IPSA DIXIT

WET INK ENSEMBLE PERFORMS KATE SOPER’S

FRIDAY / DEC 09 / 8:00 PM

the curtis r. priem experimental media [Link]

and performing arts center 518.276.3921
 PROGRAM

I. Poetics
For voice, fute, percussion, and violin
Text by Aristotle (trans. various, abridged/adapted Soper) and Sophocles

II. Only the Words Themselves Mean What They Say

For voice and fute
Text by Lydia Davis
IPSA DIXIT (2010-2016) i. go away
Kate Soper ii. head, heart
iii. getting to know your body

Performed by the Wet Ink Ensemble III. Rhetoric

Erin Lesser, futes For voice, fute, percussion, and violin
Kate Soper, voice Text by Aristotle (trans. various, abridged/adapted Soper)
Ian Antonio, percussion
Josh Modney, violin IV. The Crito
For voice and percussion
Directed by Ashley Tata Text by Robert Duncan and Plato (trans. various, abridged Soper)
Lighting Design by Anshuman Bhatia i. the dream of socrates
Projection Design by Brad Peterson ii. the crito
Costume Design by Nina Vartanian
V. Metaphysics
For voice, fute, percussion, and violin
Text by Aristotle (trans. various, abridged/adapted Soper)

VI. Cipher
For voice and violin
i. jenny holzer feat. ludwig wittgenstein
ii. pietro bembo feat. michael drayton
iii. introducing sigmund freud
iv. guido d’arezzo presents sarah teasdale (feat. jenny holzer)
I. POETICS
For soprano, fute, violin, and percussion

part one: poetics.

What is art? Art is imitation. Art is imitation and the diferent arts may difer
in their medium of imitation. In the music of the ute and of the lyre, harmony
and rhythm are used, whereas in dancing only rhythm is used. Other arts use
language alone, although the use of a metre in a text that is not artistic does
not make its author a poet, nor does the use of more than one and that of
multiple frequently altering metres quite disqualify a poet. Tere are some
arts which use all of the media just described.

Tragedy is the imitation of an action not told but performed, using character,
mentality, spectacle, and music-making. Character allows us to evaluate the agents,
and is revealed through their mentality. Some think the audience incapable of
understanding art without the added element of excessive pantomime: this
error does not touch the artist, but is charged to the performers. Of the other
elements of tragedy (spectacle and music-making), spectacle may have emo-
tional resonance but does not belong to art, and the meaning of “music-making”
is obvious to everyone.

Tragedy is the imitation of an action using hedus menos [“honey-sweetened”]

language embellished with harmony and rhythm. Te simplest style, while
perfectly clear, is much too common to be beautiful. Te use of exotic expressions
creates a style semne [“exotic”] and to idiotiken [“not like the usual”]; however
this usage, when overindulged, may result in gibberish. Where [A] is to [B] as
[C] is to [D], may [A] stand for [C] and [B] stand for [D]. For example: as the
sower scatters seeds, so the sun’s rays scatter light, and so we may describe the
sun as speiron theotikstan phloga [“scattering god-given light”]. Te skill to
form such metaphors is the only gauge of genius. As art is imitation, the poet
should speak as little as possible in his own voice.

Tragedy is the imitation of an action whose practitioners may imitate: things

that are or were the case, things believed to be the case, and things that ought
to be the case. Works of art are held to diferent standards of veracity than
those of politics or ethics: thus, we may depict impossibilities in a work of art, if
they serve dramatic purpose. In art, the greatest error is not one of authenticity,
but of mediocre imitation.
Tragedy is the imitation of an action that is complete and whole. To be complete Io geneai broton (Oh, generations of men
and whole is to have a beginning, middle, and end. A beginning is that which Hos humas isa kai How I count you
follows from nothing and yet has a thing which follows upon it. A middle is To meden zosas enarithmo As nothing while you live.
that which naturally follows upon something else, as some other thing follows Tis, gar tis aner pleon, For who, what man,
it. An end is a thing that follows from something and has nothing following. tas eudaimonias ferei Having had abundant happiness
A thing whose presence or absence makes no discernable diference is not a part e tosuton, hoson dokein For a little while, will,
of the whole. kai doxant apoklinai? Having had it, lose everything?)

