Things and Words with Travis Just

Things and Words: working with uncommon stuff in a musical way and with musical stuff in an uncommon way. Patterns, material, attitude. After James Tenney, Sun Ra, and Black Flag. Also: work on archives.

Travis Just’s work often uses text, objects, and gesture in addition to instruments, voice, and electronics. He founded Brooklyn-based performance group Object Collection in 2004 with writer/director Kara Feely, with whom he is co-director of the ensemble.

His music has been presented around the world at La MaMa, Performance Space 122, Roulette, The Stone, Issue Project Room, NYC; Borealis Festival/Bergen National Opera, Norway; SPOR Festival, Denmark; Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Cafe OTO, UK; among others. He has composed five operas: Problem Radical(s) (2009), Innova (2011) and NO HOTEL (2013), cheap&easy OCTOBER (2015), It’s All True (2016), and You Are Under Our Space Control (2019). His newest project with Object Collection is Look Out Shithead (2020-2022), a series of films and theatrical productions based on filmmaker “Éric Rohmer Comédies et Proverbes” film cycle.

His writings on music and art have appeared in John Zorn’s Arcana series, MusikTexte, the journal Tempo (Cambridge, UK), and the Experimental Music Yearbook. 

His work has received support from the MAP Fund, New York State Council for the Arts, Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the Phaedrus Foundation. 

His work has been profiled in Frieze, The Wire, Pitchfork, The Guardian as well as reviews in numerous national and international outlets including The New York Times, New York Magazine, BBC Radio, The Independent, The Spectator, The Mirror, and the Canadian Broadcasting Company.

Travis received a BFA (composition/performance) in 1999 from the Mannes College of Music/New School University while studying with Andrew Cyrille. In 2002 he received an MFA (composition/performance) from California Institute of the Arts and studied with James Tenney, Wadada Leo Smith and Michael Pisaro. Travis was a 2003 DAAD Scholar at the Hochschule für Musik, Köln and studied composition there with Johannes Fritsch. He has been a guest artist at Kenyon College, Wesleyan University, Brooklyn College, ‘Ca Foscari University of Venice, and a Danish International Visiting Artist (Copenhagen and Aarhus). 

Travis founded and was the Music Curator at Incubator Arts Project in St. Mark’s Church in the East Village, NY from 2008-2013. Travis is also active as an improviser, performing regularly with musicians in New York and abroad. Since 2020, Travis is Assistant Artistic Director of The Brick in Williamsburg Brooklyn.

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Bookings

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• Course

4. March 2024 - 5. May 2024, 18:00

Interdisciplinary Audio Production: Sound in Context

This course teaches you the main specializations in the industry in one intensive education: You will get a great hands-on preparation to do audio production work for picture (film/video), radio and podcast, theater, performance, live concert stage sound, as well as understand the professional recording studio workflow. A pro seminar on audio mastering completes the course. At the end you can present your work at the legendary Acud Macht Neu Club.

• Performance
• Workshop

22. April 2024 - 15. June 2024

Sonic Borderlines Listening Series

(sponsored by Initiative Neue Musik) How Do the Smallest Units of Sound Relate…? In the case of music from differing cultures, approaches and disciplines playing together, how can musicians use underlying metaphors to bring fundamental differences of technique and sound into meaningful aesthetic relationships with one another? Furthermore, what technical studies and (if applicable) new notational approaches for melody, rhythm, timbre, and interaction derived from these metaphors can best facilitate this goal?

• Course
• Workshop

6. May 2024 - 30. June 2024, 15:00

Modular Synthesis for Live Performance and Sound Design

This course teaches you the main basics and also covers advanced settings for live performance considerations in a setup specifically based on modular synthesizers! You will develop your own musical aesthetics, performance or production setup and dive deep into your own life performance workflow. At the end you can present your work at the legendary Acud Macht Neu Club!

• Course
• Workshop

24. June 2024 - 2. August 2024, 18:00

Generative Music Production in Max and Max-for-Live

Explore the limitless possibilities of generative music production using the dynamic duo of Max and Max-for-Live! This course is designed for artists, musicians, producers, and sound enthusiasts looking to push the boundaries of creativity and harness the potential of generative musical techniques in their art.