Lou Cohen, born 1937, has composed music since age 11. He studied mathematics at MIT, and has studied music privately. Composition teachers include John Cage, Ernst Levy and Alan Kemler.
He studied harpsichord and early music performance practice with John Gibbons.
Performers:
Dirk Adams, Polly Hanson, Clara Kebabian, Jesse Kenas-Collins, Joshua Jefferson, Andrea Pensado, Melanie Hedlund, Jane Wang, Audrey Chen, Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø, flandrew fleisenberg, lou bunk
Spending the past couple of years playing in improvised groups around Boston, Jesse Kenas-Collins has come to value both the sonic and social importance of such work. Improvising with others functions both as art and on some level as a form of group therapy. Exploring improvisation as a soloist is an even more fragile experience and one that Jesse has kept relatively private, focusing his solo efforts towards recordings and a handful of public performances. The opportunity to perform as a soloist here is quite a joy.
Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø (born 1986 in Trondheim, Norway) is a trombonist working mostly within contemporary fields of music. Educated in improvised music and jazz from the music academies in Gothenburg (BA) and Oslo (MA), he is now based in the Norwegian capital.
Seven2 is one of Cage’s late numbers’ pieces scored for bass flute, bass clarinet, bass trombone, unspecified percussion, cello and contrabass.
In the scores for the number pieces, Cage used time bracketed short fragments to create parts which emerge in and out of silence and the overall tapestry of the ensemble.
Variations III, another of John Cage’s brainchilds, was dedicated to the late Lou Cohen who arranged performances of Cage’s Variations pieces for a number of years.
The score consists 42 transparencies with a circle on each, dropped on a sheet of paper. The result derives the number of actions and the number of variables that characterize an action. While some factors should be planned in advance, the performers should leave room for unforeseen eventualities and that any other activities are going on at the same time as the work is performed.
Performers: Deirdre Viau, Tom Plsek, Val Thompson, Daniel Levin, Kevin Dacey, Steve Norton, Michael Rosenstein, Howard Marin, Morgan Evans-Weiler, Jesse Kenas-Collins, Chris Johnson, Walter Wright, Joe Burgio, Seamus Williams, Jane Wang, and Lou Bunk.