Any beautiful work of art that is so comprised of parts must have a certain
appropriate magnitude: not so small that it may be apprehended in an almost - Text by Sophocles, from Oedipus Rex
imperceptible moment of time, nor so large so as to lose the to holon [“one-
ness”]. In art, the appropriate magnitude is the time it takes for fortune to
change from good to bad. Te most important element of tragedy is the con- Te key to depicting emotion in art is truly to feel the emotions themselves.
struction of the plot. Tus the artist is either a talented specialist of imitation, or a lunatic who becomes
carried away.
Tragedy is the imitation of an action whose plot evokes elios [“pity”] and phobos
[“fear”]. We must therefore ask: what kinds of events strike us as terrible or –Text by Aristotle, abridged Soper
pitiable? Pathos may be evoked through the use of onstage murders, woundings,
and so on. Tese efects will be stronger if produced through surprise, and still
stronger if by apparent design. It is the job of the poet to use imitation to make
you enjoy these tragic emotions, which are best produced through anagnorsis
and perepeteia.

Anagnorisis is a change of direction in the course of events. Perepeteia is recogni-

tion, and a change from blindness to sight. Together these actions, when imitated,
may provoke pity and fear, thus bringing about the catharsis of these emotions,
which is tragedy’s object.

– Text by Aristotle, abridged Soper

II. ONLY THE WORDS THEMSELVES
MEAN WHAT THEY SAY
For soprano and fute

i. Go Away

When he says, “Go away and don’t come back,” you are hurt by the words
even though you know he does not mean what the words say, or rather you
think he probably means “Go away” because he is so angry at you he does not
want you anywhere near him right now, but you are quite sure he does not
want you to stay away, he must want you to come back, either soon or later,
depending on how quickly he may grow less angry during the time you are
away, how he may remember other less angry feelings he often has for you
that may soften his anger now. But though he does mean “Go away,” he does
not mean it as much as he means the anger that the words have in them, as he
also means the anger in the words “don’t come back.” He means all the anger
meant by someone who says such words and means what the words say, that
you should not come back, ever, or rather he means most of the anger meant
by such a person, for if he meant all the anger he would also mean what the
words themselves say, that you should not come back, ever. But, being angry,
if he were merely to say, “I’m very angry at you,” you would not be as hurt as
you are, or you would not be hurt at all, even though the degree of anger, if it
could be measured, might be exactly the same. Or perhaps the degree of anger
could not be the same. Or perhaps it could be the same but the anger would
have to be of a diferent kind, a kind that could be shared as a problem,
whereas this kind can be told only in these words he does not mean. So it is
not the anger in these words that hurts you, but the fact that he chooses to say
words to you that mean you should never come back, even though he does
not mean what the words say, even though only the words themselves mean
what they say.

ii. Head, Heart

Heart weeps.
Head tries to help heart.
Head tells heart how it is, again.
You will lose the ones you love. Tey will all go. But even the earth will go,
someday.
Heart feels better, then. III. RHETORIC
But the words of Head do not remain long in the ears of Heart. For soprano, fute, violin, and percussion
Heart is so new to this.
I want them back, says Heart.
Head is all Heart has. part two: rhetoric.
Help, Head. Help Heart.
Let rhetoric equal the ability of observing/the faculty of noting/the power to
see, under any given circumstances, all the available means of persuasion.
iii. Getting to Know Your Body
Tese means take three forms: ethos, character of the speaker; pathos, stirring
If your eyeballs move, this means that you’re thinking, or about to start thinking. of emotions; logos, persuasion through truth, or apparent truth, demonstrated
through speech. Tus rhetoric requires skilled command of logical reasoning,
If you don’t want to be thinking at this particular moment, try to keep your knowledge of how to excite the emotions, and personifcation of goodness and
eyeballs still. virtue. Means of persuasion other than these include contracts, witnesses,
oaths, laws, and torture: these may provide supplements to your argument.
“Go Away” from ALMOST NO MEMORY
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997). Copyright © In rhetoric, we begin with the Proeemion, which states the subject and leads
1997 by Lydia Davis. Performed with permission into the opening notes of the theme, e.g.: “Menen aideh Tea” [“Sing, Goddess, of
of the Denise Shannon Literary Agency, Inc. and the wrath of –”], or “Andra moeen apay Mousa” [“Tell me, O Muse, of the hero
the author. who –”], et cetera.

