September 2014

Anya Kouchnerov, Violinist
Anya accessed the Lou Harrison Archive, including videotapes, digital files, and books to gain a deeper understanding of Harrison’s life and work. She also completed one of her first compositions and gave an informal recital.

A violin student of Movses Pagossian at UCLA, in her first year Anya organized a three-hour concert of the music of Lou Harrison. She gathered some of the most accomplished faculty members to participate alongside her fellow students. Anya’s love for and dedication to Harrison’s music earned her this invitation. We are pleased to have made the archive available to a serious music student of her generation who will in decades to come likely champion Lou Harrison’s work.

November 2014

Jin Hi Kim and Joseph Celli
Residency featured a komungo performance and music meditation workshop by Jin Hi Kim, and a live recording for Joseph Celli’s on-going radio program “Soundprint: Asia”

Jin Hi Kim is a composer whose teachers included Lou Harrison and John Adams. She is also a virtuoso of komungo, an indigenous Korean musical instrument, which she has introduced into Western contemporary music. Jin Hi Kim has composed for the Kronos Quartet, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and American Composers Orchestra, and performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, and venues throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Joseph Celli is the producer and host of “Soundprint: Asia”, broadcast over station WPKN FM 89.5 from Connecticut. Celli has done extensive work in media, including radio appearances throughout Europe, Asia, South America and the United States. He was executive producer of the “American Music Now!” radio series that was broadcast over National Public Radio in the United States and internationaly. Joseph Celli has also enjoyed a distinguished international career as a musician, composer and intermedia artist.

February 2015

Tim DeLorey, Scientist and Jill Giegerich, Art Professor
“On The Road To Permaculture” An audiovisual presentation of a summer-long journey, visiting permaculture institutions, farms, and intentional communities.

Permaculture is a design science that works in an artful way with the patterns of nature to regenerate ecosystems and create sustainable human habitation. For two months during the summer of 2014, Joshua Tree permaculture designers Tim DeLorey and Jill Giegerich road tripped through the Pacific Northwest expanding their knowledge of permaculture design and use by visiting locations where it is practiced. They often stayed for a number of days at each site, working alongside the community. Jill and Tim gave a presentation about this journey, including slides and insights into the successes and pitfalls of functioning farms. Tim DeLorey is a highly-published scientist and Jill Giegerich is an artist and Professor at U.C. Riverside. Certified Permaculture designers and owners of On Contour Regenerative Designs, they have been involved in this field for the past five years. Jill has been designing and building permaculture systems for her own property while consulting, conducting workshops, teaching and lecturing on drylands permaculture in Joshua Tree. Tim uses his background as a scientist to take an experimental approach to practicing the art of permaculture. His projects have ranged from designing systems for efficient dryland usage to rediscovering nutritional densities of native desert plants used by indigenous peoples of the Mojave Desert region.

April 2015

Thomas Buckner, Baritone
Residency featured Buckner’s performance at Harrison House with Dan Joseph, hammered dulcimer and Big Black, percussion, plus a group improvisation workshop for singers and instrumentalists.

For more than 40 years, baritone Thomas Buckner has dedicated himself to the world of new and improvised music, having performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Edinburgh Festival, and the Biennale Festival of Venice. He has collaborated with a host of new music composers, presenting a repertoire that includes more than 100 compositions, written for or dedicated to him. Featured on over 40 recordings, including six of his own solo albums, Buckner is also active as a concert producer, and has for the past 25 years presented the acclaimed Interpretations series in New York City. Big Black is a walking history of world percussion. He is the musician who successfully brought the sounds of the African Drum into Modern Jazz, performing with giants such as Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Oscar Peterson and Randy Weston. Dan Joseph is a composer/performer based in New York City. As an artist who embraces the musical multiplicity of our time, Dan works simultaneously in a variety of media and contexts, including instrumental chamber music, free improvisation, and various forms of electronica and sound art.

May 2015

Nicholas Holmes leads Greywater Irrigation System Design & Construction Course. A two-part course featuring lecture, discussion, and hands-on implementation of constructing an effective greywater irrigation system. Presented in collaboration with The Nourishing Tree.

Nicholas Holmes, co-founder of The Nourishing Tree and a resident of Joshua Tree, holds degrees in architecture and sustainable development from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, as well as a Permaculture Design Certificate from the Permaculture Research Institute.  His professional background in ecological design and construction made for a highly informative lecture including irrigation systems, drought and water ethics, health and safety, design, installation, use, and maintenance. Part two of the course involved participants putting this knowledge into practice with a hands-on installation of a working greywater system.