Nu Mu 2023: Music and Art Festival

Opens Friday Aug 4 Gallery Walk with ‘Sounds & Signs’ Community Art Making Event, and extends through Sunday, August 27

Full Nu Mu Festival Schedule

The Nu Mu Music and Art Festival returns to 118 Elliot for a second year as ‘Nu Mu Tu’. A community art making event at Brattleboro’s August 4th Gallery Walk begins a month of musical performances celebrating improvisational music.

Nu Mu Tu, a collaboration between 118 Elliot’s John Loggia and Jeff Lederer’s Little(i)Music, offers a creative convergence of new music and art organized around celebrated jazz musician and teacher Lederer’s yearly pilgrimage to the Brattleboro area and the spirit of ‘free jazz’ where everything is always new.

Throughout August, Nu Mu Tu will present a series of weekend performances by both established and up-and-coming musicians including: Jeff Lederer, Payton MacDonald, Jeremey Slater, Ayumi Ishito, Aron Namenwirth, Paul Austerlitz, Ayizon Sanon, Julian Gerstin, Bonnie Kane, and John Loggia. A full Nu Mu Tu Festival schedule is available here. 

During the August 4 Gallery Walk, artist Hallie Lederer of Brooklyn’s Powerhouse Arts will lead participants in ‘Sounds & Signs’ an art making event to create ‘graphic scores,’ visual representations of music that will be interpreted by the Community Improvisational Orchestra to close the festival at 6pm Sunday August 27. Select graphic scores will be exhibited as part of ‘Signs & Sounds’ exhibit up through August at 118 Elliot gallery.

 August 5th will feature Payton MacDonald’s ‘Sonic Peaks’ project. MacDonald makes graphic topographical scores of his mountain hikes and performs them on Marimba.

On the weekend of August 18, Nu Mu will converge with XFest, an invitational improvisational convergence of more than 50 musicians, artists and dancers will be held at 32M Center for Creative Work in Ashuelot, NH (just past Hinsdale). Performances will run from Friday evening through Saturday. Bring a lawn chair to enjoy non-stop creative experimentation from 6 – 11pm Friday and Saturday.

The closing weekend (Aug 25/26/27) will feature “Flowers for Albert” a musical Tribute to Albert Ayler concert at 118 Elliot on Saturday August 26th at 7pm. An Albert Ayler Benefit Golf Outing at 10am that same day will benefit local human services groups. Jeff Lederer will lead an ensemble that includes Ras Modhe, Bonnie Kane and Dave Peck among others. For more information on the golfing event contact jeff@littleimusic.com.  Opening the weekend, on Friday, a night of interactive video and live music will feature Dave Seidel/Greg Kowalski, Andrew Neumann”, and Bonnie Kane/John Loggia performing a mix of analog electronics, video projection and acoustic instruments .

The festival will close on Sunday, August 27 at 6pm when Lederer leads the Community Improvisational Orchestra in interpreting and performing the graphic scores created by community members at the August Gallery Walk (more info here). Anyone interested in participating in the orchestra should meet at 118 Elliot on August 17th and 24th at 7pm to prepare for the final performance, or write to 118Elliot@gmail.com for more information. A community celebration and dance party featuring Freakuency will follow at 7pm.

A $15 suggested donation for each concert goes directly to the musicians.

click here for the full Nu Mu Festival Schedule

Jeff Lederer is a celebrated saxophonist/clarinetist/composer and teacher who has been included in the Downbeat Critics’ and Readers’ poll each year since 2014. He leads ensembles including the “Shakers n’ Bakers”, “Sunwatcher Quartet” and “Brooklyn Blowhards” and is the founder and director of the Visionary Youth Orchestra. Lederer also plays in the groups of Matt Wilson, Bobby Sanabria, Allison Miller, Jimmy Bosch and many others. Lederer was named as a “Musician to Watch in 2017” by JazzWise magazine in London and has appeared in the North Sea, Molde, Monterey, Chicago, Earshot Seattle, Azores and Guimaraes Jazz festivals where he was the 2017 artist-in-residence. Lederer is currently serving as Director of Jazz Studies and professor of Jazz Saxophone at Long Island University.

John Loggia is a multimedia artist who has worked in the visual arts and music throughout his career. As a musician, John has performed with many great Jazz musicians including Bonnie Kane, Daniel Carter, Ras Moshe, Erc Zinman, Vance Provey, Anders Nillen, Stephen Gauci, Zach Swanson, Eric Plaks among others. John is a producer of the recent documentary on Free Jazz, “Fire Music” that can be seen on the Criterion Channel. His new album, Ventilation, with Bonnie Kane, will be released in August.