The Composers and Improvisers Festival
November 4, 2023 @ 7:00PM — 10:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)
The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts Center: 605 Main Street Middletown, CT 06457 Get Directions
Featuring composer, violinist, and vocalist Terry Jenoure, composer and percussionist Harvey Sotgen, composer and bassist Joe Fonda, and international composer and clarinetist Christopher Rocher.
Harvey Sorgen, Hot Tuna's sizzling drummer, started playing drums and percussion instruments in 1964. His mastery of many styles-jazz, rock, funk and pop-is evident on recordings and gigs with Ahmad Jamal, Robbie Dupree, Roswell Rudd, Dry Jack, Bill Frisell, NRBQ, The Mallards (his own group) and many others, including Hot Tuna. Harvey's taught, performed his own compositions, traveled all over the world (including a two-year stint in Holland) and served as a sound engineer and producer. He has also written and performed pieces for film and the stage, including a solo percussion piece for the New Day Repetoire Theater’s version of “Antigone”.
Terry Jenoure musician, writer, visual artist and educator was born and raised in the Bronx into a Puerto Rican and Jamaican family. Her lifelong commitment to the extended imagination is felt through projects on five continents. From her early formal training as a violinist and vocalist and a protégé of the Free Jazz Movement, to her self-taught doll sculptures featured at the Smithsonian Institute, to her academic publications and a recently completed novel and one-woman theater performance, arts have fueled her passion throughout her lifetime. Holding Masters and Doctoral degrees in Education and a B.A. degree in Philosophy, Terry was on the graduate faculty at Lesley University for 18 years, and an independent researcher focusing on the creative development of teachers, community leaders and social workers in South Africa, Mexico, Israel, and Colombia. She has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Barbara Deming Money for Women Fund; and was a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund, the Ford Foundation, and the Connecticut Commission for Arts and Tourism. She served as the Director of Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for three decades.
Joe Fonda is a composer, bassist, recording artist, interdisciplinary performer, producer and educator. An accomplished international Jazz artist, Fonda has performed with his own ensembles throughout the United States ,Canada , Europe and Asia. He has collaborated and performed with such artists as Anthony Braxton ,Archie Shepp, Ken McIntyre, Lou Donaldson, Bill and Kenny Barron, Leo Smith, Perry Robinson, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, , Bill Dixon, Han Bennink, Bobby Naughton, Xu Fengia, Randy Weston, Gebhard Ullmann, Carla Bley, Carlo Zingaro, Barry Altschul, Billy Bang. Fonda was the bassist with the renowned Anthony Braxton sextet, octet, tentet, from 1984 through 1999. Fonda also sat on the Board of Directors from 1994 to 1999, and was the President from 1997 to 1999 of the newly formed Tri-Centric Foundation. He has also performed with the 38-piece Tri-Centric orchestra under the direction of Anthony Braxton, and was the bassist for the premiere performance of Anthony Braxton’s opera, Shalla Fears for the Poor, performed at the John Jay Theater in New York, New York, October 1996.
Finding the trace, taking the path, connecting the beginning to the horizon to be better carried deep into the present. The NEW ORIGIN TRIO vibrates the space-time through a free, colourful music connecting the United States to Europe, learned music and wild freedom.
Christophe Rocher (clarinets, improvisation, composition) has been playing for nearly twenty years with artists of the improvised jazz scene.
The program will run according to the following itinerary:
7:00 PM: Harvey Sorgen
7:45 PM: Terry Jenoure & Joe Fonda
8:30 PM: Christophe Rocher
9:30 PM: New Origin Trio, with guest Terry Jenoure
This concert and other Buttonwood Tree events brought to you by our generous donors, volunteers, and the following organizations:
Harvey Sorgen, Hot Tuna's sizzling drummer, started playing drums and percussion instruments in 1964. His mastery of many styles-jazz, rock, funk and pop-is evident on recordings and gigs with Ahmad Jamal, Robbie Dupree, Roswell Rudd, Dry Jack, Bill Frisell, NRBQ, The Mallards (his own group) and many others, including Hot Tuna. Harvey's taught, performed his own compositions, traveled all over the world (including a two-year stint in Holland) and served as a sound engineer and producer. He has also written and performed pieces for film and the stage, including a solo percussion piece for the New Day Repetoire Theater’s version of “Antigone”.
Terry Jenoure musician, writer, visual artist and educator was born and raised in the Bronx into a Puerto Rican and Jamaican family. Her lifelong commitment to the extended imagination is felt through projects on five continents. From her early formal training as a violinist and vocalist and a protégé of the Free Jazz Movement, to her self-taught doll sculptures featured at the Smithsonian Institute, to her academic publications and a recently completed novel and one-woman theater performance, arts have fueled her passion throughout her lifetime. Holding Masters and Doctoral degrees in Education and a B.A. degree in Philosophy, Terry was on the graduate faculty at Lesley University for 18 years, and an independent researcher focusing on the creative development of teachers, community leaders and social workers in South Africa, Mexico, Israel, and Colombia. She has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Barbara Deming Money for Women Fund; and was a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Fund, the Ford Foundation, and the Connecticut Commission for Arts and Tourism. She served as the Director of Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for three decades.
Joe Fonda is a composer, bassist, recording artist, interdisciplinary performer, producer and educator. An accomplished international Jazz artist, Fonda has performed with his own ensembles throughout the United States ,Canada , Europe and Asia. He has collaborated and performed with such artists as Anthony Braxton ,Archie Shepp, Ken McIntyre, Lou Donaldson, Bill and Kenny Barron, Leo Smith, Perry Robinson, Dave Douglas, Curtis Fuller, , Bill Dixon, Han Bennink, Bobby Naughton, Xu Fengia, Randy Weston, Gebhard Ullmann, Carla Bley, Carlo Zingaro, Barry Altschul, Billy Bang. Fonda was the bassist with the renowned Anthony Braxton sextet, octet, tentet, from 1984 through 1999. Fonda also sat on the Board of Directors from 1994 to 1999, and was the President from 1997 to 1999 of the newly formed Tri-Centric Foundation. He has also performed with the 38-piece Tri-Centric orchestra under the direction of Anthony Braxton, and was the bassist for the premiere performance of Anthony Braxton’s opera, Shalla Fears for the Poor, performed at the John Jay Theater in New York, New York, October 1996.
Finding the trace, taking the path, connecting the beginning to the horizon to be better carried deep into the present. The NEW ORIGIN TRIO vibrates the space-time through a free, colourful music connecting the United States to Europe, learned music and wild freedom.
Christophe Rocher (clarinets, improvisation, composition) has been playing for nearly twenty years with artists of the improvised jazz scene.
The program will run according to the following itinerary:
7:00 PM: Harvey Sorgen
7:45 PM: Terry Jenoure & Joe Fonda
8:30 PM: Christophe Rocher
9:30 PM: New Origin Trio, with guest Terry Jenoure
This concert and other Buttonwood Tree events brought to you by our generous donors, volunteers, and the following organizations: