2022 MATA Festival
Night 4 Artist Bios

Darius Jones

Darius Jones has created a recognizable voice as a critically acclaimed saxophonist and composer by embracing individuality and innovation in the tradition of African-American music. Jones has been awarded the Van Lier Fellowship, Jerome Foundation Commission, Jerome Artist-in-Residence at Roulette, French-American Jazz Exchange Award, and, in 2019, the Fromm Music Foundation commission at Harvard University. Jones has released a string of diverse recordings featuring music and images evocative of Black Futurism. His work as a new music composer for voice culminated in a major debut performance at Carnegie Hall in 2014. Jones has collaborated with artists including Gerald Cleaver, Oliver Lake, William Parker, Andrew Cyrille, Craig Taborn, Wet Ink Ensemble, Jason Moran, Trevor Dunn, Dave Burrell, Eric Revis, Matthew Shipp, Marshall Allen, Nasheet Waits, Branford Marsalis, Travis Laplante, Fay Victor, Cooper-Moore, Matana Roberts, JD Allen, Matthew Shipp, Nicole Mitchell, Georgia Ann Muldrow, and many more. The New York Times named Jones among the Best Live Jazz Performances of 2017 for his Vision Festival performance with Farmers by Nature. In 2018, Darius premiered across the United States a major new composition entitled LawNOrder, a dramatic commentary on social justice and American politics. Jones’s music is a confrontation against apathy and ego, hoping to inspire authenticity that compels us to be better humans.

Program Notes

140 million square miles of water and 60 million square miles of land cover the Earth. In both realms, lives have been lived and lost. How they lived and how they ultimately came to their end is what we refer to as history. As the years go by, what took place or existed on a piece of land fades from the memory of the majority, unless the society deems it important. Take for example the origins of the string quartet, for the past 250 years or so a chamber music staple. Where does it come from? How was it created? How did it become so embedded in our consciousness? The same can be said for the saxophone trio within jazz.

History helps to guide our steps and see who we are as individuals, as a community and ultimately as a society. Musical genres or styles can contain periods of time within them, transporting us back to a place or creating a state of nostalgia. But when we let go of style and genre, give in to sound and experimentation, and investigate historical matters, we embark on an abstract voyage.

I aim to present the classroom as a place where the potential for truth can exist. History and the present day offer too many instances where the classroom has been used to nullify truth or give us a false perception of reality. As we battle for the potential for truth, I think it’s important for the classroom to be our principal setting, especially given today’s tightening embrace of historical distortion and erasure.

Colored School No. 3 (Extra Credit) pulls into the classroom stagecraft and performance art, graphic and traditional notation, oral and written text, invocation and reincarnation of historical moments through sound.

In this place there is the potential for truth. Within this piece I am trying to share a truth, a truth about what it means to be Black in this country, to be saddled with the reality of marginalization, dehumanization, and racial violence.

Through abstraction, this composition will explore four historical moments that took place on American soil. The ensemble will be given clues and materials from each of those moments to guide them through their journey within the piece. They will be encouraged to be emotive and truthful about their reaction to each historical moment. What the audience will experience is a dialogue between two worlds, and eight lives existing in a moment on stolen land.

“There can be no reconciliation and healing without remembering the past.” – EJI Community Remembrance Project

Gerald Cleaver

Drummer Gerald Cleaver, born May 4, 1963 and raised in Detroit, is a product of the city’s rich music tradition. Inspired by his father, drummer John Cleaver, he began playing the drums at an early age. He also played violin in elementary school and trumpet in junior high school and high school. He gained early invaluable experience with Detroit jazz masters Ali Muhammad Jackson, Lamont Hamilton, Earl Van Riper, and Pancho Hagood. While attending the University of Michigan as a music education major, he was awarded a Jazz Study Grant, from the National Endowment for the Arts, to study with drummer Victor Lewis. He graduated in 1992 and began teaching in Detroit where he worked with Rodney Whitaker, A. Spencer Barefield, Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, Wendell Harrison, and with visiting musicians Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Kenny Burrell, Frank Foster, Cecil Bridgewater, Ray Bryant, Eddie Harris, Dennis Rowland, Howard Johnson, Diana Krall, and Don Byron. In 1995 he accepted an appointment as assistant professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Michigan, and in 1998 also joined the jazz faculty at Michigan State University. He moved to New York in 2002. He has toured and/or recorded with Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, Lotte Anker, Matt Shipp, William Parker, Craig Taborn, Kevin Mahogany, Charles Gayle, Mario Pavone, Ralph Alessi, Jacky Terrasson, Muhal Richard Abrams, Tim Berne, Jeremy Pelt, Ellery Eskelin, David Torn, Miroslav Vitous, Terje Rypdal, Michael Formanek, Charles Lloyd, Bill Frisell, Benny Golson and Tomasz Stanko, among others.

