FREDERICK EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC ASSOCIATION SPRING 2025 CONCERTS
Anthony Pirog, Devin Gray, Dave Ballou.
MARCH 1st
DEVIN GRAY TRIO with DAVE BALLOU and ANTHONY PIROG
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
Frederick YMCA Arts Center is located at 115 East Church Street in downtown Frederick. There is wheelchair accessibility through the back parking lot entrance.
Tickets for this concert are $20, cash only. Concert commences at 8pm.
“An amazing percussionist, Gray’s stunningly detailed playing sounds like a cross between Fritz Hauser and Roy Haynes.” David Wayne, All About Jazz
Devin Gray is a top call drummer in modern jazz circles in New York City and Berlin, Germany. His fresh approach to modern drumming has enabled him to play with many of the world’s great jazz musicians: David Liebman, Sam Rivers, Kris Davis, Angelica Sanchez, and many others.
A graduate of Peabody Conservatory, Gray came up in the thriving Baltimore jazz scene, where he first encountered trumpeter Dave Ballou and guitarist Anthony Pirog, both of whom are renowned leaders in their own rights. Together, they create rapid-fire three-way exchanges and virtuosic fireworks, lulling occasionally in vividly colored soundscapes.
Devin Gray Music: https://devingraymusic.com/.
Design by Bodie Dennis, Rumblecroon Studios, Frederick.
String Theories: New Music for String Instruments, a 3-concert series at Frederick YMCA Arts
Frederick Experimental Music Association will present String Theories: New Music for String Instruments, a monthly series to be presented at the Frederick YMCA Arts Center beginning in February 2025 and continuing through March and April. Doors for each concert open at 7pm, with artists conversations beginning at 7:30 and concerts commencing at 8pm.
Frederick YMCA Arts Center is located at 115 East Church Street in downtown Frederick. There is wheelchair accessibility through the back parking lot entrance.
Tickets for each concert are $20, available at the door and through the Frederick YMCA website: frederickymca.org/string-theories-jazz-concert-series.
String Theories: New Music for String Instruments is underwritten by a grant from The Delaplaine Foundation and the support of Plamondon Hospitality Partners.
About the series:
Each concert will feature a duo of internationally acclaimed virtuosi. Over the course of the series a wide variety of Western and Asian string instruments will be heard. Conversations with the artists about their histories as instrumentalists, the intents and purposes for what they do, and their relationships to contemporary currents in music, will be held thirty minutes prior to each concert. The participating artists are: Jason Kao Hwang (violin) and Sun Li (pipa), performing on Saturday, February 22nd; Terry Jenoure (violin, voice) and Angelica Sanchez (piano) on Saturday, March 25th; and Jacqueline Kerrod (harp) and Joe Morris (guitar) on Saturday, April 19th.
About the Artists:
FEBRUARY 22nd
JASON KAO HWANG, violin + SUN LI, pipa
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
Violinist and violaist Jason Kao Hwang has been a leader in the integration of American and Asian music since the 1990s, when his Far East Side Band included Chinese American, Korean American, Japanese American, and African American instrumentalists. In addition to composing for his renowned ensembles – including Human Rites, Critical Response, and Burning Bridge – Hwang has written extended works like The Floating Box: A Story in Chinatown, one of the Opera News’ Top Ten Opera Recordings of 2005. Hwang is the recipient of many grants and fellowships from such esteemed bodies as the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Before coming to the US in the early 2000s, pipa player Sun Li was a member of the Central Song and Dance Ensemble of Beijing, performing traditional Chinese music internationally. Since 2002, she has performed with the New York-based Music from China, garnering acclaim for her “virtuosic and colorful” music by The New York Times. She has been a soloist with several US orchestras, performed with Jason Kao Hwang at new music festivals throughout North America, and given recitals at Lincoln Center, the Staunton Music Festival, and other prestigious classical music festivals.