“Head, Heart,” and “Getting to Know Your Once we have stated the case, we must prove it, or seem to prove. We construct
Body” from VARIETIES OF DISTURBANCE logical arguments thus: “all [A] is [B]. [C] is [A]. Terefore, [C] is [B].” However
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009). Copyright © in Rhetoric merely stating that “[C] is [A], for it is [B]” will sufce.
2009 by Lydia Davis. Performed with permission
of the Denise Shannon Literary Agency, Inc. and Tese techniques are used in weaving a narrative, which will convince our lis-
the author. teners that the topic is essential and concerns no one more than themselves.
But remember that rhetoric seeks to in uence human action, and in human
action there is always more than a single possible choice: thus our premises
may be merely probably, not incontrovertibly, true.

All that remains is to remind our hearers of the facts of the argument, excite in
them an emotion of our choosing, and end in their good graces. Tus we conclude.

O friends! I have seen frsthand the great advantages bestowed by rhetoric on

all those who seek to move through speech. Permit me, therefore, for your sake,
to attempt to demonstrate to you rhetoric’s great value. First, let us agree that there
is one goal of all human endeavor: happiness. And does not happiness depend
on goodness and virtue, and is not rhetoric needed to persuade our hearers to
follow the good and to do what is right? For do they not often deliberate on
questions that seem to have a multitude of answers? How can we persuade if IV. THE CRITO
the subject is complex and, as is so often the case, our listeners incapable of For soprano and percussion
following a long chain of reasoning? How else but with rhetoric can we construct
an argument so as to admit of no tenable opposing view? Its detractors will say
that rhetoric may be used for evil, but is this not true of all good things? i. Te Dream of Achilles
Strength and health and wealth may also be used for evil, and we must never
use rhetoric to persuade our listeners of things that are immoral or worthless And my soul would return…
or false or debased or which hide the truth. …from the long siege
Come back to the shores of what you are.
Listen to me! Truth is strong, stronger than deceit! In any crisis, the truth will Come back from the crumbling shores.
inexorably rise! Terefore, where truth fails, we have failed to speak for the All night…
truth. And this, this is rhetoric’s purpose: to give to the truth a voice! For it is the tides lay down the beat
the voice alone, of all our faculties, which can represent our thoughts and …whose repeated spell consumes you.
ideas. Terefore, although the most crucial elements of rhetoric are the facts
and their arrangement, we must also consider their delivery, which includes Time, time. It’s time.
the management of the voice: whether high or low, loud or soft, et cetera. Just Achilles…has come home.
as we aim to conceal the efort used in composing our speeches, so we should And soon you too will be alone.
recite them using a “natural” voice. Tis will come across as “honest” to our
listeners and will thus be more persuasive than an artifcially heightened tone. –Text by Robert Duncan
Ideally, the facts should speak for themselves, and all that we should try to do
as speakers is not ofend anyone without worrying about entertaining anybody.
Everything apart from the analytical demonstration of truth is incidental.
ii. Te Crito
Nevertheless, the style of a speech, while incidental to its content, has great
power to afect the outcome. With certain listeners, even the most exact of truths SOCRATES : Good morning Crito!
will be inadequate to sway them if presented in an ill-considered way. Terefore,
we must conclude, our only hope of triumph in persuasion lies in careful study CRITO : Good morning Socrates.
and employment of the great and crucial art of rhetoric.
SO : You’re here pretty early, aren’t you?
I have spoken. You have heard me. Te facts are before you. I await your judgment.
CR : Yes, I am.
Text by Aristotle, abridged/adapted Soper,
and inspired by Aristotle SO : What time is it?

