Modney

Hailed as a “new-music luminary” by The New York Times and “one of today’s most intrepid experimentalists” by Bandcamp Daily, Modney is a composer and violinist working at the nexus of composition, improvisation, and interpretation. For his Big Ears solo debut, Modney presents a set of solo music including “Ascender”, from his recent album Ascending Primes (Pyroclastic Records), “a torrential and stunning record, which sounds like nothing else and serves as a peremptory statement: there is a new school in New York” (Blow Up Magazine – Italy). Modney’s set will also include the world premiere of new music for violin, viola, and distortion pedal that melds Modney’s distinctive improvisational voice with medieval-esque Just Intonation harmonies, modernism, and echoes of the old-school virtuoso violin music and Appalachian fiddle playing of his youth. 

Ascending Primes is a double album of Modney’s compositions for solo, trio, quintet, septet, and undectet pursuing transcendence and ecstatic space. The album, which features acclaimed creative musicians such as Anna Webber, Nate Wooley, Charmaine Lee, Ben LaMar Gay, and Cory Smythe, has been hailed as a “detail-packed endeavor that’s as wondrous as it is demanding (Peter Margasak, Bandcamp Daily).”

Modney is a foremost interpreter of adventurous contemporary music and has cultivated a holistic artistic practice as a violinist, composer, solo improviser, bandleader, writer, and collaborator. Modney’s debut solo record, Engage (New Focus), was lauded by The New York Times as “…a highlight of 2018…one of the most intriguing programs of the year…radical in its execution”. The triple-disc album features music written for Modney by Kate Soper, Eric Wubbels, Taylor Brook, and Sam Pluta alongside groundbreaking interpretations of works by Anthony Braxton and J.S. Bach. The third disc is devoted to Modney’s own solo works “…where [he] pushes the boundaries of his instrument and his body without any kind of treatments, alternate tunings, or editing… powerful testimony to sound-seeking by one of today’s most intrepid experimentalists.” (Bandcamp Daily) Modney’s followup album of quartet compositions in 2022, Near To Each (Carrier Records), featuring Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Cory Smythe (piano), Mariel Roberts (cello), and Modney on violin, was lauded by KLANG as “wonderfully composed… remarkably performed… a quartet that is playing individually and collectively at the height of their powers.” Modney has received awards from The Shifting Foundation and Millay Arts. Modney is the violinist and Executive Director of the composer-performer collective Wet Ink Ensemble, and a member of the International Contemporary Ensemble. www.modney.art