Event Concerts and Performances Music of Anthony Braxton

Date and Location

Part of Concerts from the Library of Congress

The event is free, but tickets are required, and there may be special restrictions. Click the "Get Tickets" link below for more information and to secure your ticket.

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For more than half a century Anthony Braxton has played a key role in contemporary and avant-garde music as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, music theorist, teacher and visionary. Inspired by Jazz, European 
art music, and music of global cultures, Braxton labels his output Creative Music. The Library of Congress celebrates his work with a concert featuring an array of stellar collaborators. Fittingly for a composer known for his expansive range, the three works on the program employ different systems of notation, improvisation and Braxton’s current explorations in live-electronic music.  

“Composition No. 100” (1981) is a key work in the composer’s output for Creative Music Orchestra, embedding his Language Music within notated and graphical structures. “Composition No. 222” for violin and piano, a commission from the Library’s McKim Fund, was premiered in the Coolidge Auditorium in 1998. A selection from Braxton’s “Ghost Trance Music,” the duo holds a special place in that series as one of the composer’s only pieces written for a specific instrumentation. Always looking forward, the evening concludes with the U.S. premiere of Thunder Music, a new musical system that allows each performer to control the live electronic modulation of sound as well as the sound of thunder. 

This concert is presented in cooperation with the Tri-Centric Foundation. 

Preconcert Conversation with the composer and the artists 

6:30 pm, Whittall Pavilion 

Schedule

Program  

  

ANTHONY BRAXTON 

Composition 222 

Composition 100 

Thunder Music   

  

  

Performers 

Anthony Braxton, saxophone and electronics 

Jean Cook, violin 

Erica Dicker, violin 

James Fei, saxophone 

Nick Hallett, voice 

Chris Jonas, saxophone 

Adam Matlock, accordion and voice 

Dan Peck, tuba 

Reut Regev, trombone 

Tomeka Reid, cello 

Anne Rhodes, voice 

Stephanie Richards, trumpet 

Aaron Siegel, percussion 

Carl Testa, double bass, electronics 

Cory Smythe, piano 

Katherine Young, bassoon