THE CURATORS OF THIS EVENT REQUIRE THAT EVERYONE IN ATTENDANCE SHOW PROOF OF VACCINATION AT THE DOOR. MASKING AND CONTACT TRACING ENFORCED. SEATING IS LIMITED FOR PURPOSES OF SOCIAL DISTANCING, ADVANCED REGISTRATION IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

New MUSE 4tet is:

Violinist Gwen Laster

Violist Melanie Dyer

Cellist Alex Waterman

Bassist Dara Blumenthal-Bloom

Created in October 2015 and founded by Violinist/Composer Gwen Laster, New MUSE4tet is an improvising string quartet offering 20th and 21st century new works and original compositions as a vehicle for social activism. Her commissioned work “Black Lives Matter Suite” premiered shortly after the inception of the ensemble and continues to draw great audiences and critical acclaim. New MUSE4tet sheds new interpretive light on familiar works and introduces audiences to the voices of the now. The artists joining Gwen are violist Melanie Dyer, cellist Alex Waterman, and bassist Dara Blumenthal-Bloom

Laster was selected as a Sphinx Foundation MPower grant recipient to support the release of Blur Lotus.

New MUSE 4tet’s debut album Blue Lotus was released on February 26, 2021.

Gwen Laster is a nationally acclaimed musician who has been the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jubilation Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Arts Mid Hudson, Lila Wallace, and the Cognac Hennessy 1st place Jazz Search. She’s a native Detroiter whose creative influences come from the Motor City’s exciting urban and classical music culture. Gwen started improvising and composing because of her parent’s love of jazz, blues, soul and classical music and her inspiring music teachers from Detroit’s public schools.

​Laster relocated to NYC after earning two music degrees from the University of Michigan. She began collaborating, performing and recording with internationally-known creative and commercial artists including Anthony Braxton, Nona Hendryx, Aretha Franklin, Wadada Leo Smith, William Parker, Danny Elfman, Sun Ra Arkestra, Tyler the Creator, Gladys Knight, Emeline Michel, Andrea Bocelli, David Foster, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Shaggy, Andrew Baba Lamb, Natalie Cole, Solange, Mark Anthony, and J Lo and Shakira at President Obama’s Inaugural Neighborhood Ball.

Melanie Dyer is a violist who moves across free jazz, jazz, orchestral, and experimental music. She has studied with William Lincer, Lee Yeingst, John Jake Kella and Naomi Fellows. Recently she performed and recorded with William Parker, Sun Ra Arkestra, Henry Grimes, Tomeka Reid, Heroes Are Gang Leaders, New Muse 4tet, Women with an Axe to Grind, and other luminous musicians in the United States, Europe, and South Africa. She founded WeFreeStrings, a string/rhythm collective rooted in creative improvisation, and plays viola in Gwen Laster’s New Muse 4tet.

Alex Waterman is a composer, performer, producer, and scholar, exploring how social bodies can live and interact with one another in more musical ways. He has created a diverse body of works including sound installations, television operas, film and video works, exhibitions, amateur choral works, radio and film scores, and solo performances as a cellist, electronic musician and storyteller.

Dara Blumenthal-Bloom began her double bass studies with Dr. Michael Klinghoffer at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and earned her MA at New England Conservatory with Donald Palma. She continued musical projects with Myrna Herzog’s Phoenix Ensemble where she learned violone and viola da gamba and later joined the Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra on the double bass. She later enrolled in Juilliard School’s Historical Performance Department as a bassist. She’s currently enjoying performing, recording and collaborating in NYC’s diverse musical offerings.

Bismuth Quartet (featuring Matt Engle, bass):

One of Philadelphia’s hidden gems, Bismuth Quartet takes the string quartet into new territory as performers, composers, collaborators, and improvisers. Past and future projects include cross-disciplinary collaborations, diverse programming, and performing original compositions. Equally at home playing modern, classical, experimental, and improvised music, Bismuth has performed at notable venues such as the Mann Center, Union Transfer, and the Mütter Museum, among others. The Quartet presents a unique experience to its audiences and has partnered on productions across Philadelphia performing on the Moon Viewing Platform as part of the 2019 Site/Sound Festival, playing spectral music presented by Fire Museum Presents at the Icebox Project Space, and collaboratively composing and performing scores to silent films alongside Not So Silent Cinema. Bismuth Quartet maintains active projects across the Philadelphia music scene at-large and has been featured with Jazmine Sullivan, Arcana New Music Ensemble, Philadelphia Jazz Project, indie rock bands Whitney, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, with NYC-based performer/improviser/composer Anaïs Maviel, and video artist/choreographer Nora Gibson aka CHROMA. Bismuth encourages the creation of new work and is in the midst of a commission in collaboration with composer Adam Berenson to be recorded in the fall of 2022.

Carlos Santiago – violin

Veronica Jurkiewicz – viola

Carolina Diazgranados – cello

with special guest Matt Engle – bass

Matt Engle grew up in the Philadelphia area and has been an active member of the creative and improvised music scene for 20 years. He has contributed to many varying musical situations and has previously performed with Dan Blacksberg, Bobby Zankel, Sonic Liberation Front, Bird Fly Yellow, Shot By Shot, The Scriptors, Yapp, Jarrett Gilgore, Split Red, Dave Liebman, Tim Young, Marshall Allen, Anomalous Warmth, Watson, Roberto Pace, Sam Newsome, Rick Iannacone, Jaimie Branch, Elliot Levin, Anthony Pirog, Raymond King, David Middleton, Vince Johnson, Veronica MJ, Muhammad Ali, Oliver Lake, Seth Meicht, Tim Berne, Jack Wright, Thurman Barker, Jay Lunar, and Brandon Seabrook among many others.

links: https://firemuseumpresents.com/.../gwen-lasters-new-muse.../

Join us for a screening of F.W. Murnau's classic 1926 silent film, Faust, complete with a new live score from Not So Silent Cinema featuring the Bismuth String Quartet.

