In interbeing, the five musicians of TAK enact a slow-moving, ritualized performance of connectedness and mutual interdependence.

Every performance of interbeing draws from a folio encompassing music, text, video, movement and recipes. These elements have been collaboratively developed with composer Eric Wubbels over the past eight years and counting, and are newly arranged with each performance to facilitate an evening-long conversation with the specific community in which the performance is situated. The performance space is often transformed to soften the boundary between performers and audience members. Food and drink following the music play a pivotal role, as local chefs, foragers, and farmers contribute to a reception spread over which listeners and performers interact and bond.

Trailer from TAK’s live performance of interbeing (II) — [x.7.23]
at DiMenna Center for Classical Music

Performance video of ‘BREAD’ movement from interbeing

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

booking contact: Laura Cocks, laura@takensemble.com

Dedicated to the commissioning of new works and direct collaboration with composers and other artists, TAK ensemble is regarded as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen). TAK promotes ambitious programming at the highest level, fostering engagement within and outside of the music community.

TAK is (from left) Ellery Trafford, percussion; Madison Greenstone, clarinets; Laura Cocks, flutes; Marina Kiffertsein, violin; Charlotte Mundy, voice.

The quintet has been presented by the New York Philharmonic, Miller Theatre, Roulette, the Library of Congress, The Lab, Dublin’s Music Current Festival and Bangkok’s INTACT festival. They have released six albums, praised as “combin[ing] crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex.” (WIRE Magazine) and “impress[ing] with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity” (New Sounds, WQXR). These recordings feature TAK commissions by Mario Diaz de Leon, Taylor Brook, Erin Gee, Brandon López, Tyshawn Sorey, Natacha Diels, Bethany Younge, David Bird, and Ashkan Behzadi.

Eric Wubbels (b.1980) is a composer and performer. He is pianist and Co-Director of the
Wet Ink Ensemble (NYC), and he performs regularly in projects with Mariel Roberts and Josh Modney,
Weston Olencki, and Charmaine Lee, among others.
His music has been presented by LA Phil Green Umbrella series, Huddersfield Festival, ISSUE Project Room,
Roulette, Chicago Symphony MusicNOW, New York Philharmonic CONTACT, Contempuls (Prague),
reMusik (St. Petersburg, RU) and Zurich Tage für Neue Musik.

Wubbels has been supported by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NYFA, NYSCA, Chamber Music America, ISSUE Project Room, Jerome Foundation, and Yvar Mikhashoff Trust. As a performer, he has given U.S. and world premieres of works by major figures such as Peter Ablinger, Richard Barrett, Beat Furrer, George Lewis, and Mathias Spahlinger, as well as vital young artists such as Rick Burkhardt, Erin Gee, Bryn Harrison, Clara Iannotta, Darius Jones, Cat Lamb, Ingrid Laubrock, Charmaine Lee, Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Katharina Rosenberger, Kate Soper, and Anna Webber. He has recorded for hatART, Carrier Records, Out of Your Head, Intakt, New Focus, Pi, and quiet design, among others.

PRESS

**• Named one of the top performances of 2023 by WIRE Magazine •**

“One of the city’s most fearless contemporary ensembles, known for rigorous experimentation and technical precision.”
— The New York Times

“From selecting to staging, there’s a consistent excellence in execution. Their recent performance of ‘interbeing II’—composed by, or to some degree with, Eric Wubbels, one of the most exciting composers working in New York—showed that dedication. I was engaged in the hour-long, multimedia piece, performed on three small stage sets within a single room, from beginning to end. It was intelligent and complex but (unusually for contemporary music) approachable and even friendly. There’s only a handful of ensembles that I want to experience whatever they do, regardless of the names on the program. In this case, the composer was one of my favorites, but I look forward still to whatever they do next.”

— Kurt Gottschalk

*“One of the most unique contemporary music experiences in recent years.”*

—Ashkan Behzadi

“Interbeing represents what many of us hope to achieve with collaboration... a reimagining of the concert experience that harnesses the performers’ full virtuosic and expressive musicianship… palpable from the dynamic music that covers an astounding range of affective states at the same time that the rigor and depth of Wubbels’ artistic practice radiates from the taut structures of each section… these are things you can’t hold in your experience until you’re there with them in the space that only they can create.”

— Austin Wulliman (JACK Quartet)

To learn more about this project, email Laura Cocks at laura@takensemble.com

PAST PERFORMANCES

10.21.2023 - Indexical Concerts at Wind River, Santa Cruz

10.20.2023 - The Lab, San Fransisco

10.07.2023 - The Dimenna Center, New York City

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES

Corcoran Music Festival at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. - October 2024

I/O Festival at Williams College, Massachusetts - January 2025

SCORE EXCERPTS

• • •

INSTRUMENTS: Quintet as Quartet

INSTRUMENTS juxtaposes multiple overlapping hyperinstruments created through an ever-shifting rhythmic and timbral composites between members of TAK, to paint a high-energy mosaic of interlocking musical fragments and phrases of seemingly incongruous interwoven gestures.

BREAD: Quintet as Trio

BREAD centers around the lush, baroquely ornamented violin line, with each other performer augmenting the phrase through expansive gestures within a just-intonation system. Situated at a dining table with various dining accoutrements, the movement employed finely tuned wine glasses, glass bottles, mixing bowls, and an auto-harp to expand and disorient that ensemble’s sonic pallet.

ROOT AND VEIN: Quintet as Solo

ROOT AND VEIN creates an orchestration of of complex and unyielding, yet folk music inspired percussion parts. The ensemble functions as one. Options are presented in the score that highlight interlocking and ever-shifting ecstatic composites.