CR : Nearly dawn.

SO : I’m surprised the warden let you in this early.

CR : He knows me by now. I am here every day.

SO : Have you been waiting long? CR : What’s that supposed to mean?

CR : Yes, several hours. SO : It means I will not be executed today, but three days from now.

SO : Why didn’t you wake me? CR : Ten Socrates, for the last time, I’m begging you: let me break you out of here!

CR : You were sleeping so peacefully, I didn’t want to disturb you. How can SO : Crito, I can only do what seems to me to be right, regardless of the pre-
you sleep like that? You’re about to be executed! dicament that I fnd myself in. Let’s examine the situation together, and
if I can’t convince you that it would be wrong to break the law by escaping,
SO : It would be unseemly for a man my age to resent having to die. then I’ll go with you. Ok?

CR : Everyone resents having to die. CR : Fine.

SO : Tat’s true. So tell me, why’d you come so early? SO : Suppose that while we were planning to run away from here, or whatever
you want to call it, the laws were to appear before us and say:
CR : I’ve got some really bad news.
THE LAWS :Socrates, can you deny that you seek to destroy us, the Laws?
SO : What news? Te ship’s in from Delos? Do you imagine that a city can survive if its laws have no force?

CR : No, but it’s supposed to get here today. SO : Suppose we then reply:

SO : And I must die the following day, right? THE CITIZEN : Yes, I intend to destroy you, because I have been con-
demned unjustly.
CR : I guess so. Tat’s what the authorities say.
CR : Makes sense to me.
SO : Ten I don’t think that the ship will come in today.
SO : But then suppose the laws continue:
CR : Why not?
LA : Was this our understanding? Or did you not agree to abide by us, and to
SO : I had this dream last night...guess it’s good you didn’t wake me! obey our honest ruling? Did we not give you life through the marriage of
your parents? Did we not demand your education?
CR : What dream?
TC : I have no complaint against the laws of marriage or of child-rearing.
SO : A gloriously beautiful woman...dressed in a white robe...came up to me
and said: SO : Ten I guess they’d say:

“O, Socrates! Ah mahtiken trita toy, Pthian ar bolan hikoyo.” LA : Can you now deny you were our child, and our servant? Are you not thus
[“O Socrates, on the fourth day you will reach Pythia.”] bound to honor and obey us? Just as you may not harm your mother or
father, so you may not harm the laws!
 V. METAPHYSICS
SO : What do you think Crito? Do the laws speak correctly? For soprano, fute, violin, and percussion

CR : Uh...I guess so.

part three: metaphysics.
LA : Consider this, O Socrates,
We all, by our nature, desire to know. But how is knowledge acquired? We are
SO : Te laws would probably continue, none of us able to know the whole of truth, yet neither can each of us fail
completely in knowing some part of the nature of things. Terefore, though
LA : Tat by living in this city, you have also chosen to abide by us, its Laws, we each contribute but little or nothing, in combining the eforts of all indi-
and, having been accused, your choice was clear: viduals seeking the truth we will fnd the result is something of magnitude. As
the eyes of bats are to the blaze of day, so are the minds of our souls to the
[cadenza]: persuade…or obey! splendor of the most natural truths.

