NEC Music Theory Department Presents: Christian Wolff with Ordinary Affects

Join us for a night with Christian Wolff! The event will be begin with a talk led by Christian Wolff and then we will hear a world premiere of a piece written for Boston's own experimental music ensemble Ordinary Affects.

Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff was born in 1934 in Nice, France, has lived in the U.S. since 1941. Studied piano with Grete Sultan and briefly composition with John Cage. Associated with Cage, Morton Feldman, David Tudor and Earle Brown, then with Frederic Rzewski and Cornelius Cardew. Since 1952 associated with Merce Cunningham and his dance company. Taught Classics at Harvard (1962-70) and Classics, Music and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College (1971-1999). Published articles on Greek tragedy, in particular, Euripides. Writings on music (to 1998) collected in book Cues (published by MusikTexte) and in Occasional Pieces (Oxford University Press, in preparation). Active as performer, also improviser with, among others, Takehisa Kosugi, Keith Rowe, Steve Lacy, Christian Marclay, Larry Polansky, Kui Dong and AMM. All music published by C.F. Peters, New York. Much of it is recorded (Mode, New World, Neos, Capriccio, Wandelweiser, Wergo, Matchless, Tzadik, HatArt, etc.). Honors include DAAD Berlin fellowship, grants from the Asian Council, Mellon Foundation, Fromm Foundation, Meet the Composer, Foundation for Contemporary Performing Arts (the John Cage award); honorary degrees from California Institute of the Arts and from Huddersfield University (UK); membership in the Akademie der Künste (Berlin), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Széchenyi Academy of Letters and Arts (Budapest); lifetime achievement award from the state of Vermont.

Ordinary Affects

Ordinary Affects is a Boston-based experimental music ensemble. Experimental composer/performers J.P.A. Falzone, Laura Cetilia, Luke Martin, and Morgan Evans-Weiler make-up the ensemble, performing on piano/organ/percussion, cello, violin, and guitar/electronics (respectively). The ensemble was formed as a group of musicians seeking to workshop, commission, and perform experimental music. Their work is often aligned with the tradition of John Cage and the Wandelweiser Collective. While the group frequently focuses on the performance of commissioned compositions of living composers, it also serves as a laboratory for improvisation and the compositions of its members. Whenever possible, Ordinary Affects involves the commissioned composer as a performer in the ensemble.

Ordinary Affects has commissioned and premiered pieces by Michael Pisaro, Antoine Beuger, Sarah Hughes, Eva-Maria Houben, Ryoko Akama, Doug Farrand, Patrick Farmer, and Jurg Frey, in addition to performing works by Joseph Kurdika, John Lely, and all ensemble members. In summer 2017, Ordinary Affects was accepted to the Avaloch Residency. In fall 2017, Ordinary Affects commissioned Swiss Wandelweiser composer Jurg Frey, who joined the group on a New England tour (Boston [Non-Event], Wesleyan, Dartmouth, and Cambridge [Standing-Waves]). Recently, Ordinary Affects was commissioned to present new 4-hour works in the RISD Museum. In fall 2018, composer Eva-Maria Houben traveled to the US for a New England tour with the ensemble, premiering four new works for the group and recording a CD. In November, Christian Wolff will join the group to premiere his new work written for the group. Ordinary Affects has recordings on elsewhere, Another Timbre, and forthcoming on Edition Wandelweiser.