Judith Berkson and Ordinary Affects

About

Composer/performer Judith Berkson presents a collabortion with new music chamber ensemble, Ordinary Affects. Ordinary Affects is a group of musicians gathered to workshop, explore, commission, and perform contemporary experimental music. While the group often focuses on the performance of written compositions, it also serves as a laboratory for improvisation and the compositions of its members. The collaborative nature of the mission ensures a group that is always in flux; instrumentation is open, always changing and dependent on the project, concert and current membership. The group has commissioned works by Michael Pisaro and Antoine Beuger and performed works by Joseph Kudirka, Jurg Frey, Morgan Evans-Weiler, Magnus Granberg and others. Upcoming collaborations include new works by Eva-Maria Houben, Laura Cetilia, J.P.A. Falzone, Ryoko Akama, and Sarah Hughes.

Judith Berkson – voice, accordion, piano
JPA Falzone – percussion, keyboards
Laura Cetilia – cello
Morgan Evans-Weiler – violin
Jordan Dykstra – viola
Luke Damrosch – percussion TBA

Judith Berkson is a soprano, pianist and composer living in Brooklyn, New York. She has collaborated with Kronos Quartet, Wet Ink, Yarn/Wire, City Opera and Bang on a Can and has presented work at Picasso Museum Malaga, Roulette, Le Poisson Rouge, Joe’s Pub, The Stone, Barbès and the 92 Street Y. She has received a Six Points Fellowship, a Jerome Foundation grant, Meet The Composer grant and support from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her solo album “Oylam” (ECM Records) was called “Standards and Schubert and liturgical music, swing and chilly silences, a beautiful Satie-like piece to open and close the record” by Ben Ratliff of the New York Times. She has performed at Ostrava Days, Krakow Jewish Music Festival, and at the Banff Centre.