Event Horizon 

The Event Horizon concert series takes place at The Rotunda. It features Electronic, Avant Garde, and Experimental music along with the work of live video projection artists. The concerts are always free and open to all.

Jair-Rohm Parker Wells is an electric bassist and experimental music artist known for hiswork with Embryo and prominent experimental musicians. Drawing inspiration from Lockwood, Feldman, Braxton, and Cage, Wells’ pursuits encompass the Chapman Stick, computer aided composition, and ambisonic mixing. Compositions from his “Liberation” cycle are featured as part of res·o·nant, the light and sound installation by artist Mischa Kuball at the Jewish Museum Berlin. He graces stages across the world, performing at renowned venues such asVahdat Hall in Tehran, Iran, the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou, China, the Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York, the iconic Globen Arena in Stockholm, Sweden, the vibrant Saxophone Jazz Pub in Bangkok, Thailand, the avant-garde Cafe Oto in London,England, and the prestigious Domicil Jazz Club in Munich, Germany, among many others. Wells’ commitment to innovation shapes the trajectory of experimental music.

Elliott Sharp (e#) is a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who leads Orchestra Carbon, SysOrk, Tectonics and Terraplane and whose compositional strategies encompass fractal geometry, chaos theory, algorithms, genetic metaphors and new graphic notationtechniques, catalyzing a synesthetic music making approach. In 2015, he won the Berlin Prize and Jahrespreis from Der Deutscher Schallplatten Kritiks. Sharp received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fellowship from the Center for Transformative Media in 2014. He’s been featured in such festivals as Darmstadt, Huddersfield, and the Venice Biennale. His book, “IrRational Music” published in 2019, blends memoir, cultural discussion and music theory. Sharp’s works include a composition for Hilary Hahn’s Grammy-winning album “In 27 Pieces” and operas “Filiseti Mekidesi” and “Port Bou”. Collaborators include Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Cecil Taylor, Debbie Harry, Hubert Sumlin and more.

Janene Higgins is a NYC-based video artist and graphic designer who explores diverse creative realms. Her portfolio encompasses video performance in experimental music, projects for Saks Fifth Avenue and CD package designs for major labels like Sony, BMG and PolyGram,as well as for independent labels. Her collaborators include such luminaries as Ikue Mori, Mari Kimura, Zeena Parkins, and Christian Marclay. Her work has graced prestigious events including the Venice Biennale, New York Video Festival, Documenta and Ruhr Triennale inGermany, and the Impakt Festival in the Netherlands, showcasing her talent on a global stage.

Admission is FREE

Fire Museum Presents: Stephen Gauci, Adam Lane & Kevin Shea Trio:Stephen Gauci is recognized as one of the most strikingly original saxophonists on the New York City improvised music scene.

Stricken by a childhood illness that has left him with a profound hearing loss, Gauci was drawn to the clear, deep, tone of the tenor saxophone. This was the first step in a lifelong relationship with, and investigation of tone, timbre, and especially.. voice. The nature of Gauci’s hearing loss are that outer sounds require of him the utmost level of concentration and focus. The flip side, however, is that inner sounds,  and the inner voice, are magnified… crystal clear and singing. The intense outward focus developed as a result of Gauci’s hearing impairment has been turned inward like a laser to illuminate, and manifest,  the inner voice.

Gauci has performed and recorded with many of the leading improvisers of our time, including Cooper Moore, Joe Morris, Nels Cline, Karl Berger, Kenny Wessel, Kris Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, Daniel Carter, George Garzone, Nate Wooley, William Parker, Steve Swell, Mike Bisio, Adam Lane, Kevin Shea, William Hooker, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Dave Rempis.

Gauci runs the popular Bushwick Improvised Music Series, where he has presented over 600 concerts featuring many of New York’s greatest improvisers, as well as many international touring musicians.  At two years and counting, the Bushwick Series is the longest running weekly avant jazz series in Brooklyn. Gauci also performs at the Bushwick Series every Monday with his working quartet featuring guitarist Sandy Ewen, bassist Adam Lane, and drummer Kevin Shea. Having performed every Monday for over two years, this is arguably one of the longest running avant jazz sets in New York City history.

