Jiryis Murkus Ballan & James Ilgenfritz duo:

Jiryis Murkus Ballan is a Palestinian composer and buzuq player from Nazareth in the Galilee region. With a Ph.D. in Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology (ICIT) from the University of California, Irvine, Jiryis’s work explores the dynamic intersections between traditional Levantine music and contemporary sound manipulation. His compositions often engage dancers, integrating sound design, motion sensors, and electroacoustic compositions. Jiryis has bridged cultural divides through transcultural music projects such as the Caravan Orchestra and project, and Tijwal ensemble.

Composer and bassist James Ilgenfritz is recognized in the New Yorker for his “characteristic magnanimity” and his “invaluable contributions to New York’s new-music community." His 2019 album You Scream A Rapid Language collects recent chamber works, and features Pauline Kim Harris, Conrad Harris, William Winant, Thomas Buckner, Kathleen Supové, Margaret Lancaster, and Joseph Kubera, and was noted in The Wire for its "glint of mischief" and ability to "foreground the performative and gestural elements of music making."

Manna is a Philadelphia-based synthesist and electronic music composer who explores the relationship between repetition, pattern, randomness, and contradiction through the medium of sound.

accessibility: two steps from street to venue.

Please note, entrance is via the side door on Arizona Street.