MARCH 25th
TERRY JENOURE, violin, voice + ANGELICA SANCHEZ, piano
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
Terry Jenoure is a polymath, a violinist, a vocalist, a visual artist working in a variety of media, a scholar documenting African American performing artists in academia, and an educator specializing in diversifying arts education in public schools. A member of the ensemble that recorded John Carter’s epochal Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music in the 1980s, Dr. Jenoure’s own music frequently draws upon the life experiences of her parents and grandparents, a family with Jamaican and Puerto Rican roots. Over the years, the duo with Angelica Sanchez has become central to Jenoure’s music. The Arizona-born pianist has collaborated with iconic figures like Wadada Leo Smith, recorded albums praised by, among others, National Public Radio and The New York Times, and received numerous awards and fellowships in the US and Europe.
APRIL 19th
JACQUELINE KERROD, harp + JOE MORRIS, guitar
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
South African harpist Jacqueline Kerrod has performed with everyone from Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton to Rufus Wainwright and Jane Birkin. She has premiered more than a dozen works written for her by South African composers. In her solo music, Kerrod has made innovative use of electronics. A seasoned improviser, her latest CD with cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum, Simple Ways Such Self, documents their 2023 performance as part of FEMA’s IF: Improvisers Forum series, presented at the Frederick YMCA Arts Center. Joe Morris is one of the more innovative guitarists to emerge in the past 40 years, integrating African, Asian, and Eastern European influences into a singular vocabulary. Appearing on nearly 200 recordings playing guitar or double bass, Morris has been on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music since 2000. He is the author of Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music, published in 2012.
FREDERICK EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC ASSOCIATION PAST CONCERTS
DECEMBER 6th
LAFAYETTE GILCHRIST, piano + GREGORY THOMPKINS, tenor saxophone
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
Familiar to Frederick audiences from his performances at the Weinberg Center and New Spire Arts, pianist Lafayette Gilchrist returned in duo with his longtime colleague, tenor saxophonist Gregory Thompkins. The pianist NPR called “an old soul, at ease in the modern world,” Gilchrist has an encyclopedic knowledge of the jazz piano tradition, and can invoke the spirits of Ellington, Monk, and others at any moment. The Music Director of the Baltimore Jazz Education Project, Thompkins has absorbed the tenor tradition from Coleman Hawkins onward to creative ends. After years of working together in Gilchrist’s New Volcanoes and other settings, this was their first duo concert.
NOVEMBER 2nd
LILI MAYA, video + JAMES ROUVELLE, electronics
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
Artist Lili Maya and composer James Rouvelle have paired original music and video art in live performance internationally since 2009. Maya, a longtime faculty member of the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Rouvelle, a Julliard-trained composer, create performances that integrate traditional and emerging media in a way that permits improvisation both visually and musically through a set of organized sections that are arranged in real time. Maya’s room-sized screens and Rouvelle’s sound system create an immersible environment of vivid images and sounds.
OCTOBER 18th
SAM PLUTA, electronics + JOHN DIERKER, woodwinds
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
An internationally recognized pioneer in the art of live processing – taking the sounds produced in real time by his collaborators, transforming them with advanced software, and mixing them into evolving improvisations – Sam Pluta moved to Baltimore several years ago to become the chair of the electronic music department at the Peabody Institute. Baltimore native John Dierker is a mainstay of the city’s creative music scene, his tenor saxophone and clarinets being a core ingredient to the avant-funk of Lafayette Gilchrist’s New Volcanoes, and beyond-category ensembles like Microkingdom and Quartet Offensive. This was the duo’s first concert outside of Baltimore.
OCTOBER 4th
WADADA LEO SMITH: A TRIBUTE TO LESTER BOWIE
New Spire Arts – 15 W. PATRICK ST.
Russ Lossing
SEPTEMBER 21st
RUSS LOSSING TRIO
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
New York City-based pianist, composer, and improviser, Russ Lossing has been at the forefront of creative jazz for over 30 years. Since the early 1990s, Lossing has performed internationally at major jazz clubs and festivals, and has recorded 23 albums as a leader for labels in the US and Europe. Lossing is also known for his longtime association with master drummer Paul Motian.
