Oliver Lake and the Aljira Center

Oliver Lake and the Aljira Center for Contemporary Art Presents

Saturday, December 12, 4pm

Jason Kao Hwang/ AMYGDALA
Rami Seo - gayakeum
Michael Wimberly - djembe/percussion
Jason Kao Hwang - composer/ violin/ viola

Biographies

Rami Seo is an accomplished gayakeum artist whose expansive musical repertoire spans the traditional and the contemporary, as well as current and cross-cultural compositions from across the globe. With an impending Master’s Degree in Ethnomusicology from Hunter College, Ms. Seo is a bona-fide scholar, musician, and performance artist. Winner of multiple performing arts competitions, she has graced many renowned stages throughout the U.S, Panama, Nicaragua, Korea and Japan, both as a soloist and in collaboration with other famed artists.

Michael Wimberly is a percussionist/composer/arranger/producer currently based in Harlem, NYC. Wimberly has recorded and toured internationally with Charles Gayle, William Parker, Sabir Mateen, Cooper-Moore, Borah Bergman, Steve Coleman, Roy Campbell, David Murray, John Blum, Sirone, Vernon Reid, Kidd Jordan, Cooper-Moore, Henry Rollins, Blondie, Mickey Hart, Teramasa Hino, Onaje Allen Gumbs. Oluyemi & Ijeoma Thomas and many others. As a percussion soloist Wimberly has been featured with Europe’s Rundfunk and Tonkuntsler Symphony Orchestras, International Regions Symphony of Europe, Yakima Chamber Orchestra,Yakima,WA., Sage City Symphony, Bennington, VT. As a composer Wimberly’s compositions appear in dance companies Urban Bush Women, Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Philadanco, Forces of Nature, Complexions, Alpha-Omega, Purelements, and The National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique. Wimberly is currently a professor of music at Bennington College in Bennington, VT.

Curator of the NO Boundaries Jazz Series, Oliver Lake is a heralded saxophonist, artist, composer, arranger and bandleader. Whether composing commissioned works for The ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and The Brooklyn Philharmonic; arranging for Bjork, Lou Reed, and A Tribe Called Quest; sharing the stage with Me’shell N’degeocello and Yasin Bey, or leading one of his many groups from his Organ Quartet, World Saxophone Quartet, Trio 3 and his Big Band, Oliver Lake has demonstrated what it truly means to be a multi-dimensional artist. In 2014, Oliver Lake received the prestigious Doris Duke Artist Award, a multi-year grant awarded to only 19 American artists in the field of jazz, theater, and dance.

In 2015 Jason Kao Hwang’s (composer/violin/viola) Burning Bridge, his octet of Chinese and Western instruments commissioned by Chamber Music America, recently performed at the Magic Triangle (Mass.) and the International Festival Musique Actuelle (Canada). Also, his symphony The Challenge: Tiananmen Square, commissioned by the Multicultural Music Group premiered at Lehman College. His recording, VOICE, will be released in January, 2016, by Innova Records. In 2014 Zizal, his duo CD with Ayman Fanous, was voted into the second round of the Grammy Awards. In 2012, National Public Radio selected Burning Bridge as one of the year’s Top CDS and the Downbeat Critics’ Poll voted him “Rising Star for Violin.” In 2011 and 2012 the critics’ poll of El Intruso voted him #1 for Violin/Viola. He also released Symphony of Souls (Mulatta), performed by his string orchestra Spontaneous River, and Crossroads Unseen, the third CD of his quartet EDGE. In 2010, the NYC Jazz Record selected Commitment, The Complete Recordings, 1981-1983, from a collective quartet that was Mr. Hwang’s first band, as one of the “Reissued Recordings of the Year.” As violinist, Mr. Hwang has worked with Will Connell, Jr., Butch Morris, Pauline Oliveros, William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Yoshiko Chuma, and many others.

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