Join us for an amazing evening with composer/pianist Ben Schwendener as he showcases his exploration of Bach's Fugues through his contemporary analysis, and stunning improvisation. This is a first electronic performance of these works!
This evening will be limited to 20 guests. Plan on eating dinner either at home, or at a local Jamaica Plain restaurant of your choice. We try to keep food out of the yoga studio.
The universal modal elements employed by J.S. Bach have been shared by creative ... view more »
Join us for an amazing evening with composer/pianist Ben Schwendener as he showcases his exploration of Bach’s Fugues through his contemporary analysis, and stunning improvisation. This is a first electronic performance of these works!
This evening will be limited to 20 guests. Plan on eating dinner either at home, or at a local Jamaica Plain restaurant of your choice. We try to keep food out of the yoga studio.
The universal modal elements employed by J.S. Bach have been shared by creative musicians of multiple genres throughout the centuries of equal temperament. Using these elements, Schwendener improvises in this current time, aiming to form a bridge through science, nature, and the current times of our common humanity through music.
Ben’s improvisations are based on a modal analysis of J.S. Bach’s Chorales, Cantatas, and Fugues from the perspective of the Lydian Chromatic Concept which provides a rich collection of natural elements perfect for
improvisational navigation. Schwendener sustains a unique voice in contemporary creative music as an authority on George Russell’s Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization. These ingredients make up and are available to everyone for the creation of musical languages in any style.
Schwendener recently published Organic Music Theory (Heights Music International, 2019), a perspective based on understanding universal musical elements provided by nature, used creatively for composition, improvisation and analysis. OMT presents a new direction in natural pedagogy and dialogue-based arts education. He has given lectures, workshops and seminars at universities and institutions internationally, and is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music of Bard College. He is also founder and director of Gravity Arts, Inc., a non-profit arts organization providing customized education and services for musicians, dancers, and interdisciplinary artists.
As touring artist, his groups include the Mobile Trio with drummer Kenwood Dennard and bassist Marc Friedman, LYRIC with singer Carley DeFranco, and collaborations with choreographer Angelo Dello Iacono and the Swiss dance company ADN Dialect. He is currently working on a second volume, ‘Applied Modal Analysis’, a further expansion of OMT and responsible in large part for the realizations presented in this show.
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