The press in the US and Europe have praised Russ Lossing. Downbeat Magazine proclaimed that “Lossing shines as brightly as any of the jazz pioneers who preceded him in mapping out their own musical journeys.” The Village Voice lauded Lossing as a “gripping improviser, pulling ideas out of the air and nudging them into the action at hand as if they always belonged there.” Jazzman, France’s respected jazz magazine, delved into how Lossing “illuminates the silence, suspends the time, and intensifies the collective flux. The wealth of his harmonic knowledge, the fluidity of his phrasing and his attention to the weight of every single note creates a sound palette for endless pleasures.’
Lossing was joined by veteran drummer Billy Mintz, and trombonist Samuel Blaser.
Angelica Sanchez
MAY 10th, 2024
ANGELICA SANCHEZ
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
Pianist/Composer/Educator Angelica Sanchez moved to New York from Arizona in 1994. Since moving to the East Coast Sanchez has collaborated with such notable artists as Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Motian, and Richard Davis, among others. Sanchez leads numerous groups, the most recent being her Trio with Michael Formanek and Billy Hart and her Nonet.
Her music has been recognized in national and international publications including Jazz Times, The New York Times, and The Chicago Tribune. She was also the 2008 recipient of a French/American Chamber Music America grant, the 2011 Rockefeller Brothers Pocantico artist residency, and the 2021 Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, Italy.
Sanchez’s recordings have won critical praise since Sanchez’s debut solo CD A Little House was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition. More recently, her piano duo How to Turn the Moon with Marilyn Crispell was voted as one of the top 50 best recordings in the 2020 NPR critics poll. Sparkle Beings, featuring her trio with Michael Formanek and Billy Hart, was chosen by The New York Times as one of the top ten Jazz recordings of 2022. And the recently issued Night Creatures, the debut album of her Nonet, was enthusiastically reviewed by NPR’s Kevin Whitehead.
Angelica Sanchez has a Masters Degree in Arranging from William Paterson University. She is currently on faculty at Bard College.
Matthew Shipp
APRIL 13th, 2024
MATTHEW SHIPP
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
Matthew Shipp possesses a unique style that is entirely his own, one of the few pianists in jazz that can say so. Down Beat cited Shipp as a “musician who deserves a place of choice in the jazz piano pantheon … he is the connection between this past, present and future for jazz heads of all ages.” The Wall Street Journal stated that “Shipp has helped define, with uncommon distinction, a fresh range of possibilities for contemporary pianism grounded in jazz tradition - raise complex questions and yet invites listeners in.”
With his unique and recognizable style, pianist Matthew Shipp worked and recorded vigorously from the late '80s onward, creating music in which free jazz and modern classical intertwined. He first became well known in the early ‘90s as the pianist in the David S. Ware Quartet, and soon began leading his own dates -- most often including Ware bandmate and leading bassist William Parker, and recording a number of duets with the legendary Roscoe Mitchell, who later performed with Shipp’s trio at a historic 1997 Carnegie Hall concert.
After establishing a new trajectory in chamber jazz through a series of recordings for the Swiss, Hat Hut label, Shipp was the curator and director of the acclaimed "Blue Series" of recordings issued on the Thirsty Ear label in the 2000s, a body of work that set a benchmark for 21st Century jazz. Shipp has continued to be a prolific recording artist, leading or co-leading nearly 100 titles, and counting.
Shipp maintains a vigorous performance schedule, regularly performing at major jazz festivals throughout North America and Europe.
Alexander Hawkins
MARCH 16th, 2024
ALEXANDER HAWKINS
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
Alexander Hawkins is an Oxford UK-based composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader. Working in a vast array of creative contexts, he seeks to reconcile both a love of free improvisation and a fascination with composition and structure.
His writing has been said to represent “a fundamental reassertion of composition within improvised music,” and his voice one of the “most vividly distinctive ... in modern jazz.” As a pianist, he has been praised for “possessing staggering technical ability and a fecund imagination as both player and composer.” Brian Morton, co-author of The Penguin Guide to Jazz, calls Hawkins “the most interesting Hammond [organ] player of the last decade and more.”
