SHOWS
PAST SHOWS, 2023-24
AUGUST 12, 2023, 7:30 PM Canoe Launch, 8:00 PM Music
Gowanus Dredgers Bunker, 2 19th Street, Brooklyn, NY
TICKETS AND CANOE RESERVATIONS
Unheard-of premieres ensemble leader Ford Fourqurean’s new work exploring the Gowanus Canal’s depths. Using a 360 camera and footage captured along the canal, Ford crafts a video based on the unique flora and fauna making the feral parts of the Gowanus home along the water from the “black mayonnaise” to the canal surface. This concert will also feature a premiere by New York-based composer Vicki Leona. Leona writes about her work that Ginger-Flavored Bubblegum honors and recognizes the underlying feelings of rage and loss she feels as an asian woman in the United States – especially with the rise of asian hate crimes in New York City – through the use of poetry from Theresa Cha’s “Dictee”. Other works on the program include the New York premiere of Asuka Kakitani’s Fractured as well as an Unheard-of staple, Doug Bielmeier and Allison Tanenhaus’s Corporate Responsibility Pledge.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2023, 7:00 PM Canoe Launch, 7:30 PM Music
Gowanus Dredgers Bunker, 2 19th Street, Brooklyn, NY
Unheard-of//Ensemble presents the world premiere of a new commission from composer Ana Lopez-Reyes (NNUX) and video artist Martha Maya. Helix is a piece that simulates a spiral from pre-Hispanic to contemporary times, contemplating the cycles and inheritance in women's collective trauma, which has determined the ways we've been shaped as individuals through generations. NNUX and Martha Maya are looking at breaking the cycles in women’s generational collective trauma. This work explores their backgrounds and relationships with this trauma, and how femicide impacts Latinx communities generationally. Musically, the piece will also explore the idea of these sonic loops that gradually change and break, expanding on the ideas that Ana and Maya would be exploring visually. NNUX will be at this premiere and present an opening set of her electronic music.
SEPTEMBER 25TH THROUGH 30TH
Unheard-of goes on tour through Georgia and Florida presenting new works by NNUX and Nickitas Demos as well as workshops with the Georgia State University composition studio and the University of Florida composition studio.
Columbus State University, 9/25
Georgia State University, 9/26-27
University of Florida, 9/28-30
OCTOBER 15, 2023, 5:30 PM Canoe Launch, 6:00 PM Music
Gowanus Dredgers Bunker, 2 19th Street, Brooklyn, NY
Unheard-of presents Rome Prize winner Christopher Stark’s Fire Ecologies. Fire Ecologies is a climate manifest that explores human impact on America’s ecosystems. The work takes audience members through seven scenes that range from “alien” landscapes to scenes with footage from the Gowanus itself with video art by Zlatko Ćosić. The first and last scenes, titled Terra Incognita, show earth becoming an alien planet, distant from nature. Scene two brings to life field recordings of water that is digitized, fragmented, and obliterated until fountains of harmony spill forth and glisten. Scene three is a meditation on the eternal resilience of Mother Nature. Scene four evokes a prophetic and burning firebird through an energetic dance as a harbinger of catastrophic climate destruction. Marche funèbre uses a field recording of a high-voltage power line in the Sierra Nevada is slowed down, revealing electric cycles in march-like rhythm; the rhythm of human progress and destruction.
Juxtaposing Stark's music, Brooklyn-based composer and visual artist Phong Tran will perform an electronic set. Tran primarily works in digital and electronic mediums. His work revolves around emotions and experience in nonphysical spaces. His most recent album, “The Computer Room” is a thank you to virtual worlds, video games, message boards, and the people that filled them in the early 2000s.
NOVEMBER 7TH THROUGH 10TH
Unheard-of returns to Short North Stage in Columbus, Ohio, to premiere their Ohio Multimedia Call for Projects winning compositions by Brian Harnetty, HyeKyung Lee (composer)/Christian Faur (video artist), and Robert McClure (composer)/Mare Hirsch (video artist). Robert McClure's project with decade-long collaborator Mare Hirsch responds to inputs from the ensemble's sound, creating a dynamic feedback loop between the audio and visual elements of the composition. HyeKyung Lee works with visual artist Christian Faur to create a rhythmically charged work tying into Christian's focus on the semiotic nature of color by using his color alphabet system. Brian Harnetty's “The Workbench (An Inheritance)” is a sonic portrait of his father. We also visit Ohio University, the Bexley Library Series (performing Messiaen), and record Displacement Pressure by Per Bloland.
NOVEMBER 11th, 8PM, Alchemical Studios
Join Unheard-of for the third show in our 2023 Unheard-of//Dialogues series on November 11th, 8pm at Alchemical Studios 50 West 17th Street, 12th floor (Elevator after entering building). In this Dialogues show, we feature the NY premieres of our call for multimedia proposals by Robert McClure and Mare Hirsch, Brian Harnetty, and HyeKyung Lee and Christian Faur. McClure/Hirsch's contours snared, in warp and weft explores melodic shapes and contours while the electronics provide an interactive backdrop weaving together the instrumental elements. Harnetty's The Workbench draws together sonic fragments of voice, memory, and long instrumental lines to create a sonic portrait of Harnetty’s father. We also perform Helix by Mexican artist team Ana E. López Reyes (NNUX) and Martha Maya (LVSTVCRV) explores women’s relationships with generational trauma and its impact on Latinx communities, looking at breaking the cycles.
