Alex Zhang Hungtai & Gabriel Ferrandini

Profiled in the New York Times as a “nomad musician” and “man of many faces,” Alex Zhang Hungtai has been focusing on explorations of improvised music, Free Jazz, and his new role as a composer. After retiring his project Dirty Beaches which received acclaim from Pitchfork for creating work “warm and unnatural all at once,” his newer compositions predominantly work with saxophone, synthesizers, percussion and piano, furthering his research on ritualistic music of liminality.

Besides his solo work, Hungtai will perform with free jazz drummer Gabriel Ferrandini in an evening showcasing their latest work.

Brian Chase is a drummer and composer living in Brooklyn. His diverse career includes stints with Grammy nominated rock band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the community of the New York experimental music scene, and his solo project Drums and Drones.  Performances have taken him across the world to the Sydney Opera House (with Karen O’s Stop the Virgens and Nick Zinner’s 41 Strings), UK’s Reading and Leeds Festivals (with Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Toronto’s X Avant Festival (with Drums and Drones), and throughout NYC to such notable venues as The Stone, Pioneer Works, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Recorded works include several with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, multiple releases with Drums and Drones, and albums each with improvisors Alan Licht, Jeremiah Cymerman, and Andrea Parkins, among more.  Brian has held a performance residency at John Zorn’s venue The Stone in 2016 and an artist residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts in 2015.  In the fall of 2017, Brian was a visiting professor at Bennington College.  June of 2018 will see the launch of Brian’s own label, Chaikin Records.