Aruán Ortiz (Solo Piano + Q&A)

Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music in association with Jazz North East and The Lit and Phil presents…

Aruán Ortiz

The Literary and Philosophical Society (The Loftus Room)
Saturday 5th October 2024
Doors: 12.30pm (Music Starts 1.00pm)
Full Price: £8.00
Age Restrictions: All ages welcome with under 18’s accompanied by an adult.

1.00pm - 2.00pm
Aruán Ortiz (Solo Piano + Q&A)
 
Part of Newcastle Festival of Jazz and Improvised Music

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The Literary and Philosophical Society
The Literary and Philosophical Society, 23 Westgate Road, NE1 1SE
0191 232 0192 / library@litandphil.org.uk
www.litandphil.org.uk

The Literary and Philosophical Society

Age Restrictions: All ages welcome with under 18’s accompanied by an adult.

Accessibility: The Loftus Room at The Lit and Phil is partly accessible. There is a lift at the venue entrance for wheelchair users to access the building and performance space, no wheelchair accessible toilets are available in the building. 

The festival has permissions for visiting wheelchair users to access toilets located on the ground floor in Sleeperz Hotel which is just a few doors down (16 ft) to the right of the Lit and Phil as you exit the building. 

Accessible toilets are also available at 5 Quarter Cafe Bar to the left as you exit the building. 

The Private Members Library is not a wheelchair accessible space and is preceded by a small number of stairs. 

Travel: Any Bus and Metro to Central Station which is located less than 300 ft from the venue (approximately 2 minutes walk).

There is limited street parking, the closest car park is at Central Station
(Charges may apply).


Artist Biographies 

Aruán Ortiz
 
The music of 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, composer, and pianist Aruán Ortiz dives across multiple musical contexts, as his continuous research leads him to write for chamber ensembles, orchestras, dance companies, and feature films, incorporating contemporary classical music, Cuban-Haitian and Afro-Caribbean rhythms, spontaneous composition, and improvised music in his works. 

Named “one of the most creative and original composers in the world” (Lynn René Bayley, The Art Music Lounge), Ortiz is a recipient of one of the few Doris Duke Impact Awards (2014). His professional career transcends categorization and encapsulates the essence of the cultural blend between Western European classical lexicon with Afro-diasporic music communities in the Americas. 

Cub(an)ism and the Freedom of Now (Building a living score)

The acclaimed Cuban pianist and composer Aruán Ortiz, considered "an avatar of creative and progressive improvisation" (Ted Panken, Jazztimes Magazine) and a "first-rate" pianist (Nate Chinen, WBGO Jazz Radio), releases his solo piano album titled „Cub(an)ism“. This album was recorded by the engineer Martin Pearson in December 2016 at the Swiss National Radio in Zu¨rich and produced by Intakt Records.

"Cub(an)ism is the result of an in-depth conversation with a range of musical idioms and styles, and various experiences from the phases of Ortiz’ life, in Cuba, Spain, France and the USA, which have formed his eclectic concept of music.

On this album, Ortiz’ pieces arise from specific ideas and moods, developed imperceptibly along systematic constructions spiked with the unexpected.

Despite a certain adherence to system, the music on Cub(an)ism remains sensual at all times. Using clear but flexible systems, the music lives from structure and surprise. Crystalline structures are abruptly dissolved, clear forms blurred like a reflection in stormy water, before resurfacing. Ortiz’ music breathes this magic, the allure of dancing structures". (Florian Keller, liner notes)

..."a genius exercise in the exploration of depth and perception that reveals a bright new wrinkle in the relationship between music and mathematics, reimagining Afro-Haitian Gaga rhythms, Afro-Cuban rumba and Yambú into heavily improvised meditations on modernism that recall John Cage and Paul Bley. Stunning." - Ron Hart, The Observer

www.aruan-ortiz.com