Quick Facts
Biography
André Vida (born 1974) is Hungarian-American saxophonist, lyricist, avant-garde musician and experimental composer based in Berlin. Vida has been on the forefront of several major developments in experimental music, including his membership in Anthony Braxton’s original Ghost Trance Ensemble, as founding member of New York collective the CTIA, performances with The Tower Recordings and subsequent ‘freak folk’ groups.
Work
In 1995 Vida moved to New York City and co-founded the The Creative Trans-Informational Alliance Presents (CTIA) with Brandon Evans and Dominique Eade.
In 2001 Vida moved to Berlin and soon after launched the Kreuzberg suite, a once a week concert series with Vida and a frequently changing musical guest creating improvisational music around the subject of "Fish And Green".
He was awarded his MFA in Experimental Sound Practices in 2005 from California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) School of Music.
His musical language is informed by an awareness of the human body and its limits. Vida worked in a collaboration with Anri Sala for the exhibition "3-2-1" at The Serpentine Gallery in London. Vida was scheduled to perform over 400 improvisational saxophone concerts over the course of 51 days (from October 1 to November 20, 2011).
Vida was an Eyebeam Honorary Fellow in 2013.
In 2013, as part of the Global Art Forum 7, Vida performed "Score" at the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, challenging the question what if we spoke music instead of words?
2015 Sculpture Park, Frieze Art Fair London presented a live performance by Anri Sala in collaboration with André Vida. The piece is called To Each His Own (in Bridges), it is based on 74 pieces of music, combining fragments of jazz, folk, and pop songs played on the saxophone, clarinet and trombone.
In 2016 Vida participated in the art exhibition, "Anri Sala: Answer Me,” at the New Museum in New York City. Vida live improvises sound with his saxophone next to a video of Jemeel Moondoc’s performance, shot on the balcony of a building in Berlin.
Vida has collaborated with artists such as; Elton John, MV & EE, Anaïs Croze, Kevin Blechdom, Oni Ayhun, Tim Exile, Anri Sala, James Tenney, David Rosenboom, Sonny Simmons, Cecil Taylor, Lee Ranaldo, Heatsick, Jim O'Rourke, Dean Roberts, Tony Buck, Hildur Gudnadottir, Jimmy Edgar, Chilly Gonzales, Mocky, Tyshawn Sorey, Susie Ibarra, Guillermo E. Brown, and many others.
Discography
As band leader :
- 2011 – BRUD Volumes I - III: 1995-2011
- 2008 – 1956: Solo Saxophone
- 2007 – I don't know what's wrong with me: Solo Saxophone and Poetry
- 2005 – Child Real Eyes (with Anthony Braxton, Loren Dempster, Tyshawn Sorey)
with Jamie Lidell
- 2005 – Multiply
with The Tower Recordings CD
- 2001 – Folkscene
with Anthony Braxton
- 1994 – Small Ensemble Music (live, at Wesleyan)
- 1995 – Octet (New York)
- 1996 – Composition No. 193, Tentet (New York)
- 1997 – GMT (live at the Knitting Factory, New York)
- 1997 – Quintet (Tristano)
- 1997 – Ninetet, (volumes 1, 2, 3 & 4, Yoshi's, Oakland)
- 1998 – Four Compositions (Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
- 2010 – Quartet (Mannheim, Germany)
with Anthony Braxton, Sonny Simmons, Brandon Evans, Shanir Blumenkranz, and Mike Pride
- 2003 – Parallactic 54 (2 CD set, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT)
with Brandon Evans and Dominique Eade
- 1995 – The Sky Has Melted Away
with Brandon Evans Quintet (Hildegard Kleeb, André Vida, Joe Fonda, Eric Rosenthal, Brandon Evans)
- 1994 – Composition No. 8 'Pinnacles & Tentacles'