FEMA Presents B’more Bridges, a 3-concert series at Frederick YMCA Arts
Frederick Experimental Music Association will present B’more Bridges, a series of three concerts of improvised music, intermedia, and jazz, by renowned Baltimore artists at the YMCA of Frederick County’s Y Arts Center, located at 115 East Church Street in downtown Frederick, Maryland. Doors open for each concert at 7:30, with performances beginning at 8:00. Admission for each concert is $20 – no cards.
Baltimore has long been at the cutting edge of performing and visual arts, a status sustained by the artists included in B’more Bridges. Their reputation for uncompromising work extends far beyond the city, earning them national and international recognition in their respective fields. B’more Bridges is an opportunity to experience a cross-section of one of the more vital arts communities in the US.
Friday, October 18
Sam Pluta, laptop, electronics + John Dierker, woodwinds
An internationally recognized pioneer in the art of live processing – taking the sounds produced in real-time by his collaborators, transforming them with advanced software, and mixing them into evolving improvisations – Sam Pluta moved to Baltimore several years ago to become the chair of the electronic music department at the Peabody Institute. Baltimore native John Dierker is a mainstay of the city’s creative music scene, his tenor saxophone and clarinets being a core ingredient to the avant-funk of Lafayette Gilchrist’s New Volcanoes, and beyond-category ensembles like Microkingdom and Quartet Offensive. This will be the duo’s first concert outside of Baltimore.
Saturday, November 2
Lili Maya, video + James Rouvelle, electronics
Artist Lili Maya and composer James Rouvelle have paired original music and video art in live performances internationally since 2009. Maya, a longtime faculty member of the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Rouvelle, a Julliard-trained composer, create performances that integrate traditional and emerging media in a way that permits improvisation both visually and musically through a set of organized sections that are arranged in real-time. Maya’s room-sized screens and Rouvelle’s sound system create an immersible environment of vivid images and sounds.
Friday, December 6
Lafayette Gilchrist, piano + Gregory Thompkins, tenor saxophone
Familiar to Frederick audiences from his Weinberg Center and New Spire Arts performances, pianist Lafayette Gilchrist returns in duo with his longtime colleague, tenor saxophonist Gregory Thompkins. The pianist NPR called “an old soul, at ease in the modern world,” Gilchrist has an encyclopedic knowledge of the jazz piano tradition, and can invoke the spirits of Ellington, Monk, and others at any moment. The Music Director of the Baltimore Jazz Education Project, Thompkins has absorbed the tenor tradition from Coleman Hawkins onward to creative ends. After years of working together in Gilchrist’s New Volcanoes and other settings, this will be their first duo concert.
For more information, contact Bill Shoemaker at admin@pointofdeparture.org
