Event

The University of Pennsylvania's Department of Music and the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts are proud to present our third jointly sponsored music series Music in the Pavilion. Taking place in the beautiful sixth-floor Class of 1978 Orrery Pavilion in Van Pelt Library, the series showcases an array of professional and international musicians, not only performing gems from standard concert repertoires but also premiering works found only in the wealth of materials—print and manuscript—held in the Kislak Center's collections. Enriching the experience of each concert, attendees will have the opportunity to hear brief lectures by eminent scholars and graduate students that will contextualize the music historically, socially, and culturally.

About the Program

Cello Soundings: Thomas Kraines & Friends

With Shani Aviram, live electronics: 

Kaija Saariaho, Petals (1988)

Gabriel Bolaños, Los Minúsculos (2018)

With Mike Watson, bass clarinetist:

Improvisations

With Naoko Kikuchi, koto player:

Amy Williams, Stop-Yield (2015)

Gene Coleman, Kirigami II (2015)

Yatsuhashi Kengyo, Rokudan no shirabe 

Admission is free; REGISTER HERE

About Thomas Kraines

Cellist Thomas Kraines has forged a multifaceted career, equally comfortable with avant-garde improvisation, new music, and traditional chamber music and solo repertoire. Mr. Kraines is the cellist of the Daedalus Quartet, and has also been heard with ensembles such as Music from Copland House, The Transformational Music Ensemble, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), and the Network for New Music. An accomplished composer of chamber music, his works have been performed across the country by artists such as pianists Awadagin Pratt and Wayman Chin, violinists Corey Cerovsek and Jennifer Frautschi, and sopranos Maria Jette and Ilana Davidson. Mr. Kraines has taught at the Peabody Conservatory, the Longy School of Music, the Killington Music Festival, Yellow Barn, and Princeton University, and currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, violinist Juliette Kang, and their two daughters, Rosalie and Clarissa.

About Mike Watson

Upon hearing the music of Eric Dolphy and his bass clarinet, Watson fell in love with the sound of that horn and it has been his primary means of expression ever since. As a student of Marshall Allen, he has been trained to use the spirit to create form and color with sound. Deeply influenced by the compositions and approach of Sun Ra and Thelonious Monk, he is in the midst of forming a musical collective, "The Great Blue Heron". Watson is an active member of Philadelphia's improvised music community, performing regularly for the past ten years. Watson plays in the Sun Ra Arkestra and has performed with other luminaries such as William Parker, Daniel Carter, Dave Burrell, Bobby Zankel, and King Britt.

About Naoko Kikuchi

Born in Sendai, Japan. In early childhood, she learned to play Koto from her mother and grandmother. Since 1990, she took lessons from Tadao Sawai and Kazue Sawai; Naoko received honor prizes from several contests subsequently. In 2007, Naoko received a year-long fellowship from the Japanese Government’s “Overseas Study Programme for Artists” to work in Frankfurt, Germany, where she currently is a member of IEMA (International Ensemble Modern Academie). Her repertoire is not only classic and contemporary koto music, she is also a versatile artist who participates in a variety of projects, such as in “the way in the international Berlin,” a project of the Berlin Philharmonic (2012); the new edition of “Barcelona” by Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé (2012); music for silent films, “Page of Madness” by American composer Gene Coleman (2013); and the world premiere of a dance opera by composer Adriana Hölszky at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (2014, 2017-18).

About Shani Aviram

Shani Aviram (b. Jerusalem, Israel) is a composer, sound designer and electronic musician currently based in Philadelphia. She works with fragments of memories, conversations and synthesized sounds, exploring forms of musical collage. Often, she will let the machine run wild. She has performed at The Megapolis Audio Festival, CubeFest at Virginia Tech, and Mills College amongst other institutions.