1963
This historic archival event, recorded on August 26, 1963, captures Max Neuhaus's solo and ensemble performance during an evening titled "A Concert of New Music" at New York's Pocket Theatre. Organized by avant-garde choreographer James Waring, the event was a major benefit for the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts (now the Foundation for Contemporary Arts). It served as a crucial meeting point between Neuhaus and the radical Fluxus network and the circles of the Judson Dance Theater. The repertoire and the historic recording. Neuhaus gave an acclaimed solo interpretation of American composer Joseph Byrd's "Water Music," using acoustic percussion as opposed to magnetic tape. Switching to marimba, Neuhaus joined an elite and historic ensemble composed of Malcolm Goldstein (violin), Arthur Layzer (clarinet), and La Monte Young (saxophone), conducted by Philip Corner. Together, they performed the rare microtonal textures of Joseph Byrd's Densities II. The high-fidelity audio tape recorded throughout the theater that evening was preserved and officially broadcast to the public on October 10, 1963, via New York's radical, listener-funded radio station, WBAI. The broader cultural context: This specific concert on August 26 is highly regarded by contemporary art historians for its proximity to another monumental event. Just one day later, on August 27, 1963, Neuhaus capitalized on the momentum of the Pocket Theatre benefit concert to stage his groundbreaking public performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Zyklus at Judson Hall, opened by Charlotte Moorman. The rare, preserved WBAI audio files from 1963 of the Pocket Theatre are considered the definitive aural evidence of Neuhaus's transition from a standard classical musician to a performer of open-form conceptual art.