of late, been a guest on the NHPR show The Front Porch (John Walters) discussing Safety Glass film project with Jonathan Glatzer; and on The Enchange (Laura Knoy) discussing the 50th anniversary of Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'. He is also the artistic director of Andy's Summer Playhouse, a peculiar theater in New Hampshire that produces new experimental work for kid performers. Note: the original 1985 recording of THE DEATH OF DON JUAN was used in the 2005 production, augmented by a live performance by Elodie Lauten (synthesizer and Jonathan Hirschman (electric guitar). Among the original performers in the recording are Arthur Russell and Peter Zummo.

Jonathan Hirschman began playing lead guitar professionally since age 15. A native New Yorker, he established a reputation in the downtown club s cene as an improviser of blues and R&B, with unique style and dazzling virtuosity, evolved from blues, jazz and rock classics (Wes Montgomery, B.B. King and Jeff Beck) and further developed into idyosyncratic, experimental techniques, styles and tunings of his own. In 2003 Lauten arranged and produced his solo album, Tunes from the Lower East Side (Studio 21). They have since continued to collaborate on many projects, in particular just intonation pieces, performing together at Music Under Construction (2003), the World Out of Tune Festival (2004), and Franklin Pierce College(2005) for the new staging Lauten's The Death of Don Juan.

Arthur Russell (1952-1992) was an American cellist, composer, singer, and disco artist. While he found the most success as a dance music artist, Russell's career bridged New York's downtown, rock, and dance music scenes; his collaborators ranged from Philip Glass to David Byrne to Nicky Siano. Relatively unknown during his life, series of reissues and posthumous releases has raised his profile in recent years Russell was born and raised in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he later studied the cello and began to write his own music. When he was 18 he moved to San Francisco, where he lived in a Buddhist commune and studied North Indian music at the Ali Akbar College of Music.[1][8][4] He met Allen Ginsberg, with whom he began to work, accompanying him on the cello while Allen sang or read his poetry. In 1973, Arthur Russell moved to New York and began study at the Manhattan School of Music, also working as The Kitchen's musical director. He formed a band from 1975-1979, The Flying Hearts, recorded by John Hammond, which consisted of Arthur (keyboards, vocals), ex-Modern Lovers member Ernie Brooks (bass, vocals), Larry Saltzman (guitar), and David Van Tieghem (drums, vocals), with a later incarnation in the 1980s that included Joyce Bowden (vocals) and Jesse Chamberlin (drums). He contributed to The Flying Hearts in studio work and, occasionally, in performance with David Byrne, Rhys Chatham, Jon Gibson, Peter Gordon, Jerry Harrison, Garret List, Andy Paley, Leni Pickett and Peter Zummo. From 1975 to 1979 this ensemble, together with Glenn Iamaro, Bill Ruyle and Jon Sholle, performed and recorded the orchestral composition of Instrumentals (Disques du Crepescule, 1984, Belgium) In 1979, Arthur wrote and produced 'Kiss Me Again', under the name Dinosaur L. It was the first disco single to be released by Sire Records, and the first of many of Arthur's innovative dance tunes. This was followed by 'Is It All Over My Face' by Loose Joints, released in 1980. In 1981, Arthur Russell and the entrepeneur William Socolov founded Sleeping Bag Records[ and their first release was his 24-24 Music. The number 'Go Bang', which originated from this album, was re-mixed as a 12" single by Francois Kevorkian. These songs were all frequently played at Larry Levan's Paradise Garage; in particular, Levan's remix of "Is It All Over My Face" (one of his earliest remixes) has been recognized as a prototype of garage music. In 1983, the album "Tower of Meaning" (Chatham Square) was released. This compelling and meditative recording, conducted by Julius Eastman, represents just a fragment of a much larger composition, which includes voices along with its instrumentation. At the same time, Arthur continued to release dance singles such as 'Tell You Today' (4th and Broadway, 1983) an upbeat dance groove featuring the vocals of Joyce Bowden. Additional dance tunes included Wax the Van (Jump Street, 1985) with vocals by Lola Blank, wife of the notorious Bob, 'Treehouse/Schoolbell' (Sleeping Bag, 1986) and 'Let's Go Swimming' (Upside/Rough Trade, 1986). During the mid 1980s, Arthur Russell gave many performances, either accompanying himself on cello with a myriad of effects, or working with a small ensemble consisting of Mustafa Ahmed, Steven Hall, Elodie Lauten and Peter Zummo. 1986 saw the release of 'World of Echo' (Upside/Rough Trade, 1986), which incorporated many of his ideas for pop, dance and classical music for both solo and cello format. The album was well-reviewed in Britain and included in Melody Maker's "Top Thirty Releases of 1986." Arthur also collaborated with a number of choreographers, including John Bernd, Diane Madden, Alison Salzinger and Stephanie Woodard. Arthur Russell died of AIDS on April 4, 1992, at the age of 40. In an April 28 column, Kyle Gann of The Village Voice wrote: "His recent performances had been so infrequent due to illness, his songs were so personal, that it seems as though he simply vanished into his music." Russell was prolific, but was also notorious for leaving songs unfinished and continually revising his music. Ernie Brooks said that Russell "never arrived at a completed version of anything," while Peter Gordon stated, "his quest wasn't really to do a finished product but more to do with exploring his different ways of working musically." He left behind more than 1,000 tapes when he died, 40 of them different mixes of one song. In 2007, This Is How We Walk On The Moon, a song which appears on the 1994 album "Another Thought," was used in a UK television commercial for T-Mobile. Also in 2007 the artist Johanna Billing exhibited a video of the same title, which included a cover of the song, at Documenta 12 in Kassel and at a gallery in Edinburgh. Work has begun on a new documentary on Arthur, by filmaker Matt Wolf. It is scheduled to be completed in early 2008.

Peter Zummo has been composing since 1967 and has performed his works for solo trombone and ensemble worldwide. His work has been associated with the contemporary classical tradition, in combination with or juxtaposition to the minimal, jazz, world music, and so-called art-rock styles. He has pioneered new approaches to, and uses for, extended instrumental technique on the trombone and also uses the valve trombone, dijeridoo, euphonium, synthesizers and other electronics and his voice in performance. His many compositions for ensemble build on original melody and melodic fragments, and generate interactive situations in which musicians explore the boundaries of common and extended practice, without, however, having to act arbitrarily. Peter Zummo has performed his works for solo trombone and ensemble worldwide. Venues for performances of Zummo's pieces have included the Brooklyn Academy of Music Next Wave Festival (Radical Filtering); City Center, Dance Theater Workshop; Interpretations Series/Merkin Hall; Lincoln Center Out Of Doors; Lotus Fine Aits (Semiotic Handgun); New Arts Program/Kutztown; Walker Art Center; Danspace; The Joyce Theatre; LaMama (Experimenting With Household Chemicals); New Music America; Experimental Intermedia Foundation; Boston Opera House); Jacob's Pillow; Roulette; Snug Harbor Cultural Center; t; St. Peters Church;, the American Center in Paris; Seibu in Tokyo; and Logos Foundation in Ghent. Zummo is a former Harvestworks Artist In Residence, with choreographer Stephanie Skura. His work has been funded by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Jerome Foundation, the Helen W. Buckner Charitable Trust, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer, The Phaedrus Foundation, The Council on the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island, including a 1999 Original Work award, and the New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship program. Choreographic commissions include Trisha Brown's Newark (with Donald Judd) and Lateral Pass, which won a Bessie award; David Doriman's Careful Aim, which was commissioned by the Meet The Composer's Composer/Choreographer program, and Out of Season; Risa Jaroslow's Shuffled Hearts and Great Escapes; Irene Hultman's Gruff; Randy Warshaw's Shutter, Jonathan Appels' Fields and Stars and Coco Grille, Debra Wanner's For Virginia; and numerous works with Stephanie Woodard. Zummo also performs and composes for the Downtown Ensemble and has developed and performed seminal works for many composers, including David Behrman, Jacques Bekaert, Barbara Benary, Earle Brown, Rhys Chatham, Anthony Coleman, Nicolas Collins, Philip Comer, Nick Didkovsky, Dan Froot, Jon Gibson, Daniel Goode, Peter Gordon, Tom Hamilton, William Hellemiann, Dick Higgins, Guy Klucevsek, Joan LaBarbara, Steve Lacy, Elodie Lauten, Annea Lockwood, Alvin Lucier, Jon Lurie, Phill Niblock, Jean-Francois Pauvros, Johnny Reinhard, Arthur Russell, Bill Ruyie, Elizabeth Swados, Yasunao Tone and Yoshi Wada. Zummo's principal trombone training was with Carmine Caruso; additional studies were with Stuart Dempster, James Fulkerson, Dick Griffin, Makanda Ken Mcintyre, Sam Rivers, and continuing today with Ro swell Rudd. Zummo holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Wesleyan University's world music program. Influential studies there included electronic music with Alvin Lucier, western classical choral and instrumental music; Ghanaian, South Indian, Javanese and other world musics; and introductions to and performances of the work of Robert Ashley, John Cage, Takehisa Kosugi, Yasunao Tone, and Christian Wolff.

Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1926, the son of the well-known lyric poet and teacher Louis Ginsberg. As a student at Columbia College in the 1940s, he began a close friendship with William Burroughs, Neal Cassady, and Jack Kerouac, and became associated with the Beat movement and the San Francisco Renaissance in the 1950s. After jobs as a laborer, sailor, and market researcher, Ginsberg published his first book of poetry, Howl and Other Poems, in 1956. Howl overcame censorship trials to become one of the most widely read poems of the century, translated into more than twenty-two languages, a model for younger generations of poets from West to East. Crowned Prague May King in 1965, then expelled by Czech police and simultaneously placed in the FBI's Dangerous Security list, Ginsberg has, in recent years, traveled to and taught in the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe, receiving Yugoslavia's Struga Poetry Festival "Golden Wreath" in 1986. A member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters and co-founder of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute, the first accredited Buddhist college in the Western world, Ginsberg lived on New York's Lower East Side. He died in April 1997 at age 70

Mark Duer, baritone, performing the role of Allen Ginsberg, has been heard in operatic and musical theater roles with the New York Chamber Ensemble, Berkshire Choral Festival, Greensboro Opera, Ash Lawn-Highland Opera, the Ensemble for Early Music, Pomerium, and as a soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Apollo's Fire, Musica Scra, Pro Arte Connecticut, Masterworks Chorale, West Virginia Symphony, Larry Parsons Chorale, and the Virgin Consort. In 1997 he sang his debut at Weill Recital Hall performing contemporary song literature by Frederick Koch. He made his debut performance at Carnegie Hall in Mozart's Coronation Mass. He has sung with the Handel & Haydn Society under Christopher Hogwood, and is a member of the Grammy nominated ensemble Poerium. He has recorded on Gothic, Delos, Deutsche Gramophone/Archiv, and Glissando, and has been heard in television and radio broadcasts including CBS Sunday Morning, NBC's Today Show and Pipedreans on NPR. Critics have praised his 'marvelous diction and musicality", New York Concert Review, a"a musical theater talent" Village Voice, "particularly agile" New York Times. Tyler Azelton, soprano, has been performing in choirs, musical theater and jazz cabaret since age 10. At 17 she was selected to join the 1996 All-American Grammys in the Schools Jazz Choir. In New York she has performed at Dillon's jazz club, the New York Comedy Clun, the Cupping Room and Rockefeller Center. She was the featured soloist at Resinger Concert Hall where she performed a Samuel Barber piece for voice and orchestra. Tyler Azelton received a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College. She is also a pianist and songwriter. "In the finals for NPR's "All Songs Considered", and supported by College Radio Airplay on over 200 stations and 4 continents, Laura Wolfe is a true urban singer songwriter. Her hit song, City Child from her DIY debut SIREN, produced with GRAMMY Award® winner Steve Addabbo (Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega) won an honorable mention in the 2006 and 2007 Billboard World Songwriting Contest. She was selected to participate in ASCAP's 2006 extended songwriter's workshop in NYC, and will be playing Boston Pride in 2007.

A native of New York City's Lower East Side, Laura Wolfe comes from a family of musicians and lefty activists who influenced her passion for music at an early age. "I grew up listening to everything from Jimmy Cliff to Brahms. The sounds and vibe of my neighborhood are all over my music. The Lower East Side was rough in the day-gangs, drugs, burnt-out buildings and radical revolutionaries. A bit different from the chic boutiques you see now. But it was also this amazing melting pot of culture, music, and philosophy." Laura's debut SIREN reflects the many musical and cultural influences that have shaped her as an artist. "As an over all style I would call it soulful" (Steve Addabbo). Laura left New York City to earn a BA in Original Performance from Oberlin College. During college Laura was selected to perform her songs at The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, and went on to tour Europe with the Broadway road production of Hair. Laura has been making a name for herself playing all the key venues in New York City such as Joe's Pub, The Knitting Factory, The Cutting Room, The Bitter End, CB's 313 Gallery and Cornelia Street Cafe. Regionally, she has played The House of Blues in Boston, Fire and Water Café in Northampton, MA, and Café Du Nord in San Francisco, CA. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and The Tribeca Performing Arts Center, as a soloist with the Lavender Light Gospel Choir. The Dawn and You & Me (singles) were released on the compilation CDs Out Music (produced by Digital Force) and The Voice Box (produced by One Nation Underground). Laura has two prior recordings: Little Pieces, a collection of live recordings, and Laura Wolfe, a four-song demo. SIREN is Laura Wolfe's debut full-length album.

Sherrita Duran, soprano, has performed Broadway roles in Showboat and Candide. She sang with the Los Angeles Opera in a production of Orpheus in the Underworld in New York. She was Brigitta in Tchaikovsky's Yolanta with the Dacapo Opera. Recently she was in The Emperor Jones with Operworks, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with American Opera Projects, and premiered The Sandman bu To Cabaniss as The Mother/Clara (2003). A graduate of the University of Southern California, she is a published poet and was named Poet of the Year 2000 by Talent in Motion.

Julianne Klopotic, violinist, is a native of Milwaukee Wisconsin where she began her studies at the age of five. She left Wisconsin to attend the North Carolina School of the Arts pre-college division where she received a nomination from Who's Who for her promise as a young artist. She went on to receive degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music, BM, receiving an award from the Gold Key National Honors Society for students of exceptional merit, and the Mannes College, MM, in New York City where she was a scholarship student. Julianne appears as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, teacher, improviser and arranger. In collaboration she has worked with many composers, song writers, bands, and recording artists. Winner of the Artists International Solo Competition she was awarded her New York debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill recital hall in 1998. Known for her diversity as a violinist, she can be found on recordings ranging from her work with Philip Glass to popular songwriter Natalie Merchant. She has appeared as soloist and leader of various experimental and contemporary groups including: The Microtonal Festival, The SEM Ensemble, Downtown Chamber Players, Music Under Construction, the Evolution Ensemble and her work with the now well known New York based band, Antony and the Johnsons. Orchestrally, she has been a member of the Jupiter Symphony, Riverside Symphony, The Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Lukes. Others Julianne has performed or recorded with include; Alicia Keyes, Alana Davis, A Camp, Angelique Kudjo, Aphex Twin, Enya, Lori Carson, Sheryl Crow, Elodie Lauten, Philip Glass, Bill Laswell, Jon Catler, Jonnie Reinhardt, Carl Berger, Lili Haydn, Dr.John, KRS1, Micha Green, Jewel, Natalie Merchant, Manbreak, Antony and The Johnsons, Nina Nastasia, Duncan Sheik, Donna Summer, Tom Burris, Thin Lizard Dawn, Pony, Elysian Fields, Voltaire, Coheed and Cambria, and Rufus Wainwright to name a few. She has appeared on national television and radio shows; VH1, MTV, "The Tonight Show," and Rosie O'Donnell as well as performing live at Merkin Hall for National Public Radios, Awards include: the "New Sounds." Winner Artists International Solo Competition and Who's Who in American Music. Currently, Julianne has just finished recording a solo demo CD composed of various styles and influences she has developed over her years as a violinist. She has won a grant from the Mikhashoff Trust for New Music to record the undocumented works of composer/astrologer Dane Rudhyar. She is also in the developing stages of forming a new concert series/"musical circle" here in Brooklyn. It centers around the idea of promoting new, experimental, and sacred music with an emphasis on living women composers. Included in its development the musical circle will feature various performing artists and composers who will be invited in to perform, record, and promote music of the new millennium. There will be more to come on this series that is in the making though she plans to begin the project featuring the music of composer Elodie Lauten with whom Ms. Klopotic has worked with for the past decade. Other recent projects include several recordings of film music that have become recently popular with composer Philip Glass, and solo violin music for a PBS documentary project entitled "Lobomyl," about a small Jewish town, pre and post holocaust. Julianne also has a keen interest in world sacred music. She has for the past several years, begun working with the music of G.I. Gurdjieff transcribed from the original piano works and continues to study and learn through the sounds of North Indian Vocal Music of which she is most fond.

Mustafa Ahmed, percussionist. Since the 1980's, Mustafa has recorded and/or performed in concert throughout the United States and Europe for an eclectic group of composers, vocalists, musicians, and dancers including Trisha Brown, Daniel Goode, Peter Gordon, Guy Klusevek, Elodie Lauten, Gary Lucas, Arthur Russell, "Blue" Gene Tyranny and Peter Zummo (see complete list below). Mustafa currently performs and records with the critically acclaimed gospel choir Total Praise,and one of Harlem's hottest top-40 funk bands.

Mimi Stern-Wolfe, conductor and artistic director and founder of Downtown Music Productions. A graduate of the High School of Performing Arts, Queens College and the New England Conservatory, she worked with pianists Ray Lev and Leonid Hambro, and studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. M. Stern-Wolfe was conductor and vocal coach at the Lake Goerge Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and the Endinburgh Festival. She has given recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall, Alice Tully hall and is active as an orchestra conductor, concert accompanist, chamber music pianist and coach, solo performer, and as a producer of concert events. In 1995 she received the Mayor's Very Special Arts Award in Music. In 1989 she received an ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for "adventuresome" programming and also in 1989 the Laurel Leaf Award for distinguished achievement in fostering and encouraging American music.

Music by Johnny Reinhard,
Choreographer: Christine Coppola

Johnny Reinhard, composer, conductor, bassoonist, director and founder of theAmerican Festival of Microtonal Music (AFMM), is a native New Yorker specializingin all manner of microtonal performance. Additionally, Reinhard performs on the recorder, and is a vocalist specializing in the works of American microtonal pioneerHarry Partch. He has given numerous full recitals, in New York , Seattle , Baltimore , Los Angeles , Montreal , Amsterdam , Sapporo , Moscow , and Kazan . Of particular interest is his finishing important works of composers in exemplaryperformance. These include his realization and subsequent premiere performance ofCharles Ives's "Universe Symphony" in 1996 in New York 's Lincoln Center , and the premiere in of Edgard Varèse's "Graphs and Time" in 1987 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris . Reinhard's transcription of Ivan Wyschnegradsky's "Meditation sur deux themes" (1917) for bassoon and piano was recorded on "Between the Keys" for Newport Classic (now Sony), and has been re-recorded for Solyd Records ( Russia ). Among his world premieres are Lou Harrison's "Simfony in Free Style," Terry Riley's "In C in Just Intonation," Percey Grainger's "Free Music" for 4 Theremin, the original version of Harry Partch's "Ulysses Departs From the Edge of the World" for trumpet, double bass and boobams, and Mordecai Sandberg's orchestral "Psalm 51." Johnny Reinhard's original compositions feature polymicrotonality - either the active mixing of microtonal tunings in a single composition, or the invention of brand newpitch relationships (e.g., harmonic 17, quadratic prime just intonation, collapsed justintonation). Among his works are a symphony ("Middle-earth"), cello concerto ("Odysseus"), string quartet ("Cosmic Rays"), a large number of virtuoso solo pieces for different instruments in distinctive tunings, and numerous works featuring unusualtimbres and requiring different degrees of improvisation. Johnny Reinhard's compositions can be heard on the "Raven" album, available from www.stereosociety.com. He has just completed three new works for bass trombonistDave Taylor. Reinhard has performed as a soloist throughout Europe and the United States , Japan ,Canada , and Russia . He has played with such international virtuosi as kavalistTheodossii Spassov ( Bulgaria ), oboist Bram Kreeftmeijer (The Netherlands),saxophonist John Butcher ( London ), percussionist Rashied Ali (NYC), andThereminist Lydia Kavina ( Russia ). In 2002 he was featured on bassoon to critical acclaim by Ornette Coleman for the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival.

ODYSSEUS was conceived for cellist Dave Eggar following several years of close collaboration with this artist in numerous performances. The work is set to the chronological journey that Homer penned of Odysseus' return from Troy to Ithaca, Greece. The location of St. Paul's Chapel, part of Columbia University, was chosen as the ideal terrain for our exhausted troupe of Achaean Greek soldiers for their encounters with islands of startlingly new instrumental combinations. Each instrument corresponds to a character in the epic, each with unique tunings, indicative of unique personalities. All musicians are improvising throughout. As Athena called the protagonist Odysseus "The Master Improviser," so here Odysseus is a cello in the hands of a true master improviser.

The piece is formed by an Introduction, three full sections, and a coda. It begins in the climate of a post-Trojan War environment, signaled by a gong blast, a shofar player (made of an animal horn), and the introduction of the other Greek soldiers (playing string instruments). After a Trojan violinist makes a last ditch effort before he is dispatched, the Achaeans launch for Lotus Eater Island, where a supply of food caused loss of memory resulting in seven years of drugged enslavement. Odysseus breaks the trance and they are off again, now to visit with Polyphemus on Cyclops Island. Aiolius (god of wind) played by bagpipes is next. And then the troupe is turned into pigs by Circe (played on the Hungarian tarogato), until rescued by Odysseus in a tricky duet. Following a visit to the underworld of Hades, and private visits with ghosts, Tiresius (played on bassoon) prophesizes how Odysseus must proceed. After a detour back to Circe Island to bury Elpenor (mandolin), having initially lost sight of him when he fell off a roof and died, it is on past the female sirens, and then the twin sea monsters Scylla and Charibdis (electric Just Intonation guitar and Theremin). In Thrinacia the two remaining guitarists eat the sacred cows and are killed as a consequence by an angry Poseidon. Now alone, Calypso tries to stop Odysseus from going home to his wife: "Son of Laertes, versatile Odysseus, after these years with me, you still long for your old home?" Awash at sea, Odysseus finally lands in Skhiera, largely peopled by young girls (homemade idiophones). After politely refusing their kind offers of a bath, Odysseus returns home in disguise (playing over a towel covering the fingerboard). Our protagonist sets out to confront those who would take his wife and his other valuables away from him.

THE HAUNTING SONG OF THE SIRENS
This way, Oh turn your bow, Achaia's glory. As all the world allows - moor and merry. Sweet coupled airs we sing, No lonely seafarer holds clear of entering our green mirror. Please by each purling note, like honey twining from her throat and my throat, who lies opining. Sea rovers here take joy voyaging onward, as from our song of Troy, Greybeard and rower-boy goeth more learned. Argo's old soldiery on Troy beach teeming, charmed out of time we see, no life on earth can be hid from our dreams.