By combining a disparate set of influences into a unique improvisational voice, Adam Lane has become recognized as one of the most original creative voices in contemporary jazz. His 2006 recording New Magical Kingdom, was recently featured in the Penguin Jazz Guide 1001 Best Records Ever Made, and his most recent recording, Ashcan Ranting received a myriad of critical praise including four stars in Downbeat.

His current projects include his Full Throttle Orchestra, a nine piece ensemble formed to realize his extended jazz orchestral compositions, The Adam Lane Trio, featuring legendary reedist Vinny Golia, Four Corners, a co-lead ensemble with reedist Ken Vandermark, and an ongoing solo project that combines unique processed double bass improvisations with Lane's original story telling. As a sideman he has performed with an eclectic mix of musicians, from tenor great John Tchicai, to alto iconoclast Richard Tabnik, to rock legend Tom Waits. Lane's compositions have been praised for their audacity and originality.

Kevin Shea is best known for his work with the band Mostly Other People Do the Killing, he has collaborated with numerous other avant-garde and jazz musicians and composers, including Storm & Stress, Rhys Chatham, People (with Mary Halvorson), Peter Evans Quartet, Barr Shea Dahl, Micah Gaugh and Alan Wilkinson. During the course of his twenty-plus year career, Shea has recorded on over eighty albums and has performed in more than forty countries. He has also performed with the Armitage Gone! dance company, and was lauded as New York City’s best drummer of 2012 by the Village Voice.

venue is wheelchair accessible

Admission is FREE and advance registration is encouraged. Please register HERE

Get ready to plan with a purpose at the 2024 Planning Workshop! On December 11th, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, we're gathering at the Rotunda on Walnut St in Philadelphia for a fun-filled evening of planning and goal-setting. This isn't your typical workshop - it's a celebration of the future, and you're invited!

Our host for the evening, the dynamic Jasmine Jahwula Seapoe, has invited the talented poet and event curator, Christopher KP Brown, to guide us through the process. We'll be mapping out the year 2024, identifying our goals, and creating tasks to bring them to life. So, grab your planners or calendars and get ready to turn your dreams into reality. Let's bid farewell to 2023 and welcome 2024 with clear vision and high spirits!

Admission is FREE. Please register HERE

PROGRAM

Passing, a short film

Monologue, for solo trumpetTessa Ellis, trumpet

Settle, for two players on one vibraphoneSarah Hennies and Andy Thierauf, vibraphone

Abscission, for violin, cello, and guitarCarlos Santiago, violin; Erin Busch, cello; Jonathan Pfeffer, guitar

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Sarah Hennies is a composer based in upstate New York whose work engages with affective and sociopolitical issues such as queer and trans identity, love, and intimacy by means of psychoacoustics and an expanded field of percussion. Forced to build their own set-ups, percussionists are, for Hennies, the only instrumentalists with the freedom to define themselves. A formally trained percussionist, Hennies’s penchant for the abnormal has yielded maladroit performances of multitudinous cheap, thrifted bells as well as ultra-minimalist poundings of woodblock and vibraphone. Hennies has composed acoustic music for ensembles and performers including Bearthoven, Claire Chase, Nate Wooley, and Yarn/Wire, while her recorded output has been released by Blume, No Rent Records, Astral Spirits, and Black Truffle, among other labels. Hennies is currently a visiting assistant professor of music at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

Founded in 2016, the Arcana New Music Ensemble is a group of Philadelphia-based musicians dedicated to presenting interesting, beautiful, and unconventional music in interesting, beautiful, and unconventional places. Built on a flexible roster of 25 musicians, Arcana is able to perform a broad range of repertoire in numerous configurations. Composers featured in recent programs include Julius Eastman, Morton Feldman, Galina Ustvolskaya, Pauline Oliveros, Tom Johnson, Moondog, and James Tenney. Arcana has performed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Fleisher Art Memorial, The Rotunda, The Kitchen (NYC), and collaborated with Variant Six, Prometheus Chamber Orchestra, and Pig Iron Theater Company.More info HERE

Admission is FREE/pay-what-you-can

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

THURSDAY, DEC. 7, 2023

NEW MOON WINTER SOLSTICE EVENT

PROVIDES HEALING ARTS WORKSHOPS

Poet-Tree En Motion Hosts Healing Movement Meditations and Shamanic Sound Journey on Wednesday, Dec. 20th

WEST PHILADELPHIA – During this time of darkness, there is nothing needed more than relief and a chance for a new beginning – a rebirth, if you will. Humans have been celebrating the sun’s “rebirth” as well as our own during the time of the winter solstice for millennia.

This year’s winter solstice happens to coincide with the new moon, considered a time of lunar rebirth.

Join Poet-tree En Motion, a seasonal free community arts event, for its New Moon Winter Solstice Celebration from 6-9 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 20th at The Rotunda in West Philadelphia’s University City. The event will feature healing movement meditations and a shamanic sound journey to make participants feel energetically cleansed and renewed.

The one-hour movement meditation class will kick off the event with a fusion of qigong and yogic arts disciplines led by artistic director and founder of Poet-tree En Motion Gabrielle de Burke, aka Plum Dragoness.

Sound and energy worker Iron Gump will lead the shamanic sound journey with the aid of Philadelphia-based musical guests Scott Soniq, Adrian King and Angela Armour. Participants will be guided into trance states with live musical soundscapes. The healing resonance of seed-shaking sounds will meet the reverberation of flutes, bells, strings, gongs, drums, vocals and more. The sounds of Soniq’s singing bowls will emit frequencies for chakra energy cleansing as well.

Closing out the event, de Burke will perform lyrical spoken-word poetry combined with body-mind dance art meditation.

Doors will open at 6 p.m. The class begins at 6:30 p.m. and the sound journey starts at 7:45 p.m.

The Rotunda is located in the University City section of West Philadelphia at 4014 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104. For information about The Rotunda, log on to www.TheRotunda.org.

For information about Poet-tree En Motion, email de Burke at plumdragoness@gmail.com. To be updated about the seasonal events, join the Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/116980678334215.

The Poet-tree En Motion is supported by grants from the University of Pennsylvania. Admission is free. Donations are suggested to benefit Survival International. Tips for the artists are also welcome.

ABOUT POET-TREE EN MOTION:

Poet-tree En Motion works to inspire both artist and audience to connect and work together toward cultivating the arts community in Philadelphia, welcoming artists of all kinds to experience performances local to the neighborhood, and offering the opportunity at each show for community participation to sign up in the all-genre open mike/stage and jam session component of the events.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Gabrielle de Burke (artist Plum Dragoness)

Founder/Event Organizer Poet-tree En Motion

484-557-9605

plumdragoness@gmail.com

Gina Renzi

Director of The Rotunda

267-934-3705

gina@therotunda.org

FOR EVENT LISTINGS:

Poet-tree En Motion’s New Moon Winter Solstice Celebration Wednesday, Dec. 20th at The Rotunda located at 4014 Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19104. The event is from 6-9p.m. Doors are at 6 p.m. There will be a movement meditation class at 6:30 p.m. and a shamanic sound journey at 7:45 p.m. followed by spoken-word poetry and theatrical dance art. The event is free to the public. Donations at the door are suggested to benefit Survival International. Tips may be given to the artists. For information, log on to www.TheRotunda.org call 267-934-3705 or email gina@therotunda.org.

PERFORMER BIOS:

PLUM DRAGONESS

Native to West Philadelphia, Plum Dragoness (aka Gabrielle de Burke) is a multi-talented thespian, dancer, martial artist, instructor, poetess, and writer who has been involved with performing arts since childhood. She is known for her poetic style, vocal performance, fire dance, flow arts, and choreographic flair throughout Philadelphia and abroad.

Over the past 17 years, she has toured as a solo artist, founding member/core performer/assistant artistic director of Archedream for HumanKind among many others. She has independently released two albums of original work with the project Plum Dragoness & the Elements, known for its fusion of multimedia, live world-beat musical infusions, spoken-word vocals, and lyrical poetry. She has also helped bring together the all-female performance group trio The Femme-Mynistiques, who released their debut EP “Here She Comes…” in the summer of 2016.

