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06.29.2010 In May, my big project was the premiere of my new piece Waver for electronics, 3 worklights, and dancer. Rachel Bernsen premiered the piece at The Big Room in New Haven as part of the Take Your Time performance series. The night was very successful and showcased some fantastic performances by Rachel, Matthew Welch, Taylor Ho Bynum, Anne Rhodes, Nathan Bontrager, and Adam Matlock. I had a great time and was relieved to have a successful performance. You can watch a video of Waver here. I recently got back from NYC where I was performing as part of Anthony Braxton's birthday celebration at Le Pouisson Rouge and Issue Project Room. I performed in the 12+2tet on Friday and the Trillium Orchestra and Andrew Dewar's Quartet on Saturday. The shows were incredibly special. You can get a link to listen to some of the music from the Friday show here at the Trillium Blog. Upcoming projects include a residency at the electronic music center STEIM in Amsterdam in October and a Winter tour with my trio featuring Mike McGinnis and Bill Carbone. I am writing all new pieces for this group and I would like to record the new pieces with the group in the winter. | ![]() |
03.16.2010 I am currently in Brooklyn rehearsing and recording Anthony Braxton's Trillium E Opera project. I am playing string bass in the orchestra and having a blast with Ken Filiano and Kris Saebo. My wife Anne Rhodes is one of the principal singers (singing the role of Sundance) and doing a great job if I may say so myself. The opera is really special and it is great to get all these great musicians together performing this music. Taylor Ho Bynum, Amy Crawford, and Matt Welch are also doing a great job making sure that everything is running smoothly and they have put a lot of work into this project. Anthony is elated to have all these people dedicated to his music and I am just thrilled to be a part of it. Photos by Anne Rhodes | ![]() |
02.27.2010 Last night I performed with Lou Guarino Jr. and Brian Jarawa Gray as part of Telepathy. I had a great time at this performance. This group is really special because we improvise electronic music and acoustic music and mix the two together. We went to a lot of different musical areas and there were some really special moments. There was audio and video documentation so look for an online release soon. I will be interviewed as a guest on The Jef Sessions (a web radio show) with Jef Wilson on March 6th at noon. There will be a live stream of the interview available here. Jef is a musician, teacher, and audio engineer who lives in the New Haven area. In addition to the Jef Sessions he also runs East Rock Recording Studio. This interview will give me a chance to talk about my music and my upcoming trio show on March 13th. More to come soon. | ![]() |
02.17.2010 Steve's sound design and music were fantastic all around. He was working with 8 channels of sound and his work gave the piece a real sense of space. I hope that he can incorporate live musicians into the piece sometime in the future. I think that this work is really special and opens a lot of doors for multi-media performance. Everyone in Chicago should go see it when it opens. On Tuesday I performed for an attentive audience at Brown Rice. I performed a collage of different pieces for electronics and a short solo on string bass. Jayve Montgomery also performed some of his ambient electronic music for gutted upright piano, bells, trumpet, and noisemakers. It was really special. The electronic interface he has designed for the piece is very intuitive and flexible. We also got to perform some electronic duos as well which was fun. Thanks to Dan and Jayve to setting it up. I have two more performances in Chicago, one on Thursday and one on Friday. Check the performances page. Thursday includes improvisations with Will Faber and Stephen Ptacek, and Friday includes the premiere of a new electro-acoustic piece with Nick Broste and Jeff Kimmel. Please come out if you can. | ![]() |
01.26.2010 I was fortunate enough to take part in the first Sonic Genome project that happened in 2003 at the Wesleyan University Hockey Rink. "Braxton on Ice," but not really. It was May and the ice was not on the rink. All the musicians were together in one big room. I think that the Vancouver performance will be a little different. I think that there might be different rooms for the musicians and friendly experiencers to walk through. Altogether I am very excited. It is going to be an historic event and I am privileged to take part in it. Coming up in February, I am performing in Rachel Bernsen's piece User as part of Movement Research Judson Memorial Church. I am going to be traveling to Chicago for a couple of performances. I will be playing at my friend Will Faber's loft on Thursday the 18th and at Elastic on Friday the 19th. Both nights I will be playing some select compositions for solo bass, some for electronics. On Friday I will be premiering a new electro-acoustic composition with special guests Jeff Kimmel on bass clarinet, and Nick Broste on trombone. I am excited to be working with some new musicians. Finally when I return to CT I will be performing with the electro-acoustic improvising trio Telepathy at Alina's Ristorante in Wallingford. This will be our first public performance where we showcase our full acoustic and electronic setup, so it is not to be missed. Lots happening and more to come. Please check back soon. | ![]() |
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contact me - carl (at) carltesta (dot) net |
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