Rumrill/Winston: A lecture/recital in the tradition of Li-ism

“Riding the Fader: Transmission(ing) Auto/mative Troubulations[: (K)no(w)madic Inter/ference with/in the (t)rad(io)(nal) Ap/eco-lisptic(*) Drive/Time Post-the, if you catch my drift(?)]”

Juna Toksöz Winston is a performer/improvisor/instrument builder/composer/theorist, who for this event will be playing an instrument he built—an instrument he calls the Curtle, a strange hybrid formed from the congealed remains of Curtis Rumrill's castoff instrument collection. The work is a concert length musicological lecture/recital, and that is about as much as Toksöz Winston is willing to say about it, because, as he says, “in matters of the spirit, it’s better if you go in cold.”

Ethnomusicologist Liliana Carrizo (Professor, Colorado College) calls his performance “the most significant account we have of a performer engaging this sort of musical prayer,” and goes on to say,”the effect is akin to watching someone describing having seen a ghost. The force of his belief propels you against your own disbelief.”

Toksöz Winston is immensely talented. He has collaborated with and premiered pieces from Richard Barrett, Liza Lim, Beat Furrer, Pierluigi Billone, among others. He performs with ensembles including Talea Ensemble and Klangforum Wien, as well as with his own projects, such as the duo hoodwink (with Winnie Huang) which specializes in imaginary and invented instruments. He just published a book, "dis/cord: Thinking Sound through Agential Realism.” But this work will be something altogether different. And that's about as much as he is willing to say—and more than he really wanted to in the first place.