Date Night with Spontaneous Music

Description

Enjoy a beverage from our concession stand while experiencing skilled local artists sharing their work in the intimate UIS Studio Theatre. These short events will leave you with time for dinner afterwards to make for a great date night!

Freedom Therapy Trio formed on campus at UIS shortly after free jazz drummer and percussionist Richard Gilman-Opalsky began playing with classical and improvising guitarist Adam Larison. The two were joined shortly thereafter by jazz saxophonist Brian Stark. Freedom Therapy Trio takes listeners on a journey of instantaneous composition, traversing sonic terrains from textural, minimalistic sound paintings through fleeting passages of swinging jazz to the outermost limits of ecstatic collective improvisation. 
 
Bios:

Gilman-Opalsky has played drums in various groups for over 30 years, cutting his teeth in the avant-garde jazz, underground, and experimental music scenes of New York City from 1997-2006. He has recorded with Blaise Siwula, Katsuyuki Itakura, Ben Kates, and John Gruntfest, among others. He is a founding member of End Times Trio, the longest-running improvising jazz ensemble in central Illinois (active for 16 years). (bios continue...)
 
Larison has played and taught across the U.S. and is committed to exploring improvisation in his current musical practice. His work has been funded by grants from Arts Midwest, the Ohio Arts Council, and Arts in Stark. Adam has performed in concert halls, on radio and on television across the U.S. and abroad, including Carnegie Hall, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Tignes Space (Tignes, France), and many others. 
 
Stark is an active saxophonist, composer/arranger, and educator in Central Illinois and has shared the stage with prominent jazz musicians Larry Gray, Brad Leali, Sean Jones, Bob Ojeda, Tito Carrillo, Danilo Pérez, and Stefon Harris, among others. His compositions have been recognized by the Ithaca Jazz Ensemble Composition Contest, the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers, and the Source Song Festival.