The Bruce Sklar Trio with special guest saxophonist and composer Daniel Ian Smith will be performing in the wonderful Phoenix Gallery in Waterbury VT on December 20, 2024. Plan now for a wonderful night on the town. BYOB and festive dress encouraged!

Friday, December 20, 2024

Gallery Opens at 7:00pm, Music Begins at 7:30pm

Tickets

We are pleased to offer the option to Bring Your Own Beverage and a charcuterie board from Salt & Rind!  Thank you Britt and Luke! Let's gather to celebrate each other and the solstice. 

Daniel Ian Smith is a saxophonist, flutist, educator and composer with over 30 years of experience. He is a Professor at the acclaimed Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA where he has taught for almost 30 years. Smith is in demand as a clinician, guest soloist, and lecturer with appearances throughout the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Israel and England. In 1992, he founded Big and Phat Jazz Productions to serve as the production company for his Jazz in the Sanctuary Concert Series, an independent record label Big and Phat Jazz Productions, and his ensembles and touring projects. The recordings and performances by his ensemble The New World Jazz Composers Octet (NWJCO) have received rave reviews in DownBeat, JazzTimes, Cadence, ArtsFuse and All About Jazz magazines. His groups The New World Jazz Composers Octet, and The Latin Side of Billy Strayhorn have been featured at festivals and concert halls locally and internationally. 

Joining Daniel and Bruce will be bassist Jeremy Hill , and drummer Timothy Gilmore, two of New england's very best. https://danieliansmith.com/

Thank you to our sponsor, Salt & Rind, in downtown Waterbury!

"The improvising quartet of Josh Berman, Eli Wallace, Ishmael Ali, and Bill Harris focuses on acoustic interplay, resulting in music featuring acousmatic moments that obfuscate who makes which sound, blurring and bending rhythms and pitches into a syncretic whole. The group strives to create a unified heuristic sound that simultaneously features each individual while constantly generating a sense of rhythmic propulsion, at times subtle, at times bombastic."

trumpet - keys - cello - drums

"Arthur Brooks Ensemble V is an elastic group founded & led by Arthur Brooks to play his compositions & improvisations. This iteration will feature Brooks, Michael Chorney, Bill Heminway, Jeremy Harlos, Anthony Santor & Matt Weston. This group carries on the radical musical tradition & evolution of Brooks’ mentors & peers such as Bill Dixon, Cecil Taylor, Milford Graves, Frank Wright, William Parker, Ted Daniel and more."

Outer Sounds is a concert series curated by Greg Davis at The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall in Waterbury VT. Greg is an internationally recognized electronic musician from Burlington & owner of Autumn Records in Winooski.

Former poet laureate of Belfast, Maine, Afrofuturist/Oro-shamanic poet and bass clarinetist Toussaint St. Negritude dazzles with this debut collection of poems, featuring an ensemble of cosmic tones the late Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks once called “full of sweet sounds and surprises.” Through the inspiration of life, jazz, and nature, Mountain Spells is about the intrinsic clarity of emancipation, expressing all found intersections of what the author sees and experiences, and how this Black/queer/high-hat-wearing artist envisions the world through the lens of spirituality, the African diaspora, and nature as his home. Each poem, written in Vermont, expresses the whole cosmos of collective liberation. “I listened to the birds, to the sky, what the leaves were telling me,” says St. Negritude, and captured it all in improvisational, freeform, and musical poetry, lovely and changing as the seasons themselves.

Jordan Sand is a double bassist, vocalist, composer and improviser living in Trondheim, Norway. Her solo music, described as "Joni Mitchell meets Ligeti" (Omaha Under the Radar), blends song, free improv and noise to haunting effects. Blurring the lines between her bowed bass and siren voice, Sand delivers new stories from a familiar acoustic space, fusing strings and chords into an organ-like sound that transcends the sum of two parts.

In November 2024 Sand brings a song cycle of modern myths to Waterbury, spinning scenes of apocalyptic mother hares and desert wanderers and proliferating scraps of sound into static worlds for contemplation and rest.

Mikahely is a singer-songwriter who hails from the beautiful island of Madagascar, but his music is out of this world! A self-taught musician, he draws inspiration from traditional Malagasy rhythms to create his own unique and healing sounds on guitar and valiha (a zither-like instrument made from bamboo). Singing his all original music in his native language of Malagasy, Mikahely transcends boundaries. Having toured in Madagascar and Europe, he now brings his music to new audiences in the United States. He is also featured in the documentary Guitar Madagascar.

