Nobody is Ever Missing
Jan
17
to Jan 19

Nobody is Ever Missing

Elyria is alone, hitchhiking through New Zealand. She has left everything and everyone in her life behind her. As she spends more and more time in her own head, she eventually comes to terms with what it means to escape and the impossibility of escape from herself.

A bold new opera, inspired by Catherine Lacey’s 2014 novel Nobody Is Ever Missing, composed by Tim Holt is coming to the Voxel this January.

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I Peered to the Other Side * Blood of a Poet
Apr
28
8:00 PM20:00

I Peered to the Other Side * Blood of a Poet

Mind on Fire presents two super-big, semi-theatrical, musical works by two of Baltimore’s foremost creative minds: David Diongue and Ruby Fulton.

This show will mark the premiere of Diongue’s “I peered to the other side” for a mixed octet and two dancers. It’s music and image about communication, translation, and the transition through the veil of perception.

Fulton’s “Blood of a Poet” accompanies the Jean Cocteau film of the same name. Following the surreal tableau’s of the moving image, Fulton’s music explores warped images of sex, death, violence, art, and snowball fights.

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I Peered to the Other Side * Blood of a Poet
Apr
27
8:00 PM20:00

I Peered to the Other Side * Blood of a Poet

Mind on Fire presents two super-big, semi-theatrical, musical works by two of Baltimore’s foremost creative minds: David Diongue and Ruby Fulton.

This show will mark the premiere of Diongue’s “I peered to the other side” for a mixed octet and two dancers. It’s music and image about communication, translation, and the transition through the veil of perception.

Fulton’s “Blood of a Poet” accompanies the Jean Cocteau film of the same name. Following the surreal tableau’s of the moving image, Fulton’s music explores warped images of sex, death, violence, art, and snowball fights.

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Pique Collective * Zak Forrest * Black Cherry Puppet Theater
Mar
2
8:00 PM20:00

Pique Collective * Zak Forrest * Black Cherry Puppet Theater

Tickets are here: via Universe : https://www.universe.com/events/pique-collective-zak-forrest-black-cherry-puppet-theater-tickets-PQYR2F

HEAR new classical music from the dynamic virtuosities of PIQUE COLLECTIVE.

SEE arrays of high-speed art lasers from aesthetic scientist ZAK FORREST.

EXPERIENCE wondrous marionettes from the legendary BLACK CHERRY PUPPET THEATER.

Come on out to 2640 Space this March 2 at 8:00pm (doors at 7:30) - We’ll take a cool adventure together.

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Mind on Fire * Tom Borax * Kelly Xio
Sep
29
to Sep 30

Mind on Fire * Tom Borax * Kelly Xio

TICKETS ARE HERE: TICKETS

Mind on Fire has assemble a large ensemble of 15 to play large music by Julius Eastman, Louis Andriessen, and Baltimore’s Bashi Rose

Mind on Fire is a chamber orchestra and presenting organization here in Baltimore, putting on wild variety shows of esoterica focused on new music making alongside all sorts of vivid, ephemeral arts.

Tom Boram will perform experimental music on the sanctuary’s massive organ. 

Tom is a long-time custodian of the High Zero Festival of Experimental Music, and he is a monster keyboardist, visual artist, story teller, and pedagogue.

And Kelly Xio will recite their big, heart-piercing poetry from the altar. 

Kelly is an organizer of poets, an archivist of the scene, an empathy engine, and one of the greatest living writers and interpretors of our generation.

Come out and experience this vast night with us. September 29 & 30, 8:00pm at Lovely Lane United Methodist Church. 

TICKETS ARE HERE: TICKETS

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En Route * Peter and Orlando * the whrd
Sep
10
7:30 PM19:30

En Route * Peter and Orlando * the whrd

TICKETS HERE: Link to the Ticketing Page on Universe

Mind on Fire presents a night of strings, dance, and arcane-electronic theater.

EN ROUTE is a string trio made up of Erin Snedecor, Kimia Hesabi, and Ami Nasseri. They're be performing new art music by Missy Mazzoli, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Carlos Bandera

ORLANDO JOHNSON and PETER REDGRAVE are two movement artist of the highest, cosmic vintage who will be dancing to the strings.

