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What are the International Street Cannibals?
How long have the International Street Cannibals existed?
Who are the International Street Cannibals?
What are the goals of the International Street Cannibals?
What is the Holding Tank concert series?
What is the STRIKE! concert series?
Contact the International Street Cannibals

Our name was inspired by Montaigne's essay, "Of Cannibals," penned in 1580. His cannibals had a point, as it turns out, and the Western world could learn a thing or two from those scary transgressors. In the spirit of those outrageous outsiders seen anew in Montaigne's literary light, the International Street Cannibals challenge assumptions about the concert space – and Art itself. With superb craft and inspired musicianship, the Cannibals are keepers and messengers of Art and community.

The International Street Cannibals are a collective of instrumentalists and singers, composers, videographers, audio technicians, dancers, puppeteers and visual artists. Our performers come from The Metropolitan Opera, The Orchestra of St. Luke's, the London Philharmonic, The STX Ensemble, The American Ballet Theater, the New York City Opera, and The Absolute Ensemble. We are artists from everywhere, of every style and philosophy.

The International Street Cannibals showcase new composition and the finest of the classical repertoire – and, like true cannibals, we are no strangers to the outrageous: A belly dancer will grace a performance in The Holding Tank concert series, while boxers in the ring are also artists-in-concert in our STRIKE! series

How long have the International Street Cannibals existed?

In 2002, cellist Dan Barrett, with a thriving musical career, found himself most inspired by his collaborations with composer and guitarist Gene Pritsker; composer, guitarist, singer, and Columbia University professor Arthur Kampela; and flutist Margaret Lancaster. He wanted to find a way for this extraordinary musical association to continue. In 2005, the International Street Cannibals began performing, but Dan sought to expand their production capabilities.

In 2006, Dan began working with Franz Hackl. Hackl, a master of trumpet, composition, sound, and concert production, brought new contacts and influences to the group: stage and technical expert Tyler Lerned; technical, sound, and lighting expert Chuck Moses; and videographer, filmmaker, and VJ Astrid Steiner. This expanded group of artists and technicians became the core of the International Street Cannibals.

Who are the International Street Cannibals?

The Core
Dan Barrett, Gene Pritsker, and Dan Cooper, Directors
Dave Taylor, Artistic Director and bass trombonist
Dary John Mizelle, Assistant Artistic Advisor, composer, and trumpeter
Taka Kigawa, pianist
Megan Sipe, dance director/dancer/choreographer
Franz Hackl, Artistic Advisor, trumpeter, composer, and producer
Margaret Lancaster, flutist
Michio Suzuki, clarinetist
Joseph Pehrson, composer, founding director of the Composers' Concordance
Max Pollak, tap dancer/body/percussionist
Arthur Kampela, composer, singer, and guitarist
Javier Diaz, Afro-Cuban percussion
Linda Wetherill, flutist (principal flutist, Ensemble Intercontemporain under Boulez)
John Clark, French hornist, faculty, SUNY Purchase
Lynn Bechtold, Mioi Takeda, Greg Kitzis, Jill Jaffe, violinists/violists
Vesselin Gellev, violin soloist, concertmaster of London Philharmonic
Amanda Mottur, bellydancer
Keve Wilson, oboist
Jay Elfenbein, bassist, gamba, medieval string instruments, and composer
Mat Fieldes, principal bass, Absolute Ensemble
Charles Coleman, composer/ baritone
Borislav Strulev, solo cellist
Samuel Blaser, trombonist/composer
Daniel Schnyder, saxophonist/composer
John Feeney, Orchestra of St Luke's - principal bassist
Tyler Learned, Sasha Santiago, Chuck Moses, Technical Directors
Astrid Steiner, aka VJ Luma, Resident Videographer, V.J

Participating Artists

1. Krista Bennion Feeney, concertmaster, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Mostly Mozart Festival
2. Dmitri Dover, piano
3. Tony Falanga, bassist with Ornette Coleman, and the Orchestra of St Luke's
4. Greta Feeney, soprano, the San Fransisco Opera
5. Jeremy McCoy, bassist, the Metropolitan Opera
6. John Patitucci, Grammy-winning bassist with Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Stan Getz, and others
7. Andy Stein, violinist, saxophonist, and composer, A Prairie Home Companion, and the Garrison Keiller Band
8. Julian Kampela, djembe
9. Robert Wolinsky, resident keyboardist, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St Luke's

 

