The Blurred Music triple CD release voted "New Ears Album of the Year per the People" on Free Jazz Blog
“...courageous, uncompromising, ultimately successful....” -- FreiStil #70/Bertl, Germany
"Susan A is a great player who has mastered and redefined an unlikely instrument. With an exquisite touch she invoked it's history, extended its emotional and ethereal strengths and explored its microtonal possibilities, drawing it out of the contexts that traditionally render it invisible, or generic, and into its own mature discourse, reminding improvisers that 'free' includes the right to be romantic, melodic and four to the bar." -- Chris Cutler, The Wire (UK)...
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The Blurred Music triple CD release voted "New Ears Album of the Year per the People" on Free Jazz Blog
“...courageous, uncompromising, ultimately successful....” -- FreiStil #70/Bertl, Germany
"Susan A is a great player who has mastered and redefined an unlikely instrument. With an exquisite touch she invoked it's history, extended its emotional and ethereal strengths and explored its microtonal possibilities, drawing it out of the contexts that traditionally render it invisible, or generic, and into its own mature discourse, reminding improvisers that 'free' includes the right to be romantic, melodic and four to the bar." -- Chris Cutler, The Wire (UK)
Biliana Voutchkova is a thoroughly engaged composer-performer/interpreter whose work combines regular performances of major solo violin/ensemble works, new compositions by contemporary composers often written for her, and her own work with performative, long length formats, real time composition and improvisation. Her research as a creative artist spans the widest possible range of sound/music/movement and extends the sonic and technical capacities of her instrument evolving into the development of a highly individual musical language. Biliana works as a soloist and collaborates with the Splitter Orchestra, Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, Zeitkratzer, Ensembles United Berlin, Ensemble Modern, Grapeshade and her duos with Michael Thieke, Isidora Edwards, Miako Klein, Walli Höffinger and Svetlana Maraš. In her various projects she has also collaborated with Sasha Waltz & Guests, She She Pop, Berliner Ensemble, Michel Doneda, Mazen Kerbaj, Clayton Thomas, Andrea Parkins, Axel Dörner, Magda Mayas, Michael Zerang,
Olivia Block, George Lewis, Veli Kujala, Phil Minton, Sarah Davachi, Luke Fowler, Hans Peter Kuhn, Iva Bittová, Alwynne Pritchard, Peter Ablinger, Olaf Nikolai, Tyshawn Sorey, Rie Nakajima, Audrey Chen, Colin Hacklander/Farahnaz Hatam, Julyen Hamilton, Litó Walkey and many others.
The release of her solo album “Modus of Raw” and the recent triplet “Blurred Music” were receivedwith critical acclaim worldwide. She has received the Composition Stipend from the Berliner Senate and grands from INM Berlin, Musikfonds, Goethe Institut and the Trust for Mutual Understanding in New York.
One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics.
Though known as for her solo work, she has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Chris Cutler, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bourdreuil, Evan Parker, Michael Formanek, Zane Campbell, and Mary Halvorson among others.
In 2016, she was voted "Best Other Instrument" by the International Critics Poll. In 2017 she received the Baker Artist Award, and in 2018, along with saxophonist Joe McPhee, she was the recipient of the Instant Award in Improvised Music.
The UK Guardian writes, “As an improvisor and composer, Alcorn has proven to be visionary. Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression.”
?Her latest release Soledad is available from Relative Pitch Records.
https://www.susanalcorn.net/
Tickets: $17 in advance/$20 at door/$10 full-time student with ID
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