“Part murder mystery, part psychological séance, In A Grove became the highlight of this year’s Prototype Festival in January. Metropolis Ensemble’s shimmering performance contributed to the dreamlike unreality.”
The New York Times, Sequenza 21, Broadway World, Observer, and more review our production of In A Grove at Prototype Festival.
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About the Artist
Alex Koi is a vocalist, composer/producer, and improvising musician. Her music is the mystical translation between the privacy of her inner world and the somatic extrication of such. Through polyphonic narrative, ecstatic release, and coy murmurs, she bends between her diverse musical influences in the avant-garde, opera, Jazz, and electronic music. She has had the privilege of collaborating with musicians, composers, visual artists, directors and dancers at venues such as Lincoln Center, the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Joe's Pub, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, Public Records, and more. She recently played the combined role of Tracy Dunn/Jillian Gilchrist in the Off-Broadway production of "Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower", Toshi Reagon's theatrical adaptation of the beloved novel.
Centering the emotionality of the human experience, she creates an explosive sound that has been called “impossibly stunning” [Stereo Stickman], “primal and futuristic at the same time” [Current Magazine] and that “bends between operatic and punk rock” [Audiofemme]. More Info
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About the Artist
Conner Simmons is a double bassist, composer, and computer musician from Denton, Texas, living in NYC. Described by composer and vocalist Annika Socolofsky as “the perfect blend of soup and stew,” their music sifts through quiet sounds and fragile textures to conjure sparse, atmospheric, improvisational chamber music. Performance engagements of theirs include seasons with the Shreveport Symphony, the NY debut of Chris Cerrone’s opera In a Grove, where they performed live electronics with Metropolis Ensemble, and a run of shows as principal bassist for the Martha Graham Dance Company production of Rite of Spring. Recordings of their playing can be heard on Texas-based experimental music labels Sawyer Editions and Full Spectrum and on the world premiere recording of Julius Eastman’s Symphony No. 2 (forthcoming). More Info
“With a foundation of ambient sound and vocal writing that underlines the most important moments with plangent harmonies, this is often mesmerising. The variations grow more meaningful and tragic as they pass, and the effect grows hypnotic.”
“Christopher Cerrone’s melodic material was memorable without being trite… I was very much captivated by this powerful drama and its excellent performance.”
“For this production, the outstanding Metropolis Ensemble was tucked away not in an orchestra pit but in a loft above the entrance to the hall… There was an almost cinematic quality to the dramatically pointed timbral effects of the orchestration, and each of them hit its mark.”
“You could not have asked for better performers… In a Grove is a triumph and among the finest works at this year’s festival.”
“Singers Paul Appleby, Mikaela Bennett, John Brancy, and Chuanyuan Liu were sensational; so, too, was the Metropolis Ensemble, effectively and excitingly led by Raquel Acevedo Klein.”
“Cerrone’s tonal music has a hypnotic, fluid quality to it that varies from scene to scene, from one role to another, matched superbly by the storytelling of Fleischmann… The instrumental work of the Metropolis Ensemble under conductor Luke Poeppel couldn’t have been better.”
“Stylized yet sensual… the highlight of the festival was Christopher Cerrone’s “In a Grove,” a haunting psychological thriller with a libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann.”
The New York Times, Gramophone, and NPR celebrate The Blind Banister in their "Best of 2024" lists.
Travel back in time to experience any Flame Keeper's work. The most recent artists are at the bottom of this page.
This week at Flame Keepers, the installation has been intentionally left “abandoned” with no composers maintaining the audio stems. When this happens, the system engages a fail-safe algorithm that replaces any one of the streams with one randomly selected from the historical archive of musical streams of all previous Flame Keepers. The results might be harmonious, cacophonous, anodyne, or expressive, yet always surprising. During this time, the composition will evolve continuously with unpredictable results until the next composer takes over in a following week.
Travel back in time to experience any Flame Keeper's work. The most recent artists are at the bottom of this page.
