The Ellen Rowe Octet, or Momentum Octet, at the Amazonas Green Jazz Festival. Featuring Allison Miller, Ellen Rowe, Felipe Salles, Kaleigh Wilder, Marion Hayden, Nadje Noordhuis, Sara Jacovino, and Virginia Mayhew.

“On ‘Momentum - Portraits of Women In Music’ Ellen has put together a program of original music rendered by eight amazing women jazz musicians and written for women—specifically to honor those female trailblazers in various fields that have inspired her, including jazz, politics, social justice, environmental advocacy, and sports.”

Tickets here

“A Tribute to Detroit Jazz Giants”

Schedule here

“Kaleigh Wilder and Ben Hall are engaged in a process of diasporic excavation. The central preoccupations of this process is understanding what languages have been lost/erased and how reconstituting pieces of these languages, collapsing them, in the present tense re-places ancestral understanding. For their performance as part of Option at Experimental Sound Studio wilder/hall will be using Arthur Jafa's concept of material expressivity and how there was an inability to bring over sculpture and painting and icons, ‘but we could carry songs.  That's our nervous system.’”

A map is a place which we all operate within, but it is only part of the narrative. The bulk of the story is stored somewhere invisible to us but within us. Oral tradition and bodily remembrance keep the ever-evolving story alive. The story we hold in us is unafraid of what cuts the map makes next…

Musicians Kaleigh Wilder, Ben Hall, Jaribu Shahid, and dancer Alexandria Davis will explore Afro-diasporic narratives that traverse oceans and endure attempts at erasure. Using rhythm, movement, timbre, melody, and cacophony, The Story Cuts Across What the Map Cuts Up celebrates what could not be subjugated or relegated to the margins. A continuous performance of original compositions, improvisations, and movement invites the audience to imagine not the physical map, but the stories that connect and produce our futures.

The Ellen Rowe Octet featuring Allison Miller, Ingrid Jensen, Kaleigh Wilder, Lisa Parrott, Marion Hayden, Melissa Gardner, and Virginia Mayhew.

“On ‘Momentum - Portraits of Women In Music’ Ellen has put together a program of original music rendered by eight amazing women jazz musicians and written for women—specifically to honor those female trailblazers in various fields that have inspired her, including jazz, politics, social justice, environmental advocacy, and sports.”

Set, a series of improvisational performances including music, movement, and spoken word that directly respond to the exhibition James Benjamin Franklin: Full Circle. An energetic call and response across media, each performance explores the languages of continuous discovery through abstraction and improvisation.  Located within Larson gallery among the artworks, audiences will be immersed in a visual and auditory expression of joy, color, and introspection.

The duo wilder/hall is a project of Kaleigh Wilder on baritone saxophone and Ben Hall, percussionist. RSVP for this Set performance using the form.

Join us for an experimental eco-therapy walk and meditation on sand, breath, loss, and imagination. Explore sand as a cultural force, as a source of magic and dreams, as a resource that is mined, and as a bridge between the singular and the infinite.

This event will include a walk within the sandy glacial outwash of Island Lake Recreational Area accompanied by a playful act of improvising facilitated by the A.W.E. Society, with the wind and sand sonically scored by musician Kaleigh Wilder. The walk and activity will take place on the dunes around the pond, and a safe distance will be maintained from the “reclamation area.”

Bishop/Hannaford Dectet performs works by Anthony Braxton.
An ensemble led by distinguished performing faculty from the UM Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Andrew Bishop and Marc Hannaford.

Natural Peals is an evening dedicated to the long standing history of 1515 Broadway — facilitating creative expression. We are holding space with artists who wish to experiment and explore sounds in an unconventional small room setting.

We believe that intimate public performance is a critical stage of artistic development and opens the opportunity for us all to build deeper connections through sound.

Exploration, improvisation, imagination.

wilder/hall return to Wilder’s alma mater to perform at the annual saxophone conference every September: Saxtemberfest. A performance by this duo of entirely freely improvised material will be preceded by a masterclass for the classical saxophone studio.

In this edition of Passing the Torch, master bassist, and U-M professor, Marion Hayden will perform with the talented rising saxophonist on the Detroit jazz scene, Kaleigh Wilder. Also featuring Michael Malis and Nova Zaii, the quartet will perform original compositions in addition to compositions by Geri Allen, Jaribu Shahid/Griot Galaxy, and Thelonious Monk.

