John Zorn
Born and raised in New York City, composer/performer John Zorn has been a central figure in the Downtown Scene since 1975, incorporating a wide variety of creative musicians into various compositional formats. His work is remarkably diverse and draws inspiration from Art, Literature, Film, Theatre, Philosophy, Alchemy and Mysticism as well as Music. He founded the Tzadik label in 1995, runs the East Village performance space The Stone and has edited and published seven volumes of musician’s writings under the title ARCANA.
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Stephen Gosling is a ubiquitous presence on the New York new music scene, and has also performed throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. A three-fold graduate of the Juilliard School of Music (DMA, MM, BM) and energetically committed to the music of our time, he was for three years pianist of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and appeared in several seasons of the Summergarden series at MoMA. He has also performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Grant Park Festival in Chicago, the Bang on a Can Marathon, Bargemusic, the 2001 Great Day in New York festival and the PAN festival in Seoul, Korea. He is a member of both Ensemble Sospeso and the New York New Music Ensemble, and has performed with Orpheus, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Speculum Musicae, DaCapo Chamber Players, the Orchestra of St Luke’s, Continuum, the League of Composers / ISCM Chamber Players and Da Camera of Houston.
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An oud virtuoso out of Lebanon, Kinan Idnawi studied in Damascus with Askar Ali Akbar and has performed worldwide as a member of Marcel Khalife’s ensembles. Indawi met John Zorn in 2014 and the result is this dynamic and colorful project featuring long time Zorn colleagues Erik Friedlander and Satoshi Takeishi.