COVID-19 vaccination required for in-person attendance.
Carnegie Hill Concerts presents:
ERIN ROGERS AND POPEBAMA
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PROGRAM:
Set 1: Erin Rogers (Saxophone)
Selections from 2000 Miles
Fresh off the release of her second solo album from Relative Pitch Records, saxophonist Erin Rogers opens with a 20-min set, diving deep into the sonic underbelly of the instrument, uncovering a radiant world of curiosity and imagination. From human fragility to noisy virtuosity, Rogers forges an alternate voice for the saxophone, percussively blending tone with mechanism and melody with vocalization, gutturals and breath. Rogers will perform works from her recent solo release, 2000 Miles.
Set 2: Popebama
Erin Rogers (Saxophone + Electronics) and Dennis Sullivan (Percussion + Electronics)
Mazyrinth (2022) by Seong Ae Kim - WORLD PREMIERE
According to the recent research, 74% of AAPI women reported having personally experienced racism or discrimination and 10,905 hate incidents targeting AAPI have been reported since beginning of the pandemic. The majority of incidents targeted women and 16 percent involved physical assault. Living in an asian woman's body in 2022 feels like being in a maze that has no way out, we are being hunted down like prey. How do we even process these horrific stories that happen around us? How can we move on with this enormous knot of grief and anxiety? From maze to labyrinth; though the grief process feels like going down an unending spiral, often revisiting that tragic path is the only way to rediscover the new meaning of a trauma. Sometimes we take a step back to regain strength, in order to take two steps forward to re-member ourselves within ourselves and within our community to fight for justice.
—Seong Ae Kim
Basket Case by Erin Rogers
During a recent Popebama road trip, it became apparent through the constant dashboard drumming, that Dennis Sullivan knew the drum solos/fills to nearly every 90's hit that landed on our randomized playlist. The drum fills in Green Day's Basket Case (Dookie, 1994) are rhythmically simple, yet played at top speed present such a perfectly crisp noise, that the song deserves a 30-year anniversary tribute. Paired with 0-coast semi-mod desktop synth, FX pedals, a too-hot mic, and a catalog of soprano multiphonics, Basket Case attempts to embody its next-generation self.
—Erin Rogers
Maintenance Hum (2022) by Dennis Sullivan - WORLD PREMIERE
Maintenance Hum is an intentional organization of unintentional and unavoidable sonic events. The amplification of the tenor saxophone and percussion highlights more of the instrument "doing its job" as opposed to the aural product of the action (though this is also unavoidable). A series of over driven, self oscillating distortion pedals provide a layer of multiphonic noise to act as an adhesive between sometimes disparate sound worlds. Maintenance Hum is equal parts product and byproduct of instrumental sound.
—Dennis Sullivan
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Free Admission
Erin Rogers is a Canadian-American composer and saxophonist. Named a “rising star” (Broadway World), her music has been described as “whimsical, theatrical” (Brooklyn Vegan), “radical and refreshing” (Vital Weekly) and "a richly expressive display of stentorian brilliance" (The Wire). Her work ranges from chamber music performance, to solo experimental improvisation, to individual and collaborative compositions that incorporate live electronics, theatre, and text. She has been featured at Lincoln Center, Prototype Festival, Library of Congress, Carnegie Hall, Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid), International Festival of New Music "Manuel Enríquez" (Mexico), NyMusikk Bergen, Edmonton Symphony (Canada) and the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg). “A consummate collaborator” (The New Yorker) Rogers is co-artistic director of NYC-based performance ensembles: thingNY, New Thread Quartet, Hypercube, Popebama, and a member of LA-based Wild Up. Rogers can be heard on New Focus Recordings, New World Records, Tonus Vivus, Edition Wandelweiser, Relative Pitch, and Gold Bolus labels. Her recent solo album 2000 Miles was listed in Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp (October 2021). Rogers is a D’Addario Woodwinds and Conn-Selmer artist and Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Performance Program faculty member.
Popebama is a New York-based experimental duo that focuses on exciting performances of unconventional works. Described as “Noisily Virtuosic” (—clevelandclassical.com), this “Slippery duo” (—New Yorker), of Erin Rogers and Dennis Sullivan specialize in text, electronics, high-energy instrumental writing, and freshly-squeezed sounds, creating work both individually and collaboratively. Popebama has been featured at the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), The Stone/New School, NYmusikk Bergen (Norway), Edmonton Fringe Festival (Canada), Splendor (Amsterdam), Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), Diabolical Records (Salt Lake City), ReSound Festival (Cleveland), and KM28 (Berlin) with guest appearances at Splice Festival, UMass Amherst, The Walden School, NASA Biennial, Hochschule fur Musik Freiburg, Ball State Festival of New Music and “Open Call” at The ShedNY. Popebama’s debut album Nation Building (2020) is available from Gold Bolus Recordings.