In Murnau's telling, the righteous alchemist Faust is tempted into making a deal with the Devil to save his village from the plague. But will the Devil corrupt his soul or can Faust be redeemed? Faust is renowned for its narrative, combining elements of older traditions of the legendary tale of Faust with Goethe’s classic version, as well its dazzling array of in-camera special effects, making it one of Murnau's greatest filmic achievements.

Faust will be screened in tandem with new exhibitions, Spit Spreads Death, and Going Viral. The film will be paired with a brief introductory lecture charting the line from alchemy to virology by our Head Librarian and co-curator of Going Viral, Beth Lander.

Mütter Museum admission is included in the ticket price and the museum will be open from 5:30-6:30, as well as a cash bar and complimentary pretzels upstairs. The lecture and film screening will begin promptly at 6:40 and no one will be admitted past that point.

Timeline:

5:30PM-6:30PM Reception/Museum Open

6:40PM-9:15PM Program (Lecture and Screening)

>>>Get tickets here<<<

ABOUT NOT SO SILENT CINEMA:

Not So Silent Cinema is the project of Philadelphia composer Brendan Cooney. Cooney pulls together different groups for each of his film projects, creating diverse mash-ups of musical personalities from different music scenes to create lively new platforms for interaction and creativity. His scores are tightly composed, time-coded and thematic but also have plenty of room for improvisation and interaction between players.

$ 8-15 sliding scale

Erik Ruin’s Ominous Cloud Ensemble:

Erik Ruin’s Ominous Cloud Ensemble is an ever-evolving, collectively-improvising large ensemble for projections and music, led by visual artist Erik Ruin, recently lauded by the New York Times for his “spell-binding cut-paper animations.” Erik manipulates intricate paper-cuts and painted films on overhead projectors to create abstract landscapes and fragmentary scenes that are nonetheless charged with meaning, merging with music that ranges from dark atmospherics to ecstatic peaks of dissonance. Members of the ensemble include a rotating cast of Philly’s finest musicians, who have collaborated with everyone from Anthony Braxton to the Sun Ra Arkestra to Bardo Pond.

Laurie Amat:

Laurie Amat is an acclaimed vocalist, improvisational performer, experimental composer and teacher. Her approach to singing is informed by broad experience including pop, rock, traditional and inventive opera, spoken word, video, dance, theater and performance art.

She has performed pure-voice, site-specific resonant space pieces internationally in such traditional venues as concert halls, museums and galleries, cathedrals and alternative spaces including castles, bunkers, cisterns, rivers and concrete overpasses. She is also well known for her solo and collaborative performances throughout Europe, including projects with The Residents, Czech scholar/keyboardist Mirek Vodrazka and many others.

Her recording and performance techniques have expanded to use electronic devices as sound-altering instruments. The resulting electronic manipulation and looping of vocal sounds support the emotional element and enhances improvised solo and ensemble works.

Laurie will perform a solo set, then collaborate with Erik Ruin’s Ominous Cloud ensemble for their set.

Bismuth String Quartet:

One of Philadelphia’s hidden gems, Bismuth Quartet takes the string quartet into new territory through diverse repertoire and collaborations. Equally at home playing modern, classical, experimental, and improvised music, the Quartet presents a unique experience to its audiences. Having made its debut on the concert series A Listening Room, Bismuth revealed its colors playing works by Zapp 4, Franz Joseph Haydn, Caroline Shaw, Pauline Oliveros, and Takashi Yoshimatsu. Bismuth Quartet maintains active projects within the Philadelphia music scene at-large, having collaborated with the Space Whale Orchestra, indie-pop band Brother Martin, Arcana New Music Ensemble, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, NYC-based performer/improviser/composer Anaïs Maviel, and video artist/choreographer Nora Gibson aka CHROMA. The Quartet encourages the creation of new work and is in the midst of a commission in collaboration with composer Adam Berenson. Bismuth Quartet has recently released their premiere recording of Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte. Bismuth String Quartet are Carlos Santiago, Gabe Miller, Molly Germer – rotating violins; Veronica Jurkiewicz – viola & Carolina Diazgranados – cello.

links at: http://firemuseumpresents.com/events/erik-ruins-ominous-cloud-ensemble-laurie-amat/

Unfortunately, the host had to cancel this concert :( Stay tuned for another Groupmuse appearance by Bismuth!

Join us at Muse Gallery for an afternoon of string quartets!

More info and tickets available >>>here<<<

=================

What is Groupmuse?

Groupmuses are “live classical shows in a living room or community intimate space. They’re casual, friendly, and intimate, and anyone can host.”

Moon Viewing Platform - Installation Performance Night Two as part of the SITE/SOUND FESTIVAL

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe. 6:26 (sunset)–9 p.m.

Anaïs Maviel. 6:26 (sunset)–9 p.m.

Bismuth Quartet. 6:26 (sunset)–9 p.m.

Location: Moon Viewing Platform, Viewable from 465 North 18th Street & 401 North 17th Street

FREE

More info available >>>here<<<