Microfestival of Instant Composition, June 17, ProArts Gallery

Featuring the Vienna Bay Instant Composers' Ensemble and conductors:
Michael Fischer (Vienna)
Gabby Fluke-Mogul (Tuxedo)
Phillip Greenlief (Golden Gate)
Matt Ingalls (Oakland Ave / Harrison)

Instant composition, or conducted improvisation: both terms for an activity that exploits the advantages of two seemingly opposed approaches to creating music, composition and improvisation. The Microfestival of Instant Composition is inspired by ancestors like Morton Feldman's indeterminate scores, Pauline Oliveros' Sonic Meditations, and the sonic experimental community of Chicago's AACM, with members Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, and Muhal Richard Abrams among others. More recent exponents include John Zorn and Bay Area stalwarts ROVA.

For this evening's music, Oakland welcomes Viennese composer/improviser Michael Fischer, who will lead the all-star ensemble via his "praxis of 'instant composition conducting'" which springs from the pioneering work of the late Butch Morris, whose work with downtown New York musicians in the 1980s Morris dubbed "Conductions®." Michael's work focuses on the meaning of sound and gesture.

The evening's program will be filled out with local conductors:

Gabby Fluke-Mogul's ‘memory i’ is a score for improvising ensemble, conduction, and the duration of 2 days.

Phillip Greenlief will conduct his work INDEX (2016), composed for any ensemble or artistic discipline. INDEX is a text score of interlocking word fragments designed to inspire improvisers.

Matt Ingalls will conduct the ensemble using intuition and simple hand cues, allowing inspired accidents and emergent surrealism.


Vienna Bay Instant Composers' Ensemble:


Brett Carson
Tom Djll
Karl Alfonso Evangelista
Michael Fischer
Gabby Fluke-Mogul
Jordan Glenn
Phillip Greenlief
Jacob Felix Heule
Matt Ingalls
Aurora Josephson
Kevin CK Lo
Lisa Mezzacappa
Kanoko Nishi-Smith
Kim Nucci
Gino Robair
John Shiurba

ProArts- 150 Frank H Ogawa Plaza, Oakland, California 94612