2014 - 2017
The 2014 season was curated by Craig Shepard, Dan Joseph, Tyler Wilcox and Erik Carslon and produced in cooperation with the Parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Williamsburg. Supported by New Music USA.
Creating Music Together presents a 24 hour retreat on the theme "The Three Nourishments" with Sandra Bain Cushman.
24 Hours of Silence and Voice with Kathy Kennedy
Sharing moments from our lives, following Frank Sheldon’s Reports format from his book Becoming a Witness to Your Own Experience, and reading from the Keynote “Silence and Acceptance.”
Sharing moments from our lives, following Frank Sheldon’s Reports format from his book Becoming a Witness to Your Own Experience.
24 hours of silence and composing for music boxes together.
Crank in the New Year with Creating Music Together. Beginning with the 9:00 PM session on December 29, we will have evening concerts via video conference and morning sittings at 9:00 AM. To apply, email apply[at]creatingmusictogether[dot]org, tell us who you are and why you wish to join.
Frank Sheldon leads a three-week online course on recognizing unexpected help and receiving it when it seems impossible. Every few days, Frank will post an exercises on an online message board. Participants may login at their own time, and submit written responses, to which Frank will comment for a period of time.
In the new work Ordinary Time, Tony Geballe leads eight trumpets. Working with the natural tones of the trumpet, the dense harmonies build and release tension. Based on the breath, the shifting colors alternately speed up and slow down the listener's sense of time.
The event is entirely outdoors. All performers are required to be vaccinated; listeners are strongly encouraged to wear masks.
Dan Joseph leads ten steel-stringed acoustic guitars in a new 45-minute work. Joseph weaves layers of interlocking rhythms to a mass sound, set against the ambience of Newtown Creek.
The event is entirely outdoors. All performers are required to be vaccinated; listeners are strongly encouraged to wear masks.
The New Thread Quartet plus four saxophones premiers Craig Shepard’s Across the Water and a new work by Erin Rogers. The works incorporate the sounds of the site, inviting listeners to pause and breath in the ambience.
The event is entirely outdoors. All performers are required to be vaccinated; listeners are strongly encouraged to wear masks.
Taking it Outside is a co-production with the New Thread Quartet. Saxophonist Kristen McKeon was recognized with a $5,000 City Artists Corps grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) to contribute to the presentation of this event.
Retreat in Place XII - Duos. On the first session, we will pair up randomly. Within 24 hours, every duo composes a new work. Everyone performs on the last session. Voice and kitchen percussion only.
An In-The-Body Experience - 24 hours of silence with Sandra Bain Cushman
24 Hours of Silence and Voice with Kathy Kennedy
24 hours of silence and working in the kitchen with Patricia Leavitt.
By taking quiet time to reflect on past project, Creating Music Together examines
7 day composition course with music boxes. Daily sessions at 9:15 am and informal performances/sharing at 9:15 pm.
Please join Dev Ray, Tony Geballe, Doug Farrand, former Alexander Technique teacher Frank Sheldon and Craig Shepard Friday May 29th and Saturday May 30th for a Retreat in Place - 24 Hours of Silence and Listening.
Please join Dev Ray, Tony Geballe, Doug Farrand, former Alexander Technique teacher Frank Sheldon and Craig Shepard this Friday April 3rd and Saturday April 4th for a Retreat in Place - 24 Hours of Silence and Listening.
Please join Dev Ray, Tony Geballe, Doug Farrand, former Alexander Technique teacher Frank Sheldon and Craig Shepard this Friday April 3rd and Saturday April 4th for a Retreat in Place - 24 Hours of Silence and Listening.
Creating Music Together presents a 35-day online course to introduce a simple way of reporting the experience of our daily lives. Even mundane experience, when fully realized, can lead to creativity and true freedom.
In applying this practice on the Creating Music Together retreats, we've found the daily practice within a community valuable to our creative and professional lives.
For artists, accountants, musicians, teachers, and anyone looking to improve their practice. No prior experience necessary.
Frank Sheldon attended the International Academy for Continuous Education in Sherborne and was a founding Director of the Virginia School for Alexander Technique. He has taught extensively in Europe, North and South America, and presented online courses with an emphasis on creativity, personal responsibility, and being a witness to our own experience.
$120 course fee due February 20. To apply, email apply [at] creatingmusictogether [dot] org, tell us who you are and why you wish to join.
Presentation of the 75 minute program each evening January 6-8.
Erin Rogers (tenor saxophone), Kristen McKeon (alto saxophone), Dan Joseph, Dev Ray and Alex Lahoski (ebow steel string acoustic guitars) and Craig Shepard (speaker) present music supporting listeners to engage with text drawn from court testimony connected with the ongoing scandal in the Catholic Church.
More information here and here.
No charge for admission. Seating is limited, RSVP required.
Music for Contemplation invites you to a day of silence, listening exercises, and vocal meditations. Assisted by Craig Shepard. Everyone writes and everyone performs. No prior experience necessary. Workshop begins at 9:30 am. Public performance at St. John’s in the Village Revelation Gallery 8:05 pm. Suggested donation: $50 for the day. Potluck lunch and dinner: please bring something to share.
To apply for the workshop, email apply@creatingmusictogether.org, tell us who you are and why you want to join.
August 4th, 8:30 pm, 75 minute presentation of sound and text from the scandal in the Church.
