Project Title:  Glass Head
Recipient Organization:  Rova:Arts
Lead Artist:  Shinichi Momo Koga
Genre and Date Awarded:  Performing Arts, June 2005
To Be Presented: April 28-29, 2006, Kanbar Hall, Jewish Community Center of San Francisco

This multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural project brings together master improvisers from the arts of dance, music, and media—Shinichi Momo Koga of the Bay Area-based Butoh dance company inkBoat, Berlin-based Butoh dancer Yuko Kaseki; Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Steve Adams, and Bruce Ackley of the Rova Saxophone Quartet; and media artist Eric Koziol.  The finished piece is serving as the centerpiece of Rova: Arts’ annual Rovaté festival, which features the Quartet in collaboration with other prominent musicians artists.

Bringing together the worlds of sound, vision, and movement, Glass Head will explore the realms of 21st-century assumptions, oppositions, and suspicions—the sanctity of thoughts, protection vs. isolation, stability and fragility, and more. With artistic roots in the U.S., Japan, Europe, and beyond, this expansive, evening-length work will inspire both surprise and sudden recognition, as these facets of contemporary life take shape on-stage as we experience them in our daily lives—in the moment, and without warning.

All of the collaborating artists are not only highly accomplished and widely admired in their respective disciplines, but all view improvisation as a central element of their art.  Improvising artists often choose to develop particular systems, or languages of improvisation—self-imposed forms of limitation and these collaborators approach improvisation with different systems; yet the artists write:

There are commonalities of experience that emerge when a performing artist not only confronts the unknown in his or her work, but draws on the unknown (i.e. practices improvisation) as an essential component of that work.  This common framework makes possible collaborations across artistic styles, as well as great physical or cultural distances.

inkBoat’s performance style is a hybrid of traditional and experimental dance and theater forms woven within physical theater and Japanese Butoh Dance.  Their productions involve the collaborative voices of musicians, visual artists, dancers, and actors, who have come both sonically and physically interactive.  inkBoat artist Shinichi Momo Koga’s work has for years been informed by collaborations with artists practicing other disciplines.  Since 1995, Yuko Kaseki has lived and worked as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher.  She studied Butoh dance with Anzu Furukawa beginning in 1989 and danced in Anzu’s company.  She founded the dance company Devilangelo with Marc Ates and has been involved in various other projects with musicians and artists from France, Italy, Japan, Germany, and the United States.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Rova Saxophone Quartet (Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs, Steve Adams, and Bruce Ackley) has opened new musical frontiers for more than 25 years through its vital blend of written compositions and improvisation.  The band has produced more than 30 recordings, as well as being the subject of several videos. Collaborations with many artists include Kronos Quartet, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, Anthony Braxton, Alvin Curran, John Zorn, Nels Cline, Fred Frith, Robin Holcomb, Satoko Fujii, Terry Riley, among many others. The Chicago Tribune has praised Rova’s “virtuoso ensemble work, the mercurial mood-shifts, the startling array of instrumental colors and the sheer joy of sound that have made this quartet one of the most significant ensembles of its kind since the late 1970s.”  Incorporated in 1985, Rova:Arts, the nonprofit sponsor of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, is devoted to extending the leading edge of musical expression and related artistic disciplines.  Rova:Arts administers the ensembles activities, presents work by other forward-looking artists, commissions new works by established and emerging composers, and furthers the public’s understanding of adventurous art through education and outreach. More information and tour performances at  http://www.rova.org

Erik Koziol is a founding member of H-Gun Labs, a media making collective which operated in Chicago and San Francisco from 1989-2001.  As an independent Media Artist, Eric’s work encompasses both experimental dance films and multi-screen interactive video environments for theater, music, and dance.  His live multi-media works have been showcased in the United States and internationally.  This performance will mark his fourth collaboration with Shinichi Momo Koga.

