Miolina
PROGRAM INFO
Miolina & The Skyscraper Museum present:
Just Above the Trees
Duo Miolina
Mioi Takeda & Lynn Bechtold, violins
Holland Hopson, live electronics
John Miller, recitation
Fri, 26 May 2023, 5PM
The Skyscraper Museum
39 Battery Place
New York, NY 10280
-PROGRAM-
1. Alvin Singleton: Ishirini (2003)
2. Shruthi Rajasekar: Dagian à deux (2016)
3. Paula af Malmborg Ward: broken bleak roe and choppy chanterelles (2020)
4. Geni Skendo: Orange Prism (2019)
5. John Miller: Temples in Air (2023)
with recitation by John Miller
6. Holland Hopson: A Long Line of Clouds Just Above the Trees (2022)
with live electronics performed by Holland Hopson
-BIOS/NOTES-
Duo Miolina (Mioi Takeda & Lynn Bechtold, violins) has been called "talented and dedicated" by Arts Birmingham, and described as displaying "aggressive and virtuosic prowess" with "brilliance of sound, technical mastery, and stunning expressivity" by I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. A member of New Music USA’s Impact Cohort, Miolina has been attracting audiences since their inception in 2012. To date, Miolina has premiered almost 50 violin duos. They’ve performed concerts at various venues in NYC, as well as around the U.S. and abroad, in Birmingham, Chicago, Copenhagen, Los Angeles, Malmö, Pensacola, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, Paris, and Tokyo. Miolina has participated in festivals/residencies/series including Avaloch Farm, Birmingham New Music Festival, Composers Concordance, Concrete Timbre, C-Y Series, Electronic Music Midwest, Infuse Présente, Ladies First, NWEAMO, North/South Consonance, and Sonic Circuits. They are recipients of numerous grants, including Adami, American-Scandinavian Foundation, Japan Foundation NY, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New Music USA, New York State Council on the Arts, and New York Women Composers. As part of their outreach and educational programs, Miolina has performed at senior centers and soup kitchens, and have given masterclasses at The Alabama School for the Blind, CUNY-Queens College, The Juilliard School, Rutgers University, Seattle Pacific University, the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, and UC Irvine. Recent recordings include an album featuring works by composers of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance. ‘à la BAMA’ was released in March 2021 on CCR/Naxos. Other albums include their debut album ‘Miolina,’ released in 2018 on CCR/Naxos; 2020’s ‘Le Passager,’ performing Jean-Baptiste Favory’s large-scale work UNISONO V, on label ACEL; and 2020’s ‘Symbolic Gesture,’ performing Flower Cat’s KIRLIAN, on Bandcamp. Upcoming projects include the inaugural Duologue Festival in September, produced by Miolina, and featuring six of NYC's most interesting duos. Miolina is wrapping up their 3rd full album in the fall, and it will be available in 2024. https://www.miolinanyc.com/
Holland Hopson is a sound and media artist, composer and improviser. A multi- instrumentalist, he usually performs on clawhammer banjo and electronics. Holland often augments his instruments with custom-designed sensor interfaces and performs with his own highly responsive, interactive computer programs. Holland has performed in Australia, Europe and North America along with notable experimental and outsider musicians such as Macarthur Genius Award winners Anthony Braxton and George Lewis, live electronics pioneer David Behrman, sonic meditator Pauline Oliveros, mutant- trumpeter Ben Neill, network music trailblazer Tim Perkis, free-improv innovators LaDonna Smith and Davey Williams, and others.
Recent collaborations include Tracing Thin Air with Karen Brummund and Allison Grant, Half Premonitions of the Moon with book artist Sarah Bryant, music for the violin duo Miolina, and field recordings of mind in morning with poet Hank Lazer. Holland’s long form performance work for invented instruments, Birds of Passage in an Egg-Shaped World, was premiered in 2021 at the California Institute for the Arts.
Holland has held residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, The Hambidge Center, LEMURPlex, and Harvestworks Digital Media Arts. His work has been supported by grants from the Verdant Fund, Meet the Composer, and others. Holland is Assistant Professor of Arts Entrepreneurship in New College at the University of Alabama where he also served as a Fellow of the Collaborative Arts Research Initiative (CARI).
Hailing from Eugene Walter's Kingdom of Ghosts and Monkeys, John Miller was sent so frequently to look up words as a kid he toted a dictionary to supper. His poems have appeared in: Poetry South, Sheila Na Gig, Comstock Review, and elsewhere. Paper Nautilus Press published his chapbook, Heat Lightning, in 2017. Assistant Director of New College at the University of Alabama, Miller teaches at the intersection of Humanities and Law, and has engaged democratic practice through a long-running civic engagement internship, as well as by writing the successful petition for the posthumous pardon of the Scottsboro defendants, some 80 years after their wrongful conviction.
Alvin Singleton: https://www.alvinsingleton.com/
Shruthi Rajasekar: https://www.shruthirajasekar.com/
Paula af Malmborg Ward: http://upward.se/bio_english/
Geni Skendo: https://genimusic.com/about
Miolina wishes to thank Carol Willis and Daniel Borrero at The Skyscraper Museum; Dan Cooper for lending us gear for tonight's performance; and Holland and John, for coming from Alabama to join us for tonight's performance.
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Miolina's 10th Anniversary Season
Miolina's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts,
with the support of the Office of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
Contributions by donors are gratefully acknowledged and deeply appreciated.
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