December 26, 2011
Thanks for visiting TILT Brass on the web! Here’s a play-by-play of what we’ve been up to in 2011.
On April 2nd, TILT Creative Brass Band (TCBB) released its first full-length recording, To TILT: Volume One! We celebrated in style with a really special CD release event at Invisible Dog Art Center in Brooklyn featuring TCBB, TILT SIXtet, and a thrilling improvisation between Phantom Orchard (Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori ) and the Peter Evans/Nate Wooley Duo.
The awesomeness continued on in June with two very important shows for the organization. On June 21st, TILT Brass and Friends brought SWELTER to life around The Lake at Central Park. Presented by our good friends at MATA and Make Music, New York, SWELTER was a wonderful collaboration between regular TILT players, new colleagues from the brass community, and the Australian sound art collective Super Critical Mass. Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times wrote a review of the performance, and apparently someone accepted a wedding proposal on one of the boats as we sonically engaged this watery jewel of the city from its shores.
View more SWELTER pictures here.
After our large-scale, outdoor success with SWELTER, we moved back indoors on June 30th for a smaller-scale Chamber Music Show during Darmstadt Institute at ISSUE Project Room. To a full-house and with an all-star cast of musicians, TILT presented the New York premiere of Herakles 2 by acclaimed German composer Heiner Goebbels, among other singular works by local trombone hero Peter Zummo, British composer Richard Barrett, and a recent work by yours truly entitled quartet music.
On Sept. 30th and Oct. 1st, TILT Brass and Santa Fe-based organization Littleglobe presented the World Premiere of GARDEN II: House, a TILT commissioned intermedia work (music and video) by composer, performer, media artist and United States Artists Simon Fellow Chris Jonas. In addition to the integral video and installation production work by the Littleglobe team, GARDEN II: House featureed local creative music stalwarts Herb Robertson on trumpet and Joe Fiedler on trombone, along with the composer on soprano saxophone and myself also on trombone. This innovative blend of acoustic musical interactivity with three dimensional video projection garnered the project a prestigious Meet the Composer Commissioning Music/USA award in 2010.
"House" Quartet - Chris Jonas, Chris McIntyre, Joe Fiedler, Herb Robertson
And finally, on Dec. 29th, 30th, and 31st, a sextet of TILT Brass’ finest players brings two world premiere compositions to life during the historic final performances of the Merce Cunningham Dance Co. John King and David Behrman‘s new works feature a 6-piece ensemble of trumpets and trombones, filling the enormous Park Avenue Armory Drill Hall space with live and digitally processed sound. It’s a true honor for TILT to be involved in this extraordinary set of events, and we’re hopeful that it leads to bigger and brighter things in 2012 and beyond.
Looking forward to seeing you all next year!
Chris McIntyre
Director, TILT Brass
