#TiltedAxes performs Elisa Corona Aguilar‘s piece “Invasive Species” outside Veselka :: Beceлкa and the Ukrainian National Center in NYC on May 1st. A choir of electric guitar EBows filled up 2nd Ave. with tones of healing and reflection. The city stopped for a moment. Incredible.
STRiNGS & THiNGS Show: “On our series called “First Axe” we ask members of #TiltedAxes to tell us their electric guitar origin stories. This time we’re talking to Howie Kenty, who’s a faculty member at Kaufman Music Center, where he teaches music tech, composition, and theory. But his early guitar days were marked by the sounds of grunge, cassette recordings and questionable taste in stage-wear.”
NEW SHOW — STRiNGS & THiNGS: “This time, on our series called “First Axe” – stories about first guitars – we’ll hear from the founder of Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars. That’s composer, performer and producer Patrick Grant. He’ll take us back to his teen years in Detroit for the brief but noisy life of his first department store axe.” https://www.stringsandthingsshow.com/
We’re back to bring you some new stories from the Tilted Axes circle of musicians. If you don’t know, Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars is an orchestra of guitarists and percussionists led by composer/performer Patrick Grant. They perform original music with mini-amps strapped over their shoulders, moving through public spaces in museums, parks and city streets. Its roster of musicians can change from performance to performance, city to city. And you’re going to meet one of them right now in this series of episodes called “First Axe” – stories about first guitars.
Elisa Corona Aguilar is a writer, translator, composer and guitarist from Mexico City. As a kid, she felt left out when her brother got a guitar and she didn’t. In this episode, she tell us how she finally got her own instrument, and how it still influences the music she makes today.
Elisa has won several literary prizes and her most recent book is Doctor Vertigo and the Temptations of Imbalance and she’s translated Mingus & Mingus, the autobiography of Sue Graham Mingus and her life with Charles Mingus in Mexico. She’s been a member of Robert Fripp and the Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists, Music for Contemplation, the Contemporary Guitar Ensemble, Música y Letras at El Taller Latinoamericano de Nueva York, Tilted Axes: Music For Mobile Electric Guitars and the guitar duet Doble vida. She has a solo project called Sierpe and Other Stories, a series of compositions with electric guitar, loop, iPhone, music box, poetry and spoken word in different languages. She’s pursuing her PhD in music (NYU) and is a member of the prestigious National Endowment for Art Creators of Mexico (SNCA).
Long Island City — Saturday, April 30, 6:30pm-7:45pm
Culture Lab LIC, 5-25 46th Ave, Queens, NY
Performance commences in the outdoor gallery and moves inside
East Village — Sunday, May 1, 3:00-4:15pm
Hekate Café & Elixir Lounge, 167 Avenue B, NYC
Celebrate Beltane with a big, witchy block party from 12pm-9pm
Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars is an orchestra of guitarists and percussionists led by post-rock composer/performer Patrick Grant. They perform original music untethered via mini-amps strapped over their shoulders.
They perform anywhere there are people, excelling in untraditional venues. Its roster of musicians can change from performance to performance, city to city. The musicians learn a common repertoire created by diverse composers and rehearse it in workshops.
The project takes on aspects of spectacle informed by municipal band tradition, avant-garde theater, and world music. It takes music out into the world and seeks transformative situations meant to change community conversation.
These shows are part of Tilted@10, Tilted Axes’ Tenth Anniversary Season. It includes new music by Howie Kenty, Elisa Corona Aguilar, and Patrick Grant and movement direction by Christopher Caines.
Tilted Axes — Elisa Corona Aguilar, Gene Ardor, Angela Babin, Jason Goldstein, Patrick Grant (music director), John Halo, Howie Kenty, Alex Lahoski, Chad Ossman, Kevin Pfieffer, Sean Satin, Dmitri Shapira: electric guitars — Jeremy Nesse: bass —John Ferrari, David Demnitz, Christopher Caines: percussion
Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars is a project of Peppergreen Media and is powered by Vox Amplification courtesy of KORG USA. We thank our performance partners Culture Lab LIC, Hekate Café & Elixir Lounge, Astor Place Hairstylists, Alchemical Studios, and Mercy Sound Studios NYC.
Our Tilted@10 anniversary season is made possible in part bythe New York State Council on the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The ASCAP Plus+ Awards, the NYU Tisch Adjunct Development Fund, but mostly through the generous support of the public.
Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars is an orchestra of guitarists and percussionists led by post-rock composer/performer Patrick Grant. They perform original music untethered via mini-amps strapped over their shoulders.
Tilted Axes can perform anywhere there are people, excelling in untraditional venues. Its roster of musicians can change from performance to performance, city to city. The musicians learn a common repertoire created by diverse composers and rehearse it in workshops.
