UTEC, 35 Warren St. Lowell MA: March 6 – 8, 2020
Organizers: Dei Xhrist, Walter Wright, Tara Toms
The venue is a beautifully renovated church – the oldest LEEDS Platinum certified building – about a mile from mass transit, with nearby off-street parking, handicap access and elevators, and wonderful beautiful necessary climate control.
Facebook event page
XFest-pre-fest at Wire Factory, Lowell:
Kat Dobbins
Ras Moshe Burnett
Friday, March 6, 2020
Andrew Neumann, Zachariah Beaver, Tone Moser
John Moore, Conor Perreault, Angela Sawyer, Greg Paul, Bonnie Kane
Tracy Lisk, Aly Gear, Rahul Nair, Tara Toms, Katherine Liberovskaya
Arnaud le Mindu, Duane Ingalls
Allie Berger, Kwami Winfield, Walter Wright
Steven Davis, Jabe Ledoux, Alessandro Maione, Bbob Drake, Ras Moshe
Saturday, March 7, 2020 workshops
Performance aspects of experimental music (Michael Mambrino). Discussion and hands-on exploration of techniques to break out of your performative comfort zone. Free, all ages
Music as a second language (Neil Horsky, Ian Kovac, Scott Mizrachi). XFest Etiquette: conversations and group musical experimentations related to listening, dynamics, supporting others, silence, etc. Free, all ages
Improvisation & Decision-making (Gahlord Dewald). Three different ways to be a part of the creation of new sounds and new ideas in our world. Free/donation/trade
Icepick to the Moon screening and Q&A with director Skizz Cyzyk
“As a radio station music director in the late 80’s, a record came across my desk that changed my life. It was called “Car Radio Jerome” by Rev. Fred Lane & His Hittite Hotshots. I simply didn’t know what to make of it, but I knew that I liked it and had never heard anything quite like it before.” This led Skizz Cyzyk to investigate the origins of Fred Lane, and his subsequent exposure to the Raudelunas arts collective. 99 min screening followed by Q&A.
Saturday, March 7, 2020 ensembles
Sunday, March 8, 2020
Improvisation 101 (Walter Wright). Improv 101: the basics, exercises in spontaneous group composition. Listening to, looking for, and feeling form. Mutuality! Bring an instrument or just use what you are. 1.5 hrs. Free, all ages
Graphic Score & Found Sound (Ben Miller). Ben Miller will present a Composed Improvisation Workshop using simple structures to organize creative events. Exploring the innate talent of all those who attend will be the focus. Attendees can bring a musical instrument, or obscure soundmaking device, or voice. There will be two small tape machines and a transistor radio for sound sources, too. Found Sound is encouraged! Regarding musical technique, we will use whatever we know. If you can sight read, great. If you are unable to read music, no problem. Whatever abilities we have as a large ensemble, we will utilize accordingly. If an attendee is more interested in Dance or Painting, rather than sound, please feel free to attend. We can incorporate more than 1 medium. Musicians, Vocalists, Non-Musicians, Dancers, Painters, anyone is welcome. In a group setting, attendees will utilize both chance operations and deliberate decision-making to create a Composed Improvisation. Chance operations include rolling dice, use of random numerical sequences, etc. The difference between Composition and Improvisation is both wide and closely knit. Composition is pre-organized ideas. Improvisation is executing, or arranging anything without previous preparation.
Improv challenges 5pm – 9pm: number and names of players drawn from a hat
1 Joe Brown, Ben Miller, Dei Xhrist
2 Kwami Winfield
3 Bbob Drake
4 Alessandro Maione, Alexandra Derderian, Ras Moshe
5 Ben Miller, Vanessa LeFevre
6 Dei Xhrist, Jim Warren, Joe Brown
7 Tracy Lisk, Kwami Winfield