Borderbend Programs Covered by the Media
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Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ / 91.5 FM) featured the Mingus Awareness Project in May 2007. Here's the link to the story.
Kathryn J. Allwine Bacasmot's review of the "Piano | Technology: Eric Glick Rieman & Keith Kirchoff" concert at PianoForte (published by Chicago Classical Music):
"Relatively speaking, I’m new to the city of Chicago – been here a little over one year. All of my adult life I have lived and worked in the east coast: Boston, New York, Washington DC. If you’re a rookie in a city as sprawling as Chicago, it can be a challenge to find the type of music you want to hear – particularly so if it’s a bit more obscure. Sometimes, you just get lucky as I did last Saturday night... Tremendous new music and brilliant performances – yes, sometimes you get very, very, lucky, indeed." Click on this link to read all of Kathryn's Bacasmot's review. |
Chicago Reader critic Bill Meyer wrote a "Critic's Choice" piece about the Seda Röder / Burton Green concert that happened during the Experimental Piano Series & 2010 Chicago Calling Arts Festival:
"After Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor blew holes in the walls of jazz, a stream of New York-based musicians poured through the breach, each brandishing his or her own definition of freedom. Pianist Burton Greene is part of that second generation. In 1963 he and bassist Alan Silva championed total improvisation in the Free Form Improvisation Ensemble; the following year he participated in the groundbreaking October Revolution concerts and joined Carla Bley, Sun Ra, and Bill Dixon in the Jazz Composers Guild, an early attempt at self-empowerment by avant-garde jazz musicians. He went on to record for the notoriously radical ESP label, most notably playing his piano like a discordant harp on Patty Waters's unforgettable rendition of 'Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair.' Greene moved to Europe in 1969, and he's moved on musically too, bringing electronics and ethnic elements into his music."
Click here to read the rest of this "Critic's Choice" piece by Bill Meyer. |
What Chicago Calling Arts Festival
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What Experimental Piano Series Concert
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What Artists Who Have Worked with Borderbend Are Saying
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"As one of the few people engaged in translating Korean literature into English, I am always faced with the challenge of making people in North America more aware of and more open to Korean poetry in translation. I have therefore been very happy to be asked to participate by telephone in the Chicago Calling Arts Festival. In that way I have been able to read my translations while Korean friends in Chicago read the Korean originals, for the audience gathered in Chicago. This is only a small sign of the creativity displayed by the organizers of such events, of their dedication to crossing borders and opening up new levels of communication across the world at a time when barriers and incomprehension seem so strong." -- Brother Anthony of Taizé
"The Borderbend Arts Collective does wonderful work bringing together artists from around the world together through, sometimes through virtual (online) collaboration. Thanks to Borderbend's initiative, my all woman-led band Mebuyan (based in the Philippines) worked with Chicago musician and composer Reneé Baker. Reneé and her ensemble performed one of our songs- composed by Mebuyan member Paolo Sisi- during the Third Annual Chicago Calling Festival. Two years later, I wrote a poem in response to a stunning painting by Filipino American visual artist Cesar Conde, as part of Chicago Calling. "I support Borderbend’s work because they promote oneness, multiculturalism, and universality. With climate change, economic trade, and internet communication making the world smaller every single day, there is now an increasing and urgent need for global citizens to come together -- and work together to create peaceful, helpful, and creative communities. Borderbend’s work of bringing artists together to celebrate creativity encourages people to envision a better world." -Geejay Arriola (Davao City, Philippines) |
"Borderbend's work on Chicago Calling has provided Chicago-area artists of all kinds with many years of opportunity for collaboration, exposure and artistic development. This festival is not just important because it offers diverse local artists multiple avenues to showcase their work. Chicago Calling also deepens the connections of local artists to their communities, and links Chicago communities to those around the world.
"Chicago Calling's commitment to the whole city (and the whole world) is evident in the choices of venues for its events. Instead of simply reinforcing the ghettoization of art and artists into traditional 'art neighborhoods' and activities, Chicago Calling invites participation between multiple urban zones, bringing together artists and audiences from all over Chicago. This fosters a culture of community and collaboration, allowing creative partnerships between artists who might never have crossed paths otherwise. Additionally, the blurring and blending of geographical demarcation is paralleled in the fertile mashup between genres that often comes about in Chicago Calling projects. "Further, the collaborative and community-building spirit of the festival extends far beyond the city limits, crossing (or bending) borders and continents to connect innovative artists through unique projects. Participants gain new awareness and understanding of themselves, each other, and the communities, cultures and conditions that shape the shared world." -- Jen Besemer, poet and educator (Chicago) "I am most familiar with the Borderbend Arts Collective through its Chicago Calling program, which I have participated in since its initial offering. I am an American poet in Japan, and Chicago Calling has been a wonderful opportunity to both present my work to an appreciative audience at home and to collaborate with international artists. "Through my participation, old friends and former fans have rediscovered me and my work, and new ones have become acquainted. All in all, the program has enriched my creative life and, I hope, the lives of the audiences as well." -- Duane Vorhees |
What Borderbend's Partners Are Saying
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"We have been working with the Borderbend Arts Collective for a number of years now. We are partner organizations on the Experimental Piano Series, through which we present 3-4 concerts per year. Our mission for the series is to present original cutting edge piano music, thereby supporting living composers and performers as well as exposing a growing audience to this kind of exploratory music of today and tomorrow. Borderbend has played an important role in bringing very creative and talented people to the mix.
“We have also collaborated with Borderbend on two other projects. The 2010 Chicago Calling Festival brought us an American pianist resident in the Netherlands, Burton Greene -- this was jazz experimentation at the highest level. We also collaborated on a community outreach program with the Chicago Park District to bring three pianos out into Pritzker Park for the greater community to hear and play on, as part of CPD’s Sonic Playgrounds series. This multimedia event included a public-interactive light show, and it culminated in the donation of those pianos through PianoForte Foundations’ Gift of Pianos Program. “Borderbend is a creative organization brimming with ideas and we are proud to be associated with it.” – Thomas Zoells, Executive Director, PianoForte Foundation |
"The Borderbend Arts Collective reached out to the Les Turner ALS Foundation in 2007 about an event they wanted to put on called the Mingus Awareness Project. Four years later, the Mingus Awareness Project has become one of the Les Turner ALS Foundation’s signature Family and Community events." -- Kim McIver, Manager of Special Events, Les Turner ALS Foundation
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