CAST
Odysseus: Dave Eggar, cello soloist
Achaeans: John Schneider and Wim Hoogewerf, microtonal guitars Steven Antonelli, mandolin
Henry Lowengard, autoharp
David Bernstein, animal horn
Daron Yomtov and Darius Kaufmann, psaltery
Trojan: Tom Chiu, violin
Cyclops: Greg Evans, horn
Aiolius: Larry Cole, bagpipes
Scylla: Jon Catler, electric just intonation guitar
Charybdis: Eric Ross, theremin
Lotos Eater Island: Andrew Bolotowsky, wood flute
Bruce Gremo, shakuhachi
Carole Weber, alto flute
David Galt, ocarina and conch
Cannibals: Perry Robinson, Harold Seletsky, Mark Gustavson, and Daniel Carter, clarinets
The Sea: Virgil Moorefield, percussion
Skip La Plante, 96-tone harp and conch
Tom O'Horgan, serpent and Theremin
Bradford Catler, pedal steel guitar
Rebecca Pechefsky, harpsichord
Robert Maloney, low glass bowl on "G" Sirens:
Carol Flamm and Piera Paine, sopranos
Hades: Ron Kozak, bass clarinet
Leslie Ross, baroque bassoon
Morris Newman, bass racket
Johnny Reinhard, bassoon
Circe: Kayan Clarke, voice
Meredith Borden, soprano
Calypso: Esther Lamneck, tarogato
Holy Cow: Julie Josephson, trombone
Skheria Isle: Victoria Bracco, Ngan-Fong Huang, Elizabeth Lee, Abiola Pollard, Alana Salcer, Siobhan Solberg, Engi Wassef and Janelle Iglesias, homemade percussion
Props: Orlanda Brugnola and Carol LoPresto
Videographer: Joe Bly
American Festival of Microtonal Music directed by Johnny Reinhard

Music by Harry Partch, text by William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)
Meredith Borden, soprano
Anastasia Solberg, viola
Videographer: Mitch Corber
American Festival of Microtonal Music directed by Johnny Reinhard

Harry Partch (1901-1974), an innovative theorist who broke through the shackles of many centuries of one tuning system for all of Western music, a music instrument inventor who created dozens of instruments for the performance of his music, and a musical dramatist who created his own texts and dance/theatre extravaganzas based on everything from Greek mythology to his own experiences as a hobo During and after the Great Depression,. Between 1930 and 1972, he created one of the most amazing bodies of sensually alluring and emotionally powerful music of the 20th century: music dramas, dance theater, multi-media extravaganzas, vocal music and chamber music---mostly all performed on the instruments he built himself. To explain his philosophical and intonational ideas, he wrote a treatise, Genesis of a Music, which has served as a primary source of information and inspiration to many musicians for the last half century. With parents who were former missionaries to China, living in isolated areas of the American southwest, Partch, as a child, was exposed to a variety of influences from Asian to Native American. After dropping out of the University of Southern California, he began to study on his own and to question the tuning and philosophical foundations of Western music. During and after the Great Depression, he was a hobo and itinerant worker and rode the trains, keeping a musical notebook of his experiences, which he later set to music. In 1930 Partch broke with Western European tradition and forged a new music based on a more primal, corporeal integration of the elements of speech with music, using principles of natural acoustic resonance (just intonation) and expanded melodic and harmonic possibilities. He began to first adapt guitars and violas to play his music, and then began to build new instruments in a new microtonal tuning system. He built over 25 instruments, plus numerous small hand instruments, and became a brilliant spokesman for his ideas. Largely ignored by the standard musical institutions during his lifetime, he criticized concert traditions, the roles of the performer and composer, the role of music in society, the 12-tone equal-temperament scale and the concept of "pure" or abstract music. To explain his philosophical and intonational ideas, he wrote a treatise, Genesis of a Music, which has served as a primary source of information and inspiration to many musicians for the last half century.

Meredith Borden, a graduate of New England Conservatory in Boston, found her way into the mysterious world of microtonal music via Joe Maneri's microtonal music class where he taught his students to defy the 12-Tone music "standard" in order to sing and play 72-Equal Tempered notes to the octave. From this point on, Borden began developing her own uniquely virtuosic microtonal singing style, along the way performing works by Philip Glass and Meredith Monk, and other new music composers. Defining herself as a "blues coloratura," Borden combines her classical virtuosity with a blues passion. Although Borden is sought afterfor her ability to master challenging microtonal works, Borden's vocal repertoire ranges from early music to contemporary musical theatre, featured in works as diverse as Bach's Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen to touring with the musical HAiR in Europe. Paul Griffiths of the New York Times described her performance of Harry Partch's The Potion Scene as "gripping."

Music by Johnny Reinhard
Choreography by Christine Coppola

ADAM AND EVE is a modern cantata on an ancient theme using a distinctive form of musical theater involving polymicrotonal improvisation. Similar in concept to Reinhard's Odysseus, the bassoon represents the character of Adam, while Eve is a dancer. While fully invoking the biblical explanation for the creation of people, there is a separate theme of evolution that runs throughout. The opening includes walk-on improvisations by diverse animals represented by different instruments which demonstrate evolution either by switching instrumental family members, or by starting out with only parts of an instrument and gradually increasing its size. The forbidden fruit is represented by the bell of the English horn. God is portrayed by actor Paul Savior within the harmonies of 13-limit just intonation. Following the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the djembe drummers indicate the centrality of Africa through the power of their sound.

CAST
Paul Savior, actor (sentient being)
Jon Catler, electric Just Intonation guitar
Johnny Reinhard, bassoon (Adam)
Ron Kozak, English horn (forbidden fruit)
David Eggar, cello (tree of knowledge)
Michiyo Suzuki, clarinet (snake)
Don Conreaux, shofar and gong
Tom O'Horgan, contrabass racket and bass sordon
Andrew Bolotowsky, flutes
Tom Chiu and Matt Maneri, violin
Steve Antonelli, slide guitar and mandolin
Frank Malloy and Orlando Colon, djembe drums
Skip La Plante double bass and bass didjeridu
Joshua Pierce, piano
Virgil Moorefield, percussion
Christine Coppola, dancer and choreographer (Eve)
Videographer: Joe Bly
American Festival of Microtonal Music directed by Johnny Reinhard