Te fact remains… We begin by wondering at observable facts (what is the diagonal of a square?
Why is a circle two pi?), advancing to somewhat more complex matters of
SO : Tey would say, greater concern (why does the moon wax and wane? What substance makes
up the stars? How is the solstice produced?), until we arrive at the most fun-
LA : …if you break your covenant with us, the Laws, you wrong the very state damentally difcult questions, most crucial, most basic, and yet most remote
which gave you life! And when you meet the laws of the next world, they from empirical reasoning: what is the nature of being?
will know how you abused us, their brothers!
Some say this nature resides in principles, made from opposites: odd and
Ah la ma say paysay Kriton poyan ha lagay, malona ha mas! even, one and many, male and female, good and bad. Some say that the source
[Do not listen to Crito, instead listen to us.] of being is one. Regardless, we may say that the search for truth is the search
for cause: what causes things to be?
SO : Tis is what I seem to hear them saying, just as the Koribanteyontes hear
music in a trance, and the sound of their words drowns out all voices. But We may consider four types of cause. Material cause, of what things are made:
speak, if you have anything to say. the cause of the ute is silver and gold. Formal cause, the form or the pattern:
the cause of the octave is a two-to-one ratio. Efcient cause, the source of the
—Text by Plato, abridged/adapted Soper movement: the cause of the drumroll is the percussionist. Final cause, the
ultimate purpose: our taste for enjoyment is the cause of music.

So much for the why, now as to the what: what does it mean to be? I do not
come to be myself only when I am musical, nor do I cease to be me when I
lose this characteristic. Terefore, there must be some fundamental substance
which is preserved despite alteration, as all complex sounds consist of the
same constituent parts.

When the physical characteristics of things, the length and breadth and depth,
are stripped away, that which remains we call “matter.” But matter cannot be
the fundamental substance, for that must be something eternal, which does VI. CIPHER
not change – as a circle is eternal, whole and complete and continuous. For soprano, fute, violin, and percussion

Form exists apart from matter. But is an object separate from its form? When i. Jenny Holzer feat. Ludwig Wittgenstein
the object is taken apart, the form no longer exists but the elements exist, and
these elements are made of elements. Te fundamental substance must be “I came to language because I wanted to be explicit about things...and it be-
indestructible, unable to be broken apart. came clear that the only way to do it was to use language. People can under-
stand you when you say...something.”
And if there exists no fundamental substance, but only individual things, we
can never know anything, for when individual things are removed from our - Jenny Holzer, interview in Te Progressive (Apr. 1993: 30)]
senses, how can we be completely certain that they still exist? Te fundamental
substance must exist apart from the realm of perceivable things. So one and the same sign can be common to two diferent symbols.
In this way the most fundamental confusions are easily produced.
Everything that changes is changed by something and into something which, In order to recognize a symbol by its sign, we must observe how it is used with
thus changed, then changes something into that which, thus changed, then a sense.
changes something into that which, thus changed, then changes something
into that which is changed and which changes. And this series must have a - Ludwig Wittgenstein, from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (trans. Frank P.
frst term, for beauty and perfect goodness is not in the fnal efect but in the Ramsey and C.K. Ogden)]
original cause, which produces change but is not itself changed, and which,
we have discovered, is eternal, indestructible, and which lies outside the em-
pirical world.
ii. Pietro Bembo feat. Michael Drayton
Somewhere, beyond the fxed starts, the First Mover produces all motion
through infnite time, and is itself unmoved: and has no motion but thought. ‘A:’...con ciò sia cosa che ella più di spirito, e più al cielo ne va esso spirito.

And we long to be in that state of supreme contemplation. [Translation: ‘A’... it is this [vowel] that sends out the most spirit, and so sends
the most spirit up to the heavens.]
And we sometimes are.
Viene ultimamente la ‘U;’ molto più ristretto, il che toglie alla bocca e allo spiri-
–Text by Aristotle (trans. various, abridged/adapted Soper) to dignità...

[Translation: We come last to ‘U,’ much more restricted, a pulling-out takes

away from the mouth the dignifed spirit...]

Debole e leggiero e chinato e tuttavia dolce spirito, è richiesto alla ‘I’...soave non-
dimeno alquanto.

[Translation: Weak and slight and bent, and yet with a sweet spirit, next we
come to ‘I,’ which is very gentle.]
 fulfllment of a wish. If the dream, as this theory defnes it, represents a ful-
Buono è il suono della ‘O;’ allo spirito della quale mandar fuori, il che rotondo e flled wish, what is the cause of the striking and unfamiliar manner in which
sonoro nel fa uscire. this fulfllment is expressed?

