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Roscoe Mitchell x Number 197"
September 8, 2017, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Wilsey Court
This special performance will pair the orchestral works of
Roscoe Mitchell with Leonardo Drew’s site-specific installation Number 197 as backdrop, engaging similar ideas of the interplay between structure and improvisation in composition. An iconoclastic figure in contemporary music whose work ranges from classical to contemporary, from wild and forceful free jazz to ornate chamber music, Mitchell is an internationally renowned musician, composer, and innovator dubbed one of the most important musicians in jazz by The New York Times.
Roscoe Mitchell has assembled a 34-piece orchestra comprised of local musicians, many colleagues and former students of his from Mills College, including
James Fei and
William Winant. Also joining Mr. Mitchell will be guest soloist Thomas Buckner, baritone, and Giovanni Trovalusci on flute and bass flute. The orchestra will perform works from his newly-devised, groundbreaking series Conversations for Orchestra, conducted by Steed Cowart. Selections from the series have been performed world-over, with premieres in New York City as well as Iceland, Scotland, and Italy. This event will mark the first time any of this music has been performed in the Bay Area, and inaugurates a new stream of contemporary performance programming at the de Young.
Roscoe Mitchell is currently serving as the Distinguished Darius Milhaud Professor of Composition at Mills College, Oakland, California. He is renowned as a founding member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), which recently celebrated its 50-year anniversary with concerts and exhibitions around the world, and as founder of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, which looks forward to its semi-centennial in 2019. The Art Ensemble has reconfigured the strictures of creative musicianship since its beginnings, impressing audiences with exceptional musicianship and unique instrumentation. The group’s stage-spanning setup was exhibited by Professor Mitchell at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, as part of The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now, which honored the work of AACM members over the past 50 years.
Ticket Information
Programming and general admission to the permanent collection galleries are free of charge during this event. Special exhibition admission prices apply.
Contact Information
Public Programs
publicprograms@famsf.org
(415) 750-7694