What are you looking at?

2009 Events

Feb. 10th, 2009 @ 8:30 P.M.
Karnatic Lab
Eerste Sweelinckstraat 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Tickets - Free

Feb. 17th - 22nd, 2009
SPARK Festival
West Banks Arts Quarter
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tickets - Free

March 7th, 2009 @ 9:00 P.M.
Musicbox Club
Cais do Sodre
Rua Nova de Carvalho
Lisbon, Portugal
Tickets - 8 Euros

2008 Events

Feb. 1st, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
Canterbury House
721 East Huron Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tickets - $10/$5 students

Feb. 2nd, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
(SCENE) Metrospace
110 Charles Street
East Lansing, Michigan
Tickets - $5 at the door

Feb. 3rd, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
Dreamland Theater
26 N. Washington St.
Ypsilanti, Michigan
Tickets - $5 at the door

Feb. 4th, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
ARRAY Studios
60 Atlantic Ave., STE. 218
Toronto, Ontario
Tickets - $5 at the door

Feb. 5th, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
Club SAW
67 Nicholas Street
Ottawa, Ontario
Tickets - $5 at the door

Feb. 13th, 2008 @ 12:30 P.M.
Dartmouth College
Hopkins Center for the Arts
Hanover, New Hampshire
Tickets - Free

Feb. 27th, 2008 @ 8:00 P.M.
Oberlin College
173 West Lorain Street
Oberlin, Ohio
Tickets - Free

Mar. 9th, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
MonkeyTown
58 North 3rd Street
Brooklyn, New York
Tickets - $10 at door

Mar. 20th, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
The Lighthouse
1421 Buchanan Street
Washington D.C.
Tickets - $5 at the door

April 26th, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
CCRMA Concert Series
660 Lomita Drive
Stanford, California
Tickets - Free

April 29th, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
Climate Theater
285 9th Street
San Francisco, California
Tickets - $15/$10

Apr. 30th, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
Gassmann Music Series
University of California
Irvine, California
Tickets - Free

May 24th, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
Artomatic
1200 First Street, NE
Washington, D.C.
Tickets - Free

May 31st, 2008 @ 8 P.M.
Heaven Gallery
1550 North Milwaukee
Chicago, Illinois
Tickets - $4

Aug. 23rd, 2008 @ 8:30 P.M.
The Red Room
425 East 31st Street
Baltimore, Maryland
Tickets - $6

Aug. 29th, 2008 @ 7:00 P.M.
Sonic Arts Research Centre
Queen's University
Belfast, Ireland
Tickets - 6 Pounds

MISSION STATEMENT

What are you looking at? is the fusion of saxophone, film and electronic media into an evening length multimedia event. This interdisciplinary performance project has teamed together a collective of forward thinking composers and visual artists from the United States and abroad. Through the combination of new technology with contemporary classical and free improvisational forms, this event continues to challenge and excite a wide variety of audiences. Through constant travel and performance I have presented this music in cities throughout the US and abroad including New York City, Belfast, Ann Arbor, Chicago, Greensboro, San Francisco, Atlanta, Baltimore, Cambridge, Charlottesville and New Orleans among many others. What are you looking at? is yielding a new body of music and film that will continue to grow and gain recognition as performance opportunities arise.

Live video stills from a performance of What are you looking at?

ABOUT THE PERFORMER

Amsterdam-based saxophonist and improviser Michael Straus is responsible for the premieres of over forty works ranging from large chamber pieces to solo compositions incorporating multi-channel audio and film projection. He regularly collaborates with composers, visual artists, turntablist, conductors, dancers and other instrumentalist around the world. Through these collaborations, he has been featured recitalist at music festivals internationally with performances at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's 8 Days in June Festival, Ireland's Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music, Italy's Festival Internazionale del Sassofono, the International Computer Music Conference in New Orleans and U.K.'s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. Upcoming performances this winter and spring include solo and chamber music appearances in Portugal, Amsterdam, New York City, Paris, Berlin and Minneapolis.

In 2006 Michael founded What are you looking at?, a multimedia performance project aimed at the creation of new works for saxophone, electronics and video. The first in a series of multiple commissions resulted in a sudden change in the consistency of snow by Oberlin faculty member Peter V. Swendsen. Michael has performed this piece over twenty times in bars, clubs, art galleries and concert halls throughout the United States and Canada. His studio recording of this work has been screened internationally at film festivals and conferences in Norway, Australia and Boston. Other works in this project include new collaborations with composers Matthew Burtner, Vitor Rua, Per Bloland, Ted Coffey, Gregory Cornelius, J. Anthony Allen and video artists Scott Draves, Mike Houston and Arie Stavchansky.

He is currently saxophonist with Rare Degree, a hybrid chamber music trio with bassoonist Dana Jessen and turntablist Erik Spangler. Recent engagements with Rare Degree include shows at Chicago's Heaven Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.'s Artomatic Festival, East Lansing's (SCENE) Metrospace, Boston's Lilypad and Ann Arbor's Canterbury House Concert Series. In April of 2007 the trio presented a workshop and concert of contemporary chamber music with students from New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce College.

Michael's acoustic chamber music efforts lie in the American saxophone quartet quux. With fellow members Dale Underwood, Sheri Oyan and Ed Fraedrich, quux recently performed at the International Navy Band Symposium and served as ensemble in residence at Northwestern State University. During the summer of 2009, quux will present the premieres of two new saxophone quartets by David Heuser and Lei Liang on an East Coast tour culminating in a performance at New York City's St. Peter's Church.

Highlights from the 2007 - 2008 concert season included solo shows at Stanford University's CCRMA, Dartmouth College, the University of California - Irvine, Charlottesville's Technosonics Festival VII, Toronto's ARRAY Studios and Ottawa's Club SAW. Michael also performed at John Zorn's New York City club The Stone and Brooklyn's Monkeytown with the newly minted Matthew Burtner & Friends. In February of 2008 he served as guest artist at Oberlin College performing a solo show and presenting a lecture/workshop with students from the TIMARA program. Rounding out the season, Michael made his San Francisco debut at the Climate Theater in late April, splitting the bill with innovative glitch-pop band 45isdistance.

Michael is an Enrico Di Giovanni Scholarship Recipient and winner of several other accolades including two Helen Gold and Derryl Haymon Scholarships and a Peabody Career Development Grant. His recordings can be heard on SEAMUS, New Tertian and The Walter's Art Museum record labels.

As a recent winner of the J. William Fulbright Fellowship, Michael is spending 2008 - 2009 living in Amsterdam studying with the Dutch saxophonist Ties Mellema. He holds Master's degrees in saxophone performance and computer music from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor's degree in saxophone performance from Louisiana State University. His teachers have included Ed Fraedrich, Gary Louie, Griffin Campbell, Brian McWhorter and McGregor Boyle.