About the Artist
Andrés Guadarrama (Ciudad de México, 1991) es musicaminante. Tras pausar la composición, actualmente desarrolla una práctica indisciplinar errante que especula y vincula cosmoaudiciones, experiencias místicas, peregrinaje y ritualidad.
Como músico, sus composiciones se han presentado en distintos países de América, Europa y Asia, en festivales como Donaueschinger Musiktage, New Music on the Point, NUNC! 4, The 21st Century Guitar Conference, Forum Wallis, Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez, entre otros.
Fue beneficiario de la FONCA Jóvenes Creadores 2017-2018. En 2016 representó a México en la 63va Tribuna Internacional de Compositores de la UNESCO en Wrocław, Polonia.
Andrés forma parte del Programa Educativo SOMA, generación 2025. Previamente estudió composición y teoría musical en el Centro de Investigación y Estudios de la Música (CIEM), y de manera privada con los compositores Germán Romero y Samuel Cedillo.
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Andrés Guadarrama (Mexico City, 1991) is a "musicaminante" (portmanteau of "músico" + "caminante", spanish for musician and walker-wanderer). Currently he decided to pause composition to develop a wandering indisciplinary practice that speculates and links cosmoauditions, mystical experiences, pilgrimage and rituality.
As a musician, his compositions have been presented in different countries of America, Europe and Asia, in festivals such as Donaueschinger Musiktage, New Music on the Point, NUNC! 4, The 21st Century Guitar Conference, Forum Wallis, Jornadas de Música Contemporánea CCMC, Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez, among others.
He was a recipient of the FONCA Jóvenes Creadores 2017-2018 grant. In 2016 he represented Mexico at the 63rd UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Wrocław, Poland.
Andrés is part of the SOMA Educational Program, generation 2025. He previously studied composition and music theory at the Centro de Investigación y Estudios de la Música (CIEM), and privately with composers Germán Romero and Samuel Cedillo.
“Ricardo Romaneiro’s audiovisual symphony LIQUIDVERSE: Microcosm & Macrocosm has joined Cosm’s collection of critically acclaimed and unique immersive productions.”
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About the Artist
Greg Boro is a Brooklyn based Composer, Curator and Performer. His work explores all forms of incidental music from scoring for film, performing cocktail piano and DJing ambient sets. He has worked with Complex Media, CNN International, 826 National and countless independent artists.
Travel back in time to experience any Flame Keeper's work. The most recent artists are at the bottom of this page.
About the Artist
Athena Zenker Díaz es una artista sonora e interdisciplinaria nacida en Ciudad de México. Sus intereses oscilan entre la música antigua, la electrónica experimental y proyectos interdisciplinarios, desdibujando los límites entre tradición y vanguardia. Entre México y Alemania, Athena participa regularmente en diversos ensambles que buscan dirigir la atención a la experiencia social en el arte, repensando desde la percepción las relaciones que tejemos en la alteridad.
Actualmente, desde su residencia en Leipzig, Athena transita la vivencia en diáspora desde el sonido.
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Athena Zenker Díaz is a sound and interdisciplinary artist born in Mexico City. Her interests range from early music to experimental electronics and interdisciplinary projects, blurring the boundaries between tradition and avant-garde. Between Mexico and Germany, Athena regularly participates in various ensembles that aim to focus attention on the social experience in art, rethinking through perception the relationships we weave in otherness.
Currently, from her residence in Leipzig, Athena navigates the experience of diaspora through sound.
Travel back in time to experience any Flame Keeper's work. The most recent artists are at the bottom of this page.
About the Artist
Nigel Newton is a vibraphonist, composer, producer, and arranger living in Dallas, Texas. He has garnered a number of composition awards, and currently tours with a number of bands around the U.S. and Canada. His music is heavily influenced by late-90’s video games, chamber music, 70’s funk and soul, jazz, post-modern and classic science fiction literature, and the occasional kale salad.
“Cosm Dallas also has numerous immersive art events Orbital and Liquidverse.”
“A completely different orchestral arrangement. Really massive, really powerful sounding stuff.”