"STG Presents and Kole Galbraith Welcomes Mixed Resonance, a FREE intersectional, experimental performance at the 2019 Nights at the Neptune: A People's Theatre Joint series on Thursday July 25, 2019.

Mixed Resonance aims to bring together musicians from various backgrounds and ages who challenge the notion of race, sound and performance. For this event, we have invited Cornish and Mills College graduate Zachary James Watkins, the indigenous collective PANNA, and the STG Young Ambassadors to curate the pre-show performance at 7:00 pm.

Cornish and Mills college graduate, Zachary James Watkins is a composer and experimental guitarist based out of Oakland, California. Most widely known for his futurist free-jazz duo, 'Black Spirituals,' Watkins utilizes electric guitar and electronics and challenges the notion of what jazz and afro-based music currently is, and what it can become. Using the electric guitar as an unconventional tone generator, Watkins has designed tuning systems based of the harmonic series that strips the guitar down and creates empty space for both the planned and unplanned aspects of his improvisations to emerge. In addition to his solo and collaborative guitar work, Watkins has written numerous compositions for the Living Earth Ensemble and the Kronos Quartet.

Watkin’s compositions focus on social justice issues and the living quality of acoustics and sounds. All of Watkin’s works, both improvisations and compositions, whether it be acoustics or issues of social justice, keeps these environments in mind, and let’s the present moment take charge and projects a changing trajectory towards the future. To best describe it in Watkin’s own words about Black Spirituals: 'Here we are. Simultaneous Solo, Resonant Black Music.' -Zachary James Watkins, 2018

PANNA is a musical collective started in 2017 by Seattle based indigenous artist Kole Galbraith. PANNA strives to unite indigenous and first-nation artists in both studio and live collaborations with aims to create an artistic space for indigenous artists to share their authentic experience, and also challenge the narrative of indigenous music beyond the scope of just traditional art forms. Through utilizing electronics, magnetic tape and voice, PANNA addresses ancient and contemporary issues of displacement, spirituality and connection to the landscape. For this performance PANNA invites contemporary experimental artists Chloe Alexandra and Ambrosia Bardos to collaborate in studio and live performances that challenge the notion of what it means to be a contemporary indigenous artist beyond a traditional scope. Together the artists have created narratives that reflect on their own and their ancestors’ experiences. This performance at the Neptune Theater is the debut of the second installment of the PANNA collective. It will be the first time these three artists will join each other onstage. This lineup of artists have been working on the second installment of the PANNA series, and plan on releasing their studio collaborations later this year." (Promo Copy)