Shinichi Moma Koga
Originally a photographer, filmmaker, and theater actor/director, Shinichi Momo Koga became primarily known as a Butoh dancer after 1991, when he began dancing under Hiroko and Koichi Tamano (primary dancers in Tatsumi Hijikata’s company).  In 1994, he and Alenka Mullin Koga founded Uro Teatr Koku (later “inkBoat”), whose productions draw on the collaborative talents of musicians, visual artists, dancers, and actors.  In addition to his own solo and ensemble productions throughout North America, Europe, and Japan, Mr. Koga has long collaborated with other diverse performance artists, including Yumiko Yoshioka and TEN PEN CHii (Germany, 1996-2001), Do Theatre (Russia, 1997-present), and Shadowlight Theatre (United States of America, 1993-97).  Koga’s productions, both solo and ensemble, have been seen since 1988 throughout the North American Continent, Europe, and Japan.  Restructuring dance, theater and cinema forms, he extracts the vital essence of each to create a sharper reality.  As a teacher, performer, and director, Koga inhabits the shadow self and swims the collision between modern life and primal being.  He challenges himself and others to attain balances between chaos and serenity, to be a raging storm in blue skies and a breath of calm in the midst of turbulence.  Mr. Koga and inkBoat have received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, Zellerbach Family Foundation, and the California Ats Council, among others.

Steve Adams
Steve Adams’ discography of over 30 works includes four releases with Boston's Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet and two albums as a leader for the 9 Winds label. He has performed with Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers, Dave Holland, Donald Byrd, Jaki Byard and Ted Nugent and with many other jazz, rock, and classical dance and theater groups. He has composed for the California Shakespeare Festival's 1990 production of Twelfth Night and for the 1991 production of Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as for the Empire Brass Quintet and Marimolin, a violin/marimba duo. Steve is a graduate of the School of Contemporary Music in Boston, and has studied composition with Thomas Oboe Lee, Christopher Yavelov and Alan Crossman; saxophone with David Birkin; and Indian music with Peter Row and Steve Gorn. Steve was a finalist in the 1983 Massachusetts "You Gotta Have Arts" grant competition.

Larry Ochs
As a member of Rova,  Larry Ochs has made more than two dozen CDs and 30 tours to Western and Eastern Europe. Compositions  of his for Rova and other ensembles have been commissioned by festivals and by Meet the Composer/Reader’s Digest Commissioning Fund as well as Chamber Music America. Outside of the many collaborations between Rova and other artists, Ochs has also performed or recorded with Fred Frith, John Lindberg, Andrew Cyrille, Glenn Spearman, John Zorn, Marilyn Crispell, Natsuki Tamura, George Lewis, Henry Kaiser, Miya Masaoka, Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Douglas and many others. In addition to Rova, he is “regularly” touring with the following groups: What We Live (sax, bass and drums): on tour Feb, - March and October 2006; Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core: new CD in 2006; Trio Ochs/Masaoka/Lee (acoustic koto, cello, saxophones): on tour in Europe late March and April 2006 and in North America September 2006; and Maybe Monday, a trio with Fred Frith and Miya Masaoka,  He also has organized larger projects, the most active at the moment being  Electric Ascension, a large ensemble featuring Rova, Nels Cline, Fred Frith, Otomo Yoshihide and many others performing the great composition of John Coltrane: “Ascension.”  In 2005, he was guest curator at Music Unlimited 2006, and experimental music festival in Wels, Austria. For Ochs’ upcoming performances: http://www.Ochs.com

Bruce Ackley
A 1986 Bay Area Music award nominee for best saxophonist, Bruce Ackley has recorded with such noted musicians as John Zorn, Henry Kaiser, and Eugene Chadborne, and collaborated with trombone/electronics composer J.A. Deane on sound environments for the films of Bay Area film maker, David Machalak. He was a founding member of the Sound Clinic, an improvising wind trio, with trumpeter George Sams and saxophonist Lew Jordan, and participated in the founding of the Blue Dolphin, an artist-run alternative art space in San Francisco. He began playing saxophone in 1970, and formed his first trio that year in Detroit. As a disc jockey from 1973-75, Bruce presented jazz and new music programs on San Francisco's community sponsored station, KPOO.