In addition to his solo concerts, Hawkins performs in duos with Nicole Mitchell, Evan Parker, and Tomeka Reid. His trio, quartet co-led with vocalist Elaine Mitchener, and larger ensembles receive enthusiastic reviews throughout Europe. Togetherness Music, released in January 2021, has been called a masterpiece that stands next to the best works of Roscoe Mitchell and Anthony Braxton.
In 2012, he was chosen as a member of the first edition of the London Symphony Orchestra’s “Soundhub” program for young composers. He has been widely commissioned by the likes of the BBC, and has performed festivals in Berlin, Chicago, and London and venues such as the South Bank Centre and the Pierre Boulez Saal. He was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” in the 2016 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. In 2018, he was elected a fellow of the Civitella Ranieri.
Hawkins’ concert was his first on the East Coast.
Trevor Watts and Jamie Harris
OCTOBER 26th, 2023
TREVOR WATTS & JAMIE HARRIS
New Spire Arts – 15 W. PATRICK ST.
Trevor Watts is a globally recognized jazz and world music pioneer. In the 1960s, the English saxophonist permanently expanded the parameters of jazz, co-founding Spontaneous Music Ensemble and leading the equally groundbreaking Amalgam. In the early 1980s, Watts formed the first of several ensembles under the Moire Music banner, blending rhythms from Africa and Asia with jazz-steeped virtuosity, and performing on six continents. Now in its third decade, Watts’ duo with percussionist Jamie Harris distills 60 years of Watts’ immersion in diverse music traditions with ear-grabbing themes, infectious grooves, and an uplifting vibe. A rare opportunity not to be missed.
OCTOBER 7th, 2023
THE 5TH POWER: A TRIBUTE TO LESTER BOWIE:
AHMED ABDULLAH, DAVE BALLOU, LEWIS ‘FLIP’ BARNES, TAYLOR HO BYNUM, trumpets
Asbury United Methodist Church – 101 ALL SAINTS ST.
Janel & Anthony
SEPTEMBER 23rd, 2023
JANEL & ANTHONY:
JANEL LEPPIN, cello + ANTHONY PIROG, guitar
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 E. CHURCH ST.
Janel Leppin and Anthony Pirog are stalwarts of the DC new music scene. In addition to their duo, they both play in Janel’s acclaimed Ensemble Volcanic Ash, and other groups. Janel is a conservatory-trained cellist, steeped in North Indian and Persian music, as well as rock and Americana. Anthony studied jazz at Berklee, subsequently exploring the outer limits of sound and tapping the roots of American music. They draw from numerous traditions, using an electronics-laced palette to create beyond-category music that is inviting and robust, teeming with engaging melodies and vivid textures.
Lafayette Gilchrist
SEPTEMBER 22nd, 2023
LAFAYETTE GILCHRIST SOLO
New Spire Arts – 15 W. PATRICK ST.
Lafayette Gilchrist returns to Frederick, presenting a solo piano program at New Spire Arts that distills a century of African American music through his unique 21st Century sensibility. Gilchrist creates an exhilarating, kaleidoscopic soundscape with original compositions that draw on Jelly Roll Morton’s Latin tinge, Fats Waller’s stride, Duke Ellington’s elegance, and Thelonious Monk’s quirky swing, as well as funk and go-go rhythms. Lafayette Gilchrist’s solo concerts are an affirmation of soul, swing, and grooves, essentials of American music.
Thumbscrew © 2022 Brian Cohen
APRIL 29th, 2023
THUMBSCREW: MICHAEL FORMANEK, TOMAS FUJIWARA, and MARY HALVORSON
New Spire Arts – 15 W. PATRICK ST.
Celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month with the internationally acclaimed Thumbscrew, featuring guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Michael Formanek, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, “three of jazz’s most dauntless and resourceful artists,” according to NPR.
