Pianist and composer Eric Wubbels presents the New York premiere of Altarpiece H. af K. — a new work and record out on Kou Records, written for bassoon trio and performed by Dana Jessen, Ben Roidl-Ward, and Katherine Young.

An artist who “brings meticulous poise to his experimentalism” (The New York Times), Eric Wubbels has spent over two decades building a body of work defined by a thrilling tension between formal rigor and unstable, unpredictable energy. Altarpiece H. af K. is the most physical expression of that tension to date. Everything heard on this record comes out of the wooden tube of the bassoon: multiphonics in tripled unison send up auroras of combination tones, dissonances beat so heavily they shake the floor beneath the players' feet, altissimo teeth-on-reed whistle-tones strive upwards to the instrument's absolute registral apex. Somewhere between the spectral worlds of Scelsi, Radigue, and Dumitrescu and the sustained physical weight of Sunn O))), Altarpiece H. af K. vibrates at the threshold of what sound can hold.

Ben Greenberg (Uniform) opens the evening with a solo guitar set.

Schedule
- 7:00 PM — Doors
- 7:30 PM — Artist talk
- 8:00 PM — Show

Tickets: $25 general / $15 students

Eric Wubbels is a composer and performer. For the last 20+ years he has been pianist and Co-Director of New York’s Wet Ink Ensemble.

Wubbels’s music is characterized by its balance of rigorous formal structure, densely detailed instrumental virtuosity, and wild creative risk-taking. His work most often grows out of a compositional process that moves slowly and deliberately through long arcs of development and refinement, relying on close relationships and face-to-face communication with collaborators.

Current ongoing projects include Second Nature (flute, percussion, keyboards trio with Erin Lesser and Ian Antonio of Wet Ink), interbeing (with TAK Ensemble), and a duo with vocalist Charmaine Lee.

Dana Jessen is a bassoonist, improviser, and electroacoustic musician hailed as a 'bassoon virtuoso' by the Chicago Reader and recipient of the 2023 Cleveland Arts Prize. Over two decades she has presented world premieres throughout North America and Europe, collaborating with composers George Lewis, Caroline Shaw, Pamela Z, and Michael Gordon among many others. She has released three solo albums and co-founded Splinter Reeds, a contemporary reed quintet dedicated to cutting-edge composition. Jessen is Associate Professor of Contemporary Music & Improvisation at the Oberlin Conservatory.

Katherine Young’s electroacoustic music and sonic art has been recognized by awards, fellowships, and commissions from organizations including the Guggenheim Foundation, Fromm Foundation, and the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt. As a bassoonist and improviser, Katherine amplifies her instrument and employs a flexible electronics setup. Katherine lives in Atlanta, where she teaches composition, improvisation, and electronic music at Emory University.

Ben Roidl-Ward is a bassoonist the Washington Post named one of 23 artists "changing the sound of classical music," known for his "dazzling technique" and "breathless virtuosity." He plays bassoon in Chicago's Ensemble Dal Niente and has premiered more than 200 works. From 2021 to 2025 he was a Contemporary Leader at the Lucerne Festival. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the International Contemporary Ensemble, among others. He is Principal Bassoonist of the Chicago Sinfonietta and teaches bassoon as Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His debut solo album, Axis Mundi (Sideband Records), was one of Bandcamp Daily's best contemporary classical releases.

NYC native Ben Greenberg is a producer, engineer, mixer, and musician with deep roots in underground music — a founding member of industrial stalwarts Uniform who has also played with Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade), Couch Slut, Dazzling Killmen, Miasmatic Necrosis, Stephen Tanner (Harvey Milk), The Men, Zs, Hubble, and many many others. His recording, mixing, and production credits span the stylistic gamut: Danny Elfman, Depeche Mode, Chat Pile, Drab Majesty, Nels Cline, Wicca Phase Springs Eternal, Show Me The Body, Junglepussy, Marc Ribot, Drew McDowall, Black Marble, and Christeene to name a few. He has engineered and mixed scores for Brian McComber (It Comes At Night, Krisha, Kingdom of Silence, 16 Shots, Little Woods, Mickey and The Bear, Fair Play, Blow the Man Down), Jóhann Jóhannsson (Mandy), Nala Sinephro (The Smashing Machine), Lea Ohyung (Problemista), Ella van der Woude (Something You Said Last Night, Silver Haze), and many others. In 2024 he won the Cinema Audio Society award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing — Documentary, for his stereo and surround mixes of JD Samson's score for Sam Green's 32 Sounds.

Kou Arts

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