Panel discussion – A diverse set of music experts and practicing musicians will be sharing their unique viewpoints on what experimental music is in 2024, what kind of creative approaches they are applying to push the boundaries of the art form, what the future holds for experimental musicians, and more.
Panelists: Julius Dobos, Franck Martin, Karen Stackpole, William Winant, Krys Bobrowski.
Facilitator: Brent Miller.
Performance – Following the discussion, panelists will give an improvisational live performance, collaborating on stage the first time together.
Check out the event on the AES SF page!
William Winant
In 2016, Winant was awarded a large unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in recognition for his groundbreaking work as a contemporary percussionist. In 2014 he received a Grammy nomination for his recording of John Cage’s historic solo work, 27′ 10.554″ for a percussionist, on Micro Fest Records.
He has collaborated with some of the most innovative and creative musicians of our time, including Joelle Leandre, John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Boulez, Frank Zappa, Keith Jarrett, Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, Fred Frith, James Tenney, Terry Riley, John Zorn, Cecil Taylor, Gerry Hemingway, Mark Dresser, Barry Guy, Marilyn Crispell, George Lewis, Steve Reich and Musicians, Nexus, Charles Wuorinen, Jean-Philippe Collard, Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens, Joan LaBarbara, Annea Lockwood, Danny Elfman/Oingo Boingo, Ash Fure, Sonic Youth, Marc Ribot, Keith Rowe, Ikue Mori, Joey Barron, Lin Culbertson, Bill Frisell, Yo-Yo Ma, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Lawrence “Butch” Morris, and the Kronos String Quartet. He has recorded and toured worldwide with his own groups including ROOM, w/Chris Brown and Larry Ochs, CHALLENGE, w/Anthony Braxton and David Rosenboom, WAKE, w/Frank Gratkowski and Chris Brown, the ABEL/STEINBERG/WINANT TRIO, and the WILLIAM WINANT PERCUSSION GROUP.
Click here to download a copy of the Poon Village promo sheet.
Click here to visit William’s page on the Foundation for Contemporar Arts website.
He is principal percussionist with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, he has been closely associated with NYC composer John Zorn, and has made numerous recordings, and performed in many projects throughout the world with the composer. Starting in 1995 he has been the percussionist with the avant-rock band Mr. Bungle, has made two recordings (“Disco Volante” and “California” on Warner Brothers), and has toured throughout the world with this group. For many years he had worked with composer Lou Harrison, recording and premiering many of his works, and in March of 1997 he participated in the world premiere of Lou Harrison’s quintet “Rhymes with Silver” featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Mark Morris Dance Group, and has toured the piece throughout the United States and Great Britain. In the fall of 2011, he joined Mike Patton’s Italian pop music project Mondo Cane which features a 12 piece band + string orchestra, and have recently completed tours of South America and Australia. In the fall of 2003, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Mr. Winant, along with composers Takehisa Kosugi and Christian Wolff, created music for a series of eight special “Events” staged by Merce Cunningham and Dancers at London’s Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern. Winant continued to tour throughout Europe and the United States with the dance company until 2009.
He has made over 200 recordings, covering a wide variety of genres, including music by Zeena Parkins, Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, John Zorn, Butch Morris, James Newton, Frank Gratkowski, Pauline Oliveros, Joan Jeanrenaud, Luc Ferrari, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Danny Elfman (“Batman Returns”), Siouxse and the Banshees, Secret Chiefs 3, ICP, Han Bennik, The Ex, White Out with Jim O’Rourke, Lou Reed, Thurston Moore, and Mike Patton.
His recording of Lou Harrison’s “La Koro Sutro” (which he produced for New Albion Records) was the New York Times Critic’s Choice for best contemporary recording of 1988. In 1999 he produced a recording of music by 20th-century avant-garde composers with the influential rock band Sonic Youth; “Goodbye 20th-Century” (SYR4), was hailed by both The Los Angeles Times and New York’s Village Voice as one of the best compendiums of this type of music ever recorded. His recording with cellist Joan Jeanrenaud of her CD “Strange Toys” was nominated for a Grammy in 2009. Also he along with guitarists Henry Kaiser and David Lindley, created special music for Werner Herzog’s 2009 Oscar nominated documentary “Encounters at the End of the World”. His recording with Roscoe Mitchell combining three trios and recorded over 3 days at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, was released on the ECM label in 2017 Mr. Winant has premiered many new works written specifically for him, by such noted composers as John Cage, Christian Wolff, Lou Harrison, John Zorn, Zeena Parkins, Bun-Ching Lam, Barbara Monk Feldman, Hi-Kyung Kim, Roscoe Mitchell, Wendy Reid, Ralph Shapey, Peter Garland, Michael Byron, Paul Dresher, Alvin Curran, Frederic Rzewski, Chris Brown, David Rosenboom, Larry Polansky, Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier, Terry Riley, Fred Frith, Somei Satoh, and Wadada Leo Smith.
