8pm:
Christopher Whitley - violin/electronics
9pm: Travis Johns (electronics) and Alex Cantona (cello)
Canadian violinist Christopher Whitley is an engaging and versatile performer. From Baroque music to free jazz Christopher is committed to exploring and performing music of all styles. He is a dedicated chamber musician and collaborates regularly with young composers in both the Bay Area and Canada.
He is a founding member of the Thalea String Quartet, the first quartet-in-residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The Thalea String Quartet has performed recitals in the US, Canada and Italy and has collaborated with members of the St. Lawrence and Borromeo Quartets. During their residency at the Banff Centre in June of 2015 they worked with renowned chamber musicians Gilbert Kalish, Alasdair Tait and Mark Steinberg. He studied composition at McGill with composer Chris Paul Harman and has worked with a number of esteemed improvisers including Lori Freedman, Malcolm Goldstein, Iva Bittova and Marc Ribot.
Alex Cantona:
Born and raised in Romania, Alex started his early artistic endeavors playing classical cello and studying composition; throughout his ensuing career a number of key encounters/influences with the work of artists such as Ornette Coleman, Jackson Pollock, John Coltrane, Derek Bailey, Bill Dixon, Edward Kienholz, Ken Jacobs, Keiji Haino and Andrei Tarkovski helped helped him begin forging his own path and his own improvisational idiom, a task to which he diligently applies himself to the present day. Under his own name, Alex has composed and performed in dozens of interdisciplinary theatre and film projects and collaborated with such artists as Samir Akika, Markus Michailovski, Norbert Steinwartz, Janet Archer, Lorca Renoux, Alfredo Catania, Hans Klohe, Hernan Jimenez and Jose Arce.
Travis Johns is a sound artist and educator currently residing in Baltimore, Md. As an improvisor, he performs primarily on laptop and electronic instruments of his own design; with studies in the field conducted under the tutelage of Fred Frith, Joelle Leandre and Butch Morris, among others. Active in the Bay Area experimental music scene for several years, Johns moved to Costa Rica in 2011 where he concentrated primarily on building instruments for himself and others – something that he has continued to do since his return to the United States under the nom de plume of VauxFlores. He holds a B.M. in Technology in Music and Related Arts from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, studies conducted with Tom Lopez, as well as an MFA from Mills College in Electronic Music and Recording Media, studies conducted with Chris Brown, Les Stuck and Hilda Paredes. He has participated in residencies at such places as the Atlantic Center for the Arts and RPI’s Create @ iEar, and has had work featured by el Museo Centroamericano de Arte Video (MUCEVI), the Electronic Music Foundation, Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), and the Bienarte 8 Costa Rican Biennial, and the 2013 Biennial of the Central American Isthmus (BAVIC).
Cost: $6-15 sliding