permutations050722: Ghost Ensemble

Ghost Ensemble returns to New York with Permutations for its first in-person ensemble concert in over two years, celebrating ten years of Permutations and ten years of Ghost Ensemble! Join us for world premieres of Sky Macklay’s “Harmonifriends”, Miya Masaoka’s “Plant Life Recounted Here”, and Laura Cetilia’s “falling for ghost ensemble” alongside the East Coast premiere of Marguerite Brown’s “Nonet” and music by Alice Jones and Jo Kondo.

Sky Macklay’s Harmonifriends takes the form of a concerto with two of the composer’s inflatable “harmonitree” sculptures, which use vinyl, fans, and deconstructed harmonicas to create an interactive environment that is whimsical yet intense. The ensemble, separated by uncanny microtones, interacts in sonic and kinetic counterpoint with the vibrating sculptures as they rise, sing, tremble, and fall. Miya Masaoka’s intermedia work Plant Life Recounted Here, exploring the pre-animal consciousness of our botanical ancestors, was produced on location with Ghost Ensemble in Massachusetts and is presented here as an immersive installation experience. Laura Cetilia’s falling creates a rich yet delicate soundscape of sliding and static harmonies, resulting in a glacial ebb and flow of tension and release that offers a musical space for intimate listening and understated revelation for performer and audience alike. Marguerite Brown’s Nonet, composed for Ghost Ensemble in 2020 and released on 2021’s Mountain Air, employs just intonation and unstable timbral fluctuations. One lush, nebular ensemble sonority merges slowly into the next, as individual instruments emerge and recede, like a cloud forest ramble at dawn. The concert concludes with Alice Jones’s Sunshower and Jo Kondo’s Twayn in solo and duo performances by Ghost Ensemble’s James Ilgenfritz, Margaret Lancaster, and Chris Nappi.

Each general admission ticket includes a complimentary craft cocktail.
Proof of Covid-19 vaccination is required.