George Cremaschi, the founder and – together with Petr Vrba – the leader of the Prague Improvisation Orchestra (PIO), comes from New York, where he studied music, composition and double bass. He worked for many years in California. Nowadays he lives in Prague and besides being involved in a number of artistic projects with mostly international casts (KRK, Lambs Gamble or Broken Ghost Consort), he also passes on his rich experience in working with the sound component of a work to FAMU students. His artistic interests run in many directions. From composed pieces to pure improvisation and the creation of noise surfaces. And as far as musical instruments are concerned: from double bass to analogue electronic “shakers”. In addition to musicians, he enjoys collaborating with filmmakers, dancers and choreographers, visual artists and writers. George Cremaschi also participated in this year’s Prague dance-improvisation workshop by Julyen Hamilton, and it was on this occasion that we approached him.
The Artist works with a variety of approaches and strategies in the areas overlapping music, sound art and noise. As a musician and composer he has a long and diverse history of working with musicians, filmmakers, dancers and choreographers, visual artists, and writers. Some of his current projects include the groups KRK (w/Matthew Ostrowski) and Broken Ghost Consort (w/Matthew Goodheart and Georg Wissel). He is also the founder (w/Petr Vrba) and director of Prague Improvisation Orchestra (PIO), a 15-member group working with conducted and free improvisation and graphic scores.
As an improviser he has worked with many people including Marshall Allen, Anthony Braxton, Julyen Hamilton, Mats Gustafsson, Joelle Leandre, Paul Lovens, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Butch Morris, Lê Quan Ninh, Evan Parker, Tim Perkis, Rova Quartet, Burkhard Stangl, Cecil Taylor, John Tchicai.
As an interpreter, he has performed works by many composers including Adamčiak, Andriessen, Cage, Cardew, Nicolas Collins, Feldman, Mingus, Oliveros, Penderecki, Tenney, Xenakis, etc and has appeared on over 50 recordings on Apestaartje, Beak Doctor, Black Saint, Emanem, Evander, Evolving Ear, Leo, Music & Arts, Nine Winds, Rastascan and other labels. Born in New York where he studied music and composition, he later lived for many years in California and currently lives
in Prague, Czech Republic where he teaches film sound at FAMU.
https://www.georgecremaschi.com