October 7, 2024

Gallery Opens 7:00pm

Music Begins 7:30

Sliding Scale Donation of $15-30

Youth under 21 free

The Phoenix Art Gallery and Music Hall

5 Stowe Street Waterbury, VT 05676

Kath Bloom is some kind of legend. She comes from a special place where country, blues and folk are made beautifully translucent and emotive. Highly regarded but a bit of a mystery. The Connecticut based singer/songwriter has a special gift - her almost supernaturally beautiful, wavering soprano is one that has to be heard, she has a clear transparent moonlight tone combined with an earthly raw quality that can silence a room.

Kath made some very very limited edition albums in the 70’s and 80’s with the amazing (and equally dreamlike) guitarist Loren Mazzacane Connors, full of songs that float and melt into the ether. Impossibly beautiful. However, music was put on the back burner as life changed and she raised a family, trained ‘problem horses’ and taught special music programs to kids. Just as she was starting to write and release CDs again, Richard Linklater decided to use her song ‘Come Here’ in his 1995 film ‘Before Sunrise’. Life altered - not much - but the public consciousness was rightfully tweaked. Slowly her old recordings and new material have been seeping back into the world.

This includes a special tribute album by artists such as Josephine

Foster, Bill Callahan, Devendra Banhart, Meg Baird and Scout

Nibblet. Since 2017 she has been recording and performing with New Haven, CT based guitarist David Shapiro.

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Classically trained and rigorously de-trained, possessor of a restless, semi-feral spirit, Lori Goldston is a cellist, composer, improvisor, producer, writer and teacher from Seattle. Her voice as a cellist, amplified or acoustic, is full, textured, committed and original. A relentless inquirer, her work drifts freely across borders that separate genre, discipline, time and geography.

Current and former collaborators and/or bosses include Earth, Nirvana, Mirah, Jessika Kenney, Ilan Volkov, Eyvind Kang, Stuart Dempster, David Byrne, Terry Riley, Jherek Bischoff, Malcom Goldstein, Steve Von Till, Lonnie Holley, Cat Power, Ellen Fullman, Maya Dunietz, Mik Quantius, Embryo, O Paon, Tara Jane O’Neil, Natacha Atlas, Broken Water, Ed Pias, Christian Rizzo and Sophie Laly, Threnody Ensemble, Cynthia Hopkins, 33 Fainting Spells, Vanessa Renwick, Mark Mitchell, Lynn Shelton, and many more.

Her work has been commissioned by and/or performed at the Kennedy Center, Sydney Festival, Cineteca Nacional de México, Tectonics Festival, Frye Art Museum, Time Based Art Festival (TBA), WNYC, The New Foundation, Paris Fashion Week, Northwest Film Forum, On the Boards, Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle Jewish Film Festival, Bumbershoot, Crossing Border Festival, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, Joe’s Pub, the Stone, University of Chicago, and venues large and small throughout North America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.

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Outer Sounds is a concert series curated by Greg Davis at The Phoenix Gallery & Music Hall in Waterbury VT. Greg is an internationally recognized electronic musician from Burlington & owner of Autumn Records in Winooski. He has been curating & programming concerts for 20+ years. He will utilize his connections to bring cutting edge musicians to The Phoenix. The Outer Sounds concert series will explore the worlds & intersections of electronic, experimental, avant-garde, improvised, ambient, drone, minimalist, free jazz, modern composition, psychedelic music and more. All concerts are intended to be accessible and open to anyone, regardless of knowledge or experience. We hope the music will encourage discussion, inquiry & feedback. Come with open ears, minds & hearts and listen to the Outer Sounds.

Quill and Foyle’s Hasty Composure (world premiere)

No Strings Marionette Company and music by Paul Perley

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Doors 6:30 pm – Performance 7:00pm

Tickets $15-30 Sliding

This new and original all ages show, sponsored in part by a creation grant from The Vermont Arts Council, pairs No Strings Marionette Company with composer and conductor Paul Perley. The marionettes, scenery, and musical compositions specially created to tell the tale of twins Quill and Foyle as they set out to find their life’s purpose. Along the way their motives blur as they question what it means to give other beings and ecosystems the rights humans claim for ourselves. Musicians include cello (Melissa Perley), piano (Michiko Oishi), bass (Eben Bodach-Turner), and percussion – cajon, brushed cymbals (Keith Gibson).

Quill and Foyle’s Hasty Composure (world premiere)

No Strings Marionette Company and music by Paul Perley

Saturday, May 18, 2024

Doors 2:30pm – Performance 3:00pm

Tickets $15-30 Sliding

This new and original all ages show, sponsored in part by a creation grant from The Vermont Arts Council, pairs No Strings Marionette Company with composer and conductor Paul Perley. The marionettes, scenery, and musical compositions specially created to tell the tale of twins Quill and Foyle as they set out to find their life’s purpose. Along the way their motives blur as they question what it means to give other beings and ecosystems the rights humans claim for ourselves. Musicians include cello (Melissa Perley), piano (Michiko Oishi), bass (Eben Bodach-Turner), and percussion – cajon,brushed cymbals (Keith Gibson).