Participating Groups

1. B3, with Franz Hackl, John Clark, and Dave Taylor
2. The American Refugee Band, with Krista Bennion Feeney, Gregor Kitzis, Andy Stein, Ron Lawrence, Dan Barrett, and Robert Wolinsky
3. Extraordinary Rendition, with Jay Elfenbein, Samuel Blaser, and Dan Barrett
4. The Arthur Kampela Band, with Arthur Kampela, Greg Kitzis, Jose Moura, and Dan Barrett
5. Sound Liberation, with Gene Pritsker, Greg Baker, Dave Gotay, Mat Fieldes, and Dave Rosenblatt
6. Noizepunk and BorisLove, with Gene Pritsker and Borislav Strulev
7. Low Expections Bass Sextet, with John Feeney, Jeremy McCoy, John Patitucci, Tony Falanga, Kingley Wood, and Kurt Muroki

 

Also featured
Greg Baker, guitarist; Erik Blanc, puppeteer, instructor, New York University; Tom Carlo Bo, conductor, pianist, and presenter; Steve Cohen, pianist; Janet Coleman, soprano (voce); Anne Ellsworth, alphornist; Susan Fanale soprano (voce); Daniel Hague, basso (voce); Peter Herbert, bassist; Zahari Kalaitsis, dumbek and percussion; Yevgeny Karafin, pianist; Ron Lawrence, violist, director, the Sirius Quartet; Linda McKnight, bassist, faculty, Manhattan School of Music; Andrew Meshberg, painter; Kurt Muroki, bassist; Lynn Norris, soprano (voce); James Noyes, soprano saxophonist; Jon Morrell, tenor (voce); Jose Moura, electric bassist; Mauricio O'Reilly, tenor (voce); Sean Satin, guitarist; Carmela Sinco, composer, pianist; Anna Smirny, pianist, composer; Victoria Wefer, soprano (voce); and Kingsley Wood, bassist.

With

1. Star Black (aka Czar-zan), The Holding Tank series emcee
2. Bruce Silverglade, president of the Gleason's Gym, the training home for boxers Mohammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Spinks, Roberto Duran and 123 other world champions, in New York, London, the United States, and Russia

What are the goals of the International Street Cannibals?

The International Street Cannibals (ISC) seeks to expand the audience for American chamber music in collaboration and in concert with voice, dance, boxing, and non-Western musical traditions. With performances of the highest caliber, ISC’s goals are:

• to bring together in concert new works by today’s composers and the classical tradition;

• to bring music, dance, voice, and boxing together for performance in non-traditional concert venues;

• to shape new configurations of the performance space, freshly conceived for each artistic collaboration;

• to expand the concert repertoire to include Western musical instruments and those of other cultures; and

• to educate young audiences to the capacity of music, voice, dance, and boxing performance to enrich and empower their lives.

What is the Holding Tank concert series?

This series presents events which defy the hierarchical space of the concert hall, and which represent diverse stages and modalities of composition.  The "From the Holding Tank" series offers a wide range of traditional and non traditional chamber works by great European masters, contemporary American composers and satirists. Improvisatory and semi-staged works are also presented in ways that expand and de-contextualize the boundaries of the concert hall, and exploit in novel ways the spatial qualities of the venue – the main performance space of St. Mark's in-the-Bowery, at 131 East 10th St, Manhattan

What is the STRIKE! concert series?

STRIKE! concerts are held at Gleason's Gym, the boxers’ legendary training facility in Brooklyn. Gleason’s is the home of 127 world champions, including Mohammad Ali, George Foremen, Robert Duran, Mike Tyson and Zab Judah. We've performed STRIKE! concerts in Schwaz, Austria, with members of the Austrian and Italian national boxing teams.

STRIKE! is a unique blend of boxing matches and contemporary chamber music that draws an audience diverse both in age and interest, neither accustomed to thinking of boxing as an artistic genre. Most of the performance occurs in the boxing ring where music can be experienced in a classically explosive environment! Energy abounds in the physicality of performance, the mastery of the various artistic mediums, the excitement of the improvisation, and in the outrageous question – What do the International Street Cannibals aim to teach us?

STRIKE! concerts are framed in 10- or 12-minute sets of music, alternating with 8-minute boxing matches of 3 rounds each. The event includes all four boxing rings in the gym. Dan Barrett introduces the sets with fascinating notes on the musical compositions, the origins of the more exotic instruments being played, and Cannibal commentary to subvert conventional expectations about concert-going. A theatre-in-the-round becomes something more as the mind, the ear, and the body prepare to follow alternating performances of music and boxing. Boxers and instrumentalists allow their learned choreographies of movement, technique, and repertoire, to emerge in unexpected partnership. The Cannibals ask the audience to consider the possibilities of Art.

Contact the International Street Cannibals

Dan Barrett
212-961-0357
WotansFarewell@aol.com
http://streetcannibals.com