[Translation: How good is the sounds of ‘O,’ which sends the spirit out with - Sigmund Freud, from Te Interpretation of Dreams (trans. James Strachey)]
lips quite extended, it is round and sonorous as it exits.]

-Pietro Bembo, from Prose della Volgar Lingua (trans. Soper)] iv. Guido d’Arezzo presents Sarah Teasdale (feat. Jenny Holzer)

...while we are abroad, Sicut omne quod dicitur scribitur, ita ad cantum redigitur omne quod scribitur,
Shall we not touch our lyre? canitur ergo quod dicitur.
Shall we not sing an ode?
...Tough in the utmost peak [Translation: Everything that can be spoken can be written, and everything
A while we do remain... that can be written can be made into song. Terefore everything that can be
spoken can be sung.]
– Michael Drayton, from An Ode Written in the Peak]
– Guido d’Arezzo, from Micrologus]

iii. Introducing Sigmund Freud

I am the still rain falling....
[Spoken by soprano, simultaneously with violinist]: Te dream is not compa- I am the brown bird pining....
rable to the irregular sounds of a musical instrument, which, instead of being
played by the hand of a musician, is struck by some external force; the dream – Sarah Teasdale, from Moods]
is not meaningless, not absurd, does not presuppose that one part of our store
of ideas is dormant while another part begins to awake. It is a perfectly valid “I came to language because I wanted to be explicit about things...and it be-
psychic phenomenon, actually a wish-fulfllment. It may be enrolled in the came clear that the only way to do it was to use language. People can under-
continuity of the intelligible psychic activities of the waking state.... It is built stand you when you say...something.”
up by a highly complicated intellectual activity. Te frst dream which we
have considered was the fulfllment of a wish; another may turn out to be the – Jenny Holzer, IBID
realization of an apprehension; a third may have a re ection as its content....
Are there, then, dreams other than wish-dreams; or are there none but wish-
dreams?

[Spoken by violinist, simultaneously with soprano]: If, in the evening, I eat

anchovies, olives, or other strongly salted foods, I am thirsty at night, and
therefore I wake. Te waking, however, is preceded by a dream...namely, that
I am drinking.... And then I wake, and fnd that I have an actual desire to
drink. Even if we conclude that every dream has a meaning and psychic value,
we must nevertheless allow for the possibility that this meaning may not be
the same in every dream. Te frst dream which we have considered was the
BIOGRAPHIES

Kate Soper is a composer, performer, and writer who has been praised by
the New Yorker for her limpid, exacting vocalism, impetuous theatricality,
and... mastery of modernist style” and by the Boston Globe as “a composer of
trenchant, sometimes discomfting, power.” She has received awards from the
Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the
Koussevitzky Foundation, and Chamber Music America, among others, and
has been commissioned by groups such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the
American Composers Orchestra, the Mivos String Quartet, and Yarn/
Wire. Upcoming projects include the NYC premiere of Te Ultimate Poem is
Abstract for soprano and chamber orchestra and Te Romance of the Rose, an
operatic investigation of allegory and courtly love from the Middle Ages to
the present day. Kate has been is a co-director and performing member of Wet
Ink since 2006. For more information: [Link].

