***THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT. Please join us on 3/22/15 at the Berkeley City Club for the David Wessel Celebration...see the Events list on our home page for details.***

Please join us for this celebratory improvisational music concert in memory of David Wessel. David loved to improvise and to host concerts by his favorite improvisers at CNMAT. We will listen to some great spontaneous music, drink wine and eat cheese, just as David loved to do.

One of David’s favorite musician-collaborators, Joelle Leandre, bassist and composer from Paris, will be our special guest. Other performers include collaborators of David’s and members of his community at UC Berkeley: Ken Ueno, Myra Melford, Matthew Goodheart, Jason Levis and Lisa Mezzacappa.

French double bass player, improviser and composer, Joëlle Léandre is one of the dominant figures of the new European music. Trained in orchestral as well as contemporary music, she has played with l’Itinéraire, 2e2m and Pierre Boulez’s Ensemble Intercontemporain. Joëlle Léandre has also worked with Merce Cunningham and with John Cage, who has composed especially for her – as have Scelsi, Fénelon, Hersant, Lacy, Campana, Jolas, Clementi and about 40 composers. As well as working in contemporary music, Léandre has played with some of the great names in jazz and improvisation, such as Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Evan Parker, Irene Schweizer, William Parker, Barre Phillips, Pascal Contet, Steve Lacy, Lauren Newton, Peter Kowald, Urs Leimgruber, Mat Maneri, Roy Campbell, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Mark Naussef, Marilyn Crispell, India Cooke and so many others… She has written extensively for dance and theater, and has staged a number of multidisciplinary performances. She got the DAAD at Berlin, is welcomed as artist resident at Villa Kujiyama (Kyoto). In 2002, 2004 and 2006, she was a Visiting Professor at Mills college, Oakland, CA, under the Darius Milhaud Chari for improvisation and composition. Her work as a composer and a performer, both in solo recitals and as part of ensembles, has put her under the lights of the most prestigious stages of Europe, the Americas and Asia. From 1981 to 2009, Joëlle Léandre has about 150 recordings to her credit.

(NOTE: There will also be another event on March 22nd to commemorate David Wessel's life and work -- see the Events list on our home page for details.)