Susan Alcorn & Simone Baron:

Connecting in 2022, Simone Baron and Susan Alcorn have formed an unconventional duo of accordion and pedal steel guitar, whose repertoire and unique improvisational language draws upon their eclectic musical appetites of anything ranging from messaien, sappy ballads, neuvo tango, elis regina, dreamlike visions, idiosyncratic sonic ticks and utter chaos. Unafraid of the radical act of playing the sweetest, purest melody when the moment calls for it then giving way to raw energetic
throw downs of rock and metallic proportions, the musical territory they cover is terrifyingly expansive, free of any constraints and all governing bodies (or body parts) save their listening ears (which have been called once, "ears like hawks".)

One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics.

Though known as for her solo work, she has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Chris Cutler, the London Improvisors Orchestra, the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bourdreuil, Evan Parker, Michael Formanek, Zane Campbell, and Mary Halvorson among others.

In 2016, she was voted "Best Other Instrument" by the International Critics Poll. In 2017 she received the Baker Artist Award, and in 2018, along with saxophonist Joe McPhee, she was the recipient of the Instant Award in Improvised Music.

The UK Guardian writes, “As an improvisor and composer, Alcorn has proven to be visionary. Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression.”

Simone Baron is a polyglot pianist, accordionist, improviser and composer whose work “ego-less, genre agnostic and without expectations” (JazzTimes) engages curiously and charismatically with a broad spectrum of idioms. Educated at Oberlin and Tel Aviv University and joyfully de-educated at festivals and performances across Europe and the Americas, Simone has won grants, fellowships and residencies from Chamber Music America, South Arts, Maryland State Arts Council, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Hambidge Center, Sacatar Foundation, iPark, Strathmore Foundation, ArtOMI, UMD, Avaloch Farm, the Banff Centre, and Spectrum Toronto. In 2016 Simone founded Arco Belo, a diasporic chamber music ensemble, and has shared the stage with luminaries such as Susan Alcorn, Tyshawn Sorey, Hermeto Pascoal, and the Conserere ensemble (Milan). Simone is a Victoria Artist and plays a Poeta XB Accordion, and is a founding member of the Boulanger Initiative.

Senso di Voce:

Senso di Voce is: Megan Kyle (oboe, English horn) & Esin Gunduz (voice, composition, tremolo harmonica, bass harmonica, harmonium). The duo focuses on the embodied experience of varying acoustical phenomena. Implementing the unique acoustic properties of their instruments and of the performance space, they create otherworldly performances that reveal the interconnected timbral threads among new music and early music from diverse cultural traditions. This, combined with improvisation and movement, brings audiences into an immersive experience that transcends expectations.

In this performance, they will present the premiere of a new piece by Esin for the duo, commissioned through a Classical Commissioning Grant from Chamber Music America*. Inspired by the writings of revolutionary Islamic thinker İbn 'Arabî (1165-1240), ‘...through itself...’ is an exploration of his profound philosophical concepts, through sound:

I. Selam: yearning to become one with (wajd)

II. Awe: the life-force inside all existent things (‘even inside a rock’)

III. Perplexity: the state of bewilderment / non-dual awareness (hayrah)

IV. Oneness: the state of union / higher state of consciousness (‘immediate tasting’)

The piece will be followed by improvisations that expand on this sonic world.

Senso di Voce’s previous work includes multiple performances for Silo City, a collection of repurposed grain elevators in Buffalo, NY. In 2022, they curated a performance and talk in dialogue with a Renaissance print exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery (Rochester). They were commissioned to design and implement a six-channel surround installation for Play/Ground art festival (Buffalo) in 2021, which they later redesigned for Frontispace Gallery (Rochester) in 2022. Tierceron, an album of improvisations with collaborator Henry Birdsey, was released on Other Minds Records (San Francisco) in 2023.

Buffalo-based oboist Megan Kyle performs as a soloist, improviser, chamber musician, and orchestral musician. She is fascinated by unexpected acoustic phenomena on the oboe, experimenting with defamiliarizing the instrument through microtonality, multiphonics, timbral variation, and noise. In addition to Senso di Voce, Megan performs and creates with new music ensemble Wooden Cities, musical research group Null Point, and oboe/piano/violin/cello quartet The Evolution of the Arm. She is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and performs as a substitute with professional orchestras across the country, including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Megan teaches oboe and English horn at SUNY Geneseo and SUNY at Buffalo.

Originally from Istanbul, Turkiye, for composer, vocal performer, and improviser Esin Gunduz, sound originates in the body. She explores life’s energies as vibrations, timbre as visceral sensory experience, creating breathtaking acoustic vistas that have an unveiling quality. Her works span mediums: acoustic, electroacoustic, sound installation, and exist within diverse contexts: live / chamber music, and sound: for theatre, with field recordings, with moving image, around exhibitions, and shine a light on the multiplicity and unity, the psychological and spiritual overtones of our lives and life itself.

*This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Senso di Voce is: Megan Kyle on oboe and English Horn & Esin Gunduz on voice, tremolo harmonica, bass harmonica, harmonium, and composition. The duo focuses on the embodied experience of varying acoustical phenomena. Implementing the unique acoustic properties of their instruments and of the performance space, they create otherworldly performances that reveal the interconnected timbral threads among new music and early music from diverse cultural traditions. This, combined with improvisation and movement, brings audiences into an immersive experience that transcends expectations.

They have created multiple performances for Silo City, a collection of repurposed grain elevators in Buffalo, NY. In 2022, they curated a performance and talk in dialogue with a Renaissance print exhibition at the Memorial Art Gallery (Rochester). They were commissioned to design and implement a six-channel surround installation for Play/Ground art festival (Buffalo) in 2021, which they later redesigned for Frontispace Gallery (Rochester) in 2022. Tierceron, an album of improvisations with collaborator Henry Birdsey, was released on Other Minds Records (San Francisco) in 2023. In August 2021, Senso di Voce was awarded a Classical Commissioning Grant from Chamber Music America to commission a new piece by Esin Gunduz inspired by the philosophical writings of the Sufi mystic Ibn ‘Arabî. The work was completed in summer 2023 and will be premiered in 2024.

venue is wheelchair accessible

Contact the host of Susan Alcorn/Simone Baron duo & Senso di Voce