“Yamazaki’s ability to represent and distinguish a new world is cutting-edge performance”
—Dance Magazine

This performance was co-commissioned by The Warhol, Walker Art Center, On The Boards, and Performance Space 122 through the jointly awarded Spalding Gray Award. It is also supported in part by an award through the National Endowment for the Arts and is a co-production of Kunsten FESTIVAL des Arts, with additional generous support provided by Greene Naftali Gallery and The Kitchen.

Newband’s concert in Pittsburgh will feature the Harry Partch works Castor and Pollux and Two Studies on Ancient Greek Scales, Dean Drummond’s Before the Last Laugh, Pitt faculty composer Mathew Rosenblum’s Yonah’s Dream, Elizabeth Brown’s Delirium, and Thelonius Monk’s ‘Round Midnight. All the compositions will utilize just tunings—tunings that replicate intervals as they occur naturally in the overtone series. From Bach’s time to the present, Western instruments have been designed around a division of the octave into 12 equal steps, making all the intervals somewhat out of tune, so that the will sound mostly in tune regardless of the music’s key. Deeply dissatisfied with the sound of equal-tempered intervals, Harry Partch designed his instruments around his own 43 tone-per-octave just tuning, allowing for much more subtle melodic motion, as well as intervals that are more in tune and stable.

Widely regarded as the world’s preeminent microtonal music ensemble, Newband was founded in 1977 by composer Dean Drummond and flutist Stefani Starin who continue as Artistic Directors.  With Drummond’s invention of the 31-tone zoomoozophone in 1978, Newband began to explore music using microtonality and alternative tuning systems in an innovative and eclectic repertoire influenced by classical, jazz, and world music.  In 1990, Newband received custodianship of the original Harry Partch Instrument Collection. The typical Newband concert involves a stage filled with some of the world’s most amazing musical instruments performed upon by an ensemble of virtuosos who move from instrument to instrument with incredible ease.

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of Psychic TV’s acclaimed second album, Dreams Less Sweet, this special performance will be preceded by the debut screening of Psychic TV: Dreams Less Sweet, which features the work 47 artists, creating a collective film set to the album. Running time approximately 45 minutes.

For this special performance, the band will feature Genesis Breyer P-Orridge -vocals, violin; Edley ODowd – drums, samples; Alice Genese – bass; Jeff ‘Bunsen’ Berner – guitar; Jess Stewart – keyboards, and John Jackson – violin.  Live projections by Jeanne Angel & Sam Zimmerman.  The performance is presented in connection with the exhibition, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge: S/HE IS HER/E on view June 15 – September 15, 2013 at The Warhol.

UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW was co-commissioned through the Spalding Gray Award consortium including The Andy Warhol Museum, Performance Space 122, Walker Arts Center and On the Boards.