[PD] Upcoming North American PD-based Performances

[Joseph Zitt]

Hi, all. I'm about to go on a solo tour through North America, performing
vocals through a Linux laptop running PD. Compared to many of you, what 
I'm doing PD-wise is pretty simple, but those of you on the tour path
might be interested...

Joseph Zitt's Surprise Me with Beauty North American Tour 2K2

Contact: Joseph Zitt
         jzitt at metatronpress.com
         (202) 321-8443

Vocalist/composer/poet/improvisor Joseph Zitt is heading out on his
first solo North American tour in January and February 2002. The tour
is in support of his new book, "Surprise Me With Beauty: the Music of
Human Systems" , and the CDs "All Souls" (created in collaboration
with Thomas Bickley) and "Collaborations" (featuring a performance
with bassists Vattel Cherry and Jane Wang, and live and studio
interaction with each of the members of the electroacoustic chamber
ensemble Gray Code).

In the course of the tour, he will perform sets both solo (vocal
through computer processing) and in collaboration with local
improvisors.  He also will lead workshops in structured improvisation,
incorporating the participants, if possible, in the performances in
the same cities.

In addition to his published books and CDs, recordings of his
performances with various ensembles are online at
http://www.metatronpress.com/mp3/ and writings and other information
are at http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt/ .

The following dates are scheduled, with more to be announced, and
possibilities open for further dates afterward and along the way.  The
information in the message, along with maps and directions to many
venues, is kept up to date at
http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt/tourdates.html

Wednesday, Jan 2: Washington, DC
  All Souls Church, Unitarian
  1500 Harvard Street,  NW
  (16th and Harvard)
  Washington, DC 20009
  8 PM

Friday, Jan 4: Birmingham, AL
  Pilgrim Congregational Church
  3801 Montclair Road
  Birmingham, AL 35213
  7 PM
  with the Eric Zinman Trio, Tony Wren, Marj McDaid, LaDonna Smith, 
   and poets.

Saturday, January 5: Atlanta, GA
  Eyedrum, 
  290 MLK Jr. Dr. Suite 8, 
  Atlanta, GA 30312
  10 PM

Sunday, January 6 - Tuesday, January 8: Carrboro, NC
  (venues and events TBA)
  with the Alliance for Improvised Music

Sunday, January 13: Nashville, TN
  Ruby Green
  514 Fifth Avenue South, 
  Nashville, TN

Monday, January 14: Louisville, KY
  Artswatch
  2337 Frankfort Ave. 
  Louisville Ky 40206
  9 PM

Wednesday, January 16: Dallas, TX
  (venue and time TBA)
  with QslashC

Thursday, January 17: Austin, TX
  Improvisation Workshop
  Heloise Gold's Tai Chi Studio
  2525 Wallingwood, Building 7, suite 702 B, 
  Austin, TX  
  9 PM

Friday, January 18: Austin, TX
  Cafe Mundi
  1704 E 5th St
  Austin, TX 78702
  6 PM
  with QslashC and friends
  512-236-8634

Saturday, January 19: Austin, TX
  Sound Exchange
  2100A Guadalupe
  Austin, TX 78705
  6 PM

Sunday, January 20: Houston, TX
  Sound Exchange 
  1846 Richmond 
  Houston, TX 77098
  8 PM
  with Philip Gayle

Tuesday, January 22: Baton Rouge, LA
  Louisiana State University
  (Venue and time TBA)

Thursday, January 24: El Paso, TX
  Bridge Center for Contemporary Art
  1 Union Fashion Center
  San Antonio and Stanton
  El Paso, TX 79901

Wednesday, January 31: San Francisco, CA
  Luggage Store Gallery
  1007 Market Street (nr 6th)
  San Francisco, CA 94103

Saturday, February 3: Berkeley, CA
  Large group performance
  (Details TBA)

Wednesday, February 6: Seattle, WA
  Subtext Reading Series
  Richard Hugo House
  1634 11th Ave on Capitol Hill
  Seattle, WA 
  7:30 PM

Friday, February 8: Portland, OR
  (venue and time TBA)

