Evan Mazunik: About
I. - Q. & A. for the Curious
Q. Where are you from and where are you now?
A. I was raised on the prairies of Iowa and live in the cityscape of Brooklyn, NY.
Q. What keeps you busy in Brooklyn?
A. I work in the emerging field of urbiculture.
Q. Um, what the deuce is “urbiculture?”
A. Urbiculture is growing creativity in the city.
Q. I bet you need a Ph.D. for this...
A. Imagine farming the soil of concrete and steel for the fruit of art…with fewer fertilizers.
Q. Are tractors involved?
A. I create in a community of adventurous artists, usually in the sonic realm.
Q. So, are you in a band?
A. The projects I list below get my main focus, but I also love to collaborate. Can I get you another cup of coffee?
II. - The Brooklyn Projects
ZAHA is architecture for your imagination. Through every sound, word, color and gesture, ZAHA shapes each performance space into a garden of dreams. Founded in 2006 by artistic director Evan Mazunik, ZAHA generates a repertoire of multidisciplinary work through Soundpainting, the universal sign language for live composition.
Cold Reading Trio creates a shifting palette of sound augmented and multiplied by live layered sampling. Laptop, drums, and accordion dance in a constantly evolving musical dialogue as spoken text, signals, glitches, and found sounds are woven into the spectral texture. Each electro-acoustic environment unfolds in the moment to reveal a sonic territory of fantasy and surprise.
Selinger/Mazunik, winners of the prestigious 2004 Wolfgang Deppen award, were recently disinvited from the Bautzen Festival for "...extreme deviations from the score" (-Die Leipzig Tageszeitung). Their live compositions reconnect classical music to its roots in improvisation. Sitting down at their instruments with a germ of an idea, they instantly whip up first themes, second themes, and wild developments which often modulate on the turn of a century. From Albéniz to Xenakis, various composers inform and inspire this duo.
III. - Teaching bio
Evan Mazunik explores the sonic realm as a performer/composer with passion and imagination. Raised on the prairies of Iowa and currently rooted in Brooklyn, NY, Mazunik plays piano and accordion at venues across NYC such as the Stone, Barbes, Galapagos, and the Knitting Factory.
As a composer, Mazunik fluently speaks Soundpainting, the universal sign language for live composition, and serves as artistic director to ZAHA (a Soundpainting orchestra). As a performer, he has worked with Robin Eubanks, Carla Bley, Francois Jeanneau, the Danielson Famile, and other creative musicians.
Mazunik studied at the University of Iowa where he received both his bachelors degree in piano performance and his masters degree in jazz studies. He continues to work as a sideman and arranger across a broad range of styles, whether classical, jazz, electronic or folk. Evan Mazunik integrates improvisation into his playing, writing, and teaching while remaining a performer/composer dedicated to innovation.
Evan Mazunik is available for private lessons in classical and jazz piano, accordion, composition, theory, ear training, and improvisation for elementary-age to adult students, consulting with each student to develop a set of goals custom-made to fit their individual needs.
347-684-0688 evan@evanmazunik.com
IV. - Appendix: Soundpainting
Soundpainting: (n.) the universal sign language for live composition. Created by New York composer Walter Thompson for musicians, dancers, actors, poets, and visual artists working in the medium of structured improvisation, at present the language comprises over 750 gestures signed by the composer/conductor indicating the type of improvisation desired of the performers. Direction of the composition is gained through the parameters of each set of signed gestures.