High Definition Photos and Posters | Artist Bios For Immediate Release: Gamelan Galak Tika and Ensemble Robot present Boston... Ensemble Robot and Gamelan Galak Tika are thrilled to announce "Music & The Invasion of Technology," the third program in the Museum of Science's cutting-edge new series "When Science Meets Art." This unique performance will feature a distinctive blend of technology and music as human and non-human musicians take the stage, premiering music by Evan Ziporyn and Christine Southworth. The show promises to be fun for all ages, and will take place on January 25 at 7:00 pm at Cahner's Theater, in the Museum of Science. Featuring the critically acclaimed Todd Reynolds on violin and Ziporyn himself on clarinet, Ziporyn's "Belle Labs" is a virtuosic dialogue between two humans and a robot, pushing the musicians and the machine to their limits to create a mind-bending sonic sensation. Southworth's "Heavy Metal" is a rocking new piece for Balinese gamelan, robots and electric strings and will feature Gamelan Galak Tika, Ensemble Robot, and special guests Todd Reynolds (violin), Eddie Whalen (guitar), Erik Nugent (lyricon) and Blake Newman (bass). "Heavy Metal" will also introduce Ensemble Robot's two newest members, the Bot(i)Cello and the BlowBot, currently under construction by Boston artists Giles Hall and Andy Cavatorta. The concert will also feature Ziporyn's "Kebyar Kebyar" and Ramon Castillo's "Anthropomorphic." "Kebyar Kebyar" is Ziporyn's only gamelan composition which does NOT use any western instruments or electronics. Instead, he re-imagines an early 20th century form of home-grown Balinese musical radicalism through his own very western imagination. Anthropomorphic is a piece that involves a human keyboardist (Marc Chan) trying to keep up with the Heliphon, a metallophone based robot that can play freakishly fast. Accompanying the Heliphon is an automaton beatkeeper named the BeatBot, built specifically for this piece. The concert will be followed by a discussion on the impact of technology on music with Ziporyn, Southworth, and Reynolds, as well as a free dessert reception with a cash bar. Tickets for the entire event are $10. Advance purchase is strongly recommended; tickets are available online at www.mos.org or by calling 617-723-2500. Limited additional seating in a separate theater with simulcast projection of the event will be available for FREE thanks to the generosity of the Lowell Institute. Free seating tickets to the simulcast available to the general public in the Museum lobby beginning at 5:45 p.m. the evening of the program; first come, first served. For more information, please visit www.galaktika.org or www.ensemblerobot.org, or call 617-905-6804. We would like to thank the Museum of Science, Meet the Composer, NEFA, and the LEF Foundation for making this performance possible.
Ensemble Robot The Heliphon is a double-helix shaped robotic metallophone, built in 2004 by Leila Hasan, Alexandra Andriessen, and Giles Hall. Christine Southworth (b. 1978), through her work with robots and automated music systems as co-founder and Director of Ensemble Robot, is making groundbreaking music based on the interaction between technology and creativity. Compared to Thurston Moore (Boston Phoenix, 2/11/05) and Laurie Anderson (Boston Globe, 2/4/05), Southworth is introducing a brand new genre of music to Boston, born out of the area’s complex community of scientists and artists. Her February 2005 performance of Zap! overfilled the Boston Museum of Science’s Theater of Electricity with an energized crowd of 500 students, professors, artists, children, and adults. The Boston Phoenix called the show “truly electrifying,” describing that “Ever since Bob Dylan, ‘going electric’ has had many connotations, but this was something different: though Zap! utilized the talents of a flutist, two keyboardists, a cellist, a guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, a vocalist, a double-helix-shaped robotic xylophone, sound engineers, and computer programmers, the centerpiece of Southworth’s performance was electricity itself, as millions of volts buzzed, fizzled, and sparked in deafening cracks that punctuated her music.” (Will Spitz, Boston Phoenix) Southworth graduated from MIT in 2002 with a B.S. in Mathematics. Ramón Castillo (b. 1978) For the past few years, Ramón Castillo has associated himself with the photographer, Travis Hartman. From this association has emerged three multimedia works: Travis Hartman Experiment (1999), A Man Named Issac… (2002), and Beads Under the Arch [Mardi Gras in St. Louis] (2003). In June 2002, Ramón's composition, Travis Hartman Experiment was performed as part of the Music02 festival in Cincinnati. In September 2001, it was selected as one of six finalists in the young composers' competition of The Ensemble Eleven (Manchester, UK). The ensemble performed the piece during their 2001 fall season. Travis Hartman Experiment was also selected as a finalist in the Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. A Man Named Issac… was performed in 2002 as part of the Bloch Music Festival. Most recently, Ramón's Beads Under the Arch was performed by Time's Arrow at Boston University. It was also chosen as a finalist in last year's Morton Gould A wards. All three of these pieces included Travis's especially diverse photography which has provoked very different approaches to the music. Ramón is currently a DMA candidate at Boston University School of Music where he has studied with Theodore Antoniou, Lukas Foss, and Sam Headrick. He received his BM in composition in 2001 from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he studied with W. Thomas McKenney and John Cheetham. Giles Hall (chief programmer and designer) graduated from RIT in 2002 with a degree in Computer Science and a concentration in Biology. Currently, he is working as a scientific programmer developing software for microarray data analysis at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. In his spare time, he is a devoted computer musician and drummer. Andy Cavatorta is a Boston-based designer and inventor focusing largely on interactive design, robotics, and film. He