Saturday, February 9: Victoria, BC
  Martin Batchelor Gallery
  712 Cormorant Street 
  (across from City Hall)
  Victoria, BC
  with Lance Olsen & Jamie Drouin

Wednesday, February 13: Olympia, WA
  KAOS-FM Radio
  on "What's This Called? / No Skinny Ties"
  hosted by Jim McAdams
  11 PM-1 AM

 - - - - - - BIOGRAPHY - - - - - - 

Joseph Zitt's vocal performance combines a background in traditional
synagogue and world musics with a mastery of extended vocal
techniques.  While he often approaches performance non-verbally,
focusing on the vocal sounds themselves rather than the meanings of
words, he also includes moving and surprising uses of text in work
that straddles the line between music and poetry. In his solo and
ensemble performances and workshops, he works to create music that is
both complex and clear, exemplifying the best that each person can
bring to free and structured improvisation.

His recent recording, "All Souls", in collaboration with Thomas
Bickley, presents a free long-form improvisation, created on the spot
with intertwining voices exploring the architecture and objects in a
resonant room and its surroundings.  His latest recording,
"Collaborations", captures live improvisations performed with bassists
F. Vattel Cherry and Jane Wang, with percussionist Brian Fending, and
with guitarist Jonathan Matis (both members, along with Zitt, Bickley,
and Matthew Ross Davis, of the ensemble Gray Code), as well as a
studio collaborations with Thomas Bickley and Craque.

His newest book, "Surprise Me With Beauty: the Music of Human
Systems", collects writings and scores from over 20 years that present
and embody new visions of human interaction through structured group
improvisation.  Believing, as John Cage said, that "the performance of
a piece of music can be a metaphor ...  of how we want society to be",
Zitt develops and discusses the creation of ensemble musics that are
clear, multifaceted, and enjoyable.  These scores help reveal and
encourage people's strengths in performance while allowing for
acceptance of and recovery from honest human frailty and error.

Composer Pauline Oliveros has called the book "a wonderful invitation
to participate in making music for musicians, interested people, and
educators. These scores will encourage you to sound the silenced
self."

Joseph Zitt studied cantorial music at Yeshiva University, electronic
and ethnic music and composition at Rutgers University with Daniel
Goode, Phillip Corner, and Barbara Benary, and voice with Martha
Randall.

He has performed in a wide variety of solo and ensemble contexts,
including performing with the ensemble Comma in Pauline Oliveros's
"Lunar Opera" at Lincoln Center in New York City, and with the
ensemble Gray Code at the Knitting Factory in New York and at the 2001
Vision Festival in Washington, DC. He has worked extensively in the
realms of free and structured improvisation with musicians including
Toshi Makihara, John Berndt, LaDonna Smith, Thom the World Poet, and
Philip Gelb.  In annual tours of Texas, his group QslashC, a large and
varied ensemble of musicians, poets, and dancers, explores
improvisation methods and structures in engaging (and often hilarious)
events. He has also led the Human Systems Performance Group, which
moves among dance, theatrical, musical, and video performance to
develop effective multimedia events, and created electronic theatre
scores for the PAM Repertory Company in Brooklyn, NY.

His recordings includes Comma's "(voices)" and Gray Code's "Live in
Philadelphia 2000" on the Metatron Press label, the solo CD
"Jerusaklyn" from MP3.com, and the vocal solo "mouth. midnight." on
the "lowercase" compilation on the Bremsstrahlung label. His other
works include the book "Shekhinah: The Presence" from Metatron Press
and the ambient video dance work, "Gentle Entropy, each of which has
accompanying CDs from the MP3.com label.

He founded and manages Silence: the John Cage Internet discussion
list, and has developed and managed Web sites for businesses and arts
organizations, including the Austin International Poetry Festival and
Metatron Press.  MP3s and streaming recordings of many of his
performances, as well as those of other Metatron Press artists, are
online at 
http://www.metatronpress.com/mp3/.

 
-- 
|> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <|
| jzitt at metatronpress.com           http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt |
| Latest CDs: Collaborations/ All Souls  http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt |
| Comma: Voices of New Music    Silence: the John Cage Discussion List |