The Barton Workshop
John Anderson_clarinet, bass clarinet
Enric Monfort Barbera_small percussion/found instruments
Frank Denyer_melodica, found instruments
James Fulkerson_trombone and electronics
Nina Hitz_cello
Marieke Keser_violin/found instruments
Jos Zwaanenburg_flutes w/ electronics

This concert is based upon ideas of John Cage, the “New York School”, his influence on others and some of those composers who have been associated with him. John Cage (1912- 1992) was one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He influenced not only music but nearly all of the arts through his writings, his music, his own visual arts and poetry and in dance through his collaborations with Merce Cunningham. The son of an inventor, Cage was noted for his exploration of many systems of composition, musical notation and even the ‘invention’ of the prepared piano? initially a substitute for a percussion ensemble which wouldn’t fit into a small studio and still leave enough space for the dancer!
Considered by many as the enfant terrible of music, Cage’s compositions while often forcing a listener to reappraise their own ideas about music or the act of listening in fact, are very beautiful by conventional music standards. The most radical change to Cage’s music occurred when he became interested in Zen Buddhism and resolved to no longer impose his ideas of music-making on the world (composing) but instead to create systems to select material (most often done by the performer(s)) so that he might learn to understand the resulting music of this world and thereby enlighten himself to what was already happening around him. In following this working method, he changed how much of the Western world understood art, its creation and our perception of art (what it is, what it means and what is the range and role of an artistic experience.)

The form for this evening’s concert is somewhat unusual, ie a pre-concert environment wherein the audience is expected to arrive, walk around, meet other concert members and exchange small talk, etc while Ryoanji (flutes, pre-recorded flutes, trombone, pre-recorded trombones and percussion) is performed. The event begins (Part 1) with a traditional “concert format” of works by Philip Corner, James Tenney and Christian Wolff. Part 2 is a “Cagean” Musicircus* in which there are simultaneous performances in each of the 4 gallery rooms. There is likely to be some ? or a good deal of - “spilling over” of sound from one room into another which is consistent with Cage’s Musicircus concept.


The Barton Workshop is an Amsterdam based ensemble founded in 1989 by American composer-trombonist James Fulkerson. The goal of the ensemble is to perform the leading edge of contemporary music, whether notated or not. The workshop primarily creates "composer portrait" concerts, usually in collaboration with the composers, which provide either an overview or an in-depth representation of a chosen composer’s work. The Barton Workshop has collaborated with composers such as Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, Nicolas Collins, Steve Lacy, Philip Corner, Hyo-shin Na and Frank Denyer, giving world and European premieres of works by all of the above plus Galina Ustvolskaya, Henryk Gorecki, Ernstalbrecht Stiebler, James Fulkerson, Jerry Hunt and others.
They have made important multi-CD recordings of Morton Feldman, John Cage, Christian Wolff, Alvin Lucier, Philip Corner and James Tenney in addition to single CD recordings of Jerry Hunt, Galina Ustvolskaja, James Drew, Fulkerson, Denyer, Tenney, Wolff, Cage, and Feldman.

www.bartonworkshop.org