Under Kris Johnson’s direction, the Paradise Jazz Series Big Band will play compositions and arrangements by Johnson, Terence Blanchard, and Kurt Elling. Special guests Terence Blanchard and Kurt Elling join the band during the second half of the performance.

The Ellen Rowe Octet featuring Kaleigh Wilder, Lisa Parrott, Marion Hayden, Melissa Gardner, Tanya Darby, Tina Raymond, and Virginia Mayhew.

“On ‘Momentum - Portraits of Women In Music’ Ellen has put together a program of original music rendered by eight amazing women jazz musicians and written for women—specifically to honor those female trailblazers in various fields that have inspired her, including jazz, politics, social justice, environmental advocacy, and sports.”

Natural Peals is an evening dedicated to the long standing history of 1515 Broadway — facilitating creative expression. We are holding space with artists who wish to experiment and explore sounds in an unconventional small room setting.

We believe that intimate public performance is a critical stage of artistic development and opens the opportunity for us all to build deeper connections through sound.

Exploration, improvisation, imagination.

Ngoromera is a Shona word that means ‘to fight ‘or ‘struggle’ and is part of the UMMA (University of Michigan Museum of Art) collection . The work comes out of a fascination with the idea of how struggle can be both a depleting and beautiful process. The sculptural work explores an attenuated militant aesthetic using objects such as spears trumpets and bugles altering and modifying them to produce new sounds. Intentionally making them harder to play. The activation of the sculpture follows an interest in the beautifully awkward and uncanny results that can come out of a struggle. Ngoromera was activated at UMMA together with Kaleigh Wilder, Everett Reid.

The Ellen Rowe Octet featuring Allison Miller, Ingrid Jensen, Kaleigh Wilder, Lisa Parrott, Marion Hayden, Melissa Gardner, and Virginia Mayhew.

“On ‘Momentum - Portraits of Women In Music’ Ellen has put together a program of original music rendered by eight amazing women jazz musicians and written for women—specifically to honor those female trailblazers in various fields that have inspired her, including jazz, politics, social justice, environmental advocacy, and sports.”

The Ellen Rowe Octet featuring Allison Miller, Ingrid Jensen, Kaleigh Wilder, Lisa Parrott, Marion Hayden, Melissa Gardner, Virginia Mayhew.

“On "Momentum - Portraits of Women In Music" Ellen has put together a program of original music rendered by eight amazing women jazz musicians and written for women—specifically to honor those female trailblazers in various fields that have inspired her, including jazz, politics, social justice, environmental advocacy, and sports.”

The Ellen Rowe Octet featuring Allison Miller, Ingrid Jensen, Kaleigh Wilder, Lisa Parrott, Marion Hayden, Melissa Gardner, Tia Fuller, Virginia Mayhew, and special guest Regina Carter.

“On ‘Momentum - Portraits of Women In Music’ Ellen has put together a program of original music rendered by eight amazing women jazz musicians and written for women—specifically to honor those female trailblazers in various fields that have inspired her, including jazz, politics, social justice, environmental advocacy, and sports.”

Master Bassist Marion Hayden and up-and-coming saxophonist Kaleigh Wilder collaborate to create a program of original music and open ended improvisations by composers Anthony Braxton, Julius Hemphill, and more. Featuring Hayden, Wilder, Michael Malis and Nova Zaii.

Hayden and Wilder will also host a pre-concert conversation/masterclass at 5:30pm that is free and open to the public to shed light on their respective careers, and discuss the deep significance of intergenerational relationships in music.

The Ellen Rowe Octet featuring Jennifer Krupa, Kaleigh Wilder, Lisa Parrott, Marion Hayden, Shirazette Tinnin, Tanya Darby, and Virginia Mayhew.

“On ‘Momentum - Portraits of Women In Music’ Ellen has put together a program of original music rendered by eight amazing women jazz musicians and written for women—specifically to honor those female trailblazers in various fields that have inspired her, including jazz, politics, social justice, environmental advocacy, and sports.”

Kaleigh Wilder Duo with Nova Zaii featuring Wilder’s compositions and a mix of freely improvised pieces.