Archiv autora: Lucie

Women Between Arts, NYC 10/2017

On October 22nd, I performed my Piece for Accordion and Tap Shoes at the first concert from the new series Women Between Arts of curator and performer Luisa Muhr. The event took place at The New School´s Arnhold Hall, Glass Box Theater, along a butoh dancer Yokko and guest speaker and artist Shelley Hirsch.

„Women Between Arts series has been created for women who work with elements/a combination of music, theater, dance, poetry, and/or visual arts in an unconventional way. Each series feature three women artists and their work. The performances are about 15 minutes each and there is a talk-back after the performances where audience members have the opportunity to learn more about the artists, their work, and their process.

Women Between Arts has been created to provide a platform for and encourage dialogue between strong female artists of at least one or a combination of multiple fields to create interdisciplinary work.“

Gagaku residency in Tokyo and release of MUSIC DOMESTIC in New York, 2017

 Mentor/ Protégé Summer Program 2017 (Tokyo, JP)

As a hichiriki player of Gagaku ensemble of Columbia University of NYC, I was chosen to go to Tokyo for a 6-weeks residency where I will study with masters of Japanese Ancient Music. I am going to study hichiriki and dance with Sensei Hitomi Nakamura.

 

MUSIC DOMESTIC (Bánh Mì Verlag, NYC 3/2017)

My long expected album MUSIC DOMESTIC was released at the   New York based label Bánh Mì Verlag of Jack Callahan in March 2017. The label releases the music on cassettes in a limited edition of 50 and distributes them around East and West Coast and in Japan. The album of eight recordings introduce my  research on domestic instruments. I am playing instruments such as accordions, hichiriki, voice and objects together with vacuum cleaner, fans, heating, shower, toilet, kettle and washing machine. Web.

Big thanks to  Pauline Oliveros who lent me her wonderful TITANO accordion.

The album was featured in a selection of cassette focused web TABS OUT.

OPERA (world premiere), 04/12/2017@Roulette, NYC

https://roulette.org/event/commission-lucie-vitkova-opera/

 

OPERA is a new whole evening piece for singing instrumentalists of The OPERA Ensemble. The piece features a classical form of opera filled by contemporary and experimental music materials. The OPERA is influenced by utopian thinking and its environment includes sound, visuals, fashion, lights and movement. The libretto derives from texts concerning voice by Adriana Cavarero. In the piece, these texts are translated into a Morse code and are incorporated into musical structures. The whole piece serves as a transformative space for all the performers, enhancing each individual in aria or in duet.

Lucie Vítková – composer, accordion, voice, drawings/ visuals, staging, conception; Sophie Leetmaa – harp, bowed psaltery, voice; Sydney Viles – theremin, feedback, voice; Martha Cargo – C flute, alto flute, bass flute, bansuri flute, voice; Sky Macklay – oboe, piano, feedback, voice; Carolyn Hietter – soprano saxophone,  alto saxophone, voice.

The ROULETTE Commission and Herb Alpert Awards in Arts, NYC 2017

I have been commissioned by the Roulette Emerging Artist Commission Program with support of the Jerome Foundation to write a new piece. The date of the concert was set on Wednesday April 12, 2017, and I am going to write a large piece which will be performed during my portrait concert during the music series Roulette NEW + ADVENTUROUS.

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Moreover! This autumn, I have been nominated on Herb Alpert Awards in Arts in category of music for year 2017.

OHIO CICADA TOUR_RELEASE, NYC 11/2016

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The inter-species music continued…after the last year bird poetic album And Vex the Nightingale, the OHIO CICADA TOUR is coming up on Terra Nova Music!

David Rothenberg – clarinet, iPad

Lucie Vítková – accordion, harmonica, voice, hichiriki

and hundreds of thousands of cicadas!

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Now, also available online (6 tracks only).

Bird Music RELEASE and Cicada Short MOVIE, NYC 2016

June 21, 2016, we played with birds of Brooklyn Botanic Garden during the dawn and dusk as part of Make Music Day New York. The group consisted of David Rothenberg (clarinet, electronics), Charlie Raugh (guitar), Steve Scholle (shakuhachi), Hank Roberts (violincello) and myself on accordion, hichiriki, voice and objects.

The event was reviewed in The New York Times and in ECM Reviews.

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The music was released on New York based label Terra Nova Music. Available as Inside the Bird Chorus: Live at the Botanic Garden.

Earlier that spring, we decided to find a brood of seventeen years old cicadas in Ohio and to do three days field work while playing long daily sessions with them and a final concert at the Bath Nature Preserve. The short movie Cicada Music in Ohio made out of the tour was filmed by Matthew Aidekman and edited by Umru Rothenberg. The latest news: it was accepted into the Short Pole London International Film FestivalBarcelona Planet Film Festival and to the Ethnografilm 2017 in Paris.

You can watch the movie here:

 

Emerging Artist of Czech Center and FEATURE DOCUMENTARY Accept, NYC 2016

I have been chosen for the emerging artist program called the Thomas M. Messer Bohemian Creative Hub housed at Czech Center New York. During the spring 2016, I prepared a workshop about composition, everyday life and listening and also composed new piece Optional for American ensemble Interference which was premiered at the ballroom of Bohemian National Hall.

CCNY also screened a feature documentary movie about my work and life entitled “Accept” as part of the Eurasian Film Festival held in the CCNY cinema. More about the movie here.

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In summer, I participated on the Rooftop Ciné-Concert Series,  where we played introduction set with the NYC Constellation Ensemble. In the second part of the evening I provided the inspired soundtrack to the silent film: Golem.

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The Kitchen and Bohemian National Hall, NYC 2016

My move to New York started with a concert on February 9, 2016:

To celebrate the release of the archival CD The Kitchen Improvises: 1976–1983 on Orange Mountain Music, composer George Lewis curates an evening of performances by Thomas Buckner (voice), Earl Howard (saxophones and electronics), Oliver Lake (saxophones),  Lewis (electronics, trombone), Michael Lytle (clarinets), Miya Masaoka (koto and electronics), Ikue Mori (electronics), Andrea Parkins (accordion, objects, electronics), and Lucie Vítková (accordion and voice), inspired by that flowering of hybridity on the downtown New York music scene.

The New York Times Listing.

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On May 9, 2016, I was part of the concert at Bohemian National with premiere of my piece Places to Meet for violin duo String Noise of Pauline Kim Harris, Konrad Harris and myself on accordion. At the end of the evening, I played an improvisation set with members of S.E.M. ensemble, George Lewis and Roscoe Mitchell.

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The event was reviewed at The Guardian.

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Prior to the concert, as authors, we were interviewed at the Columbia University radio WKCR 89.9FM.

AND VEX THE NIGHTINGALE_RELEASE 12/2015, NEW YORK (USA)

Let me introduce our new release of music poetic on Terra Nova Music label run by New York based musician and philosopher David Rothenberg.

And Vex the Nightingale

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One night, one bird, one tree, one spot by the Spree River in Berlin – a virtuoso nightingale perched in his tree at midnight.

There we stood, Lucie singing, David on clarinet and iPad sampling the bird and playing synth sounds he thought the bird might like.

One piece, one take, no editing, just live. What two people and one bird can do.

CHORALS_RELEASE 8/2015, PRAGUE (CZ)

I am happy to announce a release of my new album Chorals through the Prague label Signals from Arkaim.

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I have been composing these chorals for about one year for different occasions, though mainly for friends so that we could play together. Therefore each piece was recorded in a different location and under a different circumstance, bringing with it its own unique experience.

You can download or listen to it here.