The project takes on aspects of spectacle informed by municipal band tradition, avant-garde theater, and world music. It takes music out into the world and seeks transformative situations meant to change community conversation.
2022 DMA Nominee Outstanding Classical Composer — Patrick Grant
My first publicly performed piece was “Cantata for the Easter Mass” when I was 15 years old at the Our Lady of Victory Church in Northville, MI. It was written for soloists, choir, strings and organ. While I’m not a traditionally religious person at all, I have retained this sense of ceremony in all my work ever since. It seeks to find a place in the world. And there is always a feeling of a larger narrative. My work with the Tilted Axes mobile electric guitars project is another branch of this same aesthetic. Some times it asks: What is classical music? Is it an instrumentation or an intention? Is it as the venue it’s performed in or can it be found anywhere? Is it solely a technique or is it what we find beyond it if we know where to look? And yet other times the music aims to say as little as possible. It only asks you to listen with prejudice. One thing I have found to be common to all things “classical”, whether it’s traditional or it’s pushing the envelopes of genres: It seeks to elevate us all by pulling us into the present. Together. And if the composer is from Detroit, it’s also not unusual if it has a mean groove. — Patrick Grant Final Phase DMA Voting closes on March 6th at 11:59pm.
Top row: Patrick Grant, Jeremy Nesse, Surar Al-Gaylani, Noel Marie Rivard 2nd row: Marco Delicato, Jeff Adams, Gael Grant, Dean Western 3rd row: Bob Kaufman, Sean Biggs, Manny Falcon, Alex Lahoski 4th row: Chris Simpson, Sarah Metivier Schadt, Rob Knevels, Mike Balavitch Bottom row: Maggie McCabe, John Lovaas, Jocelyn Gonzales, Chris McGorey
Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars is commissioned to create
“REEL TO REAL,” a series of three musical processions celebrating
The 60th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival
DEARBORN: The Henry Ford, 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Saturday, March 19, 12 noon – 2pm
DETROIT: The Marche Du Nain Rouge, Cass Corridor, Sunday, March 20, beginning at 1pm
ANN ARBOR: Opening Night of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Tuesday, March 22 at 6pm, Michigan Theater
To mark the opening of the 60th Annual Ann Arbor Film Festival, the festival has commissioned a series of musical processions from Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars.Tilted Axes: Reel To Real is named to mark our return to live events in 2022. The first event is a procession at The Henry Ford in conjunction with their current exhibit Apollo: When We Went To The Moon. The second is an appearance at The Marche Du Nain Rouge. The third event is the main attraction, the opening night of The Ann Arbor Film Festival. The performance will be based at The Michigan Theater and will travel around downtown as a prelude to the evening’s screenings.
Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars is a group of guitarists and percussionists led by post-rock composer/performer Patrick Grant. They perform original music untethered via mini-amps strapped over their shoulders. Since their inception 10 years ago, they have created and performed numerous new music events in the USA, Europe, and Brazil.
Tilted Axes can perform anywhere there are people, excelling in untraditional venues. Its roster of musicians can change from performance to performance, city to city. The musicians learn a common repertoire created by diverse composers and rehearse it in workshops. Its performances are free to the public and are supported through institutional and/or private donations.
The project takes on aspects of spectacle informed by municipal band tradition, avant-garde theater, and world music. It takes music out into the world and seeks transformative situations meant to change community conversation. It is an apolitical organization, but it does support science, arts programs, and renewable energy whenever possible. Tilted Axes works best when it is part of something bigger than itself i.e. festivals, exhibitions, community initiatives, astronomical events.
* * * Go to Tilted Axes’ web site for procession details closer to the day of the events: www.tiltedaxes.com
TILTED AXES: REEL TO REAL performers — electric guitars: Jeff Adams, Mike Balavitch, Sean Biggs, Marco Delicato, Manny Falcon, Surar Al-Gaylani, Patrick Grant (music director), Bob Kaufman, Rob Knevels, Alex Lahoski, John Lovaas, Chris McGorey, Chris Simpson — bass instruments: Jeremy Nesse (chapman stick), Sarah Metivier Schadt, Dean Western (electric bass) — percussion: Noel Marie Rivard (snare leader), Maggie McCabe (high perc), Gael Grant (perc +) and more TBA — movement director: Christopher Caines — production: Jocelyn Gonzales, Melinda Faylor — performance support: Frank Pahl, Anthony Fremont, and others TBA
Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars is a project of Peppergreen Media and is powered by Vox Amplification courtesy of KORG USA. We thank our performance partners The Ann Arbor Film Festival, The Henry Ford, The Marche Du Nain Rouge, Eastern Michigan University and AMP!,Detroit Guitar in Birmingham, and Grove Studios in Ypsilanti.