Operatic countertenor, composer and producer Ju-eh/Juecheng is interrupting (and updating) the genre with electronic sound, new media, and imaginative audience engagement. Ju-eh will be in conversation with BRIC’s Senior Performing Arts Curator, BJ Evans. Bridge Works opens a window to artists’ studio practices then intersects their process with intimate conversations with leading Brooklyn creatives. Connecting insights between artists whose voices are both parallel and divergent, Bridge Works amplifies the creative space as a generative space for community building. These first episodes will air on Brooklyn Arts Council’s Facebook Live and feature 2020 grantees. Bio Ju-eh/Juecheng Chen is a true 21st century artist. As an operatic countertenor/male soprano, he specializes in providing answers to what opera can be in the lens of today. He was featured in unique non-human roles such as Lonely Spirit (Meredith Monk's opera Atlas at the L.A. Philharmonic in which he sang 6 soprano high Cs), Siren (Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s The Night Falls with American Opera Projects) and the Moon (Garrett Fisher’s Blood Moon with Beth Morrison Projects in which he sings in soprano range with self conducted choreography) among others. As a composer, producer and overall conceptual curator, Ju-eh has initiated projects that defy genre, period or easy categorization including his own starred musical drama The Living Dying Opera based on the story of his life; his solo album Operatic Electric with Gene Pritsker and he was recently awarded a Brooklyn Arts Council grant for his multimedia project UnOpera. The awarded project UnOpera is a multimedia project experimenting on dissolving known operatic arias into sonic scenes with facial projection mappings related to time, formlessness and spirituality. Led by performer/producer Ju-eh, who has a truly unique understanding of western operatic singing and meditation practices, UnOpera has attracted a group of exceptional young composers, designers and players based in Brooklyn for this exciting project.

WITH PERFORMANCES BY

DJ Synchro
Local musicians courtesy of Chief Sekou Awosanmi
UnOpera
Pete and Ginger
Raquel Acevedo Klein

Join Brooklyn Arts Council as we celebrate our 40th of year of grantmaking in the borough by awarding over 400 grants totaling nearly $800,000 to innovative local artists and arts organizations.

Help us celebrate their contributions to Brooklyn's vibrant culture with entertainment, food, and unparalleled community.

Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/brooklyn-arts-council-2020-community-arts-grants-celebration-tickets-93172211593

Three opera countertenors sing arias and discuss the facets of their unique voices in a special master class.

JU-EH would be performing Prelude IV by Braam van Eeden.

More info: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/counter-intuitive-the-art-of-the-countertenor-tickets-94713634029#

SECOND SATURDAY SALON

Ju-eh+Hwarg

Address: 6013 69th Avenue, Ridgewood, NY 11385

8PM - DOORS/GENERAL ADMISSION & COCKTAIL HOUR

9PM - The door will close and preparation starts for the live recording

9:15PM - CONCERT

10:PM - DJ/Visual Art Hours

Tickets:

https://sneakyspeakeasy.com/filmfest2019tickets/914-second-saturday-salon-28-63hay-c3byf

Live Concert Album Recording
Inc. Arias from an original opera, micro-tonal piece premiere, electronic meditative spoken piece premiere and more
Lighting Design by François-Thibaut Pencenat

AOP invites you to a preview of music from The Night Falls, a new dance-driven blend of opera and music theatre.

About this Event

At times of great crisis, the Sirens emerge from the depths to sing to the lonely, the desperate, the lost. Felisberto, George, and Angela begin to suspect that the Sirens are summoning them to a Floridian tourist trap called "The Night Falls": a derelict campground and watery grotto, home of "the world's eeriest echoes." Once there, each discovers they are not alone— and that they have so much more than a nightmare in common.

The Night Falls is a dance-driven blend of opera and Floridian folklore choreographed and directed by Troy Schumacher (NYC Ballet), with book and lyrics by Karen Russell (Swamplandia!), music and lyrics by Ellis Ludwig-Leone (San Fermin), and set design by Jason Ardizzone-West (Jesus Christ Superstar NBC). The Night Falls is new American mythology that asks if art and community can successfully combat nihilism and despair—and if humble humans can brace themselves against the song of the Sirens.

