5.6.12 Greetings! Heading full force through the Spring, there's a smorgasbord of interesting shows on the horizon - check out my calendar page for Madonna remixes, erotic operas, orchestral concerts, massive drone pieces, and more! I am particularly excited to announce a big show on June 16 - I'll be performing John Zorn's complete collection of solo guitar pieces, "The Book of Heads" at the Incubator Arts Project as part of their June Days music festival. I It has been a twisted fantasy of mine for some time now to perform these pieces in their entirety. And the IAP, formerly Richard Foreman's Ontological Theater, is an ideal setting for this set of beautiful, playful, and literally explosive pieces. I recently played a short set of the pieces during a chain of solo shows in California. There is a great review in the San Diego Reader that describes “A knockout success … Like Muddy Waters having a seizure … Tonality was generally abused like a CEO at an S&M Convention.” Read the whole review for a detailed description of all of the great music that I performed while visiting my native coast. It was really quite a lovely tour. Finally, please take a peek at a gorgeous new video that Stephen Taylor made of my performance of Matthew Welch's banjo piece "Gorgamor the Giant Gecko" - we recorded this over a year ago, and it was well worth the wait! Thanks for reading! - James   2.26.12 I'm excited to announce a tour of California in April! I'm in the thralls of working up a great new solo acoustic set for the Golden State, which includes interpretations and transcriptions of beautiful pieces by Lou Harrison, selection's from John Zorn's "Book of Heads", Molly Thompson's "Blowback", and three songs from Larry Polansky's "Songs and Toods" - all performed on the National resonator guitar. I'll start the chain of shows at my favorite venue the wulf in Los Angeles on April 8, then head down to play the amazing Fresh Sound series in San Diego on the 9th. Through the following week I'll be at UC Santa Cruz to guest at the music department's composition seminar and sound art classes. The week will close with a double header on Friday the 13th: An afternoon Friday at Four recital at UCSC, followed by a show at Meridian Art Gallery in San Francisco. Dither is prepping for our Benefit Concert in March which features Fred Frith, Eve Beglarian, and Mark Stewart! We also recently released our new video of Eve's "Garden of Cyrus" and we are hard at work with repertoire for a concert Princeton University's composition department - I've been getting to know Princeton pretty well recently while on faculty with the Atelier Program, developing Bodies and Guitars with composer David Lang and choreographer Susan Marshall. Much more lies ahead ... you can check out my calendar for a smorgasbord of delectable musical treats from now through Spring. Thanks for reading and stay tuned! - JM   1.1.12 Happy New Year! I had a great Holiday season, which I started celebrating in style with Make Music Winter, joining a distinguished group of guitarists for a march through the East Village to perform Tilted Axes by Patrick Grant, scored for 15 mobile electric guitarists with miniature Honeytone amplifiers! There was a great NY times review of this event, along with the many others taking place around the city. For me, 2012 starts off with two operas and a dance piece: I'm happy to be involved lately with Matt Marks's new opera Mata Hari and Gordon Beeferman's The Enchanted Organ. In addition, workshop performances have begun for Bodies and Guitars with choreographer Susan Marshall and composer David Lang, which we started developing last year at Princeton University. Dither has officially released our video to Paula Matthusen's but because without this . Film-maker Stephen Taylor beautifully captured a handful of the quartet's performances late one night at Exapno New Music Center - We'll be releasing two more videos over the next few months. Also, we're hitting the Ivy League circuit with upcoming performances at Princeton and Yale, and playing a great show in New York at Le Poisson Rouge on January 26! New instruments include an awesome Harmony Baritone Ukulele, acquired for the performance of Molly Thompson's The Maid of Corinth, new life experiences include an inspiring march with Pete Seeger in support of Occupy Wall Street, and new digs include a move to the lovely neighborhood of Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn! Stay tuned! I fully *intend* to keep things updated and add some audio/video soon. Cheers!   9.1.11 Nice write-ups in NY Times, The New Yorker, and picture in Time Out! Phenomenal pianist Kathleen Supové and I announce the first of what we hope to be many collaborative concerts: "A Musical Sacrifice" is a program of solo and duo works to benefit the amazing new music series Music at First. I'll be playing a set of Lou Harrison transcriptions, some of Larry Polansky's "Songs and Toods" and Lisa R. Coons's ridiculously cool "A Quiet Struggle." - It's a beautiful set of music performed on my National Resonator Guitar. 1920s Gibson K-4 Mandocello Picked one of these up for a song at a yardsale in rural Pennsylvania - Very stoked to get this amazing instrument in shape for performance - watch out! Neutral Hero Fall European tour dates The New York City Players, led by playwright Richard Maxwell, are on tour with Neutral Hero, a beautiful and otherworldly music theater piece. On this leg, we're visiting theaters and festivals in Switzerland, France, and the Netherlands - I'm particularly excited to play at the Pompidou Center in Paris for Festival d'Automne! Princeton University Atelier Residency This Fall, fellow Dither member Taylor Levine and I join composer David Lang and choreographer Susan Marshall to teach and develop a new dance piece with students from Princeton. American Composers Orchestra SONiC Festival I'm excited to be a part of three shows at three awesome venues for the ACO's amazing new festival! Dither will perform as part of a marathon concert at the Miller Theater, Taylor Levine and I will perform with Ryan Brown at The Stone, and I will join Corey Dargel and Wil Smith for a performance of Dargel's "Hold Yourself Together" at Joe's Pub. Robert Ashley: Chamber Music I'll be performing several pieces as part of an eight-concert retrospective of the work of the influential American composer Robert Ashley. The concerts will take place over the span of a four day festival at the Incubator Arts Project.