is a principle of Nervebox Studio and contributor to Boston Cyberarts. His major collaborations include robot control systems for Amorphic Robot Works, aspects of Nearlife's Virtual Fishtank, and interactive design and programming for the Museum of Science exhibit Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination. Composer and pianist Marc Chan is a native of Singapore. His music has been performed by the Russian National Orchestra, TACTUS and the Danish group, Duo Debout. He has also worked with conductor David Gilbert and Dutch soprano, Oda Vilrokx. His music has been published in the journal Guitar Review. In 2005, Marc graduated from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Giampaolo Bracali and was awarded the Nicholas Flagello Award. He has also taken part in master classes given by Ned Rorem and Lukas Foss and has participated in workshops given by the faculty at IRCAM. Marc is currently pursuing his Masters degree in composition at Boston University. Blake Newman (bass), a graduate of Berklee College of Music, began playing double bass at age 12. He spent six years performing and recording with Ibrahima Camara and Safal, culminating in a tour of Senegal in 1997. In 1999, Blake joined the Bruce Katz Band, recording Three Feet Off the Ground (2000, Audioquest), to international acclaim, and performing on multiple US and European tours. He has performed with the Jeff Robinson Trio, a music and spoken word group, since its inception in 1995. For seven years, their Lizard Lounge “poetry jam” has included collaborations with poets Amiri Baraka, Patricia Smith, Regie Gibson, Askia Toure, and Quincy Troupe. As a freelance bassist, Blake has performed and recorded with David Murray, Ran Blake, Big Jack Johnson, Duke Robillard, Michelle Wilson, John Sinclair, David Maxwell, Mamadou Diop, Toni Lynn Washington, and Jon Faddis. Erik Nugent (lyricon) started his musical career as a saxophonist with a degree in Music Education. Shortly after college he began inventing instruments including Triangular-Bore Slide Saxophone, Slide Bagpipe, Three-note Didgeridoo, Flexididjs, Pyrophone, and the Aquarina. He has practiced the ancient form of Tuvan Overtone Singing called Khoomei since the fall of 2002. He has recorded with Eric Dahlman (“Eric & Erik”) and with Dahlman and Michael Knoblach as the free improv trio Auddity. He has played with John Zorn and the Experimental Musical Instruments Ensemble, Otis Reem, Been Caught Steelin’, Automobile Revision, Devil Music Ensemble, and The Calypso Invaders. Nugent has performed film soundtrack work for Michael Pope & D. Franklin’s “Neovoxer,” and composed and performed the soundtrack for Lee Sullivan’s “Eddie’s Question.” He makes his living building and repairing hand-made flutes. Todd Reynolds (violin) is violinist and assistant conductor for Steve Reich and Musicians and The Walter Thompson Orchestra. He was a student of the late Jascha Heifetz, a student at the Eastman School of Music, former Principal Second Violin of the Rochester Philharmonic, and holds a Master's degree from SUNY at Stony Brook. As an improviser and solo interpreter of new musics from classical to jazz and pop, Reynolds has appeared and/or recorded with such artists as Anthony Braxton, Uri Caine and Cassandra Wilson. In addition to his solo appearances Reynolds appears as guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and is often featured with Bang On A Can. Reynolds has premiered compositions by composers including Michael Gordon and Randall Wolff, and appeared as a soloist with Yo-Yo Ma in Tan Dun's Water Passion at the Barbican Center in London. He is a co-founder of Ethel, a New York-based string quartet. Reynolds is currently developing Still Life With Mic, a theater piece which incorporates with his own composed and improvised music and elements of video and theater arts. He has recorded for Nonesuch, CRI, and Atlantic Records and can also be heard on Tan Dun's soundtrack for the film Fallen, starring Denzel Washington. On Broadway, he originated the role of "The Fiddler," playing and dancing on stage in the Tony Award-winning revival of Irving Berlin's Annie, Get Your Gun, starring Bernadette Peters and Reba McEntire. For over two decades, C.E. Whalen (guitar) has been creating new music. He has performed and recorded with Gamelan Galak Tika and Yasuharu Tsuda, as well as given world premiere performances in North America, Europe, and Asia. His alternative pop music group, Twittering Machine, has released several recordings and a soundtrack to critical acclaim, with a new CD scheduled for release this coming spring. Mr. Whalen holds a bachelor of arts in music from Georgia State University and a master of arts in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music. He lives in New York City, supporting himself as a performer and freelance writer. Gamelan Galak Tika was founded in Cambridge, MA, in September 1993 by Evan Ziporyn and Balinese musicians I Nyoman Catra and Desak Made Suarti Laksmi. A part of the MIT Music program, its personnell is comprised of both students and community members. The group learns by memory, without notation, and functions in the Balinese tradition, with decisions made communally and responsibilities shared. The name Galak Tika is Old Javanese for Intense Togetherness. Since its inception, GGT has performed both traditional Balinese music and dance and new works by Balinese and American composers. It has given dozens of performances at venues including Alice Tully Hall, BAM Next Wave, Bang On A Can, First Night, Jordan Hall, Kripalu Yoga Institute,, DeCordova Sculpture Park, and Somerville Arts Festival. It recently completed its first tour of Bali with stellar performances at the Bali International Arts Festival, Kuta Carnival, a festival for world peace, and in villages around the island. Collaborators include Wu Man, Lamine Toure and Rambax, Nicola Hawkins Dance Company, the New England Conservatory Orchestra, and the Providence Mandolin Collective.
Poster for Music & The Invasion of Technology 11x17" Tiff (full-size, 300 dpi, 28 MB)
Evan Ziporyn and Christine Southworth in Bali
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