Featuring performances by Catherine Brookman, Ju-eh (Juecheng Chen), Sishel Claverie, Matthew Gamble, Melissa Harvey, Trevor Martin, David Merino, and Laura Virella.

The American Opera Project welcomes you to preview our newest groundbreaking, genre-defying work, meet the artists, and begin the seductive path into The Night Falls. Reception to follow.

- Mila Henry, Artistic Director & Matt Gray, General Director

Vault Allure is an Experience Festival that takes place three times this summer in The Jersey City Heights. Upon the repurposed Belgian block courtyard and vaulted bridge underside of historic Holland Street one can expect the element of surprise. Vault Allure strives to challenge the conventional boundaries of art presentation by interweaving music, dance, film, poetry, painting and technology. The first Vault Allure on June 1st will be the inaugural Jersey City Jazz Festival event. For the second year in a row, technology pioneer Nokia/Bell Labs is the event's prime sponsor. The Statuary, Riverview Neighborhood Association, The City of Jersey City Cultural Affairs and individual volunteers and donors also play a crucial role in making the event happen.

Historic Holland Street • Entrance at Palisade Avenue at Bowers Street, Jersey City Heights
Rain or Shine!
Free To the Public

Grotto: An Electronic Baroque Sound Cave A baroque keyboard + vocal program with an electronic twist with two sets of music by Bach, Handel & Porpora

Dk (Lu Wang), electronics composer www.acomposer.me

HH (Hitomi Honda), piano www.hitomihonda.com

Ju-eh (Juecheng Chen), voice www.juechengchen.com

Performances from virtuosic countertenor Ju-eh and composer dk.

Ju-eh+Hwarg
with additional performances by
- pianist Qingyi Wu with Ju-eh
- vocal performers Imoni Cole-Palmer and Eric Hertenstein with Hwarg

Ju-eh+Hwarg is an experimental operatic duo with a dramatic stage presence. The two musical personalities collaborate and collide, using Ju-eh’s unique countertenor voice and Hwarg’s electronics to create a sound universe all its own. On October 7th, they present an entrancing dreamscape of soaring vocals, electronics, environmental sound, and poetry that investigates space, memory, and personal identity. The effect is abstract but accessible, dangerous and beautiful.

The two artists began collaborating with the shared idea that it is important for people to have alternative ways of relating to sound and to live performances. As historical opera speaks for the people of its time, Ju-eh+Hwarg create operatic works representing their modern thoughts and feelings with the aid of technology. While Hwarg is a knowledgeable electronic composer who wants to create drama, Ju-eh is a traditional opera singer who wants to break the rules.

‘Music can only be alive when it is already there, living with the artist’, says Ju-eh. As an opera singer who has trained for over ten years, Ju-eh sees the need to create musical drama using inspiration from his very own experience, ranging from intense psychological struggles to intimate activities like brushing his teeth every morning.

‘I want to find out what theatrical drama means within experimental music,’ says Hwarg. As a Brooklyn-based composer and performer, Hwarg is active in the electronic music and rock scenes in New York. While he sometimes takes the creative role of crafting an immersive sound world that envelopes its audience, Hwarg is also interested in exploring how theatrical elements can impact not only people’s visual and auditory experiences, but their perceptions and emotions.

Please join Ju-eh+Hwarg for this innovative program mixing voice, electronics, environmental sound, and poetry.

More about the artists:
Ju-eh (Juecheng Chen) is a conceptual virtuosic countertenor from Canton, China. With 10 years of classical singing training in Europe, he specializes in presenting what classical music can be today. Ju-eh is known for his Improvised Opera Salon series in New York and his performance with Sylva Dean and Me at Venice Biennale; his future engagements include Meredith Monk's opera Atlas with LA Phil in 2019 among others.
http://www.juechengchen.com/
+
Hwarg (Howie Kenty) is a Brooklyn-based composer and performer. His music, called “remarkable” with “astonishing poetic power” by the International Compendium Prix Ars Electronica, is stylistically diverse, encompassing ideas from contemporary classical, electronic, rock, sound art, theatre and everything in between, occasionally with visual and theatrical elements. Throughout all of his creations runs the idea that the experience of a piece is more than listening to the music; there is a wholeness of vision and an awareness of environment that attempts to fully draw the audience into his works. Besides regularly premiering pieces internationally, Howie plays guitar in the progressive rock band The Benzene Ring.
http://hwarg.com/

About Rockwood Music Hall:
Rockwood Music Hall is a music venue at 196 Allen Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The venue features three stages and a record label of the same name. Artists who have performed at Rockwood include Lady Gaga, Jessie J, Mumford & Sons, and Billie Joe Armstrong.

Ju-eh presents:

An intimate world premiere of the Preludes song cycle by South African composer Braam van Eeden (here to perform it himself), inspired by T.S. Eliot's poetry. Dedicated to and performed with Ju-eh (on his birthday).

Also showcasing Howie Kenty (also known as Hwarg). Ju-eh + Hwarg will turn live sound samples into a unique interactive sound world. Live sound samples including sirens from Hamburg, street noise from Williamsburg New York, planet sounds from Nasa, and human sounds from the voice box of Ju-eh.

They will be joined by the Australian vocalist/composer/improviser Nilusha Dassenaike and Colin Snape on piano, loops and electronic atmos. They will present Sri Lankan folk music mixed with contemporary, ethereal jazz.

l’Artiste ordinaire, Sean Ali, Juecheng Chen, dk

WILLIAMSBURG

Fri Jun 29, From 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Brooklyn Art Library | 28 Frost St.

Curated by Tansy Xiao

“The language with which I make my poems has nothing to do with one spoken here, or anywhere.” 
-- Paul Celan

Multilingual Poetry Reading is a series of poetry reading and performance events that encourage varying interpretations of the same poems in different languages and disciplines. 

read|perform in your spoken|artistic languages at future events --or if you're a poetry translator
Contact us: raincoatsociety@gmail.com

The event is free and open to the public. 
Special thanks to our host Brooklyn Art Library, a crowd-sourced library that features 40,609 artists' books contributed by creative people from 135+ countries. 

Event Organizer: Raincoat Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting artists with fluid identities and multiple cultural backgrounds. 

Poems to be read by Jorge Luis Borges, Marina Tsvetaeva, Paul Celan, Vasko Popa, Charles Pierre Baudelaire. 

Performers: 
l’Artiste ordinaire
A collaborative partnership between Melissa Grey & David Morneau. Specializing in sound-based performances, they create expansive projects that allow them to collaborate and connect with musicians, artists, engineers, scientists, creative technologists, and designers. 

Sean Ali
A double bassist, improviser, and composer working in a variety of projects and contexts. Sean co-founded Prom Night Records and co-curated the monthly concert series Ze Couch. His project in collaboration with visual artist Cheng Ran had been shown at the New Museum. 

Ju-eh (Juecheng Chen) is a conceptual virtuosic countertenor. With 10 years of classical singing training in Europe, he specializes in presenting what classical music can be today. Ju-eh is known for his Improvised Opera Salon series in New York and his performance with Sylva Dean and Me at Venice Biennale; his future engagement includes Meredith Monk's opera Atlas with LA Phil in 2019. 

Lu Wang (dk) is a composer, performer and audio-visual artist, born in Inner Mongolia, China and currently resides in New York. Lu's musical versatility and sensibility are embodied in her work in over 30 film, installation, and live performance projects both locally and across Europe. 

June 29 7 p.m. 
Brooklyn Art Library
28 Frost St, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Curated by Tansy Xiao

Improvised Opera Salons
- Chapter 1: From the Foundation

curated and performed by conceptual countertenor Ju-eh (Juecheng Chen)

& Braam van Eeden, composer
Qingyi Wu, piano
Dustin Carlson, guitar (TBA)

Music by J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel, Henry Purcell, Braam van Eeden and Ju-eh

'If Bach, Handel or other baroque composers were alive today, they may be tempted to compose with electronics.'

'If they were alive, I would like them to hear me.'
- Ju-eh


$10 suggested donation

Deep fried cello with steamed voice is an experimental classical music performance with food created to compliment each set. When classical music is really cooked up, the fire in the music can warm you up deep in your soul. It is kind of like consuming a bowl of warming Ramen on a New York winter's night. Mannes alumni Juecheng Chen and Amy Tcheupdjian got together on such a night wanting to find out how classical music can redefine a New Yorker’s night out. That evening culminated in the making of this concert.