In 1963 composer-performers Philip Corner, Malcolm Goldstein, and James Tenney founded Tone Roads, an ensemble and concert series that took as its starting point American experimentalist masters such as Ives, Ruggles, Cowell, and Varèse, and extended to contemporary figures such as Cage, Feldman, Earle Brown, Messiaen, and Webern, as well as the ensemble’s members.

Following our presentation of EXTRADITION PLAYS CORNER in 2023 and EXTRADITION PLAYS GOLDSTEIN in 2024–25, we will complete our tribute to these three great masters of the American experimental tradition by presenting EXTRADITION PLAYS TENNEY, with concerts on January 24 and February 21, 2026.

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CONCERT #1: Saturday, January 24, 2026

Harmonium #2 (1977): Daniel Reyes Llinás & Kevin Lay (guitars)

Cellogram (1971): Collin Oldham (cello)

Beast (1971): Shao Way Wu (double bass)

Having Never Written a Note for Percussion (1971): Matt Hannafin (tam-tam)

Improvisation (1956): Collin Oldham (cello)

To Weave (a Meditation) (2003): Matt Carlson (piano)

For Percussion Perhaps, Or . . . (night) (1971): Matt Hannafin (percussion), Juniana Lanning (electronics), Anthony Stillabower (electronics), Gilly Hanner (guitar), Ali Ippolito (accordion)

CONCERT #2: Saturday, February 21, 2026

Timbre Ring (1971): Stephanie Lavon Trotter (voice), Annie Gilbert (voice, trombone), Anthony Stillabower (voice), Ben Cohen-Chen (sax), Collin Oldham (cello), Shao Way Wu (bass)

Swell Piece (1967): Collin Oldham (cello), Shao Way Wu (bass), Ben Cohen-Chen (sax), Annie Gilbert (trombone), Andy Rayborn (alto clarinet)

Swell Piece 2 (1971): Gilly Hanner (guitar), Juniana Lanning (electronics), Maxx Katz (flute), Stephanie Lavon Trotter (voice), Matt Hannafin (bowed vibraphone)

Swell Piece 3 (1971): Collin Oldham (cello), Shao Way Wu (bass), Annie Gilbert (trombone), Ben Cohen-Chen (sax), Gilly Hanner (guitar), Juniana Lanning (electronics), Maxx Katz (flute), Stephanie Lavon Trotter (voice), Anthony Stillabower (voice), Matt Hannafin (bowed vibraphone), Andy Rayborn (bass clarinet)

Saxony (1978): Patrick McCulley (saxophones) & Juniana Lanning (tape delay system)

Both concerts at Leaven Community, 5431 NE 20th Ave, Portland, OR 97211

Doors 7pm, music 7:30pm

About James Tenney

James Tenney (1934–2006) was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado, where he received his early training as a pianist and composer. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School of Music, Bennington College (B.A. 1958), and the University of Illinois (M.A. 1961). His teachers and mentors included Eduard Steuermann, Chou Wen-Chung, Lionel Nowak, Carl Ruggles, Lejaren Hiller, Kenneth Gaburo, Edgard Varèse, Harry Partch, and John Cage. A performer as well as a composer and theorist, he was co-founder and conductor of the Tone Roads Chamber Ensemble in New York City (1963-70). He was a pioneer in the field of electronic and computer music, working with Max Mathews and others at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in the early 1960s to develop programs for computer sound-generation and composition. He wrote works for a variety of media, both instrumental and electronic, many of them using alternative tuning systems. He was the author of several articles on musical acoustics, computer music, and musical form and perception, as well as two books: META + HODOS: A Phenomenology of 20th-Century Musical Materials and an Approach to the Study of Form (1961; Frog Peak, 1988) and A History of ‘Consonance’ and ‘Dissonance’ (Excelsior, 1988). A teacher since 1966, he was Distinguished Research Professor at York University (Toronto), where he taught for twenty-four years, and last held the Roy E. Disney Family Chair in Musical Composition at the California Institute of the Arts. His music is published and distributed by Sonic Art Editions (Baltimore), Frog Peak (Lebanon, New Hampshire), and the Canadian Music Centre, and has been recorded on the Artifact, col legno, CRI, Hat[now]ART, Koch International, Mode, Musicworks, New World, Nexus, oodiscs, Soundprints, SYR, and Toshiba EMI labels.

For additional information, please visit the James Tenney Estate