Zeena Parkins + William Winant + Myra Melford to perform at CNMAT
An evening of spontaneous music by three master improvisers. Electro-acoustic composer/improviser, educator, Zeena Parkins is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices. Using expanded techniques, object preparations, and electronic processing she has re-defined the instrument’s capacities. Concurrently, Parkins self-designed a series of one-of-a kind electric instruments. She leans into the harp’s physical limitations pushing its boundaries and impossibilities. In her compositions, Parkins utilizes collections, historic proximities, tactility, spatial configurations and movement. Sonic presence and personality is revealed in explorations of timbral shifts, feedback, gestural configurations, and perceptual residues.
Percussionist William Winant has been the avant-elite’s go-to percussionist for more than 35 years. 2014 Grammy nominated percussionist has performed with some of the most innovative and creative musicians of our time, including John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, John Zorn, Keith Jarrett, Anthony Braxton, James Tenney, Cecil Taylor, Roscoe Mitchell, Steve Reich and Musicians, Yo-Yo Ma, Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens, Joan LaBarbara, Annea Lockwood, Joelle Leandre, Zeena Parkins, Danny Elfman/OingoBoingo, Mr. Bungle, Sonic Youth, and the Kronos String Quartet.
The pianist, composer, bandleader and UC Berkeley professor Myra Melford—whom the New Yorker called “a stalwart of the new-jazz movement”—has spent the last three decades making original music that is equally challenging and engaging. Culling inspiration from a wide range of sources including the blues of her native Chicago, the poetry of Fernando Pessoa, literature by Eduardo Galeano, visual art and architecture, the members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and Eastern philosophy. She’s explored an array of formats, among them solo-piano recitals, deeply interactive ensembles and ambitious multidisciplinary programs. Her newest ensemble project, Fire and Water, released its second critically acclaimed recording, Hear the Light Singing, in November 2023, as part of her larger body of work, An Extravagant Joy (for Cy Twombly).