Ashley Tata is a freelance director working principally in the felds of new

opera and multimedia performance. Recently: Molière’s Don Juan (Fisher
Center, Bard College); George Lam’s Heartbreak Express (Rhymes with Op-
era); thingNY’s Tis Takes Place Close By (Knockdown Center); Mojiao Wang’s
Te Wet Ink Ensemble is a New York-based new music ensemble with a 15- opera Encounter (National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing); Venture
year history of outstanding achievement in the programming and presenta- Opera’s Don Pasquale (National Opera Center, NYC); Lainie Feferman’s ora-
tion of contemporary music of every genre. Lauded by Te New York Times for torio Here I Am featuring Newspeak Ensemble and Va Vocals (Roulette);
combining “technical fnesse with a palpable commitment,” by the UK’s Sound Morningside Opera Company’s A Weimar Flute (Housing Works Bookstore);
Projector for its “staggering” performances, and by Switzerland’s Dissonanz for and a multimedia concert staging of David T. Little’s Soldier Songs with video
“combining striking stylistic and aesthetic assurance with technical perfection,” by Bill Morrison (Atlas Teatre, DC, and Te Holland Festival, Amsterdam,
Wet Ink has gained an worldwide reputation as one of the most innovative Beth Morrison Projects). As an assistant she frequently works with Beth Mor-
new music groups working today. Wet Ink’s repertoire ranges from scores of rison Projects and directors Robert Woodruf, Daniel Fish, JoAnne Akalaitis,
rigorous notational complexity to indeterminate and improvisational music; Jay Scheib and Michael Counts. Recipient of the Lotos Foundation’s Emerg-
from the American experimental tradition to the contemporary European ing Artist Prize in the Arts and Sciences. MFA Columbia University. She is
avant-garde; from acoustic to amplifed to electronic works to works for currently directing and designing a series of pop-up performances for the Pro-
homemade instruments. Wet Ink has collaborated with a broad range of re- totype Festival this January. [Link]
nowned artists, from Evan Parker and George Lewis to Christian Wolf, Peter
Ablinger, Weasel Walter, and Zs, and is equally committed to promoting the
works of young and underrepresented composers, from today’s most promis-
ing emerging voices to the next generation of artists. For more information:
[Link].
Josh Modney is a violinist, violist, and improviser dedicated to performing Anshuman Bhatia designs for opera, dance, and theater have been seen at
contemporary music, collaborating closely with composers on new work over Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Canada’s Royal Winnipeg
extended time periods, and exploring innovative interpretations of the standard Ballet, Soho Rep, Te Public, Te Atlantic, Arena Stage in Washington D.C.,
repertoire. Josh is violinist and Executive Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, Te Juilliard School, HERE Arts Center, LoftOpera, Ma-Yi Teater Compa-
a unique collection of composers, improvisers, and interpreters dedicated to ny, Puerto Rican Traveling Teater, La Mama ETC, Bard Music Festival, In-
making adventurous music, and a member of the International Contemporary fnity Teater Company, Te University of Denver, and Te New School for
Ensemble (ICE). A “superb violinist” and “new-music luminary” hailed for Drama. His associate designs have been seen at the New York Philharmonic,
“brash, energetic performances” (Te New York Times), Josh has performed at Brooklyn Academy of Music, Opera Teater of Saint Louis, Central City Opera
festivals and concert series across four continents, presented hundreds of premieres, in Colorado, Gotham Chamber Opera Washington Ballet, Roundabout Teater
and worked closely with major fgures including Mathias Spahlinger, Helmut & the Barbican Center. M.F.A. NYU. [Link]
Lachenmann, George Lewis, Christian Wolf, and Peter Ablinger. Deep col-
laboration with composers is a focus of Josh’s activities, and he has developed
new large-scale work with composers including Kate Soper, Alex Mincek, Eric Brad Peterson is a New York-based projection and video designer. Previously
Wubbels, Sam Pluta, and Rick Burkhardt, among others. Josh has recorded for with Ashley Tata: Tis Takes Place Close By (thingNY). Previously with Kate
Carrier Records, Deutsche Grammophon, hat[now]ART, and Tzadik Records. Soper: Here Be Sirens. Other recent work: Cats (Broadway Revival); Fish in the
Dark (Broadway); Empire (McCoy-Rigby / Marquee Ventures); Carousel, Te Lion,
As a soloist, and chamber musician Erin Lesser has been described as “superb,” the Witch, and the Wardrobe, A Little Night Music (Stratford Festival); Soul
“excellent,” and “elegant” (Te New York Times). She has travelled to prestigious Doctor (Of-Broadway); Te Wiz and Frost/Nixon (Maltz-Jupiter); Encounter
venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, the (NCPA - Beijing); On Te Town (Merry-Go-Round); Shufe Along…(Video
Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ (Amsterdam) and Alice Tully Hall where she performed Consultant, Broadway). Associate designer: First Date (Broadway), An American
the American premiere of Morton Feldman’s For Flute and Orchestra with the in Paris (Broadway); Little Dancer (Kennedy Center). [Link]
Jancek Philharmonic. Erin is a member of Alarm Will Sound, a group that has
been awarded the ASCAP Concert Music Award for “the virtuosity, passion and
commitment with which they perform and champion the repertory for the Nina Vartanian is a New York-based costume designer. She has recently designed
21st century.” She is also a core member of Wet Ink, Decoda (afliate ensem- Teater for One, an individualized theater experience taking place at Te Sig-
ble of Carnegie Hall) and a founding member of the Argento Chamber En- nature. For her Of Broadway debut she designed Ruthless Te Musical! It just
semble. Erin is Assistant Professor of Flute at Lawrence University and a Pearl fnished over a year long run. Dance credits include Pictograms, choreographed
Flute Performing Artist. by the dynamic Netta Yerushalmy, and Mashrabiya choreographed by Hala
Sha at LAPAC. Other theater credits include Peer@me (NYU Grad Acting),
Percussionist Ian Antonio specializes in creative and collaborative music making. directed by Alex Harvey, Gruesome Playground Injuries, Much Ado About
He is a member of the Wet Ink, Yarn/Wire, and Talujon chamber ensembles Nothing, Titus Andronicus (Frog & Peach Teater Company), Te Cherry Or-
with whom he has concertized across four continents at many of the world’s chard (Columbia University), and Othello (Te Drilling Co./Shakespeare in
leading art institutions, including Lincoln Center, BAM, Disney Hall, ISSUE the Parking Lot). She holds a BFA in Fashion Design from Parsons Te New
Project Room, EMPAC, Barbican Centre, and Shanghai Symphony Hall. Ian School For Design, and an MFA from NYU Tisch for Design in Stage and Film.
also frequently appears as a guest with ensembles as varied as the London
Sinfonettia, International Contemporary Ensemble, Los Angeles Philhar-
monic, and SEM Ensemble. His playing can be heard on the Nonesuch, Kairos,
Warp, Tzadik, Carrier, and Social Registry record labels, among others. A
native of Albany, NY, Ian has lived in New York City since 1999.
STAFF

