Anthony Braxton and Walter Thompson Premiere @ Irondale!

irondale center

The Irondale Center Presents:
Anthony Braxton and Walter Thompson Premiere
A New Soundpainting Composition

In celebration of their recent opening, the BAM cultural districts first new performing arts destination, The Irondale Center premieres an exciting new work from two highly acclaimed artists.

Anthony Braxton, one of music’s most original composers and instrumentalists, has composed a new work in collaboration with Soundpainter Walter Thompson and the Walter Thompson Orchestra. Mr. Thompson will combine Mr. Braxton’s Language Music System with Soundpainting - the multidisciplinary live - composing sign language created by Mr. Thompson. The concerts will feature performances by Anthony Braxton, a woodwind virtuoso and multi-instrumentalist and the fifteen musicians and actors of the Walter Thompson Orchestra. Performances will run from April 16 to April 18, 2009 at 7:30 pm at The Irondale Center in the historic Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY, between Lafayette and Fulton Streets. Tickets are $20/$15 (for students and working artists) and can be purchased by going to www.irondale.org or by calling 212.352.3101.

Mr. Thompson will soundpaint Mr. Braxton’s notation, text, and drawings (called Palettes in the Soundpainting language) and then transform them in the canvas of the work. They become the colors and textures used by Mr. Thompson to shape and guide the overall direction of the piece. The resulting composition will be created entirely in the moment. Each of the three performances will assume a unique shape dependent on the recombination of the Palettes, the Soundpainter’s gestures, and the response of the performers. In this unique form of artistic collaboration, the components of the Soundpainting coalesce to saturate the performance in a dynamic interplay.

“There is no end to the variations and combinations possible in Walter Thompson’s Soundpainting. Elating!” – Sonloco, Sweden

“Imagine a great erector set where every component can be refashioned based on the dictates of the moment.” – Ted Panken, on Anthony Braxton, Downbeat Magazine

The Walter Thompson Orchestra commissioned this project by Anthony Braxton with the support from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. The Walter Thompson Orchestra is supported by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts. For further information about Anthony Braxton visit www.akamu.net, and for Walter Thompson, www.soundpainting.com.

The Irondale Project, established in 1983, is a theater company that creates and presents original work, through the research and exploration of emerging themes in our society. Irondale has produced 42 major Off-Broadway shows including the American premier of Brecht’s Conversations In Exile and 16 original pieces. Irondale is a constituent member of TCG Art New York and founding member of the Network of Ensemble Theaters and is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.