Arts and Letters

Throughout the year, artist and composer Raven Chacon invites musicians to perform in Arts and Letters’s North Gallery, where he has installed Aviary, a sonic environment of bird calls. For this November concert, flutist Laura Cocks, percussionist Nava Dunkelman, and violinist gabby fluke-mogel will play improvisationally with select channels of Aviary. The concert takes place from 4–5pm and is free and open to the public. Reservations can be made here.

Please note that the North Gallery will be closed between 3–3:45pm on the day of the concert while the musicians prepare to play. During this time, we invite you to visit the other exhibitions on view: Wadada Leo Smith’s Kosmic Music and Christine Kozlov. Raven Chacon’s Aviary will resume at 5pm when the concert concludes.

Laura Cocks is a flutist who plays in a wide array of environments as a performer of experimental music. WIRE magazine describes their work as combining "crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex.” Laura is the executive director and flutist of TAK ensemble and a member of Talea Ensemble. As a soloist, improviser, and chamber musician, they have performed with musicians such as DoYeon Kim, Shara Lunon, Timothy Angulo, yuniya edi kwon, Luke Stewart, Wendy Eisenberg, Lester St. Louis, Brandon Lopez, Madison Greenstone, International Contemporary Ensemble, The Sun Ra Arkestra, Wet Ink Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, and many others in NYC and abroad. Their recent solo album, field anatomies (Carrier Records) was noted as one of Stereogum’s top-ten experimental releases of the year and charted in the Billboard top ten “Classical Crossover” releases.

Nava Dunkelman is a percussionist and improviser based in Brooklyn, NY. Her musical approach is innovative and dynamic, combining virtuosity and intuition. Meticulous in an intrinsic way, she uses her distinctive sound palette to explore and give life to a vast spectrum of musical possibilities. Nava's current projects are electro-percussion experimental noise duo IMA with Amma Ateria, and percussion duo NOMON with her sister Shayna Dunkelman. She has performed and collaborated with Angélica Negrón, Brandon Seabrook, Du Yun, ÉMU, Fred Frith, gabby fluke-mogul, Ikue Mori, John Zorn, Pauchi Sasaki, William Winant, yuniya edi kwon, and many others.

gabby fluke-mogul is a New York-based violinist, improviser, composer, educator, organizer and doula. Weaving within the threads of avant and free jazz, with deep roots in improvised and experimental music, their music has been described as “embodied, visceral and virtuosic” and “the most striking sound in improvised music in years.” gabby has collaborated with Nava Dunkelman, Joanna Mattrey, Ava Mendoza, Charles Burnham, Fred Frith, Luke Stewart, Zeena Parkins, Tcheser Holmes, Lester St. Louis, William Parker, and Pauline Oliveros among many other musicians, poets, dancers and visual artists. fluke-mogul facilitates improvisation and composition workshops, curates programming for Creative Music Studio, and is a current Roulette Jerome Artist in Residence. ​