Lorenzo Baeza as THE WHRD will open the evening with a mystery amalgam of theater, electronic sound, and song. You will not want to miss the opening of the portal.

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Mind on Fire at Le Comptoir du Vin
Sep
4
8:00 PM20:00

Mind on Fire at Le Comptoir du Vin

Come out spend a contemplative Monday evening with us.

Comptoir will be hosting Mind on Fire out back next to the bar. They’ll be serving easy times and nice bevs. You’ll be serving easy conversations and nice ears.

We’ll be serving a wallpapered evening of Cat Lamb’s experimentally ambient “Line Shadow” cut by frenetic solo virtuosities from a quintet of winds and voices, and we’ll be playing the roles of lost sheep in Fred Rzewski’s “Moutons de Panurge.”

featuring - - - ->
Jenny Tscheulin
James Young
Ty Page
Britt Pertsas
Sarah Manley
Allison Clendaniel

Come out, friends. Enjoy the evening, and think about time with us.

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Mind on Fire * Ami Dang * Laure Drogoul
Jun
2
to Jun 3

Mind on Fire * Ami Dang * Laure Drogoul

TICKETS HERE: https://withfriends.co/event/16043042/mind_on_fire_ami_dang_laure_drogoul

It’s our first super big show of the season at one of our favorite venues in town: Current Space. It’s an evening about place!

Mind on Fire will perform two new pieces by two young composers. We’ll be premiering a brand new work of electroacoustic music by Bobby Ge, about his final weeks living in Shanghai and how you can never fully return home. And we’ll be playing a new work by composer Sebastian Suarez-Solis, an exploration of imaginary space in a huge scrolling score on display not only to the ensemble but also the audience. An adventure with friends!

The night will start with a master of the divine theatrical mystery, Laure Drogoul. You may have seen Laure as the avatar of soap bubbles at an abstract dry cleaner or as an embodiment of many many dead animals in an installation of fur and tea. You may have seen her giant head with video eyes. Or maybe something completely different…

The night will end with Ami Dang, performing music from her most recent, expansive album, “The Living World Demands,” with a brand new, stellar band of luminaries. Musicians from Mind on Fire will join the ensemble to add even more depth to an already twisting root system of extra-musical sonic vibrations.

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Mind on Fire Chamber Series
May
13
8:00 PM20:00

Mind on Fire Chamber Series

The start of a new series from Mind on Fire!

The Chamber Series, led by Sarah Manley and Sam Burt will be featuring a panoply of new esoteric, notated musics from the contemporary planes of complex sound art. Often paired with Baltimore-based visual artists. Start your evening with us and this brief, vivid engagement.

Featuring music by Cat Lamb, Michael Gordon, and Sam Burt

Projections by Nick Geppert

2640 Space (2640 St. Paul Street)

8:00pm show

$10 - $30

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SAWUD RAYAY
Oct
21
to Oct 22

SAWUD RAYAY

TICKETS: Click Here!


Mind on Fire presents...

"SAWUD RAYAY" a new symphony by Jamal Moore

also featuring Nik Francis, Ada Pinkston, and The Soft Pink Truth

Jamal Moore is a radical multi-instrumentalist and brilliant composer. Hailing from Baltimore City, he is a rigorous pedagogue and adventurous researcher in music and aesthetics. His new symphony, "Sawud Rayay" shares his virtuosic exploration of the cosmos. The title translates to 'Black Sun,' the eternal nucleus of our star, around which all planets orbit in constant change.

Nik Francis is a DC-based percussionist and composer, whose vase fabric of work expands from quiet meditation to extreme exhultation. All of his work splits time into hyper energized chain reactions.

Ada Pinkston is a powerful somatic artist and founder of Labbodies, a haven and evolving workshop for performance artists in in and around Baltimore. Highly decorated and recognizaed her work is expansive and varied, including her embodied reconsideration of monuments, "Landmarked."

The Soft Pink Truth is the solo project of Drew Daniel, half of the acclaimed electronic duo Matmos. The Soft Pink Truth is the intersection of the electric avant-garde, disco, and all sorts of esoteric sounds that fall outside the bounds of Daniel's other work. This will also mark the release of his newest record, "Is It Going To Get any Deeper Than This?"

TWO NIGHTS!!