Mr. Winant has been featured as a guest artist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (under the direction of Pierre Boulez), the San Francisco Symphony, and the Berkeley Symphony (Kent Nagano, director), as well as at Cabrillo Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, SF Jazz Festival, Central Park Summerstage, Ravinia Festival, Salzburg Festival, Donaueschingen Festival, Victoriaville, Holland Festival, Edinburgh Festival, Ojai Festival, Sonar Festival, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Taklos, Other Minds Festival, Lincoln Center, Melt Down Festival, Royal Festival Hall, Library of Congress, The Barbican, The Kennedy Center, Paris Opera, Disney Hall, Miller Theater Composer Portraits Series, Merkin Hall, Guggenheim Museum, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. For ten years he was principal percussionist with the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra (Dennis Russell Davies, director), and timpanist with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra 1985-1988 (Nicholas McGegan, director).
He is a Visiting Lecturer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and teaches at Mills College and the University of California at Berkeley. For eight years Mr. Winant was Artist-in-Residence at Mills College with the critically acclaimed Abel-Steinberg-Winant Trio. Formed in 1984, the ASW Trio has premiered over 25 new works for violin, piano, and percussion at major festivals and recitals throughout the world. Their recordings can be heard on the New Albion, Tzadik, and CRI/New World labels.
https://www.williamwinant.com/
Franck Martin
Born and raised in France, a 20-year resident of Fiji and traveller to all the Pacific Islands, Franck Martin is now based out of San Francisco. His search for sounds, emotions, going outside the rules, led him to experiment with micro-tones and quadraphonic music using either his modular synthesizer or producing music in 5.1 surround sound, ambisonic or Dolby Atmos/Spatial Audio. Franck Martin performs long sets, 15-30mn or more of live music on his quadraphonic modular synthesizer. He produces electronic music, organizes and promotes well attended events and concerts.
https://www.peachymango.org/epk
Julius Dobos
Julius Dobos is an award-winning, platinum-album electronic music and film composer, sound synthesist and mastering engineer, best known for his eleven album releases and film scores. His scoring and production credits include Dragon Ball Z, NCIS, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Zookeeper, and work with Grammy®-winning performers.
Under his pseudonym, forgotten future, Julius builds musical universes and creates epic-ambient organic electronic music with a distinct character, which heavily relies on cutting edge musical sound design and philosophical themes. Dobos’ digital installations and live multi-media performances promote the organic expression in electronic music and have attracted audiences internationally. His 2019 Los Angeles Human Intelligence Control show featured an inventive musical experience through digitally-tracked physical interaction with the audience.
With a background in composition, sound synthesis and audio production, Dobos has also engineered, mastered hundreds of records, beta-tested and preset-programmed synthesizers and music technology tools for the past three decades. Dobos is a university professor, the Vice Chair of AES San Francisco, and the founder of the AI-Free Organization. He enjoys designing unique sonic concepts in his Studio CS, a modular space is filled with vintage and cutting edge electronic musical instruments, giving talks on the topics of creativity and electronic music culture.
Karen Stackpole
Drummer/percussionist Karen Stackpole started out as a rock drummer in the late ‘80s and soon became fascinated with improvised music and multi-media collaboration. She became active in the creative music scene, playing new music and stretching beyond established boundaries as well as working with dancers, spoken word, and experimental film. She has a long-standing passion for gongs. In her exploration of metals, she has cultivated some distinctive techniques for drawing harmonics out of tam tams with various implements. She specializes in dynamic soundscapes and textures and has contributed gong sounds to more conventional musical genres as well as recording source material for film soundtracks. In addition to solo work, she has performed and recorded with various projects including Machine Shop: Live Amplified Gong Experience (a duo with electronics master, Drew Webster), Sabbaticus Rex, Ghost in the House, Vorticella, the Francis Wong Unit, and the rock band Steel Hotcakes, as well as being involved in numerous other collaborations. Most recently her work has focused on duo performances and recordings with experimental instrument builder Krys Bobrowski (Gliss Glass & Gongs), contrabassist Bill Noertker (Talking Frog), and guitarist extraordinaire, Fred Frith.