Jon Raskin
His early career include his '70s participation in new music ensembles directed by John Adams (San Francisco Conservatory of Music) and Dr. Barney Childs (University of Redlands). Before Rova, Raskin served as music
director of the Tumbleweed Dance Company (1974-77) in San Francisco. He was a founding member of the Blue Dolphin and the Farm, two alternative art spaces in San Francisco. Raskin has received numerous grants and commissions to work on a variety of creative projects: The Other Minds Festival in 2004 for The Hear and Now forSaxophone Quartet- Erhu, Pipa, Kayagum, Koto, Tabla Tarong and Pat Waing. He received a 2002 composition grant from Chamber Music of America and a Meet
the Composer in 2000 and 1991, Berkeley Symphony commissioned Telegraphing the Temescal for Orchestra and Saxophone Quartet (1995).  In 1990 he received  Gerbode Interdisciplinary grant for "Occupancy" with Howard Martin (1990) and 1988 collaborated with Bob Davis with a  NEA composer grant for Poison Hotel, a theater production by Soon 3.  

Raskin's has recorded and performed with Anthony Braxton, Tim Berne and Terry Riley. His most recent release is called Kaolithic Music- Sounds from the Pre-Credulous Age which features Jew's harp music recorded in a 538 gallon ceramic vase used in the manufacturing of Dynamite before stainless was invented and his Internet work "Gingko" was featured at Markszine in 2005.  His musical training includes saxophone studies with Eddie Flenner, James Rotter, and John Handy; and composition studies with Dr. Barney Childs and Allaudin Mathieu.  He has studied Morsing with Jim Santi Owens and Subash Chandran.

Yuko Kaseki
Yuko Kaseki lives and works as a free dancer, choreographer and teacher in Berlin (1995-present).  She studied Butoh dance with Anzu Furukawa since 1989 and danced in Anzu’s company Dance Butter Tokio and Verwandlungsamt in Germany, Finland, Holland, and the United States of America.  Kaseki founded the dance company Devilangelo with Marc Ates and organized training and performances in their studio loplop (1997-2000).  She has been involved in various projects with musicians and artists from France, Italy, Japan, Germany, Denmark, and the United States.  Intensive solo works (Tooboe, Kudan, Toquage) and her ensemble works (Haru Yayoi chan Kou, Invisible Real) in Europe.  As part of inkBoat, Kaseki has danced and choreographed in works such as Cockroach and Onion.

Erik Koziol
Eric Koziol is a founding member of H-Gun Labs, a media making collective which operated  in Chicago and San Francisco from 1989 -2001. With H-Gun Eric had the pleasure of collaborating with musical artists such as Nine Inch Nails, Public Enemy, Soundgarden, De La Soul, Diamanda Galas, and television personalities Howard Stern, Roseanne Barr, and Michael Moore. As an independent Media Artist Eric's work encompasses both experimental dance films and multi-screen interactive video environments for theater, music and dance. His films have screened in the traveling Resfest, Anthology Film Archives, American Dance Festival Durham N.C., Dance on Camera Festival in New York , Cinema Museum Moscow, Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Buersshouwberg Brussels, TTV Festival in Riccione, Italy, and the Thessolaniki International Film Fest. His live multi-media works have been showcased at PS 122 in NYC, Fabbrica Europa in Florence Italy, Rotterdam International Film Festival Netherlands, Chicago Filmmakers, Dance Mission San Francisco , Ontological Theater New York City, International Choreographer’s Platform in Almada Portugal, Leap festival in Liverpool UK, and most recently at the 2005 Cyber-Arts Festival in Boston .   This performance will mark Eric's 4th collaboration with  Shinichi Momo Koga. In 2002 they created the dance film "The Duchess" an inkBoat production Funded by the Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco which has screened in numerous dance film festivals world-wide, "Ecstatic Amorica" a multi-media stage work which was commissioned by the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2001, and a 2006 music video for Oakland based band "Sleepytime Gorilla Museum."