Stefan Weisman first worked with AOP as a member of its annual Composers & the Voice program. His music has been heard at places such as Symphony Space, the June in Buffalo festival, the Flea Theater, and Guggenheim Museum's "Works & Process" series. His compositions include chamber, orchestral and choral pieces, as well as music for theater, video and dance. Among his commissions are works for Sequitur, the Minimum Security Composers Collective, the Gay Gotham Choir, and the Oregon Bach Festival, which commissioned a piece in honor of George Crumb on the occasion of his 75th birthday. His orchestral work "The Bird Happens" was selected to be included in the American Composers Orchestra's 2005 Underwood New Music Readings, and was conducted by Steven Sloane. His piece "From Frankenstein" won the Chicago Ensemble's 2005 Discover America Competition and was presented by male-soprano Anthony Costanzo with the ensemble Newspeak, conducted by James Lowe in Merkin Hall's "Ear Department: Emerging Composers" concert series, moderated by composer Michael Gordon. His piece "Skin Nails Hair" was performed in New York City by the Lost Dog New Musik Ensemble. Stefan participated in AOP's Composers & the Voice during the 2003-04 season. For more information, visit his website. Stefan Weisman has received commissions from the Bang on a Can Festival, the American Composer's Orchestra, the Oregon Bach Festival, American Opera Projects for The Darkling*, the Battell Chapel Choir, the Edward Albee Foundation and won first prize in the Roger Wagner Center Choral.Competition. A graduate from both Yale and Princeton, is currently a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School.

Lee Hoiby (song composer - "The Darkling Thrush") is beloved by performers as diverse as Leontyne Price and Jean Stapleton, for his numerous settings of texts from Emily Dickinson to Julia Child. Mr. Hoiby was introduced to opera by his teacher at the Curtis Institute of Music, Gian Carlo Menotti, who involved him closely in the famed Broadway productions of The Consul and The Saint of Bleecker Street in the early 1950s. His works have been recognized by awards and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Ford Foundation, the Fulbright Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1989 his work was the subject of a retrospective concert at the Kennedy Center on the American Composer Series, and a two-week festival of his work was presented by the music department of the University of California at Long Beach. His principal works include the operas The Scarf (1958 ), A Month in the Country (1964), Summer and Smoke (1971) and The Tempest (1986). He is also the composer of nearly 100 songs, as well as music for orchestra, solo instruments, chorus and the theater. He lives in upstate New York.

Anna Rabinowitz was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for 2001. She won the Juniper Prize for her first volume of poetry, At the Site of Inside Out, which was published by the University of Massachusetts in 1997. Her work has appeared widely in such journals as Atlantic Monthly, Boston Review, The Paris Review, Colorado Review, Southwest Review, Denver Quarterly, Sulfur, LIT, VOLT, and Doubletake. Her work has also appeared in the anthologies, The Best American Poetry 1989, edited by Donald Hall, Life on the Line: Selections on Words and Healing, and in The KGB Bar Reader. She edits and publishes the nationally distributed literary journal, American Letters & Commentary, and is a vice-president of the Poetry Society of America. Her most recent book, The Wanton Sublime, appeared in March 2006.

Michael Comlish, an AOP veteran since 1999, has led the development of Darkling at AOP in workshops over the last 2 years. His directing has been praised by the press as "high-style," "unorthodox," "wickedly uproarious," and "anti-Romantic," and was featured in the New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" for his casting of pundit Andrew Sullivan as Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing. Within the bleak world of Darkling he continues to explore a style that has been called "absurd, surreal, yet playful shifts among levels of reality." He created Nothing, from the notebooks of Richard Foreman, for the Ontological Blueprint Series. He is formerly from the Washington DC area, where he was a member of the Washington Shakespeare Company. There he directed an award winning production of Stoppard's Travesties, The Real Inspector Hound, and co-directed A Streetcar Named Desire and subsequent revival to open WSC's new home. Acting Roles at WSC included Edgar in Lear, Stanley in The Birthday Party, and Ken Talley in Fifth of July.

CAST:
Elzbieta Czyzewska
Rana Kaye
Peter Kazaras
Dylan McCullough
Carol Monda
David Tirosh.

The BUNDLE MAN is a chamber opera in two acts commissioned by Mimi Stern-Wolfe's Downtown Music Productions and premiered March 11, 1993 by the Downtown Chamber & Opera Players at Theater for the New City. Ilsa Gilbert's libretto, based on her original verse play, was musically set as an opera by composer, Marshall Coid. It was directed by Tom O'Horgan and conducted by Mimi Stern-Wolfe. Costumes and sets were by Perry Arthur Kroeger; lighting design was by Chris Dallos and Robert Williams; stage management was by Michael John Garces.The opera has four characters: THE BUNDLE MAN (baritone/counter-tenor), Marshall Coid; THE LOVER (tenor) Steven Goldstein; THE COWARD (baritone), Stephen Kalm; THE TYRANT (baritone), Daryl Henriksen. It is scored for chamber orchestra: string quintet; clarinet, bass clarinet; oboe, English horn and piano.

Ilsa Gilbert, librettist, poet, lyricist and playwright has had over 56 productions and staged readings of her work here and abroad. During the latter 60's and 70's, she was active in the off-off Broadway avant-garde theater scene in NYC. Her plays and musicals were presented at The Old Reliable Theatre Tavern (The Bundle Man; Circus; A Dialogue Between Didey Warbucks & Mama Vaseline; The Dead Dentist ;The Soul of A Stripper);; Quaigh Theater ("Berlin Blues"- first prize marathon winner); Omni Theater Club (Little Onion Annie); St. Clements (Travelers); Theatre for the New City (Circus); Eccentric Circles Theater (Playwright in Residence- two years); Riverside Church (Goodbye Columbus Avenue, Hello, Costa Rica ). Abroad at the Eugene O'Neil Cultural Center of San Jose, Costa Rica (The First Word; Phoenix Park). Pardon the Prisoner was published in the 70's by Stanley Nelson in his annual theatre book, The Scene-Best Plays of the Year. Over thirty-five composers have set her poems as art songs, chamber works and dance theater. Her individual poems have won awards and appeared in such publications as And Then; Poet Lore; Atlantic Monthly; Westbeth News; Voices; Landscapes; Quartet. Her poetry Chapbook, Survivors & Other New York Poems, was published by Bard Press. Her opera libretti, Phoenix Park (D. Strickland); The Bundle Man, (M. Coid); Auto da Fé, (M. Grant); plus two excerpted operas, The First Word (K. Cameron); One Night Together (D. Burwasser); song cycles, Torrents, (D. Burwasser;); Homeless Children, (D. Hollister) have been performed widely. Two CD recordings with music by Frederick Koch were released by TrueMedia Records LTD. She is founder-director of the PEN Women's Literary Workshop, now in its 16th year. In March 2006 her play, The Bundle Man was presented at Westbeth. IN 2007 the Peculiar Works Project produced it for their Obie Award Winning OFF Stage: East Village Fragments outdoor theater tour of off-off Broadway's most noted plays. It was given several performances by Peculiar Theater in their homage to experimental writers of the sixties and seventies". They wrote to Ms. Gilbert, regarding The Bundle Man: "You truly helped make this an absolutely unforgettable experience" and "it would not have been complete without incredible artists like you".

