Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith with Mathilde 253
Click Picture to Enlarge
Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith with Mathilde 253
18.03.2011
FUAIM Music at UCC and UCC Music Research Seminar Series hosts internationally renowned composer-improviser Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith on March 30th 2011. Smith will talk about his work, and perform with the virtuosic, cross-idiomatic ensemble Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith). The event is Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith’s first appearance in Ireland, and the Irish debut of Mathilde 253.

Hailed as “one of the most vital musicians on the planet today” (Bill Shoemaker, Coda), legendary composer, multi-instrumentalist, improviser and educator Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith has been active in creative contemporary music for over forty years. He is faculty member, and director of the African-American Improvisational Music program, at The Herb Alpert School of Music at the California Institute of the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a longtime member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. He is creator of Ankhrasmation, a systemic music language, and his music traverses traditions as diverse as the delta blues, creative world musics, American experimentalism and live-electronics. His current ensembles include the Golden Quartet (currently with Vijay Iyer, John Lindberg and Pheeroan akLaff), Silver Orchestra (with J.D. Parran, Lindberg, Okkyung Lee, Harris Eisenstadt and others), and Organic (with Nels Cline, Lee, Lindberg, akLaff and others), and his compositions have been performed by ensembles including the Kronos Quartet, Da Capo Chamber Player, New Century Players, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Del Sol String Quartet and New York New Music Ensemble.

Mathilde 253 consists of the pioneering avant-rock drummer Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now, Massacre), UCC Music tutor and guitarist Han-earl Park (Paul Dunmall, Kato Hideki, Stet Lab), and Irish trumpeter and mainstay of the London improvised music scene, Ian Smith (Derek Bailey, The London Improvisers Orchestra, The Gathering). Mathilde 253 was formed to explore the spontaneous mashup of avant-rock, African-American creative musics, European free improvisation and noise, and collaborates with noted improvisers such as Lol Coxhill and Pat Thomas. Guillaume Belhomme described the music of the ensemble’s eponymous debut CD, released in 2011 by Slam Productions (SLAMCD 528), as “ordered and entwining… a tapestry of choice: that of another Mathilde, of a complete beauty”.

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith will speak on ‘Ankhrasmation: A Systemic Music Language for Creative Music’ as part of the UCC Music Research Seminar Series. The talk is free, open to the public, and takes place at the UCC Music Building (Sundays Well, Cork) at 2:00 pm on 30 March.

The performance will take place on at the Half Moon Theatre (Cork Opera House, Emmet Place, Cork), on 30 March 2011 at 8:00 pm. Tickets are €11 (€6 concessions) from corkoperahouse.ie or +353 (0)21 427 0022.

The event is presented with funding from the Music Network Performance and Touring Award, and support from FUAIM Music at UCC and the Cork Opera House.



<<Previous ItemNext Item>>

« Back to 2011 Press Releases