Same Face!
Owen Weaver
David Cossin

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ABOUT The Composer :

Florent Ghys is a multimedia artist and double bass performer playing with moving images and music. He composes with notated music and videos and performs on the double bass. Florent is fascinated by the use of recorded media to create audiovisual pieces, integrating samples from radio, TV shows, weather forecasts, and other field recordings into his compositions. Central to Florent Ghys' work is the incorporation of playfulness in the creative process, the focus of his doctoral research at Princeton, where he developed the “Ghys Entertainment System,” a digital environment which enables the real-time creation of audiovisual works. Ghys’ whimsical creative approach infuses his works with humor, absurdity, and a sense of incongruity. His creations consist of short forms and accumulative miniatures often designed to compel the analytical mind into a state of contemplative surrender. Florent’s music is centered around his instrument, the double bass, and his dream of creating an “alto bass”, an imaginary instrument which would fill the gap between the orchestral bass and the violoncello.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

Percussionist Owen Weaver’s “intensely focused” (Gramophone) performances combine the forces of rhythm, noise and quiet in search of the musical potential in everyday life. He uses recycled objects, homemade instruments and electronic sounds to construct a kaleidoscopic sound world with original music, improvisation and collaboration with today’s leading and emerging composers. He has performed in Europe, South America, Asia and throughout the U.S. with Mantra Percussion, Glenn Branca Ensemble, NEWSPEAK, and others including Conspirare: A Company of Voices for a PBS television special and Grammy-nominated album. A passionate educator, Owen has taught at Yale, Cornell, CalArts, the University of California at Berkeley, Rikers Island Correctional Facility, and New York public schools. Owen is based near Bergen, Norway where he is a member of one of Scandinavia’s leading contemporary music ensembles, BIT20 Ensemble. In 2018 he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Hartt School.

David Cossin was born and raised in Queens, NY, and studied classical percussion at the Manhattan School of Music. His interest in classical percussion, drum set, non-western hand drumming, composition, and improvisation has led to performances across a broad spectrum of musical and artistic forms. David has recorded and performed internationally with Steve Reich and Musicians, Philip Glass, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, Tan Dun, Cecil Taylor, Talujon Percussion Quartet, and the trio Real Quiet, as well as with Sting on his Symphonicity world tour. Theater work includes Blue Man Group, Mabou Mines, and projects with the director Peter Sellars. David was featured as the solo percussionist in Tan Dun’s award-winning score to the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. As a soloist, he has performed with orchestras throughout the world including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra Radio France, and more. His sonic installations have been presented in New York, Italy and Germany, and he is also an active producer, composer, and instrument inventor, expanding the limits of traditional percussion. David teaches percussion at the Aaron Copland School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program.