Geoff Abbas / Director for Stage Technologies

Eric Ameres / Senior Research Engineer
Argeo Ascani / Curator, Music
Eileen Baumgartner / Graphic Designer
David Bebb / Senior Network Administrator
Peter Bellamy / Senior Systems Administrator
Michael Bello / Video Engineer
Victoria Brooks / Curator, Time-Based Visual Arts
Eric Brucker / Lead Video Engineer
Michele Cassaro / Guest Services Coordinator
John Cook / Box Offce Manager
David DeLaRosa / Desktop Support Analyst
Zhenelle Falk / Artist Services Administrator
Ashley Ferro-Murray / Associate Curator, Theater & Dance
Kimberly Gardner / Manager, Administrative Operations
Johannes Goebel / Director
Ian Hamelin / Project Manager
Ryan Jenkins / Senior Event Technician
Shannon Johnson / Design Director
Carl Lewandowski / Production Technician
Eric Chi-Yeh Lin / Lead Stage Technician
Stephen McLaughlin / Senior Event Technician
Josh Potter / Marketing and Communications Manager
Alena Samoray / Event Technician
Candice Sherman / Senior Business Administrator
Avery Stempel / Front of House Manager
Kim Strosahl / Production Coordinator
Jeffrey Svatek / Audio Engineer
Dan Swalec / Master Electrician
Todd Vos / Lead Audio Engineer
Michael Wells / Production Technician

[Link]
518.276.3921