Wild Up: In the Wild

Composer-performers from the GRAMMY-nominated orchestral collective Wild Up present new works and live experiments at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Featuring performances from Max Jaffe, Marlon Martinez, Patrick Shiroishi, Andrew Tholl, Darian Donovan Thomas, and M.A. Tiesenga.

Set Times

2:00p Patrick Shiroishi

3:00p M.A. Tiesenga w. Marlon Martinez & Max Jaffe

4:00p Andrew Tholl

5:00p Darian Donovan Thomas

6:00p Max Jaffe

Patrick Shiroishi

Patrick Shiroishi is a Japanese-American multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Los Angeles best known for his extensive and incredibly intense work with the saxophone. He has presented work and performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the International Museum of Surgical Sciences. His solo albums like Hidemi and Descension narrate family histories through multilayered compositions, field recordings, and improvisational saxophone.

M.A. Tiesenga

M.A. Tiesenga is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice delves into the intricate interplay of procedure and enaction within collaborative performance contexts, deftly shaping these dynamics through various idioms. Inspired by an affinity for the outdoors, Tiesenga draws analogies between these concepts and the art of cartography, illuminating the parallels between a map and a musical score. This exploration opens doors to musically navigate, inhabit, and realize theoretical terrains.

Marlon Martinez

A virtuoso bassist and composer emerging at the center of the resurgent Los Angeles jazz scene, Martinez has toured with a wide range of artists, from rock icon Stewart Copeland to classical trailblazers Quatuor Ebène. Marlon is the protégé of Stanley Clarke and studied with legendary jazz bassist Ron Carter in New York City. He is the Artistic Director, composer and bassist of his big band, Marlonius Jazz Orchestra.

Max Jaffe

Since its release at the end of 2025, Max Jaffe’s ‘𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙒𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙏𝙤𝙤!’ (Colorfield Records) has been quickly establishing a fervent following. His sold-out release show in Los Angeles affirmed what the “gleefully destabilizing” (Pitchfork) music on the record suggests. Modulated for solo performance with Sensory Percussion electronics utilized to full effect, Jaffe presents a unique reimagining of his own kaleidoscopic vision.

Andrew Tholl

Composer/performer Andrew Tholl presents a solo set of new work for violin and electronics. Moving between composed structures and improvisation, he places the violin in shifting contexts—sometimes exposed and acoustic, sometimes obscured, multiplied, or reframed. Ambient textures, glitch-inflected gestures, and fields of noise intersect with sustained resonances and converging layers, as form emerges through contrast and gradual transformation.

Darian Donovan Thomas

Composer, multi-instrumentalist, and interdisciplinary artist Darian Donovan Thomas was born in San Antonio, Texas and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. He is interested in combining genres and mediums into a singular vocabulary that can express ideas about intersectionality (of medium and identity). Necessarily, he is interested in redacting all barriers to entry that have existed at the gates of any genre – this vocabulary of multiplicity will be intersectional, and therefore all-inclusive.