Erin Rogers (tenor saxophone), Kristen McKeon (alto saxophone), Dev Ray and Alex Lahoski (ebow steel string acoustic guitars) and Craig Shepard (speaker) present music supporting listeners to engage with text drawn from court testimony connected with the ongoing scandal in the Catholic Church.
More information here and here. No charge for admission. Seating is limited, RSVP.
June 8 - July 13, Creating Music Together presents: Keynotes - Being a Witness to Our Own Experience with former Alexander Teacher Frank Sheldon. $120. Apply@creatingmusictogether.org.
(at the madrid library during the spanish civil war it was discovered that it took a book of threehundred-andfifty pages to stop a bullett
This is the first concert of Music for Contemplation to be presented at the Center for Performance Research.
Tickets $25 at the door. $20 in advance
Light Box performance space | 8641 Linwood Street, Detroit, MI 48206 | One-day music workshop includes silence, listening exercises, and singing each other's thoughts. Everyone composes. Everyone sing's everyone else's creations. No prior experience necessary.
Workshop begins at 9:30 am. Public performance at 8:05 pm. Read about past workshops below. Everyone is welcome to join the concert which will include music coming into the world for the first time, created over the course of the day by workshop participants.
To apply for the workshop, email apply@creatingmusictogether.org, tell us who you are and why you want to join. Requested tuition $40 (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Suggested audience donation for the evening concert $10
The daylong workshop includes silence, vocal meditations, and basic exercises to create music together. Over the course of the day, the group will create and rehearse new music and present it at a public concert in the evening. No prior experience necessary.
Workshop begins at 9:30 am. Public performance at 8:05 pm. Suggested donation: $40 for workshop, $15 for the concert. Read about past workshops here. Everyone is welcome to join the concert which will include music coming into the world for the first time, created over the course of the day by workshop participants. To apply for the workshop, email craig[at]craigshepard[dot]net, tell us who you are and why you want to join.
Craig Shepard leads a day-long intensive workshop including vocal meditations, listening exercises, and group composition.
The workshop is open to anyone willing to make a commitment for the day. To apply, please send an email to craig@craigshepard.net and tell us who you are and why you want to participate.
Cellist Seth Parker Woods premieres Peter Garland's 45-minute continuous cello solo, Out of the Blue alongside new works by Martin Iddon and Michael Vincent Waller.
Erin Rogers (saxophone) performs an extended version of Swiss composer Christian Kobi's Raw Lines IV for saxophone and feedback.
Craig Shepard (trombone) performs a 90+minute version of Alvin Lucier's piece for trombone and sine wave. Slow waves sweep through the resonant space of Annunciation.
The New York Guitar Circle presents a program of music growing out of the cooperation in the group.
Works by Stuart Dempster for solo trombone, didjeridoo and large trombone ensemble. The trombones resonate throughout the space, embracing listeners in their tones. The center of the program is a new piece written for the evening for large trombone ensemble called "Tromba Annunciation". Featuring Monique Buzzarté, Chris McIntyre of TILT Brass, Tucker Dulin, Glen Freeman, Craig Shepard, Steve Swell, Bret Sroka, Deborah Weisz, David Whitwell, Peter Zummo, David Taylor and Mike Lormond.
The program will also include Conch Calling (1994) for multiple conch players, Dream Timepiece (2002) for multiple didjeridus, and Integrity29 for mixed ensemble with guitarist Tony Geballe and saxophonists Erin Rogers and Kristen McKeon.
$15 suggested donation at the door. $25 including download of highlights of the concert.
New Works composed and performed by Craig Shepard (trombone), Dan Joseph (dulcimer), Vita Wallace (violin), and Erin Rogers (saxophone).
Ensemble MufoCo performs carefully crafted interpretations of Pauline Oliveros’ text scores
The New Thread Quartet performs new works by Elizabeth Adams, Elisa Corona, Assaf Gidron and Beau Sievers
Erik Carlson (violin) performs the beautiful and fragile 75-minute meditation of Michael Oesterle's l'hiver monastique.
Andrew Lafkas' new work Two Paths with Active Shadows under Three Moons and Surveillance (Second Phase) features Marcia Basset (electric guitar), Barry Weisblat (electronics), Ron Stabinsky (organ), Che Chen (violin), Marandi Hostetter (violin), Laura Ortman (violin), C Spencer Yeh (violin), Michael Bullock (bass), Andrew Lafkas (bass), Rick Brown (cymbal), Ryan Sawyer (cymbal), Sean Meehan (cymbal and snare), Brian Chase (bass drum), Sandy Gordon (bass drum), Gil Arno (microphone and recording), Wolfgang Gil (microphone and recording), Daniel Neumann (microphone and recording) and Ben Owen (microphone and recording).
Craig Shepard and Mark Broschinsky (trombones) frame reflective silences with songs and cannons, featuring Orlando di Lasso, Sequuntur Cantiones (sine textu), Larry Polansky, Christian Music, Anastassis Philippakopoulos, Song (for trombone), Song 6, Mark Broschinsky, somewhere far off, pass on and on, and Jack Callahan, substantia absolute infinita.
Craig Shepard (trombone), Tyler Wilcox (soprano sax), and Dan Joseph (hammer dulcimer) build passing moments out of soft tones of Antoine Beuger's Peckinpah Trios.
The 2014 season was curated by Craig Shepard, Dan Joseph, Tyler Wilcox and Erik Carslon and produced in cooperation with the Parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - Williamsburg. Supported by New Music USA.
Affinity Brass performs new works for sextet by Erik Carlson, Dan Joseph, Craig Shepard, and Tyler Wilcox.