$15 at the door / $8 with student ID 7:00pm Show
Saxophonist Nathan Hanson, violinist Leyna Marika Papach, bassist Kyle Motl, and drummer Steve Hirsh bring a range of musical backgrounds and experience to compose music together in real time. Their music is unbounded by style or genre; it is simply music. Join them in an evening of invention and discovery.
Saxophonist and composer Nathan Hanson makes music that invites listeners to stand outside themselves and the flow of time. His improvisations are “lithe and soaring, engaging in judicious honk 'n' splatter” (New York City Jazz Record). In Europe, Hanson has performed at the Atlantique Jazz Festival, Splendor in Amsterdam, and the Sons d’Hiver Festival in Paris. In the United States, he has played at the Knitting Factory in New York, the Outpost in Albuquerque, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and Elastic in Chicago. Hanson investigates how to channel the sound of each performance space. The energy of the audience circulates with the music, silence, and breath. The effect leads listeners to become more present to the unfolding of each moment. He has recorded more than a dozen albums on labels including Innova, nato, BudaMusique, and Skirl.
Steve Hirsh composes music on the drumset. He has been leading improvising ensembles around Minnesota's Twin Cities for 20 years. He has played with some of the world's leading practitioners of real-time group composition, including Joel Futterman, William Parker, Dave Sewelson, Matthew Shipp, Ivo Perelman, Eri Yamamoto, Steve Swell, Chad Fowler, and Matt Lavelle. In addition to performing in Minnesota, he plays regularly in New York and around the United States, and he collaborates internationally.
Kyle Motl is a bassist, composer, and improviser whose playing has been noted for both “iridescent delicacy as well as abrasive force” (The Wire). His music “promise[s] to change us by revealing things we could never have imagined” (Free Jazz Collective). Motl’s work spans composed and improvised musics, including performances and recordings with Anthony Davis, Clucas/Motl/Hubbard, the Peter Kuhn Trio, Treesearch, Zarabanda Variations, International Contemporary Ensemble, and others. He is assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, where he teaches double bass and contemporary music practices.
Leyna Marika Papach is a composer, interdisciplinary artist, and violinist from Japan and the United States. With music as her central lens, she has created a body of work that spans the fields of theater, dance, poetry, and the visual arts. Her many works have been presented in Europe, Japan, West Africa, and the United States. Her projects and creative explorations have been supported by programs such as the MAP Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, HERE Arts Center, the Minnesota Opera, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and the American Composers Forum. In 2024, she received the McKnight Composer Fellowship. As a collaborator and performer, she has worked with inspiring artists including JG Thirlwell (composer), Aya Ogawa (playwright), Taylor Mac (artist), Nels Cline (guitarist), Dada Tapan Kanti Baidya (Hindustani vocalist), Will Alexander, Layli Long Soldier (poetry), Chikako Bando (butoh dance), and she continues to be inspired to make interdisciplinary work. Papach studied violin at the Prague Academy of Music, and she received an MA in theater and dance studies from DAS Theatre (Amsterdam) and an MFA in sound/music/interdisciplinary studies from Bard College.
