Fri 2/7 @ 8PM
The Cleveland Uncommon Sounds Project aka CUSP specializes in presenting music that’s out of the mainstream —improvisational, exploratory, pushing the boundaries of what sound can do. Its upcoming concert at Calicchia Gallery Studio (formerly Convivium 33) will feature three performers who do just that.
Headliner Ipek Eginli is a Turkish-American sound artist, originally a classical pianist, who, like many in this field, combines electronic and acoustic sounds, improvising on piano, synthesizers, voice and no-input mixing boards. Her music, we’re told, is always “shifting between organic and mechanical sounds while evoking a range of emotions, from tender and soft to dark and explosive.” She released a pair of debut albums last summer — a solo album and a duet album with pianist Daniel Levin — when she also was invited to perform at the New York Electroacoustic Music Festival.
Sharing the bill is a Cleveland performer well known in this community: harp player Stephan Haluska, who is CUSP’s managing director. In addition to tirelessly promoting improvisational music in the area, he experiments with expanding the sonic potential of the harp, looking for new playing techniques and ways of changing its sound by adding objects, materials and electronic processing to his compositions. Last year he met Eginli during a residency in Brookly where they recorded a collaborative project so it sounds like there’s a possibility of a collaboration onstage at this concert.
Finally, they’ll be joined on the bill by cellist Liam Battle, whose music encompasses a range of American and Western genres from mid-20th-century avant-garde to contemporary classical music and current trends in experimental and improvisational music. He’s currently working toward his master degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Admission is a suggested $15 donation but they emphasize that no one is turned away because they don’t have the money. Go here for more information.