Outer Sounds ft. Jessica Pavone String Ensemble+
Liew Niyomkarn (curated by Greg Davis of Autumn Records)
Friday, May 17, 2024
Doors 7pm / Music 7:30pm,  Tickets  $15-30 Sliding

The Outer Sounds concert series will explore the worlds & intersections of electronic, experimental, avant-garde, improvised, ambient, drone, minimalist, free jazz, modern composition, psychedelic music and more. All concerts are intended to be accessible and open to anyone, regardless of knowledge or experience. We hope the music will encourage discussion, inquiry & feedback. Come with open ears, minds & hearts and listen to the Outer Sounds.

Matthew Evan Taylor + Zosha Warpeha
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Doors 7pm / Music 7:30pm, $15-30 Sliding
Join vocalist and Hardanger d’amore player Zosha Warpeha for an evening of intimate and meditative music in anticipation of her forthcoming album silver dawn. Matthew Evan Taylor will open the night and then join Zosha for a duet performance.

Parker Shper Trio with Morgan Moore & Tommy Crane
Friday, April 19, 2024 
Doors 7pm / Music 7:30pm   
Tickets $15-30 Sliding

Pianist / Keyboardist / Composer Parker Shper, originally from Central VT, has been based mostly in the Montreal area since he began studies in Jazz Piano Performance at McGill University in the mid-late 2000s. His steady input into the creative music scene in Montreal, the northeast USA, and overseas, has had him touring, recording writing with The Barr Brothers, Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) Heart & Breath Ensemble, Leif Vollebekk, Craig Finn (The Holdsteady), and Anais Mitchell (The Brightness) to name just a few.

Recently, Parker has been focused on somewhat of a return to his Classical and Jazz Piano roots and is honored to be debuting several new pieces for a trio at The Phoenix on March 21. In addition to his consummate and unique pianistic abilities, Parker has developed a vocabulary of programmed Synths and EFX systems, adding an ambient electro-acoustic element to his original compositions.

Outer Sounds ft. Caroline Davis & Wendy Eisenberg + Matt Sargeant & Dani Dobkin (curated by Greg Davis of Autumn Records)

Tickets, $15-30 Sliding

Monday, April 15, 2024, Doors 7pm / Music 7:30pm

The Outer Sounds concert series will explore the worlds & intersections of electronic, experimental, avant-garde, improvised, ambient, drone, minimalist, free jazz, modern composition, psychedelic music and more. All concerts are intended to be accessible and open to anyone, regardless of knowledge or experience. We hope the music will encourage discussion, inquiry & feedback. Come with open ears, minds & hearts and listen to the Outer Sounds.

The Adam Tendler Residency presented by TURNmusic in partnership with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

Sunday, April 14, 2024    Doors 3:30pm / Music 4:00pm  $25-40 Sliding

Pianist Adam Tendler performs an intimate recital of works by Vermont born Nico Muhly. Adam Tendler is a recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, the Yvar Mikhashoff Prize, and "currently the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene" (Minneapolis Star Tribune), a "remarkable and insightful musician" (LA Times), and a "relentlessly adventurous pianist" (Washington Post) "joyfully rocking out at his keyboard" (New York Times).

One of the most celebrated and active composers of our time, Muhly has been commissioned by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra to compose a new piano concerto to be premiered by Tendler and the VSO on May 4 at the Flynn in Burlington. The programs on April 11th and 14th at The Phoenix, in collaboration with Vermont’s new music collective TURNmusic, include pieces specifically written for Tendler and some other surprises! This recital explores firsthand the powerful works of Nico Muhly, interpreted by Adam Tendler, the composer’s friend, colleague, and dedicatee of his newest concerto.

The Adam Tendler Residency presented by TURNmusic in partnership with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra

Thursday, April 11, 2024  Doors 7pm / Music 7:30pm

$25-40 Sliding

Pianist Adam Tendler performs an intimate recital of works by Vermont born Nico Muhly. Adam Tendler is a recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, the Yvar Mikhashoff Prize, and "currently the hottest pianist on the American contemporary classical scene" (Minneapolis Star Tribune), a "remarkable and insightful musician" (LA Times), and a "relentlessly adventurous pianist" (Washington Post) "joyfully rocking out at his keyboard" (New York Times).

One of the most celebrated and active composers of our time, Muhly has been commissioned by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra to compose a new piano concerto to be premiered by Tendler and the VSO on May 4 at the Flynn in Burlington. The programs on April 11th and 14th at The Phoenix, in collaboration with Vermont’s new music collective TURNmusic, include pieces specifically written for Tendler and some other surprises! This recital explores firsthand the powerful works of Nico Muhly, interpreted by Adam Tendler, the composer’s friend, colleague, and dedicatee of his newest concerto.