Saturday October 5 * 7pm * $10-20

Open Music performs a new arrangement of three episodes from Robert Ashley’s legendary TV Opera Perfect Lives. Ashley’s Opera, first aired on the UK’s Channel 4 in 1983, is a trance-like journey in music, words, and video through the many-layered soul of America – “these are songs about the corn belt, some of the people in it, or on it.” Open Music, an experimental music collective from central Pennsylvania, brings their unique sound and style and instrumentation (voices, percussion, bass, dulcimer, synthesizer, harmonium and flute) to bear on new original arrangements of the first, third and seventh episodes (“The Park: Privacy Rules”, “The Bank: Victimless Crime”, “The Backyard: T’be Continued”). Perfect Lives is unlike anything it could possibly be compared to, and opportunities to see it live are rare to say the least. Open Music is excited, and grateful to the Ashley estate, to have the opportunity to bring this visionary epic to life on multiple stages in the northeast this fall.

Open Music Ensemble:

Tara Toms, voice

Jessie Pierce, voice/flute

Nico Gargiulo, voice/harmonium

Chunyuan Di, dulcimer

Corey Elbin, synthesizer

Tommy Gargiulo, bass

Kevin Sims, percussion

Classically trained soprano Bonnie Lander (Baltimore) performs modern and experimental music with a “signature ability to embody a seemingly endless supply of vocal timbres and personalities.” Based in Baltimore, Bonnie is a member of the High Zero Foundation, SSAA vocal quartet the Charm City Trebles, and is a regular collaborator with Performing Arts Services in NYC. In her spare time Bonnie works at UMBC and collaborates frequently with local artists Shelly Purdy, John Dierker, Sam Pluta and Ruby Fulton.