From 3/27.
All I'm going to say it that the bass clarinet came out.
Photo courtesy of Carolyn Wachnicki

On Monday, Jan. 4th, I performed with the EEME (The Electric Eel Multimedia Ensemble) at Monkeytown, Williamsburg. Izzi did a great job curating the entire show (and, of course performing with us, as well).

What you can't see from the photo is that all four walls had large screens with projections. The instrumentalists sat together in a circle.

Our ensemble played a number of pieces, both with the full ensemble and with smaller trios and quartets. All pieces were guided improvs, two or so, were based upon a graphic score indicating particular motifs, dynamics, and sonic shapes.

Our audience were excellent and at times became very engaged. Our opening and closing pieces were an improv based on audience participation - clapping that is!

This was our first concert as an ensemble. We're a workshop-type group. Last Monday we presented the types of improvisations that we had been working on during the past two months of rehearsal. For our next two shows, we expect to be showcasing different things we've been experimenting with - that's why we call it experimental music!

Our next gig will be on Jan. 30th with the Backyart Winter Music Series for which we will be performing Eric Lyon's piece "Noise Concerto", and it looks like I may be the soloist for that one! The Backyart folks (who are excellent) came to interview us last Sunday during rehearsal. They'll have that interview posted by this weekend on their website. Our next scheduled show will be on March 18th at The Tank. That venue is very traditional with a stage and audience seating.

Last I will leave you with a picture of my delicious dinner at Monkeytown - sooo delicious!

Just one phone call and this puppy is all mine!! Sweeeeet!!


And I'm doing a gig on JANUARY 4th:

Monday, January 4, 2010

8:30pm - 11:30pm

Monkey Town

58 N. 3rd Street (between Wythe & Kent Aves), near Brooklyn, NY 11211

Brooklyn, NY

Izzi Ramkissoon presents a night of film, music, multimedia with Alain Alfaro (Lovebug), Greg Pesochin (DJ Udachi), and music by me and my new multimedia ensemble.

Monkey Town is an incredible space with

- 4 screens
- communal seating
- 6.1 surround sound

plus wonderful food, you need to eat here. It's so good.

We serve experimental cuisine and classic dishes from a country that doesn't exist. Every cuisine and every ingredient are in play. The laboratory is open.

with also night filled of great experimental art:


Lovebug is an original short sci-fiction film produced by Cineastas Pictures/Inkspot Operations. Directed by Alain Alfaro, score by Izzi Ramkissoon. The short film is about "a man and woman rely on neurological software to decide their emotions for each other. When a glitch in the system alters this technological reality, the line between love and choice becomes distorted." Featuring: Arturo Castro, Ines Lucas, Laura Lamberti, And Reza Salazar.

View Trailer here -

http://www.vimeo.com/6437312



Izzi Ramkissoon and The Electric Eel Multimedia Ensemble

Description - The EEME, under artistic direction of composer Izzi Ramkissoon, is comprised of a flexible group of musicians including strings, woodwinds, percussion, electronics, visual artist, and composers dedicated to developing multi-media, electro-acoustic, improvisatory works using experimental and extended techniques. Through innovative programming, inter-disciplinary collaborations and performances in non-traditional venues EEME brings experimental electronic music to new audiences. EEME will be playing electro acoustic compositions by Izzi Ramkissoon.

The Electric Eel Multimedia Ensemble
Turntable - Marcel Blum
Flute - Sarah Carrier
Clarinet - Dan Padmos
Clarinet - Zara Acosta
Cello - Eric Cooper
Viola- Pedro Vizzarro Vallejos
Guitar - Amar Lal
Percussion - Jerrold Kavanagh
Bass - Izzi Ramkissoon
Video - Alain Alfaro


DJ Udachi

"UDACHI is a monster of a man! Though regular size, he's descended from a long line of fantasy beasts that have plagued mankind since the dawn of dawn! I was eating baked beans with a hobo who went by the name of Lucky Ralph, and he told me his Udachi story. "Yes Sir! I knew the beast! One time I was riding in the same freight car as The Titan Udachi, yep crossing the east side of South Dakota we were and the fiend was sleeping for the first time in a thousand years!"

http://www.myspace.com/udachi

Last NYU class tomorrow. Then, public school until the 23rd. Ah! I need a break!!

Check it out! I plugged up the left hand holes on my second clarinet so that I can play both at the same time, but different pitches!!
Double clarinets [or walrus clarinets] are the best.

I'm nervous! Next time at Izzi's ensemble (don't have a better name for it), he wants everyone to bring in something that will amplify their instrument. Whut? I've always been acoustic. Well, it seems that it's time to try some different things. Also, I actually have plenty of friends who could give me suggestions. I should ask.

I need a good gingerbread or gingerbread cookie recipe!!!



Sankyu.
Zara [who had the best Thanksgiving break of all time]

Last Friday, my clarinet teacher, Mike McGinnis, performed with the Angsudden Ensemble at Roulette!! They performed Mike's compositions written in collaboration with his friend and poet, MuKha.

Here's their description:

The Angsudden Song Cycle is a collaborative project between the composer Michael McGinnis and Stockholm-based artist MuKha. MuKha created a cycle of paintings and poems inspired by Ängsudden, a point in the Swedish archipelago that juts into the Baltic Sea where sea collides with sky in dramatic ways. The poems were then set to music and will be performed by voice and a seven piece chamber ensemble comprised of wooden instruments that are either blown, plucked or struck. The music was composed specifically for musicians who along with being great chamber music players are also great improvisors and explorers on their instruments.

Kyoko Kitamura - voice
Mike McGinnis - clarinet/bass clarinet
Jessica Pavone - viola
Sara Schoenbeck - bassoon
Khabu Doug Young - cavaquino
Sean Moran - acoustic guitar
Bob Bowen - bass
Harris Eisenstadt - percussion

I have a really poor quality recording from the show (catchy, huh?!):


It was a lovely night with a variety of styles of compositions from far out to catchy. Best of all, you could tell the friendship among the musicians on stage. Layered on top of that, nearly all of the audience members seemed to know someone in the ensemble! There were entire families, too (I haven't seen too many families at Roulette before). There was such a warm atmosphere and just a fantastic set!! (of course, I am completely bias!)

********************************
In other news, I have been playing a lot of clarinet (even occasionally a double clarinet - haha, not really, not until my parents bring down my extra one). Saturday I hung out with my favorite science teacher (my cooporating teacher from public school) and the other band teacher for jamming. They are both jazz (and funk) musicians - we all had to make compromises and they don't have my convinced that melody is really all that important (Though, they had my cracking up laughing - he put his flute mouthpiece on his tenor saxophone and managed to make some great sounds!). Sunday was another improv rehersal with the group Izzi has set up - this is much more my style. Did you know we're really going to play a gig sometime between December through February! I'm so psyched! When Izzi posts the recordings from rehersal last week, I'll post them here.

I didn't think that I'd head upstate [back home] next weekend, but I've completely changed my mind. Although I was planning on spending just Thanksgiving Day with my parents in CT (at my aunt's house), I've had a change of heart. I'm going to hop the train on Tuesday. I'm looking at it this way - I lived halfway around the PLANET for so many years and never had the option of going home for holidays that I really ought to take advantage of the close proximity now (before my life gets any more complicated, right?). I'll still only be spending 2.5 days with my parents, but I think it's completely worth it (eh, maybe I'll end up staying a few more days). I do fear the terrible drafts and chill of my parents' house.

Oh! Carl Testa just posted a new EP of 8bit [like, Nintendo] music. I think it's awesome. Dowbloadable for free here.

I didn't think that a single clarinet lesson could get any better until I discovered the double clarinet lesson. (I'm using Mike's clarinet in this photo, but I'm going to have my parents bring down my other clarinet - Imma plug up the top holes on it and wail). It's actually not as hard as it looks.

Does anyone else think that I look like a walrus in this photo?

Life has been moving at light speed...OK, j/k I mean that life has been moving at NEARLY light speed. Hahahaha [I am a physicist]. Guys, can i take a minute to share with you that Bill Nye the Science Guy is seriously my personal hero. Maybe I should write him a fan letter. Did you know that he got married at 50? Bizarre that I know that, yes, but there is some interview with him from a morning talk show that I saw on utoobz about how he got married at 50. I wasn't researching his relationship status online...I swear.

Today was a great day! I had my Teaching Physics Practicum and had to present a problem to the class. I did centripetal force and brought in this bucket with a string and put stuff in it (a deck of cards and my wallet full of change). We discussed and showed (with my stringed-bucket) how velocity, mass and length of string all play a part in determining the centripetal force. I thought it turned out pretty well. But, MAN, I need to take a class on physics misconceptions (someone told me they offer a summer course at Hunter's College - dude, NYU needs to get that class, too). I need to work on incorporating that more into the lesson.

Later this week I'll be teaching pressure to my favorite 7th graders. I'll be assigning an awesome reading on evidence of whales getting decompression syndrome, or "the bends". Whoa: the article.

I'm feeling really science-y tonight. I did a ton of reading up on CARBOM NANOTUBES made from graphene, a single one-atom-layer of graphite/carbon (a lot of reading, meaning I skimmed an entire 200+ book of artciles on nanotechnology today). The articles ranged from discussing research opportunities as dependent on financing, to the actual structure and design of nanoparticles, to the uses, to the ethical implications [of how we're possibly damaging the environment or health]. So cool! [that's a lot of science]

Also, here's some GOLD for your ears: Gilles Peterson just released a new two CD set called "Havana Cultura". You can download the podcast [read, a 45 minute commercial for this album, he talks a little over the tracks, but it's still such good listening!!!! ] for free HERE from his website. I always love his stuff, both his recent albums and his podcasts are really good. There was a good one from two weeks ago with Stuart Baker; download podcast here or on itunes [search: Gilles Peterson Worldwide Podcast]

Last week on Tuesday I saw Carl and Mike play in the Carl Testa Trio. It was lovely! I've been keeping up giving my 11th grader clarinestist lessons. I keep bringing him these exeperimental/conceptual scores and he's loving it! (as am I). On Sunday Izzi got a bunch of instrumentalists together to play some of his scores as an ensemble. I'm not positive if these are supposed to be public, but whatever, they are posted publicly. It was our very first meeting, but, if you like, check them out here. From listening to them, I have learned that i sometimes need to make my mutliphonics softer and more gentle (why? Because I want to play them ALL THE TIME and sometimes I need to blend better). Oh! So, it sounds like Izzi has already landed the ensemble a gig! I'll make sure to let you know when that materializes.

OH! and Jesse and Anika came to visit this weekend. First of all, there is an AMAZING Japanese arms and armor show at the Met. The helmets were OUT of this WORLD:

I wish they could have stayed for longer!

In the meantime, MARK YOUR CALENDER for NOVEMBER 30th. The New Music Ensemble will perform at 8PM at NYU. Please come!!! Please come!!!!

Um...Carl made the NY Times (go carl!!)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/nyregion/01musicct.html

Oh, and I tallied: On top of top of my double-full-time insane work-school schedule, I saw 11 shows this month.