experimental music and george antheil’s ballet mecanique, May and June 2008

May 7, 2008
Hi,
I’m playing in three concerts this weekend. These are the final shows this season in the Object Collection series. See me performing movement while being deprived of both vision and hearing in a premier by Eric Clark! Witness me wandering around the stage with a violin in Aaron Meicht’s incredible music-theater piece “Bermal”. Drumming with chopsticks on guitar in a piece by Travis Just? And more!
And next month, my piece Enumerated Types will be part of the “George Antheil‘s Legacy” concert on June 7th at 3-Legged Dog. Come and hear my music, along with George Antheil‘s Ballet Mechanique performed by the robot collective, Lemur.
For those not in New York, all performances will be streamed live by free103point9 (7pm New York time).
Get the stream here: http://www.free103point9.org/Programs:

May 8, 7pm:
Eric Clark (New York), Christoph Ogiermann (Bremen), Craig Shepard (New York)

May 9, 7pm:
Gisburg (New York), Paula Matthusen (New York), Aaron Meicht (New York)

May 10, 7pm:
Turf Boon (Dublin) [featuring Jennifer Walshe], Travis Just (New York), Quentin Tolimieri (New York)
performers:
Alex Barreto, Eric KM Clark, Kara Feely, Travis Just, Aaron Meicht, Seth Meicht James Moore, Quentin Tolimieri, Jennifer Walshe, Harris Wulfson

All performances at:
Ontological Theater
St. Mark’s Church
131 E. 10th St. at 2nd Ave.

tickets: $10, $20 gets you into all three concerts as well as all three NOISE! events
(The 3 performances in May are partnered with the annual NOISE! festival. NOISE! shows are 10pm-1am in the same theater.)
Experimental Music has received generous support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

regards,

-Harris

On WNYC Soundcheck

Soundcheck America’s show on Antheil was replayed tonight on NPR. This performance, Antheil’s Legacy (PDF), on Jun. 7 2008 was written up in the NY Times: link to NY Times or here (PDF).

The show is about the George Antheil’s Ballet Mecanique. At 17:40 minutes into the broadcast, Harris gets a mention as a composer who has written music in the tradition of Antheil though they don’t play any of his work.

“One of the great curiosities of 20th-century music is “Ballet Mécanique,” a 25-minute percussion-and-piano extravaganza featuring 16 player pianos, electric bells, airplane propellers, an alarm clock and a siren, by Trenton-born composer George Antheil. The groundbreaking work is now being staged in a performance…by robots. Charles Amirkhanian, the music executor of Antheil’s estate, and Eric Singer, the director of the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots, join us with a preview.

“Ballet Mecanique” premieres with an automated orchestra as part of the performance Antheil’s Legacy on Jun. 7 2008 at 9:30pm at 3LD Art & Technology Center.”

“As a special kickoff for a three-week run, of the new 80-minute play based on Antheil and Lamarr called “Frequency Hopping,” its performance on Saturday night was followed by a 70-minute concert titled “Antheil’s Legacy,” conceived by the composer and producer Charles Amirkhanian…  In the concert, “Ballet Mécanique” was preceded by performances of recent works by Luke Thomas Taylor, Harris Wulfson and Lukas Ligeti that explore various uses of digital music-making.”

Click the link for an archive stream of the Soundcheck broadcast: Ballet Mecanique, Performed by…Robots

projects with rowland stebbins

Harris played with Freyja Balmer Gallagher on Rowland Stebbins’ EP titled Hook, Line & Sinker, 2002. Rowland graciously allowed me to post all the tracks from the album as well as track 7 from Rowland’s album, All Over, which Harris played with Rowland at Merlefest in 2003.

https://rowlandstebbins.bandcamp.com/music
 

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With Rowland Stebbins

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sketches from high school 2: covers

What did YOU do with your high school weekend afternoons? Harris played with his 4-track. And taught himself to play the accordion. His covers lend some insight to some of his musical influences.

Again, this post will be updated further as I discover more recordings. Or better/more complete versions.

 

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Sketches From High School 2: Covers

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sketches from high school 1: tchatzkies

Ok I admit I haven’t a clue what to name this post so I kind of went literal. Here are a collection of sketches, baubles, trinkets or what have you that Harris recorded in high school. This is the post where he’d be rolling his eyes at me and saying “oh no! what are you DOING!?! Don’t post that up there!!” So Harris, I’m sorry. But some of the folks really DO want to hear these things.

I expect this post will be updated with more later as I find them – or find more complete versions of them.

In the meantime, I bring you:

01. The Quadratic Roots Song – A bluegrass song.

02. Someday When I’m Famous – Judy Penner, someday when you’re famous this will be worth a lot of money.

03. Silver Staff – A “New Wave” song. Harris and Alex Feinman set out to write an ’80’s pop song using every cliche in the book one night during a holiday party.

04. Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man – Well, Rex Harrison really WAS an early rap star, wasn’t he?
 

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Sketches From High School 1: Tchatzkies

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nyu music department: bach on 2000

Perhaps someone can fill me in on the details of this concert and CD?

Here are two tracks from the concert. The first is Bach’s Partita in E Major with Harris on mandolin. The second is Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor (aka “The Bach Double”) with Juliana Trivers (I believe playing first violin?) Harris (playing second violin?), Wynn Yamami and Ryan Dorin on piano.

 

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NYU Music Department: Bach on 2000

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i don’t wanna grow up from dave sollors

“I’ve been meaning to share this song I recorded last month while thinking of Harris” – Dave

I Don’t Wanna Grow Up by Tom Waits.

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