DECEMBER 16, 2023, 8PM, Alchemical Studios
50 West 17th St., 12th Floor
Join Unheard-of for the last show in our 2023 Unheard-of//Dialogues series on December 16th, 8:00 PM at Alchemical Studios 50 West 17th Street, 12th floor (Elevator after entering building). In this Dialogues show, we feature a new workshop premiere of a new composition by David Crowell along with a solo clarinet work by Zachary Mezzo. Iva and David perform as Eco|Tonal in an opening set.
David Crowell’s commission is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
JANUARY 13, 2024, 8PM, Alchemical Studios
50 West 17th St., 12th Floor
Join Unheard-of for the first show of our 2024 Unheard-of//Dialogues series on January 13th, 8:00 PM at Alchemical Studios 50 West 17th Street, 12th floor (Elevator after entering building). In this Dialogues show, we feature a premiere of Lila Meretzky's For Linda Catlin Smith commissioned by Unheard-of along with a solo clarinet work by Linda Catlin Smith. Iva writes a new piece, Daniel meditates on Reiko Fueting’s MeditatioLuigi Rossi, and we present two trios by Geli Li and Jessica Meyer.
TRIBECA NEW MUSIC
MARCH 2nd, 2024, 7:30PM, DiMenna Center Benzaquen Hall
Tribeca New Music presents the Unheard-of Ensemble featuring Ford Fourqurean (clarinet), Matheus Souza (violin), Iva Casian-Lakoš (cello), and Daniel Anastasio (piano). They are a Brooklyn-based clarinet, violin, cello, and piano quartet performing dedicated to connecting new music to communities in New York and across the United States through the development and performance of adventurous programs using technology and interactive multimedia.
This concert will feature recent works by Doug Bielmeier, Ana Lopez-Reyes (NNUX), and a world premiere of the full version of Memories of the Imagined by David Crowell.
Memories of the Imagined is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
MARCH 11–13th, 2024
CSU Northridge Residency
Unheard-of visits CSU Northridge to work with the composition studio and present new works by student composers as well as present the California premiere of Helix.
MARCH 21st – 24th, 2024
UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING
Unheard-of visits University of Wyoming for a three day residency with the University of Wyoming composition studio presenting a concert March 21st and three days of workshops and recording sessions.
March 21st: Concert with music by Robert McClure, NNUX, Jessica Meyer, Vicki Nguyen, and two premieres by Nicolas Chuaqui
March 22nd and 23rd: Workshops and recording sessions
June 14th, 2024, 8 PM
Cultural Ecologies Series: Not in Fact Dead
2 19th Street, Brooklyn
The first performance features ensemble members and composer-performers Ford and Iva presenting two premieres. Ford’s work sets the murky, sentimental poetry of Brad Vogel, Gowanus local and former Dredgers captain with video created in collaboration with artist Bonnie Ralston, while Iva’s work explores her connection to her Mexican culture through Aztec myth.
CCI//San Antonio 2024
June 4th: Unheard-of at Ruby City: NNUX and Vicki Nguyen
June 6th: Unheard-of & AGARITA at the Agarita Loft
June 7th: Fire Ecologies, First Fridays at Blue Star Arts
June 8th: Unheard-of at Mission San José
June 9th: Installation at Evergreen Garden Center
Gowanus Soundwalk – July 13, 2024, 11-4pm
Save the date for a unique, site-specific musical voyage, curated by Unheard-of Ensemble in collaboration with the Gowanus Dredgers. Launch yourself into the Gowanus on a canoe for a musical experience inspired by the stories of its contamination, resiliency, and road to recovery. Guests are invited to join between 11am and 4pm and are encouraged to reserve a time slot to let us know when you are arriving. The "sound paddle" is 20 minutes in length and includes spots from the bunker to 9th street. From there, include some time on your own to explore and see what you find. Expect around 45-50 minutes total for a round trip. This soundwalk was created with planning and writing from Jos Prol and Ford Fourqurean, narration by Jos, with tech by Brian Ellis and sounds by Brian and Ford.
NOTE: To best experience the soundpaddle, bring either wireless earbuds or wired earbuds that can connect to your phone. The soundwalk can be experienced in browser but smoothest listening will be in the GESSO App. (Download here). Once you arrive, you will scan a QR code at the boathouse that will link you to the audio tour. Brian and Ford will be there to guide you if any assistance is needed. From there, just canoe, explore, and listen.
Ginger Flavored Bubblegum – August 10, 2024
Ginger Flavored Bubblegum explores transcendence from grief by honoring poet, filmmaker, and artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha - who was murdered only a few days after the publication of her poetic autobiography, "Dictee." The program also features David Crowell's Memories of the Imagined and a special set from incredible cellist and electronic artist special guest MIZU!
SHIFTING HAZE – September 28, 2024, 6:00PM canoe launch, 6:30PM Music
The last performance of the 2024 Cultural Ecologies season features emerging composers at the cutting edge of music and technology from composers Erich Barganier, Han Geul Lee, Catherine Phang, Alyssa Wixson, and Annie Nikunen, each developing new multimedia works for the ensemble. This performance takes place during climate week. Come for the open paddle beforehand and join in to hear these premieres!