Midtown Live Launches at THE BLANC with an Evening of Electronic Music and Improvisation
THE BLANC introduces Midtown Live, a new series dedicated to jazz, electronic music, multimedia, and improvisation. Curated by musician and interdisciplinary artist Neil Leonard, the series brings together established and emerging artists whose work expands the possibilities of sound, performance, and collective listening.
Based in the heart of Manhattan, Midtown Live draws inspiration from the neighborhood’s remarkable sonic history. During the twentieth century, Midtown became a center for major developments in recorded sound and broadcasting—from Fox Film’s early experiments with synchronized sound-on-film and the opening of its Movietone studios in 1927, to NBC’s construction of the world’s largest radio studio in 1933. In 1945, Charlie Parker recorded his bebop landmark “Ko-Ko” at WOR Studios, helping to transform the language of American music.
Midtown Live places this history in conversation with the present. Rather than treating jazz and electronic music as separate traditions, the series explores the points where composition, improvisation, technology, and multimedia practice converge. Each program creates an intimate setting in which artists can experiment with new forms while audiences experience sound as something spatial, immediate, and shared.
The series is curated by Neil Leonard, who has spent more than four decades presenting contemporary and experimental music across artistic and cultural boundaries. His curatorial work has extended from New York and Boston to Brazil, Cuba, Italy, China, and Burundi. Leonard has served as Artistic Director of the Interdisciplinary Arts Institute at Berklee College of Music, directed the Sguardi Sonori festival in Italy, and curated projects for documenta 14 and the American Composers Forum. He has also organized performances at institutions including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, ICA Boston, MIT Media Lab, Mass MoCA, Experimental Intermedia, and THE BLANC.
The Inaugural Concert
Midtown Live opens on October 10 at 7:30 PM with an evening of visionary work by electronic composers and improvisers Michael J. Schumacher, James Ilgenfritz, and AC Diamond.
Michael J. Schumacher will present new compositions using his Portable Multi-channel Sound System, an eight- or twelve-channel setup designed to fit inside a suitcase. Having toured the system throughout Europe and the United States, Schumacher uses it to distribute sound across multiple speakers positioned around the audience. At THE BLANC, his compositions will unfold throughout the space, placing listeners inside an evolving field of sound and reconsidering conventional distinctions between performer, medium, and audience.
A Brooklyn-based composer, performer, and installation artist, Schumacher founded and directed Diapason Gallery, a New York space devoted exclusively to sound art, from 1996 to 2011. His installations and compositions have been presented internationally, and his work has received support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program. He is also the music director of the Liz Gerring Dance Company.
The second part of the evening brings together bassist and composer James Ilgenfritz and sound and media artist AC Diamond for an improvised electronic dialogue. Their performance will explore emerging approaches to electronic improvisation through responsive listening, technological experimentation, and spontaneous exchange.
Ilgenfritz is a significant presence in New York’s new-music community and the founder of the Infrequent Seams record label and Ephemera Obscura, Inc. His recent creative work reflects upon his experiences with aphasia and other complications following surgeries and radiation treatments for three benign brain tumors since 2013, transforming personal experience into a developing language of sound and communication.
AC Diamond, the performance moniker of Anastasia Clarke, works across live performance, creative technology, and archives. Their projects have appeared in galleries, theaters, public spaces, DIY venues, and other unconventional settings. A faculty member in Music Technology at NYU Steinhardt, AC Diamond has received support from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, Wave Farm, Roulette Intermedium, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
Together, the three artists introduce the spirit of Midtown Live: exploratory yet accessible, grounded in the history of experimental music while remaining open to new technologies, unexpected collaborations, and evolving ways of listening.
The inaugural concert takes place on October 10 at 7:30 PM at THE BLANC, 15 East 40th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10016.
