PERFORMANCE
down.stream: David Smooke, toy piano and looping pedal, 2014 (excerpt)
“Much improvised music falls in the “noodle; build to a feverish pitch, repeat until audience succumbs” school. But the focus and disciplined imagination of the League players made this a nuanced and fascinating musical conversation.”
—Stephen Brooks, The Washington Post
David Smooke improvises on toy piano and other instruments with the support of Schoenhut toy pianos. He has been featured at venues including the DiMenna Center for the Performing Arts (New York), the Red Room, the Windup Space, and the 2640 Space (Baltimore), the Highwire Gallery (Philadelphia), and the Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), and on festivals and series including the UnCaged Toy Piano, Music on the Edge, the Philadelphia Salon, and the Out of Your Head Collective. He has been fortunate to concertize with such luminaries as bassist Michael Formanek, percussionist Tim Feeney, vocalist Ken Ueno, pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn, violinist Courtney Orlando, turntabulist Erik Spangler, clarinetist John Dierker, soprano Bonnie Lander, and trumpeter Dave Ballou.
David Smooke with the Peabody Wind Ensemble
LotUS Improvisation (Smooke and Feeney)