Since 2007, Plum Dragoness has been a resident performance artist, as well as host and organizer for the successful performing arts series Poet-tree En Motion. This has allowed her the opportunity to share her own creative performances (including collaborative projects she initiated) and work created by many unique artists within the West Philadelphia community and beyond.

Her work as a healing arts practitioner and instructor continues to intersect with her work as an interdisciplinary performance artist through the incorporation of internal and martial arts forms in combination with dance, poetry, and theater presentation. She has been teaching in the Philadelphia area and abroad since 2000.

On Instagram: @plumdragoness @dragonspiritarts @authentic.eccentrics

IRON GUMP and MUSICAL GUESTS – SCOTT SONIQ, ANGELA ARMOUR AND ADRIAN KING

Iron Gump is a sound and energy worker. Through his understandings of energy and movement, he utilizes sound and vibration to guide people into spaces where they can freely explore relaxation. Iron Gump has shared his sound journeys in Manhattan and Connecticut boardrooms and offices, Haitian refugee camps in Dominican Republic, a private Japanese arboretum in Maui, a boutique hotel on Maderas Beach, Nicaragua, and many other places between for the last seven years. Working alongside Remedy Partners Inc. and Quartet Health, he has lead and set the tone for corporate retreats, office openings, informative talks and, more recently, for Mental Health Week. His practice is an inclusive experience for people from all walks of life. "In a world of Make-Believe, let us believe in what we make."

IronGumpart.com On Instagram: @irongump_art

SCOTT SONIQ

Sonic Flower is Scotty Sonic from Philadelphia, a certified Reiki master and ReikiSound(TM) practitioner who is also a seasoned DJ and producer.

Throughout the years, Scott’s experiences showed him the immense healing potentials that sound can deliver; this was coupled with 25 years of independent study and self-evolution. His amazing journey led presently to many diverse communities in the Philadelphia area.

One aspect of Scott’s Journey is Sonic Flower: a totally immersive and life-enhancing sound experience. Participants rest horizontally or seated comfortably while bathed in the sound field from 7 quartz crystal singing bowls. The tones emanated are deeply resonant and are not only heard but can be felt in one’s body; immersed in a field of deep coherence – a structured yet always-evolving cache of information that is rich in potential and waiting to be tapped. Typical ReikiSound(TM) Immersions usually last for 60-75 minutes and can be merged with your inner or outer work.

Private and couples sessions are offered, which are tailored to the client’s needs, or group ReikiSound(TM) Immersions are offered in which a field of vibration is created intuitively for the highest benefit of the whole group. Also offered are Sonic Chakra Tune-ups, which require active participation by the client. Sonic Flower is also open and available to collaborate on any appropriate workshop/event.

Sonic Flower also creates deep-listening ambient DJ sets using self- produced, as well as other producer’s musics. He also creates ecstatic-body-music-DJ-sets under the moniker Butter & Eggs. The journey is yours to choose; and this journey is ours. Make your cells happy in a field of vibration.

facebook.com/SonicFlower

ANGELA ARMOURAngela Armour is a multimedia artist, musician, massage therapist and freeform flow dancer working with the power of music, sound and moving arts to create a sense of wholeness and healing.facebook.com/angela.armour.5

ADRIAN KING

Adrian King, founder of the Healing Arts Collective, is a licensed massage therapist and certified yoga instructor.

Adrian abides by a holistic philosophy, aiming to do more than simply treat symptoms, but rather support people in bringing balance to the body and mind as a whole. His massage treatments delve deep into the body's tissue to release restrictions, while educating clients about self-care and mind-body awareness. In his yoga classes, students are guided through a relaxing yet stimulating blend of movements, postures, breathing exercises, and meditation techniques, which benefit the many dimensions of life.

Besides his work in as a health professional, Adrian takes part in a variety of creative pursuits. He is passionate about music and has is talented in playing the guitar, flute, percussion, and as a songwriter. He also enjoys exploring the visual arts, culinary arts, and the world of nature. He is an experienced world traveler, having journeyed throughout the United States, Mexico, Central America, the Middle East and Europe.

https://adriankingmassage.com/

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