October 21 - 7:30pm door/8:00pm show

October 22 - 7:00pm door/7:30pm show

at

The Crown (Upstairs)

1910 N Charles St; Baltimore, MD 21218

$10 - $30 sliding scale

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Infinity Knives Live and Orchestrated
Oct
8
to Oct 9

Infinity Knives Live and Orchestrated

Watch Online for Free Here (live during the show): Twitch

(and we have gone all out with this stream too, y’all)

Get on the waitlist for in person tickets here: Universe

“One of the best music composers in Baltimore.” (Abdu Ali, The Face)

Infinity Knives is “the unique Baltimore polymath who made ‘Dear, Sudan,’ one of the year’s strangest, most exciting albums,” (Spin) and he is the composer at the heart of Mind on Fire’s next show. In a project spanning 6 years of composition and 18 months of orchestration, we will present an hour-long suite taken from the core of of Infinity Knives two-part, 2019 epic, “In the Mouth of Sadness” and “Dear, Sudan.” Employing a chamber orchestra of 16 players, live electronics, and many of the original MCs and vocalists, we will perform in front of a live audience at The Voxel, Baltimore’s newest black box tech theater pushing the space to its full capabilities for light and sound. 

Additionally this event will be streamed and mixed live for anyone unable to join us in person.

“Infinity Knives is a project that welcomes us into the mind and myriad inspirations of Tariq Ravelomanana. Each of the artist’s eclectic tracks are a singular sound collage, mingling moods, from light and airy to murky and otherworldly.” (Baltimore Magazine)

Featuring:

Infinity Knives - Nicolas Ratany - Will Ryerson - Brian Ennals - Josh Stokes - Allison Clendaniel and many others…

LIVE @ The Voxel (9 W 25th St; Baltimore, MD 21218)

Doors 7:30pm EST - Show 8:00pm EST

$10/15/20/30* (tickets are limited!)

ONLINE @ twitch.tv/mofbaltimore

Show 8:00pm EST

$10/15 suggested Donation 

All who come to this show in person must wear a mask and must present either proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or a negative covid test from the past 48 hours. No exceptions.

*If our entry fees are cost prohibitive, know that no one will be turned away. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us at music@mindonfire.org

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POSTPONED: Voices from the Killing Jar
May
9
8:00 PM20:00

POSTPONED: Voices from the Killing Jar

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED


TICKETS HERE

"The future of classical music lies in the hands of this full chamber orchestra ensemble, evolving the genre through unconventional compositions." (Baltimore Magazine)

Mind on Fire will present Kate Soper's "Voices from the Killing Jar." Named for the container used by entomologists to carefully kill butterflies, Soper's 2012 masterwork is a song cycle depicting a series of female protagonists caught in “hopeless situations, inescapable fates, impossible fantasies, and other unlucky circumstances.” Using electronics, space, parody, noise, and intense filigree - it is the most virtuosic and technically demanding work we have performed to date.

Rahne Alexander "is thoughtful, fierce, and one hell of a storyteller.” (Hey, Jen Cooper)

Rahne is an artist, musician, writer, award-winning essayist, activist, and front-woman to Santa Librada, a punk band focused on "feminism, transgender rights, love, sex, and the surveillance state." Creator of everything, Alexander will be presenting a provactive set focused on her video art - an index of comedy, routine, parody, and context that often calls our perception of the world into question.

Bobbi Rush "creates evocative arts that speaks to a level of intimacy that is often overlooked in the motions and meticulous schedules of the day." (Week in Pop)

Rush traces the fringe of art pop, RnB, and active poetry. Meditating often on love and bodies in love, her music comes in vulnerable waves - electronic layers of her voice accompanying a solitary, resonant beat. Her work is sparse, sharp, and piercing - a full call for connections to form and flourish.

TICKETS HERE

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Mar
5
8:00 PM20:00

Mind on Fire with Kyle Flens

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Concert Program: 

Mind on Fire
Blurred by Bill Ryan
Thick Line by Alex Temple
Deck by Will Redman

Kyle Flens 
Anima by Igor Santos — Jasmine Hogan, harp
An Economy of Means by Robert Honstein

Kyle Flens, (b.1991, Baltimore, MD), is a multi-faceted percussionist. Based in Chicago IL, he is a member of Ensemble Dal Niente.