Marshall Coid, composer, has a multi-faceted career as a counter tenor, violinist, composer, writer and actor. Since graduating from The Juilliard School in 1979 he has appeared as a soloist for Lincoln Center Great Performers, Downtown Music Production, the United Nations, Spoleto Festival, the Kennedy Center, the New York Shakespeare Festival, New York Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Oak Ridge Symphony, Connecticut Grand Opera, Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Ithaca Opera and the International Performers Festival in Belgium. Mr. Coid was the Golliard Ensemble's 1997 Composer and Artist-in-Residence for their annual US tour. In 1993 he was commissioned by DMP to collaborate with poet Ilsa Gilbert and compose an opera based on her libretto, The Bundle Man, in which he performed the title role. During that period he also performed in many DMP productions and CDs including The Soldier's Tale, Erwin Schulhoff Retrospective and Benson AIDS Series concerts. His television credits include Fame, Another World, Guiding Light, Nosferatu on MTV and numerous commercials. On Broadway he has appeared in Rags, Ghetto, Barnum (where he played violin on the high wire), Sunset Boulevard and most recently Chicago. Currently Mr. Coid is a soloist with the Queen's Chamber Band and the New York Ensemble for Early Music at St. John the Divine. He is on music faculty of Columbia University.

Steven Goldstein, tenor, is a member of the Atlantic Theater Company, As a singer, he has most recently been seen in Orpheus in Love at Circle Re. His theater credits include Broadway: Our Town. Off-Broadway: Oh Hell and Boy's Life (Lincoln Center Theater). Atlantic: Nothing Sacred, Three Sisters, Five Very Live, The Pope's Nose, Women and Water, Reckless, As You Like It. And others. Television: Our Town (American Playhouse). Films: Homicide, Things Change, The Untouchables, House of Games, The Night We Never Met.

Daryl Henriksen, baritone, has appeared on the operatic, concert and theatrical stages. His operatic performances include the world premiere of Where's Dick? At the Houston Grand Opera, conducted by John DeMain and directed by Richard Foreman, and the New York Premiere of Philip Glass' Hydrogen Jukebox. He also toured Gianni Schicchi for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and the US premieres of Blow's Venus & Adonis, Cavalli's Giasone and Herod and The Slaughter of the Innocents, for the Mannes Camerata. For Chicao's City Musik, he played Nick Shadow in the Rake's Progress. The Chicago Tribune noted him as "a real discovery who established Shadow as a solid dramatic presence with a subtle authority that reminded on eof the late, great Donald Gramm

Stephen Kalm, baritone, has performed with many of America's leading regional opera companies, including the Houston Grand Opera, Chatauqua Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Lake George Opera Festival, Minnesota Opera and Pennsylvania Opera Theater. Internationally, Kalm has received critical acclaim for his solos in Orff's Carmina Burana with the Filharmonica de Bogota, and in the role of Franco Hartmann in Meredith Monk's Atlas in Berlin, Paris and London. He is also featured in the recording of that work. Kalm also performed Harry Partch's Li Po Songs and Ben Johnsont's Five Fragments for New World Records.

Tom O'Horgan is a charter member of LaMama Etc., which he co-founded with Ellen Stewart. As a member of the original LaMama Troupe, he directed The Tempest, Arturo Ui and The Emperor of Assyria. He directed the landmark Broadway hits Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar and Lenny., In the classical field he directed Berlioz's Les Troyennes for the Vienna State Opera. He restaged Leonard Bernstein's Mass at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC and Stravinsky Sooldier's Tale at Carnegie Hall. He directed Paul Drescher post-minimalist opera Power Failure., He composed the score and directed two contemporary 'popras': Senator Joe and Nimrod and the Tower of Babel. In 1991 O'Horgan directed The Wayward by Harry Partch for Bang on a Can and Newband. In 1992 he staged an innovative Magic Flute for the Connecticut Grand Opera. The artists's film credits include Futz with LaMama Troupe and Rhinoceros with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. The Bundel Man represents Tom O'Horgan's second association with Downtown Music Productions: in 1990 he directed the anti-nuclear piece Yellow Cake Review by Peter Maxwell Davies in a concert evening entitled Mus-Eology.

Mimi Stern-Wolfe, conductor and artistic director and founder of Downtown Music Productions. A graduate of the High School of Performing Arts, Queens College and the New England Conservatory, she worked with pianists Ray Lev and Leonid Hambro, and studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. M. Stern-Wolfe was conductor and vocal coach at the Lake Goerge Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and the Endinburgh Festival. She has given recitals at Carnegie Recital Hall, Alice Tully hall and is active as an orchestra conductor, concert accompanist, chamber music pianist and coach, solo performer, and as a producer of concert events. Downtown Music Productions is under the artistic direction of conductor-pianist, Mimi Stern-Wolfe. Over the past 20 years DMP has presented operas, chamber and vocal repertory as well as socially oriented programs -- War And Pieces; Benson AIDS Series and Sudden Sunsets CD; Women Composers, Mus-Ecology, Composers Of The Holocaust series and CD. In 07-08 season Sometimes Satie; Honoring Langston Hughes; Flowers that Bloom in the Spring -Tra-L(May 18.Our Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Commenorative) Concert (May 4) features the riveting Waltz of the Shattered World with the Labyrinth Dance Company and a NY premiere of Michael Cohen's From The Wall. Ms. Stern-Wolfe received a Master of Music in piano & conducting from the New England Conservatory and worked in Paris with Nadia Boulanger. In 1995 she received the Mayor's Very Special Arts Award in Music. In 1989 she received an ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for "adventuresome" programming and also in 1989 the Laurel Leaf Award for distinguished achievement in fostering and encouraging American music.

