January 07, 2002

CONTACT: Jim Steinblatt 212-621-6318 jsteinblatt@ascap.com

The ASCAP Foundation will present the newest installment of Thru the Walls, a new music performance showcase series, at the Cutting Room in Manhattan on January 14, 2002 at 7 PM. Sponsored in part by Sibelius, the music notation software company, Thru the Walls is designed to showcase the work of composer/performers whose concert music defies boundaries and genres. Frank J. Oteri (composer and editor of New Music Box) will be on hand to emcee the event. The featured composer-artists are: drummer Bobby Previte, contrabassist Mark Dresser, pianist Denman Maroney and electronic musician/drummer Lukas Ligeti. Thru the Walls was conceived and produced by ASCAP composer/performer Martha Mooke.

The Cutting Room is located at 19 West 24th Street (between Broadway and Sixth Avenue) in Manhattan. The show will take place at 7 pm on Monday, January 14th. The cover charge is $10. Space is limited. Please RSVP by e-mailing Cia Toscanini at ctoscanini@ascap.com or calling (212) 621-8472.

Bobby Previte
One of the original figures in the "downtown" scene in New York City, Bobby Previte is widely hailed for both for his artful and electrifying drumming, and his highly individual, visceral compositions. Previte has received many grants and awards, winning Downbeat Magazine's "Composer Deserving of Wider Recognition," becoming Rolling Stone's "Hot Jazz Artist," and being honored as one of Jazziz Magazine's "150 Who Moved Jazz." Previte studied music at the University of Buffalo, where instructors included Morton Feldman and John Cage, majoring in percussion under the legendary Jan Williams. He has released many records as a leader and has appeared on numerous others as a drummer, and has taken his music around the world, from the United States to Europe, Australia, Japan, and South America, including most of the major music festivals of the world. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He also was composer for Mark Rappaport’s film, Chain Letters. Previte premiered his newest work, "The 23 Constellations of Joan Miró" on April 7 and 8, 2000 in Manchester and Birmingham, England. Written at the MacDowell Colony and scored for eight musicians with conductor, this work was released on Tzadik Records' "Composer Series" last October. A new recording of the Bump the Renaissance band, Just Add Water, will be released in January on Palmetto Records. Mr. Previte has done numerous workshops, lectures, and master classes around the world.

Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser has been composing and performing solo contrabass and ensemble music professionally throughout North America, Europe and the Far East for almost 30 years. He emerged from the L.A. "free" jazz scene of the early 70's, working with such players as David Murray, Arthur Blythe and James Newton, while concurrently performing with the San Diego Symphony. Dresser relocated to New York in 1986 to join the quartet of composer/saxophonist, Anthony Braxton, with which he played for nine years. At the same time, he also began working with a wide variety of musicians in the New York community including Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Anthony Davis and John Zorn. His collaborative projects include: a trio, C/D/E, with multi-reed player virtuoso, Marty Ehrlich and master drummer Andrew Cyrille; a duo with hyper pianist Denman Maroney,: the Marks Brothers duo with fellow bassist Mark Helias; and a duo with the cello virtuoso, Frances-Marie Uitti. Commissions include "Banquet," a double concerto for various flutes, contrabass and string quartet written for Swiss flute virtuoso Matthias Ziegler (Tzadik CD-1997), and "Air to Mir," commissioned by the McKim Fund in the Library of Congress (Marinade-Tzadik CD-2000). The most recent commission, "Althaus" is for tuba virtuoso, David LeClair with bass, cello, alto sax, and clarine also recorded on Marinade. Dresser has performed and recorded over eighty CDs with some of the strongest personalities in contemporary music and jazz.

Denman Maroney
Composer/pianist Denman Maroney is known for his unique hyperpiano style, which involves exciting the strings directly with various objects while working the keyboard. He is notable, as well, for his polytemporal constructions, which involve articulating several pulses at once; and for his long and fruitful association with bassist Mark Dresser, with whom he currently tours in a trio with flutist Matthias Ziegler. He has made many recordings with Mark Dresser and such performers as Earl Howard and Dave Douglas. Maroney has receive numerous grants and commissions from such major organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts and Yale Summer School of Music & Art.

Lukas Ligeti
Lukas Ligeti is an innovative, eclectic musician whose work covers areas as diverse as "classical" composition, electronics, improvised music, and cross-cultural collaboration.
Born in Vienna, Austria, he has lived in New York City since 1998, after having studied composition and jazz drums at the Vienna Music Academy as well as two years at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. He has composed music for a wide variety of ensembles, including Ensemble Modern, the Kronos Quartet, Icebreaker, and his own group Beta Foly, which combines African and Occidental music in experimental ways. His music has been performed around the world by well-known ensembles and at prestigious venues and festivals. Ligeti has received commissions from the American Composers Forum (Continental Harmony Project), the Goethe Institute (German Cultural Centers), ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Company), Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Susan Quinn Dance Company., among others. In 2000, he was commissioned by Starkland Records to compose a piece for the first-ever DVD release of works commissioned exclusively for this medium.

Details on the next Thru the Walls will be announced shortly.

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For more than twenty-five years, The ASCAP Foundation has been dedicated to nurturing gifted composers, and preserving our musical legacy by serving the entire music community through a variety of educational, professional and humanitarian programs.

About The American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers (ASCAP)
Established in 1914, ASCAP is the world’s largest performing right organization with over 120,000 composer, lyricist and music publisher members. ASCAP is committed to protecting the rights of its members by licensing and collecting royalties for the public performance of their copyrighted works, and then distributing these fees to the Society’s members based on performances. ASCAP’s repertory spans the entire spectrum of music – from pop to symphonic, rock to gospel, Latin to country, to jazz, rhythm and blues, theater, film and television music. ASCAP’s Board of Directors is made up solely of writers and publishers elected by the membership.
For more information about ASCAP visit: http://www.ascap.com.