Sean Conly

Bassist and Composer, Sean Conly, has worked with a diverse list of artists such as Gregory Tardy, Freddie Hubbard, Regina Carter, Ray Barretto, Michael Franks, Tom Harrell, Andrew Hill, Nicholas Payton, Stefon Harris, James Moody, Mike Stern, Rick Margitza, Michael Attias, Tony Malaby, Anthony Coleman, Mohsen Namjoo, Avishai Cohen (trpt), Darius Jones, and many more. His latest release is “The Buzz” (577 Records) and features Francisco Mela and Leo Genovese. Seanconly.bandcamp.com

Ledah Finck

Ledah Finck is a violinist, violist, improviser, and composer who resides in NYC. A passionate creator, performer, and curator of contemporary classical music, she is a member of the contemporary-music string quartet Bergamot Quartet, currently the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the New School. Her pursuit of contemporary music is strongly supplemented by performing and collaborating in other genres such as Jazz Manouche, Appalachian and Celtic folk, and experimental music. Compositional projects include commissions by Imani Winds, Ayane and Paul, Alarm Will Sound/Now Hear This, the Bridge Ensemble, The Peabody Community Chorus, and a work for the Bergamot Quartet and percussionist Terry Sweeney that is the title track for Bergamot’s upcoming debut album, In the Brink. Her solo albums Mayfly and outside songs can be heard on Bandcamp.com.

Josh Henderson

NYC based Violinist, Violist, Electric Bassist and Composer Josh Henderson leads a multi-faceted career that ranges from solo performances with orchestras to playing electric violin in Rock Bands. A player in the groups Contemporaneous and Warp Trio among others, he regularly performs all over the globe and loves playing music of all styles. He can be found online at www.joshhendersonmusic.com.

Issei Herr

Issei Herr is a musician who embraces openness and vulnerability, a sense of wonder and exploration, and a search for truth and beauty through the vast expressive sound world of the cello. Weaving between an expansive array of stylistic genres and time periods, from notated music to improvised, acoustic to electronic, Issei maintains a commitment to musical discovery in every facet of their performing and compositional endeavors. Highlights of the 2021-2022 season include performances with musical artist Rachika Nayar at SXSW, Knockdown Center, Elsewhere Rooftop, and Brooklyn Museum, as well as a solo performance at St. John’s in the Village, New York. Past highlights included a series of duo concerts with distinguished violinist Rolf Schulte in Mexico and New York, a solo concert tour in Oregon, a collaborative performance art project with choreographer Mary Armentrout in San Francisco, and a recording of the complete solo cello suites of Bach. Trained as a cellist at Juilliard, Issei has collaborated with some of the leading musical artists of today, including Nico Muhly, Kaija Saariaho, JACK Quartet, and many others.

Aviva Jaye

Aviva Jaye is a performing artist and composer primarily creating music, wielding voice, keys, harp, guitar and ukulele. She combines acoustic and electronic elements to unlock a portal for listeners to venture, exploring the dimensions of empathy, self-awareness, social justice and futurism. Her interdisciplinary work includes theatre, dance, paper arts and poetry. Recent projects include We Can Change the Country by Darius Jones (Roulette); featured artist for Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit; composer for the play LORDES (New Ohio Theater); live music for [GET WELL SOON] you black + bluised by Nic Kay (Abrons Art Center); music direction & performance for “Four Questions”, a Pride production (LaMama); featured artist at The Public’s Civic Salon series and Artist-In-Residence at Guildhall (East Hampton). Aviva is a band member performing with Arthur Moon, Dessa, Echo Bloom & Raia Was.

Pauline Kim Harris

Violinist Pauline Kim Harris, aka PK or Pauline Kim, is a GRAMMY®-winning recording artist and composer. She has appeared throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia as soloist, collaborator and music director. Known for her work with classical avant-punk violin duo String Noise, she has also toured extensively with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and continues to collaborate with leading new music ensembles in New York City.

Active in the experimental music scene, Pauline’s work extends into interdisciplinary worlds, crossing boundaries and integrating visual art, electronics, media, film and dance to music. She has premiered and recorded works by Alvin Lucier, Christian Wolff, John Zorn, Philip Glass, Tyondai Braxton, Catherine Lamb, Steve Reich, George Lewis, David Lang, Du Yun, and more.

Pauline’s debut album, Heroine — a reimagining of the Bach Chaconne and Ockeghem’s Deo Gratias was released in 2019 on Sono Luminus with worldwide distribution. Her second album, Wild at Heart, was released on Sono Luminus in 2021. Pauline has also recorded for Decca, Tzadik, Northern Spy, Nonesuch, New Focus Recordings, Infrequent Seams, New World Records, Chaikin Records, Unseen Worlds, and Cold Blue Music, and has been heard on PBS, BBC, NPR, WQXR, WNYC, WKCR and WFMU.

Pauline Kim was the first Music Director for the Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company and has been the featured solo artist for choreographers David Parker of The Bang Group and Pam Tanowitz. Most recently, she was an associate artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, had her debut residency at the Stone - New School, resident artist fellow at The Mabel Residency, and is the recipient of the EtM Con Edison Composer Residencies at Bloomingdale School of Music.