Braxton75: The Music of Anthony Braxton

The Tri-Centric Foundation is excited to announce Braxton75: The Music of Anthony Braxton - a new initiative building up to Anthony Braxton’s 75th birthday celebration in June 2020. Braxton75 fuses three of Tri-Centric’s key goals: supporting live performance of Braxton’s work, publishing and distributing the compositions, and offering pedagogical services to both the professional and lay music community to nurture the next generations of artists and audiences interested in these creative practices.

Over the past five years, Tri-Centric has made tremendous progress cataloging and preparing his massive body of compositions, which has been key for developing fresh pedagogical techniques necessary to workshop both professional and student ensembles in Braxton’s unique musical approach and performance practice. Braxton’s music system demands that it be constantly evolving, responding to the unique imprint of each musician and ensemble that approaches it.

The Braxton75 project will activate this living archive, inviting select ensembles, musicians and educators, both in the U.S. and abroad, to engage with Braxton’s musical systems, compositions, and creative philosophy. Tri-Centric will collaborate with the partners, handpick suitable repertoire and will offer tailored workshops and instruction on performance practice, with the expectation that the ensembles will begin incorporating the music into their performances.

At the close of this multi-year project, Tri-Centric hopes to be at the next stage of its evolution, with Braxton’s compositional archive more accessible than ever including newly available scores, critical writings and recordings available for performers and scholars. Tri-Centric also aims to establish pedagogical standards for teaching and performing the works of Anthony Braxton, an iconoclastic American composer existing between the boundaries of jazz and classical, improvised and composed, the oral and written traditions while maintaining a firm foothold in the repertoire of contemporary American music.

Braxton75 is funded in part by the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation and the GRAMMY Museum®.