MIDTOWN LIVE Series-1

Jazz, Electronics & Multimedia

Midtown Live launches its inaugural season at THE BLANC in celebration of 20th-century sonic innovations that occurred in our neighborhood—like Fox Film's pioneering of synchronized sound-on-film with the opening of its Movietone studios in 1927, NBC's construction of the world's largest radio studio in 1933, and Charlie Parker's recording of his bebop classic "Ko-Ko" at WOR Studios in 1945, which revolutionized American music.

Curator

Neil Leonard

For over 40 years, Neil Leonard has curated events championing contemporary and experimental music that crosses artistic and cultural boundaries, pairing established with emerging artists. He has programmed concerts in NYC, Boston, Brazil, Cuba, Italy, China, Burundi, and the US.

Leonard curated concerts as Artistic Director of the Interdisciplinary Arts Institute at Berklee College of Music. He was also Director of the Sguardi Sonori festival (Italy) and of Sonic Arts at GASP Gallery (Massachusetts). Leonard served as curator of Bar Matanzas at documenta 14 and of the American Composers Forum's Sonic Circuits, Boston edition. He programmed concerts at Parco della Musica in Rome and, in the US, at THE BLANC and Experimental Intermedia in New York. Additionally, Leonard curated concerts at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, ICA Boston, MIT Media Lab, Mass MoCA, the Paul Robeson House in Philadelphia, and the National Center of Afro-American Artists. His curatorial projects featured performances by Terence Blanchard, Juan Blanco, Olivia Block, Joseph Branciforte, Don Byron, Alvin Curran, Graham Haynes, John Hollenbeck, Vijay Iyer, Mike Ladd, Steve Lehman, George Lewis, Los Muñequitos de Matanzas, Phill Niblock, Pauline Oliveros, Robin Rimbaud, Stephen Vitiello, Amnon Wolman, Pamela Z and numerous emerging artists. Midtown Live extends that work into dialogue with the sonic history of this neighborhood itself.

About Series-1

An evening of visionary work by electronic composers and improvisers. Michael Schumacher performs new works with his Portable Multi-channel Sound System, a 12-channel system that fits in a suitcase, with which he has toured Europe and the United States. His compositions will be diffused throughout the audience, integrating sound sources within the space and challenging notions of media and communal listening. James Ilgenfritz and AC Diamond then create an improvised dialogue that explores new modes of electronic improvisation, drawing on Ilgenfritz experiences with Aphasia and other complications from surgeries and radiation to treat three benign brain tumors since 2013.

Musicians' Bios

Michael J. Schumacher

Michael J. Schumacher is a composer, performer, and installation artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He was the founder and director of Diapason Gallery, New York's only gallery devoted to sound art, from 1996 to 2011, and is the music director of the Liz Gerring Dance Company. His sound installations have been heard at festivals and venues in North America and Europe. He has received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award and a DAAD residency in Berlin.

His generative sound installation Living Room Pieces (Chaikin Records), praised by The Washington Post, runs continually in the listener's home. Schumacher's composition "Grid," a computer-generated score, has been exhibited in New York, Barcelona, and Houston. "The Portable Multi-channel Sound System" is an 8- or 12-channel system that fits in a suitcase, with which he has toured Europe and the United States.

James Ilgenfritz

James Ilgenfritz is recognized in The New Yorker for his “characteristic magnanimity” and “invaluable contributions to New York’s new-music community.” He is the founder and director of the Infrequent Seams record label and the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Ephemera Obscura, Inc. He performs internationally and has composed for Ghost Ensemble, the New Thread saxophone quartet, HUB New Music, The Momenta Quartet, Hypercube, String Noise, and Thomas Buckner. He has twice had residencies at John Zorn’s The Stone, and has performed in Asia, Europe, and throughout the United States. Recent albums include Automatic Thinking (with vocalist Thomas Buckner), Altamirage with Pauline Oliveros, and #entrainments (featuring Gerry Hemingway). Ilgenfritz holds a PhD from University of California Irvine and degrees from UC San Diego and University of Michigan. Recent work reflects on experiences with Aphasia and other complications from surgeries and radiation to treat three benign brain tumors since 2013.

AC Diamond

AC Diamond (Anastasia Clarke) is a sound and media artist working across live performance, creative technology, and archives. Their work takes place in galleries, theaters, DIY venues, unconventional venues, and public spaces. Active since 2009, AC holds an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College and a BA from Bennington College, and currently serves as Adjunct Faculty in Music Technology at NYU Steinhardt. AC's work has been supported by a NYFA/NYSCA Fellowship in Music/Sound (2022–23) and a Van Lier Fellowship at Roulette Intermedium (2020), as well as grants from NYSCA/Wave Farm, the Foundation for Contemporary Art, Antisocial Music, and the Queens Arts Fund.