Synopsis
In a desolate place at eventide, The Lover, The Coward and the Tyrant (The Trio) anxiously await the arrival of The Hired Man"-someone whom they have never met, but believe will bring them peace ("and carry them home"). A mysterious, rag-covered figure (The Bundle Man) appears, pacing laboriously back and forth, dragging a bulging sack. The Trio perceives him in many guises (She-Witch, Vampire, Hag-Man, Salvation Santa-Claus. Lady Macbeth, etc.), but above all as a powerful being. Where does his power lie? The Bundle Man's strange wariness indicates that he has been a wanderer for centuries and is ready to rest, perhaps forever. He eventually plots his own demise, telling the men that they will murder him. The Trio embodies diverse psychological characteristics and historical periods. They vie for power among themselves and attempt to discover the Bundle Man's secrets (not recognizing him as the one they have most likely been waiting for), revealing their own vulnerabilities instead. But when the time comes, they do murder him---each in turn striking a blow. As he lies dying, he warns them that as many times as they kill a Bundle Man…..tomorrow another Bundle Man will appear …tomorrow and every year!" Unaware of the import of this, The Trio continues to wait anxiously throughout history, for their "Hired Man". On the surface, the Opera is a loving parody of the Theater of the Absurd genre. Beneath the humor, it is intended to be a serious exploration of the ambivalence between selfish and selfless human motivations: power, greed, alienation, love; and the need for values, ethics, and spirituality to balance a more positive existence. "I wanted to deal with the concept of people in the world from every century waiting for something or someone to come and save them. If they should discover some creature come to the earth, they would actually face a disaster. They would not be prepared to recognize what was happening or to do the right thing. I believe someone else cannot save you. You must save yourself, in a positive way, not at the expense of other people. ….Ilsa Gilbert

REVIEW: If THE BUNDLE MAN were a new English Chamber opera, it would no doubt be performed at the Aldeburgh Festival, widely written about, recorded, reviewed in the Gramophone and picked up by other small opera groups. This is just the sort of work that deserves more exposure and circulation, even if it may not always be produced as effectively as it was by the Downtown Chamber & Opera Players .. the material's deeply poetic and dramatic impulses are very real and never compromised. Gilbert's text has an arresting verbal pungency that Coid matches in a musical setting remarkable for its sustained lyricism and skillful prosody----Peter G. Davis (April 5, 1993) New York Magazine

Barbara Benary is a composer/performer and holds a doctorate in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University. She built the instruments of Gamelan Son of Lion in 1974 while teaching at Livingston College of Rutgers University. She has written over 20 instrumental works and a number of wayang kulit theatrical scores for the ensemble, including the two-hour score for Karna: a Shadow Puppet Opera (1994). Some themes of her composing include process structures, bell-ringing changes, vocal melodies. Her scores, both for gamelan and other chamber ensembles, are available, singly or in anthologies, from Frog Peak Music and American Gamelan Institute. She also performs music of India, Bulgaria, China and the Renaissance, and, closer to home, is frequently a fiddler at Civil War re-enactments.

Karna represents a synthesis of classical Javanese wayang kulit shadow puppet theatre with western oratorio. The story, accompanied by American-built gamelan instruments, centers around the anti-hero, a warrior who though born to one royal family, ends up fighting against them in the great clan warfare central to the epic Mahabharata.

Barbara Pollitt was the dhalang (puppeteer) and co-director for this production. She is an Obie winning theatre artist, director, maskmaker and puppeteer who has worked with Lee Breuer, Ralph Lee, Basil Twist, New York Shakespeare and many others.

Two CDs of Benary's chamber music have been recently released: "Sun on Snow" by New World Records, and "Dragon Toes" by Gamelan Son of Lion. [quote from Kyle Gann] "And now that we're going back over early minimalism with a magnifying glass..., it's high time we turned a close ear to Benary, whose music was given a retrospective November 9 at Greenwich House. The great thing about this joint concert by the Downtown Ensemble and Gamelan Son of Lion was that it paid homage to that early phase of her music but then showed surprising directions she's gone in since... Benary's an original minimalist turned offbeat major composer, and the world needs to catch up." Kyle Gann, VILLAGE VOICE December 5th, 2005.

Lisa Karrer tours and collaborates internationally as a director, composer, vocalist, performance and video artist, and collaborates with numerous musicians, artistsand ensembles. She sings in a variety of languages and is an accomplished stilt dancer. She produced and contributed to CDs by Music For HomemadeInstruments and Gamelan Son of Lion; and with co-composer David Simons recorded their chamber opera The Birth of GeorgeforHarvestworks' TELLUS label.Lisa received ArtsLink and Arts International funds to create various performance projects in Estonia, including a tour to the Glasperlenspiel International MusicFestival with Gamelan Son of Lion. Most recently Lisa premiered Schismism: Fractured America,amulti-arts solo performance, at The Flea Theater in NYC. Lisacontinues to develop multi-arts projects such as Pythia,asoundandvideo performance based on Par Lagerkvist’s novel The Sybil,and Mary’s SITE,avideo withaccompanying composition for live chamber ensemble, based on the animated sculpture of visual artist Mary Ziegler.

"Woman's Song..." is a multi-arts music theater project created by director/composer/performer Lisa Karrer in collaboration with Gamelan Son of Lion music ensemble, visual artists Kate Yourke and Jenny Lynn McNutt, and lighting designer Carol Mullins. It was premiered at the Kitchen in NYC in October 2003. The production incorporates texts by Walt Whitman and the Indonesian poet Sitor Situmorang, and includes original music scored for gamelan and voice, innovative wayang shadow screen and puppet designs (including fiber-optics and phosphorescence), video sequences, and elegant lighting design. The musical and visual elements are interwoven with Balinese and Javanese mask and dance forms, martial arts and stilt-dancing, to create a unique multi-tiered storytelling hybrid. This project was made possible with funds from The Greenwall Foundation and the Manhattan Community Arts Fund.