Wet Ink Ensemble Kicks Off 25th Anniversary Season with Concert of World Premieres on October 9

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Leah Rankin | Morahan Arts and Media
leah@morahanartsandmedia.com | 646-378-9386

Wet Ink Ensemble Kicks Off 25th Anniversary Season
with Concert of World Premieres on October 9

Concert Showcases New Works by Mariel Roberts, Kate
Soper, and Josh Modney at Scorca Hall

www.wetink.org 

New York, NY (September 28, 2023) — New York City-based new music collective Wet Ink Ensemble opens its 25th anniversary season with an evening of world premieres by Wet Ink’s composer-performers Mariel Roberts, Kate Soper, and Josh Modney on Monday, October 9, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. at Opera America’s Scorca Hall.

Kate Soper’s Underneath for solo cello was written during lockdown and has “existed only in my imagination for the past two and a half years,” she said. “I am honored to have Mariel Roberts bring it to life!” The work was commissioned by the I&I Foundation with a generous contribution from Jean-Jacques Indermuehle. 

Mariel Robert’s new work, Sunder, for solo piano and electronics, utilizes field recordings made at the border wall between the US and Mexico, and aims to reframe the performer's presence in these borderland soundscapes by transforming and interacting with the physical body of the instrument. The piece is built around the idea of bringing a performer to fit the natural qualities of a space, and letting the performer be shaped by these spaces. Each of the seven movements is centered around recordings made at a different location along the border wall, starting in San Antonio and ending in San Diego. Sunder was written for pianist Conor Hanick, and made possible through support from Some Serious Business and the Shifting Foundation. 

Josh Modney’s LYNX is the second of five pieces in his Ascending Primes series (a double album of chamber works which will be released on Pyroclastic Records in May 2024). Tailored to the distinctive virtuosity of Mariel Roberts, LYNX travels to many places over its 10-minute duration as violin and electronics process and augment the soloistic cello lines that form the backbone of the piece. LYNX was made possible through support from the Shifting Foundation.

On Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. Wet Ink celebrates the release of Eric Wubbels’s concert-length trio if and only if on Carrier Records with a rare live performance of the complete work at the Tenri Cultural Institute. Wet Ink continues its anniversary programming with a 25th Anniversary Festival with three concerts from Thursday, December 7, 2023 - Saturday, December 9, 2023 at Dixon Place. Details to be announced. 

Performance Details:
Wet Ink Ensemble’s Season 25 Opener: Roberts (feat. Hanick), Soper, Modney
Monday, October 9, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Opera America, Scorca Hall | 330 7th Ave 7th Floor | New York, NY 10001
Tickets: $20 suggested / pay what you can / students free (reserve online or purchase at door)
Ticket Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/season-25-opener-roberts-feat-hanick-soper-modney-tickets-721799350287?aff=oddtdtcreator 

Program:
Mariel Roberts - Sunder, for piano and electronics* 
Kate Soper- Underneath, for solo cello*
Josh Modney - LYNX, for violin, cello, and electronics*

*World Premiere

Artists:
Conor Hanick, piano
Josh Modney, violin
Mariel Roberts, cello
Sam Pluta, electronics

About Wet Ink Ensemble
The Wet Ink Ensemble is a collective of composers, performers, and improvisers dedicated to adventurous music-making. Named “The Best Classical Music Ensemble of 2018” by The New York Times, Wet Ink’s work is rooted in an ethos of innovation through collaboration, extending from the music and the unique performance practice developed in the “band” atmosphere of Wet Ink’s core ensemble of composer-performers, to projects with a broad range of renowned creators, from Evan Parker to George Lewis to Peter Ablinger, and committed performances of music by young and underrepresented composers, from today’s most promising emerging voices to the next generation of artists.

Hailed for “sublimely exploratory” (The Chicago Reader) and “dense, wild, yet artfully controlled” (The New York Times) performances and “uncompromisingly original music by its members, and unflagging belief in the power of collaboration” (The New Yorker), Wet Ink has been presenting concerts of new music at the highest level in New York City and around the world for over 20 years. Wet Ink’s programming celebrates the nexus of composition, improvisation and interpretation, from early collaborations with Christian Wolff and ZS to pioneering portrait concerts of Peter Ablinger, Mathias Spahlinger, Anthony Braxton, and the AACM composers, work with renowned creative musicians such as Ingrid Laubrock, Peter Evans, Darius Jones, and Katherine Young, and long-term collaborative projects with Wet Ink’s four acclaimed composer-members (Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels). In May 2020, the ensemble launched Wet Ink Archive, an online journal of adventurous music featuring writings and recordings by a wide range of artists (please visit at archive.wetink.org).

Wet Ink has been in residence at institutions including Duke University, EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center), Columbia University, the Royal Academy of Music (UK), and The Walden School, among many others, and has been featured on numerous recordings. Highlights include Katharina Rosenberger’s TEXTUREN, which was awarded a German Record Critics Prize, and solo records by Alex Mincek (Torrent), Kate Soper (IPSA DIXIT), Sam Pluta (Broken Symmetries), Eric Wubbels (Duos with Piano, Book 1), and Josh Modney (Engage), all of which were celebrated on various “Best of” lists by The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bandcamp Daily, Sequenza 21, and The Nation. Wet Ink has released four acclaimed solo albums (Wet Ink Ensemble; Relay; Wet Ink: 20, which features the Wet Ink Large Ensemble; and Glossolalia/Lines on Black).

Wet Ink is co-directed by an octet of world class composers, improvisers, and interpreters that collaborate in band-like fashion, writing, improvising, preparing, and touring pieces together over long stretches of time. These directors are Erin Lesser (flutes), Alex Mincek (saxophone), Ian Antonio (percussion), Eric Wubbels (piano), Josh Modney (violin), Mariel Roberts (cello), Kate Soper (voice), and Sam Pluta (electronics). The Wet Ink Large Ensemble is a group of extraordinary New York City musicians that come together to play the world's most exciting and innovative music. Learn more at www.wetink.org.

Image of Wet Ink by Alexander Perrelli

# # #