Wooden Cities is both an ensemble and a collective of performers and composers seeking to help increase the performance and awareness of contemporary music in the Western New York area through unique concerts and educational presentations. Formed by director Brendan Fitzgerald in 2011 as a structured improv orchestra, the ensemble has since garnered a reputation for their dynamic performances of both improvised and notated works of new and experimental music from a wide variety of composers. In 2019, Wooden Cities released its first album, WORK, which features works by Cornelius Cardew, Julius Eastman, and Frederic Rzewski. The following year saw the release of the eponymous documentary about the album, made by the Buffalo Documentary Project. In 2023, the ensemble released a followup, PLAY, featuring dynamic graphic score realizations and absurdist sound poetry.
Wooden Cities has spent the last twelve years committing themselves to presenting exciting new music from a wide spectrum of sources. The ensemble has premiered over twenty works by composers from around the world, including Girilal Baars, Ryan Ross Smith, Jeffrey Stadelman, Matt Wellins, and its own members. As a collective of composers and arrangers, Wooden Cities has created an extensive repertoire of new concert music, re-interpretations of existing works, scores for silent films, and popular music arrangements, while also frequently engaging in free improvisation and game pieces. With funding from the Muriel Wolf and Albert Steger Endowment, Wooden Cities has also reconstructed several works from Buffalo's rich history or contemporary music, presenting works—such as Lejaren Hiller's An Avalanche (1968)—which had not seen a performance for many years.
Through its focus on education, Wooden Cities has presented workshops on new music, improvisation, and electronic music at the University at Buffalo, Butler University, Jamestown Community College, and Buffalo State College, as well as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Starlight Studio and Art Gallery, Greece Olympia High School, the Lydia T. Wright School of Excellence, and the UB Speech-Language and Hearing Clinic.
now playing at Buffalo Documentary Project
John Zorn's Cobra, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center
"It has been my pleasure to hear Wooden Cities performing a wide variety of contemporary music on numerous occasions. Having run my own new music ensemble for over 25 years, I understand the challenges of starting a group from scratch, developing and maintaining a solid artistic identity, and creating a niche for a unique musical product. Wooden Cities is more than up to the task, and I look forward to hearing and seeing what they present in the future. I have the highest admiration for this ensemble."
—Jon Nelson
Professor, University at Buffalo Music Department
Founding Member/Trumpet, Meridian Arts Ensemble
"[Kurt Schwitters'] "Ribble Bobble Pimlico" is an ecstatic composition, and the Wooden Cities vocalists performed it with poise and gusto. Their willingness to be vulnerable and silly was laudable, as they imbued a seemingly inane poem with seriousness of purpose. […] Rochester-area music organizations and ensembles should take notice. A concert that educates and empowers young musicians through the rare performance of experimental music, now there's an intriguing concept."
"Vocalist-trombonist Ethan Hayden's arrangement of Charles Ives' "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven" led the whole band into glory both instrumentally and vocally. The performance was an apt celebration of the original work's centennial, as well as an exhibition of Wooden Cities' exuberance, daring, and attention to detail."
"The result is a DIY mosaic of sound that might feature haunting, wordless vocals and purposeful stops and starts one minute, then segue into a piece that's the frantic, auditory equivalent of a chase scene."
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