Wet Ink Ensemble Performs NYC Premiere of Eric Wubbels’s if and only if on November 12

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

Wet Ink Ensemble Performs NYC Premiere of 
Eric Wubbels’s if and only if on November 12

Wet Ink Celebrates 25 Years of Adventurous Music-making
with 25th Anniversary Festival at Dixon Place December 7-9

www.wetink.org 

New York, NY (October 24, 2023) — New York City-based new music collective Wet Ink Ensemble celebrates the release of Eric Wubbels’s new album if and and only if on Carrier Records with the NYC premiere performance of the complete concert-length work on Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. at the Tenri Cultural Institute. 

Composed for Wet Ink Ensemble members Josh Modney (violin) and Mariel Roberts (cello)  between 2018-2019, if and only if builds on the trio's nearly 15-year history of playing together, a period of joint exploration and consolidation of new approaches to tuning, harmony, and ensemble virtuosity. Josh and Mariel will be joined by Eric Wubbels on piano for this performance.

Written in an extended tonality that hybridizes a resonance-based just-intonation derived from string instruments with the scalar, distortion-oriented temperament of the piano, if and only if unfolds in a gradually intensifying, spiraling progression over the course of an hour, building from moments of bleak transparency reminiscent of Medieval music to dense, saturated string drones, frenetic rhythmic unison, and ecstatic, kaleidoscopic polyphony. Combining technical sophistication with a direct, expressive urgency, the piece is both a major work of contemporary chamber music as well as a joyfully virtuosic showcase for the trio's musical and personal history together.

Wet Ink celebrates 25 years of adventurous music-making in NYC with a three-night Wet Ink 25th Anniversary Festival on Thursday, December 7, 2023 at 8:00 p.m., Friday, December 8, 2023 at 8:00 p.m., and Saturday, December 9, 2023 at 8:00 p.m. at Dixon Place. The festival features Wet Ink’s octet of composer-performers and guest artists from the group’s history. The festival opens with an evening of compositions for large ensemble by creative-music pioneers Anthony Braxton, Pauline Oliveros, Christian Wolff, and others. The second and third nights, focused on works for small ensemble and octet, will include premieres for the Wet Ink band by Kate Soper and Josh Modney, a premiere for voice and piano by 2023 Artist-In-Residence Rick Burkhardt, a rare performance of mathias spahlinger's adieu m'amour for violin and cello, works by Chiyoko Szlavnics, Sam Pluta, Eric Wubbels, Alex Mincek, and more!

Performance Details:
Eric Wubbels if and only if piano trio album release concert
Sunday, November 12th, 2023 at 8:00 P.M.
Tenri Cultural Institute | 43A W 13th St | New York, NY 10011
Tickets: $20 (includes copy of if and only if) [reserve online or purchase at door]
Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eric-wubbels-if-and-only-if-piano-trio-album-release-concert-tickets-740433014077?aff=oddtdtcreator 

Program:
Eric Wubbels - if and only if [2018-19], for piano trio

Artists:
Josh Modney, violin
Mariel Roberts, cello
Eric Wubbels, piano

Wet Ink 25th Anniversary Festival
Thursday, December 7th, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Friday, December 8th, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, December 9th, 2023 at 8:00 p.m.
Dixon Place | 161A Chrystie St | New York, NY 10002
Tickets: $20 suggested / pay what you can / students free [reserve online or purchase at door]
Link: https://www.wetink.org/events/season-25/25th-anniversary-festival 

Program:
Works by Anthony Braxton, Pauline Oliveros, Christian Wolff, Kate Soper, Josh Modney, Rick Burkhardt, Mathias Spahlinger, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Sam Pluta, Eric Wubbels, Alex Mincek, and more.

Artists:
Wet Ink Ensemble
     Erin Lesser, flutes
     Alex Mincek, saxophone 
    Ian Antonio, percussion 
    Eric Wubbels, piano 
    Josh Modney, violin
     Mariel Roberts, cello
     Kate Soper, voice 
    Sam Pluta, electronics
Plus special guests TBA

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

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