The Ear Pollen Series started at Gallery 378 in 2020. Klimchak curated the monthly performances by selecting 3-5 musicians to perform a totally improvised concert together. The series was just getting started when Covid hit and ended it.
At Atlanta Contemporary, Klimchak has revived the series in a minimalist compact form while retaining the improvised format. For the Ear Pollen Series, Pt 2, Klimchak is performing in a series of duets each month with a different partner and featuring different instruments.
In many ways, the duet is the perfect vehicle for improvisation, as it allows the performers to treat their playing as a form of conversation, introducing new ideas, batting those ideas back and forth, and taking them to new places to keep the dialog flowing. Part 2 becomes a 2 part conversation for the audience to witness and enjoy.
Klimchak is a composer known for his use of electronics & homebuilt instruments. His work has been seen in dance, theater & solo performances around the world. He regularly performs solo shows featuring the Don Buchla designed Marimba Lumina. Only about 100 of this very rare instrument were made. With the Marimba Lumina the percussionist is able to perform live music that would normally take at least 4 musicians. His multi-instrumental compositions are played with 4 separate mallets, six foot pedals and a breath controller. As added touches, his sets usually include 4 or 5 small percussion instruments, some chanting or tuvan throat singing and at least one solo on the theremin.
Elliott Sharp is a composer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, visual artist, and author who leads the projects Orchestra Carbon, SysOrk, Tectonics, and Terraplane. His compositional strategies have encompassed the use of fractal geometry, chaos theory, algorithms, genetic metaphors, and new techniques for graphic notation to yield work that catalyzes a synesthetic approach to music making as well as functioning as retinal art. In 2015, Sharp was awarded both the Berlin Prize and the Jahrespreis from der Deutscher Schallplatten Kritiks. In 2014, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Fellowship from the Center for Transformative Media. He has been featured in the Darmstadt and Huddersfield festivals, New Music Stockholm, Au Printemps-Paris, Hessischer Rundfunk Klangbiennale, and the Venice Biennale. His book IrRational Music, a mix of memoir, cultural discussion, and music theory, was published in 2019. He is the subject of the documentary Doing The Don't and has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered. Sharp's composition Storm of the Eye, composed for violinist Hilary Hahn, appeared on her Grammy-winning album In 27 Pieces. His latest opera, Die Grösste Fuge, premiered in Bonn as part of Beethoven@250, and his opera Filiseti Mekidesi premiered at the RuhrTriennale in 2018. Sharp's collaborators have included Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; pianist Cecil Taylor; Ensemble Modern; pop singer Debbie Harry; blues legends Hubert Sumlin and Pops Staples; Arditti, JACK, and Kronos quartets; jazz greats Jack Dejohnette and Sonny Sharrock; media artists Christian Marclay and Pierre Huyghe; Radio-Sinfonie Frankfurt; and Bachir Attar, leader of the Master Musicians Of Jajouka.
Event offsite at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum
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Event Offsite at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum
Join us at Emory University’s Michael C. Carlos Museum for a conversation between renowned Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke, whose work explores empire and power, and Guyanese-American curator Grace Aneiza Ali. The landmark exhibition, Donald Locke: Nexus, curated by Ali and on view here at Atlanta Contemporary, honors the life and legacy of Guyanese-born artist Donald Locke (1930–2010), one of Atlanta’s most influential artists. It focuses on how the concept of “nexus” permeates his artistic and intellectual journey and his engagement with themes of migration, cultural hybridity, and the histories of colonialism.
