Terry Riley to headline Knoxville's Big Ears

Big Ears 2010 - March 25, 26, 27

So, this is kinda old news.......like 2 and a half weeks old......but Knoxville avant garde music fest Big Ears has announced that experimental composer TERRY RILEY, who has been produding acclaimed minimalist compositions since the '60s, will be the Artist in Residence for it's second annual event in 2010. Ummmmm.....rad???

from the Big Ears website:
"Riley will perform several concerts during the weekend, in a variety of configurations and settings. In addition, there will be performances of several string quartets by the acclaimed Calder Quartet. Big Ears also plans to host a performance of In C with many of the other musicians performing at this year's festival."

For those unfamiliar with Big Ears, it started by promoter Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment (AKA the man behind Bonnaroo). Dude has the business sense enough to know that booking acts like Bruce Springsteen, Phish, Tool, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, etc. will bring in the cheddar at Bonnaroo, but fortunately for the experimental music lovers, he also has the disposable income and the impeccable taste to book acts like Neil Hamburger, Fennesz, Michael Gira, Negativland, Philip Glass, Dan Deacon and Pauline Oliveros, all of whom performed at Big Ears '09. I've read some interviews in which Capps explained that his taste in music has always leant toward the avant garde/underground, and he finally found himself in a position to book a festival of the bands he really loves, despite the commercial viability of such a line-up.

The 3-day, multi-venue fest was small and manageable last year, with the biggest venue I went to, The Bijou Theatre (where Philip Glass and Michael Gira performed), holding less than 800. Venues included nightclubs, coffeeshops and art spaces, and were highly navigable, for the most part. There were a few first-year kinks, to be sure, but overall it was really well executed. I kinda feel like I owe a lot to this fest - not only did I witness one of the most stunning performances I've ever seen (Philip Glass and Wendy Sutter, OMG), but seeds for Boomslang, the WRFL festival I helped curate this past October, were definitely planted that weekend.

Big kudos to Big Ears - I look forward to the rest of the line-up and details, and I highly recommend trying to make it if it sounds at all like your bag of tea. (Last year they had tickets for individual shows available, as well as various weekend pass options.)