Illustrations by Nico Navarro Rueda
International Contemporary Ensemble saxophonist Ryan Muncy has been working with Wojtek Blecharz (composer) and Nicolas Navarro Rueda (visual artist, designer, fashion designer) on an installation project which centers around queer identities and experiences during COVID-19. The work builds on Muncy’s collaborative history with Blecharz and shows the beginning of a new collaborative partnership with Nico’s visual design, which will culminate in late 2021 through a partnership with KuLe Theater in Berlin, Germany. Join us for an evening showcasing each of the artists’ work, including the performance of a new piece by Blecharz, Field Aura 5.
RSVP above to receive YouTube link shortly before the stream starts.
About the Artists
Nico Navarro Rueda – http://cargocollective.com/nnrueda
Nico (b.03.11.1989, Bogotá, Colombia) is a fashion designer, illustrator and artist based in Berlin, Germany. The experimentation with shape, silhouette and colour, the creation of fluidity through structure and detail, research in gender studies and spirituality are recurring characteristics in his fashion design, illustrations and other media and projects. Creation is used and interpreted as a therapeutic process.
Wojtek Blecharz – https://wojtekblecharz.com/
Born in Gdynia (Poland) in 1981, Wojtek Blecharz graduated with honors in 2006 from the Frederic Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw (Master of Arts) and, in 2015 received a PhD in music composition at the University of California San Diego. Since 2012, Blecharz has been curating the Instalakcje Music Festival at Warsaw’s Nowy Theater, featuring non-concert music including sound installations, performance installations, sound sculptures, music videos, music theater, and has also directed his own opera-installations: Transcryptum (2013) commissioned by Grand Theater National Opera in Warsaw; Park-Opera (2016) commissioned by Theater Powszechny in Warsaw; and Body-Opera (2016) commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
In 2012, Blecharz received a scholarship prize “for perfection in music composition” at the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, and in 2013 he was selected as one of winners of the IMPLUS International Composition Competition in Graz. He was nominated for the Passport Award for Classical Music of the Polityka Weekly in 2012, and, in 2013 was recognized with the PKN Orlen Prize “Poles with Verve” in Art and Culture and the Polish Radio Channel Three Yearly Award “Culture Man of the Year.” In 2013, his opera Transcryptum was nominated as the “Cultural Event of 2013” in Gazeta Wyborcza Daily referendum Wdechy. In 2015, a theater/choir piece with Blecharz’s music Mutter Courage und ihre Hunden, directed by Marta Górnicka and commissioned by Staadtstheater Bruswick, was acclaimed as one of the 60 Best Performances of 2015 in Germany. In 2016, he was the recipient of a music theater award for the Best Performance of Contemporary Play (Warsaw/Wałbrzych).
His recently composed works include collaborations with Kwadrofonik Ensemble (Warsaw), Forbidden City Chamber Orchestra (Beijing), Klangforum Wien (Vienna), Royal String Quartet (Warsaw), Aviva Endean (Melbourne), International Contemporary Ensemble (New York), and Musiques Nouvelles (Brussels), with recent performances at Warsaw Autumn Festival, Salzburg Biennale, Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv, Bendigo International Festival of Exploratory Music (Australia), MATA Festival (New York), Mostly Mozart Festival (New York), and Klangwerkstadt (Berlin). Recently Blecharz premiered his new installation Axis, which was commissioned by Goethe Institute in Warsaw and Polish Institute in Berlin; composed and directed a new theater piece SOUNDWORK for 8 actors, commissioned by TR Warszawa; new piece for Syrian and western instruments, Music for Invisible Places, which was commissioned by International Contemporary Ensemble to celebrate to 50th anniversary of New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Ryan Muncy – ryanmuncy.com
Ryan Muncy is saxophonist of the International Contemporary Ensemble, having been praised for his “amazing virtuosity” (The Chicago Tribune) and ability to "show off the instrument's malleability and freakish extended range as well as its delicacy and refinement" (The Chicago Reader). He is a recipient of the Kranichstein Music Prize awarded at the 46th Darmstadt Summer Courses, a Fulbright Fellowship in France, the Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists, and has participated in the creation of more than 250 new works for the saxophone, highlighted by deeply collaborative relationships with leading artist-creators including Ashley Fure, Tyshawn Sorey, Du Yun, Wang Lu, Marcos Balter, Wojtek Blecharz, and Matana Roberts.
His debut solo album Hot was released in 2013 by New Focus Recordings to critical acclaim, praised as "absorbing" (Alex Ross) and "one of the year's best albums" (Time Out New York). Muncy’s second solo album, ism, was released in 2016 by TUNDRA/New Focus Recordings, with his performances heralded by The Chicago Tribune for their “technical prowess.” He performs regularly with several leading new-music ensembles including Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and The Walden School Players.
Ryan serves on the music faculty of The New School’s College of Performing Arts (Mannes School of Music) in New York City, in addition to his role as the Director of Institutional Giving of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Muncy received his doctorate from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, where he studied with Frederick L. Hemke.