Lesley Mok & Phillip Golub duo + where is the sun

Lesley Mok & Phillip Golub:

Lesley Mok is a New York City-based percussionist and interdisciplinary artist who works in sound, installation, film, and theater. Interested in the ways social conditions shape our beings, Lesley’s work focuses on overacting humanness to explore ideas about alienness and privilege. Their work draws from queer and feminist art practices, Chinese philosophy, Afro-Cuban musical traditions, futurist perspectives, and ancestral knowledge. Their ongoing explorations with composition and improvisation are most notably documented in their debut album The Living Collection (out May 2023 on American Dreams Records) that features a ten-piece improvising chamber ensemble. The album, described as “an exquisite and stimulating work” by All About Jazz and “a singularly personal statement” by Jazz Trail Magazine, was named International Debut Album of the Year at the 2024 Deutscher Jazz Preis.

Lesley is a recipient of the 2022 Resident Artist at Roulette Intermedium, 2021 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award, Hermitage Fellow, 2021 Van Lier Artist at the Asian American Arts Alliance, and a member of the inaugural cohort of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians. Their work has been commissioned and performed by International Contemporary Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, and JACK Quartet. In addition to their own practice, Lesley is a part of collaborative ensemble vehicle / passenger (Marc Alberto & Florian Herzog). They can also be heard in Myra Melford’s Fire and Water, David Leon: Bird’s Eye, and Anna Webber’s Shimmer Wince.

Phillip Golub is a composer and pianist from Los Angeles, CA. Now based in New York City, his music strides the boundary between the spontaneous and the premeditated, making the act of interpretation the central concern of his work. Phillip’s music has been performed by groups including the Plus-Minus Ensemble and the EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble and in spaces such as Merkin Hall (NYC) and The Broad Stage (Los Angeles). He has performed at venues spanning from Milton Court Concert Hall (London) to The Stone, The Whitney Museum, and National Sawdust (NYC). Phillip's band, Tropos, released its first album Axioms // 75ab to critical acclaim on Biophilia Records in 2020. Since February 2019, Phillip has also been intimately involved with the development of a new opera, Iphigenia (premiere 2022), with a new score by Wayne Shorter and libretto by Esperanza Spalding. Phillip holds degrees from Harvard University (B.A. English), The Guildhall School of Music & Drama (M.Mus. Composition), and The New England Conservatory (M.M. Jazz Performance).

where is the sun:

where is the sun is a solo piano improvisational project born from a curiosity of what it would feel like to pretend to play the piano after years of classical study. Recordings can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and Youtube by searching "where is the sun transmutations."

accessibility: two steps from street to venue.

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