VOLUME and Human Resources are pleased to present a performance by pianist, improviser, and composer Vicki Ray as part of “Cosm, Organism-Construction, Second Instance,” an exhibition of new work by Anja Weiser Flower. This occasion will present a rare opportunity to experience an extended, improvised sound world by one of the foremost artists working with prepared piano and the modern and contemporary repertoire. Building on the themes of the music of the spheres, astrophysics, and aleatoricism present in Flower’s work, the evening will serve as an invitation to commune with our cosmic environment and envision new possibilities for human transformation.

The performance will take place in darkness, with Flower’s work providing the main source of illumination. Minor lighting sources may also be provided as needed throughout the room to ensure comfortable and safe navigation. The audience will be encouraged to move freely throughout the space, exploring all avenues for dynamically relating to both the performance and artwork, with seating available to facilitate extended immersion in Ray’s sound world.

Tickets may be purchased in advance or at the door for a suggested donation of $20. VOLUME strives to make its programming as accessible as possible, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. For those who are experiencing financial difficulty, discounted or free arrangements may be made at the door or in advance by emailing jared@volumeprojects.org. All proceeds from the show will go towards supporting the artist and production expenses.

This event is intended to be accessible to users of wheelchairs and other accessibility devices.  Human Resources’ front entrance has one step, with a folding wheelchair ramp available. The side entrance is wheelchair accessible. Human Resources does not have a wheelchair accessible restroom. The bathroom is gender neutral and has 2 stalls adjacent to each other. Please contact Human Resources with any accessibility questions or requests.

ABOUT VICKI RAY

Described as “phenomenal and fearless” Vicki Ray is a pianist, improviser, and composer. She has commissioned and premiered countless new works by today’s leading composers. Ray is a founding member of Piano Spheres and head of keyboard studies at the California Institute of the Arts where she was named the first recipient of the Hal Blaine Chair in Musical Performance. She has appeared on numerous international festivals and is a regular member of the faculty at the Bang On a Can Summer Festival at MASS MoCA. Ray has been featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series as soloist and collaborative artist. Her widely varied performing and recording career covers the gamut of new and old music: from Boulez to Reich, Wadada Leo Smith to Beethoven. Notable recordings include the first Canadian disc of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with the Blue Rider Ensemble, the premiere recordings of Steve Reich’s You Are (Variations) and the Daniel Variations with the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the first recording of John Cage’s Europeras 3 and 4. Her recording of Cage’s The Ten Thousand Things on Microfest Records received a 2013 Grammy nomination. Recent recordings include the premiere recording of Andrew Norman’s Sonnets with Eighth Blackbird’s Nick Photinos on the New Amsterdam label, Daniel Lentz’s River of 1000 Streams on Cold Blue and YAR – a duo recording on the Orenda label with slide guitarist Scot Ray.

ABOUT ANJA WEISER FLOWER

Anja Weiser Flower is trying to stitch together a newly centralized aesthetic construction. Anja Weiser Flower wants to pull the unitary social mind together with you. Is modeling a point of concentration whose sheaves you can read through, feeling some of the patterns in which our Everything organizes itself. Is trying to get you to feel the underlying potential of a transsexual universality in human life, is here for the potential of an unwhite disabled queer feminine transcendent overcoming, the material human community. Coming to meet the still very real possibility of globally overcoming the capitalist social world and establishing communistic social relations. Coming to meet the cosmos.

She lives in San Francisco, California, attended the San Francisco Art Institute, and will have her work featured in an upcoming project by the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) and Printed Matter, Inc.