TOM HAMILTON has composed and performed electronic music for over 50 years, and his work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis. He is a Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and participated in a residency at the foundation’s center in Umbria. Hamilton’s performing and recording colleagues have included Peter Zummo, Bruce Gremo, Bruce Arnold, Anna Pangalou, Rich O’Donnell, Thomas Buckner, Al Margolis, id m theft able, and Thessia Machado, and he has also performed with Composers Inside Electronics. Hamilton has released 16 CDs of his music and his CD London Fix received an award in the Prix Ars Electronica He was the co-director of the 2004 Sounds Like Now festival, and he co-produced the Cooler in the Shade/Warmer by the Stove new music series in New York for 14 years. Hamilton is currently serving as the music director for five operas by (the late) composer Robert Ashley, and has been a member of that company for 30 years. His audio production is found on over 100 recordings of prominent contemporary musicians.

AL MARGOLIS was a leader in the 1980s American cassette underground through his cassette label Sound of Pig Music and was co-founder of experimental music label Pogus Productions, which he continues to run. Active under the name If, Bwana since 1984, making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented composition. Margolis continues to collaborate live with video artist Katherine Liberovskaya and performs as an electronic/acoustic duo with Tom Hamilton. Other recent projects include duos with Walter Wright (Elka Bong) and Tom Law (Duo Denum).

Open Music performs a new arrangement of three episodes from Robert Ashley’s legendary TV Opera Perfect Lives. Ashley’s Opera, first aired on the UK’s Channel 4 in 1983, is a trance-like journey in music, words, and video through the many-layered soul of America – “these are songs about the corn belt, some of the people in it, or on it.” Open Music, an experimental music collective from central Pennsylvania, brings their unique sound and style and instrumentation (voices, percussion, bass, dulcimer, synthesizer, harmonium and flute)  to bear on new original arrangements of the first, third and seventh episodes (“The Park: Privacy Rules”, “The Bank: Victimless Crime”, “The Backyard: T’be Continued”). Perfect Lives is unlike anything it could possibly be compared to, and opportunities to see it live are rare to say the least. Open Music is excited, and grateful to the Ashley estate, to have the opportunity to bring this visionary epic to life on multiple stages in the northeast this fall. 

Open Music Ensemble

Tara Toms, voice

Jessie Pierce, voice/flute

Nico Gargiulo, voice/harmonium

Chunyuan Di, dulcimer

Corey Elbin, synthesizer

Tommy Gargiulo, bass

Kevin Sims, percussion

RSVP Required (www.eventbrite.com/e/max-meetup-philadelphia-tickets-828538730647)

Max Meetup Philadelphia is a regular meeting to share ideas and strengthen the connections of the Philadelphia community of Max users, digital artists and musicians. Each meetup will feature workshops, conversations, and open work-shares focusing on art-making, Max, and digital technologies. All experience levels are welcome to attend. Attendees are encouraged to bring their computers if they wish to patch along with the workshops.
This Meetup will feature a demonstration and presentation by Aeroidio (Adam Vidiksis and Sam Wells) on a recent web that integrates machine learning and RNBO generated audio. Working in collaboration with the Little Artists League in Tokyo, Japan, a global-minded art organization devoted to fostering children’s creativity through process-oriented art, Aeroidio has developed a web application that transforms camera and gestural data from a mobile device, turning it into an interactive musical instrument that nearly anyone can play.
Following, Aeroidio, Wells will lead a workshop highlighting the exciting, new features in the most recent release of Max, version 8.6.

This event is free and open to the public.
Max Meetup Philadelphia is organized by Sam Wells, a musician, video artist, and Max Certified Trainer based in Philadelphia.
Support provided by Fidget.

“Art is a game between all people of all periods.” —Marcel Duchamp

The Backyard was developed in a residency with Steve Paxton and Lisa Nelson at their studio on Mad Brook Farm in Vermont in summer 2017 and 2018. Performed by Megan Bridge and Beau Hancock, this 45 minute improvised dance proposes a hyper-conscious inhabiting of time, space, and relationship; a radical invitation for intimacy and embodiment. Placing Paxton/Nelson’s work PA RT (1978-2002) at the center of our research, The Backyard exists in a landscape of deep listening and rigorous attention. With music by Robert Ashley, this new work is also a palimpsest of PA RT—an effaced manuscript, written over, but still bearing traces of its original form.

Megan and Peter perform at a very special iteration of Andrea Clearfield’s salon, dedicated to the memory of Manfred Fischbeck. Megan and Peter were both long time collaborators of Manfred’s and are grateful to participate in this memorial performance.

You are invited to the next SZALON on Sunday, March 26th. This beautiful program will feature dance, music, visual art and poetry and will be dedicated to the beloved memory of Manfred Fischbeck (dancer, choreographer, musician, poet) who died on March 17, 2021. Featured artists include Aura Fischbeck-Wise, Laina Fischbeck, Myra Bazell, Megan Bridge and Peter Price, Renee Kurz and Katie Bank, Rita Blitt, Dan Lippel, Umer Piracha and Paul Arendt, Dallas Vietty, Sheila Browne, Marion Halliday, Madaline Danila and Hugh Sung. You may RSVP to attend in Philly at clearfieldsalonconcert@gmail.com (instructions will be sent) or join online. Here is the Zoom link. 

Premiere of Megan Bridge’s newest work: Antics, Reversed. The performance takes place this Friday and Saturday, February 10 & 11, 7:30pm, at the Mandell Theater in University City, Philadelphia. The work is performed by the Drexel Dance Ensemble, and features original music performed live by Fidget's co-director Peter Price.