Thingamajigs Performance Group (Bay Area + Beyond)
Skylighght (Gelsey Bell and Erin Rogers) (New York) (West Coast Premiere)

Advance tickets
https://withfriends.events/event/Szf7vPIz/gelsey-bell-and-erin-rogers-thingamajigs-performance-group/


Skylighght is the duo project of vocalist Gelsey Bell and saxophonist Erin Rogers, both active figures of the New York City experimental music community who have worked together for 15+ years as part of the new music collective, thingNY. Composed collaboratively in 2019, Skylighght cultivates a minimalist music constructed upon the organic acoustic vibrations of interlaced resonances and a mutual performer sensitivity. An exploration of resonant properties, Skylighght has been performed in a variety of spaces from a farm silo to a cemetery catacombs, under a historic bridge in Central Park and inside various concert halls. In 2024, Chaiken Records released a record of the project, recognized for its “richness in concept and sound” (I Care If You Listen).
https://gelseybellerinrogers.bandcamp.com/album/skylighght

With a core ensemble featuring interdisciplinary artist Rae Diamond, performative projectionist and sound artist Keith Evans, and musician composer Suki O'Kane, and co-founder Edward Schocker, Thingamajigs Performance Group is reuniting with co-founder Dylan Bolles and guest artist Wayne Grim to present in their traditions of durational performance, alternate tuning, group and open compositional formats, interdisciplinary and inter-cultural collaboration, and site work. Their fields of institutional study, performance practice, and instrumentation are directly informed by Japanese noh and gagaku, Korean pansori, sijo,and sinawi, formal training in both Western and Eastern art practices, and a commitment to experimental art.
https://bimodalpress.bandcamp.com/album/window
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Indexical is pleased to present an evening of original works from MOONS, the project of composer/performers Judith Berkson (accordian/voice), Laura Cetilia (cello), Katie Porter (clarinet), and Christine Tavolacci (flute).

Laura Cetilia
As a daughter of mixed heritage, Mexican-American musician, Laura Cetilia is at home with in-betweenness, straddling multiple worlds as cellist / composer / educator / artist while working within acoustic / electronic / traditional / experimental sound practices. Her compositions have been described as "unorthodox loveliness" (Boston Globe) and hailed as "alternately penetrating and atmospheric" (Sequenza 21). Her works have been performed by San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, TAK Ensemble, Loadbang, Mivos Quartet, Splinter Reeds, Dog Star Orchestra, a.pe.riod.ic, LCollective, Taceti Ensemble (Bangkok, Thailand) among others. Laura plays with Mem1 (established in 2003 with Mark Cetilia, electronics/ modular synth) Moons, n/ether, noeplace, Ordinary Affects, and LCollective. After receiving her D.M.A. in Music Composition in 2024 from Cornell, Laura became certified as a Deep Listening®️ Practitioner from the Center for Deep Listening and returned to teaching cello and experimental music practices at Community MusicWorks, an organization that provides free instruments and lessons in underserved areas of Providence, RI.

Katie Porter
Katie Porter is a Brooklyn-based clarinetist, performer/composer, writer, and artist. Devoted to collaboration, Katie's projects include: Phase to Phase a bass clarinet duo with Lucio Capece in Berlin, Malosma a bass clarinet and bass flute duo with Christine Tavolacci in LA, Eternities with sound artist Bob Bellerue in NYC, Red Desert Ensemble with percussionist/composer Devin Maxwell, Quartet or Two Duos with James Ilgenfritz, Lucie Vitkova, and Teerapat Parnmonkol in NYC, and MUD with poet/filmmaker Anne Penders in Brussels. Passionate about fostering musical communities, she co-founded Listen/Space in Brooklyn, the Listen/Space Commissions in the mountains of Utah, and the biennial VU Symposium for experimental, electronic and improvised music.

Christine Tavolacci
Christine Tavolacci is a Los Angeles based flutist specializing in contemporary and experimental music. Currently, she is active as a soloist, improviser, curator and chamber musician both in California and internationally. She is co-founder and co-director of Southland Ensemble, and has been a frequent performer in the Monday Evening Concerts series in Los Angeles, the world's longest-running series devoted to contemporary music. Christine has also performed with The Industry, Ojai Festival, LA Phil Noon to Midnight, the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, the Angel City Jazz Festival, and Microfest. She has had the pleasure of working in close contact with many celebrated 20th and 21st century composers, such as Christian Wolff, James Tenney. Larry Polansky, Clarence Barlow and Jug Frey. Christine has been involved in the premieres of many new works, including those by Alvin Lucier, James Saunders, Laura Steenberge, Michael Pisaro, Carolyn Chen and Catherine Lamb. Her playing has been released on Orenda Records, Bridge Records, BIG EGO Records, Slub Music(Japan) and Tzadik.

Judith Berkson
Judith Berkson is a mezzo-soprano, pianist and composer living in Los Angeles, California. She has collaborated with Kronos Quartet, Wet Ink, Yarn/Wire and City Opera and has presented work at Picasso Museum Malaga, Roulette, Le Poison Rouge, Joe's Pub, The Stone, Barbes, Bang On A Can, and the 92 Street Y. She has received a Six Points Fellowship, a Jerome Foundation grant, Meet The Composer grant, New Music USA funding and support from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her solo album "Oylam" (ECM Records) was called "Standards and Schubert and liturgical music, swing and chilly silences, a beautiful Satie-like piece to open and close the record" by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times. Judith composed music for the film Christopher at Sea (2022), a queer retelling of Schubert's song cycle Winterreise which premiered at Sundance and the Venice Biennale, and won awards at SXSW and at Outfest LA. Her latest chamber opera Partial Memories premiered at the NODO Festival in Ostrava, Czechia. It was dedicated to forgotten female artists Janet Sobel and Mary Gartside and featured the Ostravska Banda. Judith is also a cantor and has collaborated on Yiddish and cantorial music with Frank London and Theodore Bikel. As a vocalist she has premiered works by Enno Poppe, Alvin Lucier, Rick Burckhardt and Chaya Czernowin. She has served as DMA Lecturer at California Institute of the Arts and as a guest lecturer at Columbia University and at The New School.
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Apmonia String Quartet is a freshly formed group featuring Modney and Sabrina Salamone on violins, Julian Seney on viola, and Tyler J. Borden on cello. Based in NYC, the group’s ethos hinges on a rigorous commitment to both interpretation and improvisation in contemporary experimental music. With longstanding individual commitments to a wide array of practices across the spectrum of contemporary music, this group is excited to bring their collective experience to bear in future collaborations and program curation.

Program
Three Pieces for String Quartet (1956) by Morton Feldman (1926-1987)
Minor (1995) by Tony Conrad (1940-2016)
Gradients of Detail (2021) by Chiyoko Szlavnics (b.1967)
No.17 for String Quartet (1971) by Anthony Braxton (b.1945)
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