From November 11 to 15, acclaimed clarinetist and composer Stuart Bogie will join forces with organist  Buck McDaniel to present “November Variations”, a free series of daily musical improvisations at Church of Our Savior on Park Avenue. Each performance begins at 9 AM, offering a rare, spontaneous collaboration that invites audiences to experience live music as a form of meditation.

This week-long event draws on the essence of Bogie’s recent recording projects, such as Morningside (with James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem) and Patient Music (with Josh Kaufman and Sam Cohen), where improvised rhapsodic clarinet melodies meet improvised ambient drones. For “November Variations,” McDaniel’s organ work provides a dynamic canvas at a huge scale for Bogie’s soulful improvisations, creating a reflective and immersive soundscape amid the hustle of Manhattan mornings.

“The entire sanctuary becomes part of the sound—like being inside the belly of the organ,” says Bogie. “When I play with chordal instruments, I try to immerse myself in their resonance, and here, the audience and I will inhabit that space together.”

Event Details:

• What: November Variations – Free Morning Improvisations
• When: November 11-15, 2024 | 9 AM Daily
• Where: Church of Our Savior, 59 Park Avenue at 38th Street, New York, NY
• Admission: Free (No tickets required), but RSVP Encouraged

The performances are part of a broader tradition of Bogie’s exploration of music as a healing practice. Inspired by his quarantine-era improvised clarinet sessions streamed to friends and followers, November Variations continues Bogie’s commitment to fostering connections through sound.

“From our first improvisation, I knew Buck and I had something special,” adds Bogie. “Performing this music early in the morning five days in a row amidst the noise and chaos of Manhattan, will be a unique meditation on presence and connection.”

About the Artists

Stuart Bogie & Buck McDaniel

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Bogie was born in Evanston, Illinois. He studied for 6 Years with Gary Onstad and at the Music Center of the North Shore before attending Interlochen Art Academy and the University of Michigan where he studied with Debra Chodacki. He is the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant and he composed the score for the Oscar nominated documentary How To Survive a Plague, featuring performances by the Kronos Quartet. He has written for film, television, commercials, and the stage. He has released 9 albums as a leader.

During the pandemic lock-down, Bogie performed a daily series of improvised solo clarinet pieces using the accompaniment drone tracks sent to him by over 50 different collaborators including Arcade Fire, Richard Reed Parry, Colin Stetson, Sam Cohen, Josh Kaufman, Peter Murray, E Dan, Craig Finn, Ryan Sawyer, Dave Harrington, Yuka Honda, and James Murphy. Began in the second week of lock-down, the series ran for over 150 days consecutively and has been collected into four volumes, with more volumes in the works. An LP, Morningside, presenting 2 of the pieces made with James Murphy was released on October 27 on DFA records. This music is featured in a worldwide exhibition of photographs by Gregory Crewsden, and can be heard in the documentary accompanying the exhibit. In July of 2023 Bogie premiered Morningside at Les Recontres d’Arles, live scoring the documentary by Harper Glantz.

Buck McDaniel (b. 1994) is a composer who writes orchestral music, works for the stage, chamber music, and sacred music. Originally from Columbia, Mississippi, his work synthesizes the American Minimalist tradition with the music of his childhood in the Deep South. He has composed music for The Moth Radio Hour, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Zeitgeist, The Kitchen, and others. In 2021, the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn commissioned his work Memory Ground commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. As a conductor, he has worked with recording artists Sam Smith (Saturday Night Live), Sam Amidon (The History of Sound), and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. Recordings of his work have been released by Telarc and Gold Bolus, and he has independently released two records with producer Jacob Kirkwood: Landscape Piece (2020) and Patterns on Dufy (2022).  

For more details and directions to the event, visit the official Eventbrite page: November Variations.

Press Contact:
For media inquiries, please contact:
Name: Fritz Myers
Email: fritz@pastfutrueconsultants.com
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