Hear in Now Expanded (Tomeka Reid, Silvia Bolognesi, yuniya edi kwon, Chad Taylor) + QWANQWA: Weaving Strands of Sound
Free
- Mazz Swift, violin
- Tomeka Reid, cello
- Silvia Bolognesi, double bass
- yuniya edi kwon (eddy kwon), violin
- Chad Taylor, drums
"Weaving Strands of Sound from Addis to Chicago" is a collaborative musical experience between the Ethiopia-based QWANQWA and Hear in Now Expanded (Tomeka Reid, Silvia Bolognesi, yuniya edi kwon, Chad Taylor).
At the core of both ensembles are stringed instruments, with each group exploring tradition and experimentalism in their unique way, pushing musical boundaries and expectations within their respective communities. Upon meeting in Addis Ababa, Tomeka Reid and Kaethe Hostetter felt inspired to find a way to combine their worlds of tradition and experimentalism, using their varied musical languages and experiences. While both ensembles rely heavily on improvisation, the sources and means of that improvisation are very different. The goal of this exchange is to share stylistic improvisational techniques between the two groups. Specifically, HIN members who have worked extensively with Butch Morris and Anthony Braxton will share conduction techniques with the members of QWANQWA, and in return, QWANQWA will share the many scales and rhythms used in traditional Ethiopian music.
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm Eastern on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing.
About Hear in Now
A world-caliber collective of women working in a class almost entirely their own, Hear in Now is a string trio that composes and improvises fluidly between free jazz and contemporary classical, folk music, and avant-garde. Originally banded by a commission from WomaJazz in Italy, Mazz Swift (violin), Tomeka Reid (cello) and Silvia Bolognesi (double bass) came together from their homes in New York, Chicago and Siena IT to not only perform but also meet for the first time on the same date in 2009. In the 8 years since that first encounter, Hear in Now has become a rare egalitarian ensemble for the three highly active musicians, who are as often singular band leaders as they are sidewomen.
https://www.intlanthem.com/artists/hear-in-nowAbout Mazz Swift, violin
About Tomeka Reid, cello
About Silvia Bolognesi, double bass
About yuniya edi kwon (eddy kwon), violin
yuniya edi kwon (b. 1989 – also known as eddy kwon) is a violinist, vocalist, poet, and interdisciplinary performance artist based in Lenapehoking, or New York City. Her practice connects composition, improvisation, movement, and ceremony to explore transformation and transgression, ritual practice as a tool to queer space and lineage, and the use of mythology to connect, obscure, and reveal. As a composer-performer and improviser, she is inspired by Korean folk timbres and inflections, textures and movement from natural environments, and American experimentalism as shaped by the AACM. Her work as a choreographer and movement artist embodies an expressive release and reclamation of colonialism’s spiritual imprints, connecting to both Japanese Butoh and a lineage of queer trans practitioners of Korean shamanic ritual. In addition to an evolving, interdisciplinary solo practice, she performs and collaborates with artists of diverse disciplines, including The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Senga Nengudi, Du Yun, Tomeka Reid, International Contemporary Ensemble, Kenneth Tam, Isabel Crespo Pardo, Moor Mother, and Degenerate Art Ensemble. She has performed alongside Roscoe Mitchell, Mary Halvorson, Nicole Mitchell, Cory Smythe, Henry Threadgill, Susan Alcorn, Carla Kihlstedt, Jessika Kenney, Lesley Mok, Satomi Matsuzaki, and others. In 2023, she founded SUN HAN GUILD, a sound and performance collective with composer-improvisers Laura Cocks, Jessie Cox, DoYeon Kim, and Lester St. Louis. She is a recipient of the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award in Music/Sound, an Arts Fellow at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, a Civitella Ranieri Fellow, a Johnson Fellow at Americans for the Arts, and a United States Artists Ford Fellow.
http://www.eddykwon.net/