Kyle maintains an active and rigorous performance schedule each year. Recent highlights include concerts at the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enriquez (Mexico City, Mexico), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the LA Philharmonic's Noon to Midnight Festival at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the 5th International Festival of Percussion Ensembles (San José, Costa Rica), Institutio Inhotim (Minas Gerais, Brazil), and the Winter Festival in Ouro Preto and Mariana (Minas Gerais, Brazil). As an advocate for new music, he has premiered compositions by Eliza Brown, Anthony Cheung, Elliot Cole, Darcy Copeland, Julio Estrada, Luis Fernando Amaya, Robert Fleisher, Erin Gee, Robert Honstein, Kyle Krause, Alexis C. Lamb, Brian Penkrot, Igor Santos, Ben Wahlund, and Katherine Young.
Kyle’s schedule as an educator is equally as active. He has given clinics at world class institutions: Western Washington University, DePaul University, Instituto Nacional de la Música (San José, Costa Rica), the Juilliard School, and Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He has been in residency at University of California Davis, The Walden School, Brandeis University, Brown University, and Stanford University. Kyle performs on 
Pearl Drums and Adams Percussion Instruments, and is honored to be an endorsed artist.

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Cat Lamb In the Stacks
Dec
12
5:40 PM17:40

Cat Lamb In the Stacks

Mind on Fire teams up with In the Stacks to present an evening of light, sound, spectralism, and astronomy. Celebrated for "bringing classical music into the 21st Century" (Baltimore Magazine), the widely celebrated In the Stacks concert series has made the historic and beautiful George Peabody Library its home. Paired with spatial masterworks of the 17th century, our featured composer will be Cat Lamb. Lamb’s music, vivid and celestial, has appeared as part of the BBC Proms in 2017, the Ojai New Music Festival, and at Carnegie Hall. Mind on Fire will be performing her ‘Parallaxis Forma,’ music regarding how starlight bends around the earth. In addition, artists Jason Charney and Kevin Blackistone will emphasize the latent magic of the library’s architecture with a light installation and projections.

Admission is FREE with a suggested donation of $10

ARRIVAL INSTRUCTIONS: Doors open at 6 PM, people typically begin lining up around 5:30. There will live pre-show music for folks waiting in the library around 5:45. These events tend to sell out; arriving early is advised.

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Mind on Fire * Andrew Bernstein * Karagoz Theater Company
Oct
12
8:00 PM20:00

Mind on Fire * Andrew Bernstein * Karagoz Theater Company

Mind on Fire sings!

Presenting the music of Meredith Monk, Laura Steenberge, Eve de Castro-Robinson, and a premiere by James Young, we are performing our first ever choral concert. Castro-Robinson's "Chaos of Delight III" turns the choir into birds of the gardens of paradise, trilling and clicking. Steenberge's "Lucretius, my Lucretius" sets the titular philosopher poet in modern context. Monk's "Earth Seen from Above" considers the cosmic unity of all people from the clarifying perspective of space.

Prodigious saxophonist and Horse Lord, Andrew Bernstein, following the release of his album, An Exploded View of Time will play an electrifying solo set. "His playing is ecstatic and discursive, tracing out minimal melodic lines that are at once athletic feats and delightfully free." (Colin Joyce, VICE)

Karagoz Theater Company, a Turkish theater group practicing a style of 500 year old Anatolian shadow puppet theater. They have garnered great acclaim over short time frame, performing the La Mama Puppet Festival, the Great Plains Puppet Train, the National Puppet Festival, and at Baltimore’s own Black Cherry Puppet Theater. Founder Ayhan Hulagu will be presenting “The Magic Tree,” the first piece of Karagoz Theater presented on Broadway.

Admission is FREE thanks to Free Fall Baltimore
Register here!