A collaboration with New Spire Arts and The City of Frederick
Ingrid Laubrock © 2022 Efrain Ribeiro
APRIL 1st, 2023
INGRID LAUBROCK, saxophones; TOM RAINEY, drums
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 EAST CHURCH ST.
Ingrid Laubrock:
Saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock was named a “true visionary” by pianist and Kennedy Center artistic director Jason Moran, and a “fully committed saxophonist and visionary” by The New Yorker. She has received the BBC Jazz Award for Innovation and commissions the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University and other funders.
Tom Rainey:
Percussionist Tom Rainey has literally played with jazz greats from A to Z, from John Abercrombie to Denny Zeitlin. He is the recipient of composition and performance grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Jacqueline Kerrod © 2022 Leonardo Mascaro
MARCH 18th, 2023
TAYLOR HO BYNUM, cornet; JACQUELINE KERROD, harp + electronics
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 EAST CHURCH ST.
Taylor Ho Bynum:
One of the more accomplished under-50 improvisers and composers in the US, cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum has led ensembles varying from sextets to 15-piece orchestras on 20 critically acclaimed recordings. He is the director of the Coast Jazz Orchestra at Dartmouth College. He contributes to The New Yorker.
Jacqueline Kerrod:
Harpist Jacqueline Kerrod has toured internationally with NEA Jazz Master Anthony Braxton. She has performed with such renowned contemporary music ensembles as the International Contemporary Ensemble. She has a Masters of Music and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music.
Lafayette Gilchrist
FEBRUARY 18th, 2023
LAFAYETTE GILCHRIST PLAYS HERBIE NICHOLS AND LAFAYETTE GILCHRIST
Weinberg Center for the Arts – 20 W. PATRICK ST.
with
Brian Settles, tenor saxophone; Christian Hizon, trombone; Herman Burney, bass; Kevin Pinder, percussion; Eric Kennedy, drums
Celebrate Black History Month with Lafayette Gilchrist, best known for his music heard on the iconic television series, The Wire. Gilchrist pays homage to Herbie Nichols, a composer overlooked during his too-brief lifetime, but now compared to Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Leading his new sextet, the pianist will also perform his own groove-laden compositions.
A collaboration with Weinberg Center for the Arts and The City of Frederick
Michael Formanek © 2022 Efrain Ribeiro
NOVEMBER 5th, 2022
MICHAEL FORMANKEK, double bass; BRIAN SETTLES, tenor saxophone
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 EAST CHURCH ST.
Michael Formanek:
Double bassist and composer Michael Formanek has led some of the more acclaimed jazz ensembles of the past 25 years, including his Elusion Quartet, Very Practical Trio, and the 18-piece Ensemble Kolossus. His compositions have been supported by Chamber Music America, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and other institutions.
Brian Settles:
Since earning his Masters of Music from Howard University, Brian Settles has become an in-demand tenor saxophonist, performing in acclaimed ensembles like Luke Stewart’s Silt Trio. The New York Times identifies Settles as “one of several young improvisers [who are] insightful and invigorating.”
Susan Alcorn © 2022 Efrain Ribeiro
OCTOBER 15th, 2022
SUSAN ALCORN, pedal steel guitar; ROBERT DICK, flutes
Frederick YMCA Arts Center – 115 EAST CHURCH ST.
Susan Alcorn:
Susan Alcorn has extended the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music, exploring jazz, tango nuevo, and other idioms. She has collaborated with numerous iconic musicians like Pauline Oliveros and Evan Parker. In 2017, she received the Baker Artist Award; in 2018, she and her long-time collaborator Joe McPhee won the Instant Award in Improvised Music.
Robert Dick:
Robert Dick is to the flute what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar, an artist who introduced new worlds of sound. His trademarked Glissando Headjoint allows for voice-like pitch fluctuations and his use of multiphonics and his palette of timbres are unparalleled, particularly on the seldom-heard bass and contrabass flutes.
Frederick Experimental Music Association, Inc. is a Maryland non-profit corporation.
For more information about FEMA and IF, contact Bill Shoemaker at admin@pointofdeparture.org