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Open Music is an ensemble presenting works by composers of the 20th and 21st centuries, improvised and original music, adaptions of theatrical pieces, and multimedia collaborations.

Founded in 2014 by percussionist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Sims, Open Music is a project that continues the 20th century’s many strands of everyday avant-garde art making. These strands include poet Federico García Lorca’s La Barraca theater company, painter and writer Asger Jorn’s collective art endeavors, the text scores of Pauline Oliveros, the graphic scores of Christian Wolff, the early years of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the mid-1960’s work of Sun Ra and his Solar/Astro-Infinity Arkestra, and Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra. All of these artists saw the importance in not only experimenting with the materials of art, but also with the ways we get together to make it.

The ensemble’s origins go back to a 2012 concert to celebrate John Cage’s 100th birthday at Webster’s Bookstore Cafe in State College, PA. Building on that concert’s success, Open Music became a regular series in 2014 and has continued to present high-quality, adventurous, and thought-provoking concert in venues throughout central Pennsylvania ever since. In addition to original and improvised works, Open Music has performed works by John Cage, Pamela Z, Peter Ablinger, Harriet Rosenberg, Fritz Hauser, Samuel Beckett, Mulatu Astatke, Miles Davis, Leah Asher, Scott Wollschleger, Bertolt Brecht, 75 Dollar Bill, Joshua Abrams, María Irene Fornés, and more.