Mind on Fire Program

Chaos of Delight III — Eve de Castro-Robinson

Lucretius, my Lucretius — Laura Steenberge

Six Dog Poems — James Young*

Earth Seen from Above — Meredith Monk

*denotes World Premiere

Mind on Fire Choir
Bonnie Lander
Katelyn Aungst
Kerry Holahan
Allison Clendaniel
Shauna Kreidler Michels
Jaime Leidwinger
Taylor Boykins
Joshua Bornfield
Cameron Falby
Jake Budenz
James Young
Jason Charney

free-fall-baltimore-logo.jpg
 



*Free Fall Baltimore is presented by BGE, and is a program of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization.*

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Meta-Opera at Walters Art Museum
May
9
7:00 PM19:00

Meta-Opera at Walters Art Museum

May 9 @ 7pm

Walters Art Museum (600 N Charles St)

Mind on Fire presents and evening of meta-opera. We’ll perform ‘KHAAREJ’ by Sahar Te, a work for drum kit and singer ruminating on poetry and meanings lost in translation - featuring a text in farsi meant for a non-native speaker. James Young’s ‘Caliburn’ also appears on the program. For five low winds and soprano, it is a cantata on heat, yelling, transformation, and God.

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Mind on Fire + choreographer Dannah Bella
May
3
8:00 PM20:00

Mind on Fire + choreographer Dannah Bella

May 3 @ 8pm

Church on the Square (1025 S Potomac St)

Mind on Fire will be accompanying master choreographer Danah Bella as part of the Music on the Square performance series. In an evening of spectral harmonies and open structures we will explore the intersection of physical movements and sonic fogs - that is - dancing to tunes. Featuring the music of Cat Lamb, Anthony Green, and Moondog.

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Musical Kinetics at 2640 Space
Apr
11
8:00 PM20:00

Musical Kinetics at 2640 Space

April 11 @ 8pm

2640 Space (2640 St Paul St)

OUR NEXT MAINSTAGE SHOW

Mind on Fire is playing a living set of musical kinetics. Composer Chris Dietz’s ‘Contretemps’ features the orchestra divided against itself. Sky Macklay’s ‘Microvariations’ is a codex of rainbow-colored landings in two tuning systems. And we’ll be debuting a brand new work by local sound hero Jamal Moore.

ALSO

Soul Cannon, violet off the release of their eponymous album, will present their special brand of ultra-filigree, futurist hip-hop. 

AND

Comic Jessica Murphy Garrett will place words in specific orders and timings to create joy and delight. You may yourself find both of these feelings on April 11. 

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Spring 2019 Fundraiser
Mar
2
to Apr 2

Spring 2019 Fundraiser

We are raising $5500 this Spring to support the art we plan on making for the coming year:

◊ A premiere by our director, James Young at the Walters Art Museum 
◊ Our first ever choral concert (no instruments!)
◊ The Baltimore premier of Kate Soper’s “Voices from the Killing Jar ”
◊ EVEN MORE VARIETY SHOWS

$0.80 of every dollar you donate will go directly back to Mind on Fire’s musicians and the performers we collaborate with. The other $0.20 will be used for the venues, commissions, food, travel, and the machinery to keep us running strong. And more we are a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization!

Any donation you make is 100% tax-deductible.

Donate here!

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Sep
22
7:30 PM19:30

Mind on Fire * The Whrd * Liz Downing

Mind on Fire
We're playing a neon set of sound and video including Alexander Schubert's "Star Me Kitten," music about words, fear, glitches, and tennis for orchestra and powerpoint. Also featured will be Celeste Oram's instantaneous video canon, "Xerox Rock," and "Ah," a premiere by Louna Dekker-Vargas of the Witches.

Liz Downing
Sound collector, music quilter, musician, visual artist, and singer. Liz will present the story of Venus in crankie form: how it nearly collided with Earth and took its place in the sky.

The Whrd
Cybernetic, static rhythms, soul singing with ancient video machines. It is Lorenzo Baeza.

EMP Collective, 307 W Baltimore St.
Doors @ 7:30pm
Show @ 8:00pm

$10/15/20/30*
*sliding scale

-If our entry fees are cost prohibitive, know that no one will be turned away. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us at music@mindonfire.org-

CONTENT WARNING: This show includes some graphic language and images please keep this in mind when attending this event.

Ticket Link

Facebook event

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Jun
22
8:00 PM20:00

BSO New Music Festival Chamber Jam

Free outdoor concert as part of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Festival Chamber Jam

Program:
A. Sax - Moondog
What. Power. Art. Thou — Henry Purcell arr. James Young
Cascadia — Nudie Suits arr. James Young
Meditation on a Scale — Ruby Fulton
Thick Line — Alex Temple
Snapdragon — Alexandra Gardner
People are on the Streets — Igor Silva

 

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