HOUSE BLEND II
A double bill: Skylighght, written and performed by Gelsey Bell (voice) and Erin Rogers (saxophone), plus Patrick Higgins (guitar, drums, electronics), “one of the prime movers of the avant-garde” (The New Yorker), threading improvisations for guitar and electronics through live renditions of songs from Versus, his latest album.
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Gelsey Bell (voice) and Erin Rogers (saxophone) perform their collaborative composition Skylighght, an intimate search for a sonic and physical meeting of voice and saxophone. Singer and musician direct the sound in pathways that float around the room, some sections responding to the architectural properties of the performance space, others pairing singer and saxophone to create novel acoustic effects. Through five moments, each a natural skylight, the interwoven resonances sculpt the composition like a dance. In the final movement, “Antelope Canyon,” Bell sings into the bell of Rogers’s tenor saxophone while it is playing, exploring its inner chamber and sounding an extraordinary rainbow of diverse multiphonics and harmonic partials.
“The physical vibrations and resonance tones clash, combine, and unite to create rich, vibrant harmonies, harsh dissonances, and stunning different tones, as the two musicians become one.” – Salt Peanuts
Skylighght, released May 10 on Chaiken Records, is available now.
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Patrick Higgins, New York City-based composer, guitarist, and producer, is acclaimed for his experimental and contemporary classical music. A “formidable concert music composer” (Boston Globe), and “one of the most gifted guitarists working today” (The Quietus), Higgins bridges traditions that extend from baroque chamber music to contemporary noise, electronics,and20th-century minimalism.
At PS21, Higgins will thread new improvisations for guitar and electronics through live renditions of five tracks from Versus, his latest record: ”Versus,” ‘’Antinome,” “ln Situ,” ”Sirocco,” and ”Aporia.” A highly emotional and expressive work that pushes Higgins’ own instrumental virtuosity into new territories, the album marks a new direction and development of his acclaimed work as a guitarist and composer, drawing on electronic music, free improvisation, and avant-garde modern composition. He performs guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, drums, and laptop programming across nine tracks that show Higgins at his best, bridging styles and introducing new music that is harsh but seductive, intense yet inviting, and always unexpected.
Versus engages the turbulent oppositions of our time, both external and internal conflicts, with a strongly expressive and suggestive style–proposing resolutions and ways out, but never resolving into easy answers. Structurally complex and deeply emotional, it is a radical statement from an increasingly mature artist in full command of his talents. The album was released on July 12 on Other People Records.
“Patrick Higgins composes with a scholar’s historical perspective and a punk’s sense of abandon.” – Pitchfork
PS21 HOUSE BLEND programs are conceived for our theater with an eye toward bringing virtuosic and thoughtful musicians together in genre-defying combinations. The series opens a creative space unique to our venue, surroundings, and audiences that yields programs that can only be heard at PS21.
Enjoy all four exciting concerts for one low price with a House Blend Series Pass.
AUGUST 18, 5 pm – PS21 HOUSE BLEND I
Conor Hanick plays Johannes Brahms and Galina Ustvolskaya
AUGUST 20, 7 pm – PS21 HOUSE BLEND III:
Miranda Cuckson (violin) & Conor Hanick (piano)
Iannis Xenakis: Mikka S.; J.S. Bach: Sonata in D minor (BWV 1004); Charles Ives: selections from Songs (Opus 114); Aaron Copland: Sonata for Violin and Piano
AUGUST 21, 7 pm – PS21 HOUSE BLEND IV: A double bill
Bonnie Whiting performs Wang Lu‘s Stages for solo speaking/singing percussionist, with stage design by Polly Apfelbaum, and Frederic Rzewski‘s To the Earth for speaking percussionist and four flower pots (text from the Homeric Hymn to Gaia, Mother of All). Plus bass-baritone Davóne Tines singing Eastman Evensong
READ THE FULL HOUSE BLEND PRESS RELEASE
Gelsey Bell
Gelsey Bell is a singer, songwriter, and scholar – a composer-performer, teacher, and sound artist. She has been described by the New York Times as “one of New York’s most adventurous musicians” and the “future of experimental vocalism.” She performs regularly as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, culling from a wide range of techniques and styles to create her own performance works, to literally voice those of contemporary composers, and to explore improvisation.
Her works often center the voice and range from song cycles and sound walks to collaboratively created operas and structures for improvisation. Her experimental opera mɔɹnɪŋ [morning//mourning] premiered in 2023 in the Prototype festival, and the sound walk Cairns (2020), created with composer Joseph White, was a 2020 New York Times Best Theater choice. Gelsey brought her songwriting into the experimental world through song cycles and collaborative works, beginning with Bathroom Songs in 2010, and continuing with SCALING (2011), Our Defensive Measurements (2013), “Weight” (2014), WIFE, Spent Horizon, Prisoner’s Song, This Takes Place Close By, and Airs and Interruptions in 2015; Ciphony (2017), 2019’s Skylighght, shuffleyamamba, and shuffleyamamba, and “Aviatrix” (2019); SubtracTTTTTTTTT and A Series of Landscapes, “Murmuration” (2020), in 2020; and Yamamba as a Bear in 2021, among many other works. Her work has been performed throughout North America, Europe, and Japan.
Gelsey received a 2017 sound/music grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and a commission (2013) and a residency (2015–2016) from Roulette and the Jerome Foundation. She has been a resident artist at Mount Tremper Arts, the Kinosaki International Arts Center, and the Exploring the Metropolis Ridgewood Bushwick Composer-in-Residence.
Erin Rogers
Erin Rogers is a Canadian-American saxophonist, composer, and improviser dedicated to new and experimental music. Based in New York City, her “decidedly future-oriented” music has been described as “whimsical, theatrical” (Brooklyn Vegan), “radical and refreshing” (Vital Weekly), and “a richly expressive display of stentorian brilliance” (The Wire Magazine). Her work ranges from chamber music performance to solo experimental improvisation to individual and collaborative compositions that incorporate live electronics, theater, and text. Erin’s music has been performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Roulette Intermedium, Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico City), Celebrity Series (Boston), MATA Festival, Ecstatic Music Festival (Merkin Hall, NYC), and many other festivals and performance venues. “A consummate collaborator” (The New Yorker), Erin’s work crosses genres from music-theatre-to-dance-to-installation-to-silence, and she has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea, Wet Ink, and Copland House.
Her music has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, musicworks magazine, and The Wire and can be heard on the New Focus Recordings, New World Records, Tonus Vivus, Edition Wandelweiser, Relative Pitch, INNOVA and Gold Bolus labels. Her solo album 2000 Miles was listed in Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp. Rogers is a D’Addario Woodwinds and Conn-Selmer artist, a Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Teaching Artist and Co-Chair of the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Performance Program and Co-Artistic Director of the Tactus Ensemble.
Patrick Higgins
