sound-painting

Join us for an exciting weekend of Soundpainting workshops and performances. Soundpainting hosts include Walter Thompson, Evan Mazunik, Gil Selinger, Dennis Shafer, Tomi Tsunoda, and Leese Walker, each leaders of their own Soundpainting ensembles in New York.

Friday, May 9: Opening Night 

7:30pm – doors open

8:00pm – ZAHA (Evan Mazunik, Soundpainter)

9:00pm - NY Soundpainting Orchestra (Gil Selinger, Soundpainter)

10:00pm - Walter Thompson Orchestra (Walter Thompson, Soundpainter)

Saturday, May 10

*9:30am-12:30pm, 1:30-4:30pm – Soundpainting Workshop with Walter Thompson

7:30pm – doors open

8:00pm - Brooklyn Soundpainting Company (Tomi Tsunoda, Soundpainter)

9:00pm - Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble (Leese Walker, Soundpainter)

10:00pm - Walter Thompson Orchestra (Walter Thompson, Soundpainter)

Sunday, May 11

*9:30am-12:30pm, 1:30-4:30pm – Soundpainting Workshop with Walter Thompson

7:30pm – doors open

8:00pm – Brooklyn Soundpainting Ensemble (Dennis Shafer with special guest Sarah Weaver, Soundpainters)

9:00pm – Walter Thompson Orchestra

*denotes workshop sessions

 

Rates for Performances: 

$12 door

$10 advance/student

Rates for Workshop: 

$60/early bird special for the weekend (expires April 1st)

$75/weekend rate

$40/day

SPECIAL $90 for all performances and workshops

For advanced tickets please go to:  http://nycsoundpainting.tumblr.com/

unnamed-4Walter Thompson OrchestraWalter Thompson has achieved international recognition as a composer and for the creation of Soundpainting, the universal multidisciplinary live composing sign language. Thompson has composed Soundpaintings with contemporary orchestras, dance companies, theatre ensembles and multidisciplinary groups in United States, Europe and South America.

In 1974, after attending Berklee School of Music, Walter Thompson moved to Woodstock and began an association with the Creative Music Studio. While there, he studied composition and woodwinds with Anthony Braxton and began to develop his interest in using hand and body gestures as a way to create real-time compositions. Beginning as a tool to help shape the direction of a performance, it has evolved to become a universal composing language for composers and artists off all disciplines and abilities.

The language continues to be developed through Thompson’s performances, international think tanks, and the contributions of a wide range of artists and educators. Soundpainting is now being used both professionally and in education in more than 35 countries around the world including; the United States, France, Canada, Australia, Czech Republic, China, Germany, Spain, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, Uruguay, Montenegro, Guadeloupe, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, Switzerland, Turkey, and the Netherlands.

The New York Soundpainting Orchestra is comprised of many members of the Walter Thompson Orchestra and other professional musicians and performance artists in the New York area. NYSO Director Gil Selinger tours worldwide giving workshops and performances as a both a concert violincellist/improvisor and a Soundpainter/live composer.

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While short and sweet by name, ZAHA presents a world of complex live compositions at every event. Past performances have ranged from Halloween film scores to a guerilla show in Times Square to an installation with human bowling pins. Director Evan Mazunik, now resident of Denver, CO, is a member of the Walter Thompson Orchestra, and has led ZAHA in shows throughout NYC and the east coast since 2006.

Brooklyn Soundpainting Company has been developing new performance and video projects since 2007, using a combination of text, music, dance, structured improvisation, and the adaptation of non-dramatic source materials such as popular music, YouTube videos, games, news stories, infomercials, interviews, scientific experiments, literary fiction, and essays.

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Established in 1997, the Strike Anywhere Performance Ensemble is a permanent collective of jazz musicians, modern dancers, and actors. Performers collaborate through an ensemble-based process to create politically-charged, original works. Strike Anywhere’s mission is to promote empathy, freethinking and greater social awareness through provocative theatre and educational outreach. SA performances always feature live music, physical theater and modern dance. The company applies structures and concepts from American jazz to their inter-disciplinary improvisations to create performances that are provocative and alive. SA’s Founder/Soundpainter Leese Walker has been a core member of the Walter Thompson Orchestra since 1997 and was the first actress to be soundpainted. Leese has soundpainted at Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Airlines Theater, the Irondale Center, Bard College, and internationally in Paris, London, Tours, Bordeaux and in Bali, Indonesia.

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The Brooklyn Soundpainting Ensemble has performed throughout New York in venues large and small, from Pete’s Candy Store to Brooklyn College.  In 2013, they collaborated with the Tours Soundpainting Orchestra in Battle of the Bees, a concert featuring artists mixing live bee sounds in performance.  BSE Director Dennis Shafer performs as a saxophonist and Soundpainter world-wide. This year, his projects will bring him to Paris, Rome, Talinn, and Boston for performances of new works for saxophone and Soundpainting.

Sarah Weaver is a New York-based composer, conductor, and technologist working internationally as a specialist in telematic music for large contemporary ensembles and in localized works. She performed in the Walter Thompson Orchestra and was Walter Thompson’s associate Soundpainter from 1998 to 2002.

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For more information, visit Soundpainting.com and NYCSoundpainting.tumblr.com.