Fire Museum
presents :
Susan Alcorn
Evan Lipson
Eric Carbonara

Susan Alcorn: One of the world's premiere musical innovators of her instrument, Baltimore-based Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country and western swing music. Known among steel guitarists for her virtuosity and authenticity in a traditional context, Alcorn first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands. Soon she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of modern classical music (Messiaen, Varese, Penderecki), the deep listening of Pauline Oliveros, Astor Piazzolla’s nuevo tango, free jazz, and world musics (Indian rags, South American songs, and gamelan orchestra). Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression. "From the relatively unadorned sound of pedal steel and amplifier, Susan Alcorn brings forth music that is as full of emotional honesty as it is of melodic and harmonic exploration and surprise. She possesses a virtuosic technique that is always at the service of the musical moment and its possibilities for expression and communication." - Kevin Macneil Brown/Dusted
Susan will perform a solo set then a duo set with Evan Lipson

Evan Lipson has operated as a musician since adolescence-intuitively seeking the liminal zones in which intellect and instinct, history and myth, and creative and destructive force intersect. Drawn towards aberrant perspectives at an early age, his formative experiences were primarily rooted in extreme and often discordant forms of rock, improvised music, modernist composition, jazz, outsider pop, soundtracks, and noise.

Eric Carbonara (Philadelphia):  is a guitarist, composer, and audio engineer currently based in Philadelphia. His reverence for raw and honest aural expression has led him far and wide, composing works that embrace noise, improvisation, and aleatoric elements for the guitar. Carbonara's work stems from the belief that music is a vehicle for self expression and universal truth, a belief shared by his teacher, Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya. His playing weaves a variety of traditional forms producing a kind of exalted pidgin style in which one can recognize influences of Hindustani slide guitar music, Andalusian Roma-Flamenco, and 20th-century guitar compositions yet find it difficult to pinpoint any singular derivative source. Carbonara has released 7 solo/duet albums and has been featured on many compilations from labels including VHF, Locust Music, Tompkins Square, and Majumua Music, among others. In March of 2014, Carbonara released Tributes and Diatribes with harpist Jesse Sparhawk on VHF Records.

Carbonara's strengths lie in blending and juxtaposing seemingly polarized themes, revealing a more honest and thorough depiction of himself. Marc Masters in Pitchfork writes "His guitar often sounds idyllic but also filled with tension; his careful picks and strums could easily dive into darkness. Such countering themes are a product of Carbonara's approach to guitar, which is guided equally by physical technique and abstract imagery."

Carbonara has toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Europe alongside fellow guitarists such as Alexander Turnquist (VHF), Nick Schillace, William Tyler (MERGE), and Nick Millevoi (TZADIK). When not working in the studio as an engineer/producer, he is at work composing and extending his technique and abilities. Carbonara has been featured in Pitchfork, Washington Post, Chicago Reader, Philly Weekly, etc. and has performed live on WNYC's "Spinning on Air", WFMU, WPRB, WPSU, WNUR, among many other radio programs.

links at http://www.museumfire.com/events

Admission is FREE but donations are gladly accepted!