Lester St. Louis, born in 1993, is a New York-born and -based composer, improviser, cellist, sound designer, producer and curator. An important figure in New York’s experimental improvisation scene, his artistic work crosses disciplinary boundaries and develops formats in which improvisation is articulated as a basic prerequisite and mode of creative sociality. His work traverses through performance, installation, curation, artistic research and recording and is rooted in dynamic environments of improvisation both sonically and socially. He performs internationally throughout the U.S., the E.U., Canada, China and South America. He has performed at venues and festivals such as Lincoln Center, Issue Project Room, Berlin Jazz Festival, Performa Biennale, Whitney Biennial, Frieze New York, Liangzhu Village Cultural Art Center, Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt, The Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Roulette Intermedium, The Bimhuis, Rewire, The Kennedy Center along with many others. St. Louis has performed, recorded and produced with artists such as Chris Williams [under the moniker HxH], Edi Kwon, Jaimie Branch, Rob Mazurek, Aruan Ortiz, Don Byron, Pheeroan Aklaff, KMRU, Lamin Fofana, William Parker, Shahzad Ismaily, Moor Mother, Lukas Koenig, Ka Baird, Ben Lamar Gay, Lea Bertucci, Miho Hatori, Dre A. Hočevar, Ash Fure, Charmaine Lee, Yo La Tengo, Yaeji, SZA, Peni Candra Rini, Irreversible Entanglements, TAK Ensemble, The International Contemporary Ensemble, Random International, Found Sound Nation, Wet Ink Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound and many more. As a composer, St. Louis has been commissioned by artists such as The JACK Quartet, RAGE THORMBONES, Jennifer Koh, String Noise, Ghost Ensemble among others. He has collaborated with visual artists such as Terrence Nance, Torkwase Dyson, Fields Harrington, Ephraim Asili, Random International, Atelier Impopulaire, William Pope. L, Emeka Okereke and PACE gallery’s immersive installation center Superblue. As a curator, St. Louis is currently co-curating an ongoing monthly series in Brooklyn with Bassist Luke Stewart called Assembly. Prior to organizing Assembly, St. Louis was a co-curator of New York City experimental music venue SpectrumNYC, where he presented many composer portraits along with other programming from musicians from all around the world. In the coming months St. Louis looks forward to releasing the first record of his duo HxH on KMRU’s ofnot label, the performance of his installation piece In Residence in Berlin and the release of a trilogy of solo cello records.
25.03.2024
