Apr. 1: Wet Ink Ensemble Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Musical Bash at Roulette Intermedium

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214

WET INK ENSEMBLE CELEBRATES 20TH ANNIVERSARY
WITH BASH AT ROULETTE INTERMEDIUM, APRIL 1

Highlighting the Work of Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels

New York, NY (March 5, 2019) — On Monday, April 1st, 2019 at 8:00pm, the "sublimely exploratory” (The Chicago Reader) Wet Ink Ensemble, named The New York Times’s “Best Ensemble of 2018,” celebrates 20 years of adventurous music-making in a concert at Roulette Intermedium.

The anniversary bash celebrates the work of the Wet Ink Ensemble’s four acclaimed composer members—Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels—and features a retrospective look at "classics" of Wet Ink's repertoire, including Alex Mincek's From Nowhere to Nowhere and Kate Soper's Door, as well as new sounds including Sam Pluta's binary/momentary iii for solo cello featuring Mariel Roberts and the world premiere of a new work for Wet Ink's core septet of composer-performers by Eric Wubbels. Rounding out the program, the ensemble will perform Julien Malaussena’s dynamic quintet Concerning Articulated Sound Energy.

Wet Ink Executive Director and violinist Josh Modney says, “We are proud to celebrate Wet Ink’s 20th Anniversary with a program that highlights the various facets of our ensemble’s mission, from Eric Wubbels’s new septet work to Sam Pluta’s binary/momentary iii, written for cello phenom and frequent Wet Ink collaborator Mariel Roberts, and a quintet by Julien Malaussena, a strong emerging voice on the contemporary music scene. In addition to these new collaborations, we will revisit two of our favorite works by Alex Mincek and Kate Soper from Wet Ink Ensemble’s eponymous 2009 debut release on Carrier Records. We are thrilled to be celebrating this milestone at Roulette, which has long provided a home for our concerts, and look forward to continuing to cultivate Wet Ink’s ethos of innovation through collaboration as we enter the ensemble’s third decade.”

Program Information
Wet Ink: 20th Anniversary Bash
Monday, April 1st, 2019 at 8:00pm
Roulette | 509 Atlantic Avenue | Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets: $18 in advance, $25 at the door.
Link: http://roulette.org/event/wet-ink-20th-anniversary-bash/

Repertoire:
Alex Mincek: From Nowhere To Nowhere, for ensemble
Kate Soper: Door, for voice and ensemble
Sam Pluta: binary/momentary iii for solo cello, for Mariel Roberts
Eric Wubbels: New Work for Wet Ink Septet [World Premiere]
Julien Malaussena: Concerning Articulated Sound Energy, for ensemble

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

About Wet Ink Ensemble
The Wet Ink Ensemble, a “sublimely exploratory” (The Chicago Reader) collective of composers, improvisers and interpreters hailed for “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” (Steve Smith, The New Yorker), is proud to celebrate 20 years of adventurous music-making in NYC and around the world with the 2018-19 concert season. The 20th Anniversary Season highlights the ethos of innovation through collaboration that has guided the work of Wet Ink throughout the ensemble’s history, celebrating the music and the unique performance practice developed in the “band” atmosphere of Wet Ink’s core septet of composer-performers, and presenting exciting new projects with emerging and underrepresented artists and longtime collaborators.

Since the group’s first concerts in 1998, Wet Ink has moved fluently along a continuum of composition, improvisation, and interpretation, from early collaborations with Christian Wolff, George Lewis, and ZS to pioneering portrait concerts of Peter Ablinger, Mathias Spahlinger, Anthony Braxton, and the AACM composers, and deep, long-term creative work by members of Wet Ink.

In that same spirit, Season 20 showcases the many facets of the group’s work – highlights include a retrospective look at “classics” of Wet Ink’s repertoire and new projects by Sky Macklay, Rick Burkhardt, Catherine Lamb, and Wet Ink’s four acclaimed composer-members (Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Kate Soper, and Eric Wubbels); the release of Wet Ink: 20 on Carrier Records, the debut album featuring the 28 musicians of the Wet Ink Large Ensemble; the release of Josh Modney’s Engage on New Focus Recordings, “one of the most intriguing programs of the year” (The New York Times); the release of Kate Soper’s IPSA DIXIT on New World Records; and new collaborations with renowned creative musicians Darius Jones, Peter Evans (Being & Becoming), Charmaine Lee, Cory Smythe, and many others.

Wet Ink is co-directed by a core septet 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), 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 http://www.wetink.org/.

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