Dick / Haluska / Ilgenfritz Trio
Schedule
Fri, 06 Mar, 2026 at 08:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
341 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY, United States, New York 14202 | Buffalo, NY
Advertisement
Friday, March 6th • 8:00 p.m. Dick / Haluska / Ilgenfritz Trio
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center
341 Delaware Ave. Buffalo, NY
$25 general admission, $20 students seniors, $18 members
www.hallwalls.org
Robert Dick - flute
Stephen Haluska - harp
James Ilgenfritz - contrabass
ROBERT DICK:
Robert Dick is a flutist, composer, teacher, inventor, and author. World-renowned as the leader in contemporary music for flute, Robert Dick embodies the ideal of the Renaissance artist. With equally deep roots in classical music old and new and in free improvisation and new jazz, he has established himself as an artist who has not only mastered, but redefined the instrument. In 2014, the National Flute Association honored Robert Dick with its Lifetime Achievement Award. https://robertdick.net/
“A flutist whose technical resources and imagination seem limitless.” –The New York Times
“Dick held the audience in rapt attention with his spellbinding virtuosity” –Washington Post
Robert Dick has dispensed with preconceptions about what a flutist should sound like and what a flutist should play. A revolutionary composer/performer/improviser, he has literally redefined the flute for our age. He began composing and improvising in the 1970s, driven by the core idea that acoustic instruments can be played as human-powered synthesizers, and by his love of continuous transformation of sound. Listening to
Robert Dick play solo has been likened to the experience of hearing a large ensemble, an ensemble in which the instruments seem both acoustic and electronic and freely morph into each other.
Robert has performed and recorded with an extraordinary array of musical personalities, including Steve Lacy, John Zorn, Thomas Buckner, Roscoe Mitchell, Ursel Schlicht, Leroy Jenkins, Adam Caine, Tiffany Chang, Nicola Hein, Dan Blake, Miya Masaoka, Joëlle Leandre, Mark Dresser, Gerry Hemingway, Ulrike Lentz, Dave Soldier, Ned Rothenberg, Christy Doran, Steve Argüelles and many others.
Robert’s invention, the Glissando Headjoint®, has revolutionized the essential sound of the flute, doing for the flute what the whammy bar does for the electric guitar and bringing a vocal quality that is entirely new to the instrument.
STEPHAN HALUSKA:
Cleveland-based improviser, harpist, and composer, Stephan Haluska (he/they) draws from the instrument’s unique textural, percussive, physical, and kinetic qualities. Viewing the harp as a frequently misunderstood and underrepresented instrument in contemporary music, he often rejects conventional modes of playing in favor of finding new ways to expand his sound palette. Stephan plays with an advanced vocabulary of extended techniques and preparations, which explore the use of various tools, materials, gadgetry, and household objects, interweaving elements of found sound, collage, sound art, and movement into his artistic practice.
Since 2021, Stephan leads Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project (CUSP) as Managing Director. CUSP is dedicated to strengthening the artistic engagement of the Northeast Ohio community by championing the creation and performance of new and experimental music through concert programming and other events. Stephan is on faculty at Case Western Reserve University as Part-Time Lecturer in the music department, teaching music technology. Stephan holds an MFA in Harp Performance with a concentration in Improvisation from Mills College in Oakland, California and Bowling Green State University, where he received a BA in Music Composition and Theory.
JAMES ILGENFRITZ:
Composer and bassist James Ilgenfritz is recognized in the New Yorker for his “characteristic magnanimity” and his “invaluable contributions to New York’s new-music community." His 2019 album You Scream A Rapid Language collects recent chamber works, and features Pauline Kim Harris, Conrad Harris, William Winant, Thomas Buckner, Kathleen Supové, Margaret Lancaster, and Joseph Kubera, and was noted in The Wire for its "glint of mischief" and ability to "foreground the performative and gestural elements of music making."
James presented residencies at John Zorn’s The Stone in 2015 and 2017. In 2019 James performed in Anthony Braxton’s Composer Portrait concert at Columbia University’s Miller Theater (with Either/Or and the JACK Quartet), and premiered his second opera, I Looked At The Eclipse. Recent projects include his trio Hypercolor (released on John Zorn’s record label Tzadik with Lukas Ligeti & Eyal Maoz) and his recent solo CD Origami Cosmos (featuring works by Annie Gosfield, Miya Masaoka, Elliott Sharp, & JG Thirlwell). In June 2018 James presented his second residency at John Zorn’s venue The Stone, with premieres for the Momenta Quartet, flutist Margaret Lancaster, The New Thread Saxophone Quartet, and the Kathleen Supové/James Moore/Jennifer Choi trio, as well as solo bass works by John King, Anthony Donofrio, and Lucie Vitkova.
James has performed throughout the US, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Poland, and Switzerland. James’s notable performances include work with composer/improvisers Pauline Oliveros, Roscoe Mitchell, Rufus Reid, Anthony Braxton, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, and many others. James has received grants from New Music USA and American Composers Forum. He holds degrees from University of Michigan and University of California San Diego. James began New York’s first Suzuki Bass program at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music in 2011, and continued there until 2019, when he left to pursue a PhD in music composition at University of California Irvine. James splits his time between Brooklyn, NY and southern California.
•••
In June 2025, Robert Dick, Stephan Haluska, and James Ilgenfritz released "Time Wants a Skeleton" on Infrequent Seams. “Time Wants a Skeleton” marks the second collaborative release of Robert Dick and Stephan Haluska, expanding upon their creative approach to the classical flute and harp pairing, now as a trio, with James Ilgenfritz joining on upright bass. The trio recording in 2023 documents their first time, all playing together. Featuring three generations of improvisers, “Time Wants a Skeleton” celebrates and transcends age through the timeless art of spontaneous composition.
"Time Wants a Skeleton" was named an Honorable Mention for the New York City Jazz Record Best New Releases for 2025
https://infrequentseams.bandcamp.com/album/time-wants-a-skeleton
Advertisement
Where is it happening?
341 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY, United States, New York 14202Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
