Current and Upcoming Composing Projects

 

(Jil Guyon in Threshold, 2025)

It's been a minute since I updated this blog. After the run of Assemblage, I returned to work on a score for Threshold -- a new video by my friend and frequent collaborator, award-winning multidisciplinary visual and performing artist Jil Guyon. Created with the support of the Foundation Obras, and shot on location at the Castle of Evoramonte in Estramoz, Portugal, Threshold is a noir-like montage, in sumptuous black and white, that simmers with underlying violence and ritualistic calm. The music I've created is similar in its extremes and features multiple overdubbed performances by Houston cellist Patrick Moore. (Recorded in my home studio in the middle of summer, without A/C. Whew!) Jil and I are in the final stages of the project. I am sure the final cut, like every film by Jil I've scored, will screen widely. 

Two other projects are in the works, but it's too early to share details; suffice it to say that one is a collaboration with an amazing choreographer, the other, with a fantastic painter. 

I continue to write about music and visual art for a couple of publications, including Houstonia and Arts & Culture, Texas. I also have my still relatively new Substack, Night and Day, which I invite you to check out and consider subscribing to. 

Photos of Assemblage in Houston, TX, 2025

Please enjoy these beautiful images from Assemblage, my collaboration with Rachel Cohen and Racoco Productions. Huge thank you to everyone who came out to experience this unique blend of live music, dance, video, and collage-making, May 16 and 17, 2025 at The Jung Center of Houston. 

Was it improvised? Nope. The movement was set; the live score was notated. But the process from point A to B unfurled like the line from a pencil tracing random objects on a map. Kudos to Masumi Kishimoto (who traveled from Brooklyn to Houston to be a part of this), and Houston-based dancers Tobaric Atkins-Montana and Persi Mey, and musicians Luke Hubley, Naomi Hoffmeyer, Molly Wise, and Patrick Moore for embracing the messiness of creativity and community.

All photos by Andrew and Stephanie Lienhard.

Assemblage is funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.

Chris Becker

Persi Mey

Persi Mey and Tobaric Atkins-Montana

Tobaric Atkins-Montana and Persi Mey 

Masumi Kishimoto

Rachel Cohen

Luke Hubley

Naomi Hoffmeyer

Molly Wise

Patrick Moore

Racoco Productions presents "Assemblage" at The Jung Center of Houston

I'm happy to share that there will be two Houston performances of Assemblage May 16-17, 2025 at The Jung Center of Houston, 5200 Montrose, in the Museum District. 

The reception to performances of this work in Brooklyn last August were so positive, and encouraged Rachel and I to bring Assemblage to new audiences in other cities across the U.S. and beyond. 

Here's a succinct description of the work: 

Assemblage is a multidisciplinary, multimedia work featuring chamber and electronic music by Houston composer Chris Becker, choreographed and improvised movement by New York-based director Rachel Cohen, and real-time collage-making using zip-loc bags of curated-but-unfinished materials left behind by Cohen’s late mother. 

Through intimate videos and live performance, Assemblage explores impermanence, ancestry, and artist identity, and the human effort to fit the pieces together.

The Houston performances will feature Rachel Cohen and Racoco Productions company member, Masumi Kishimoto; Houston-based dancers Tobaric Atkins-Montana and Persi Mey; and Houston musicians Luke Hubley (vibraphone), Naomi Hoffmeyer (harp), Molly Wise (viola), and Patrick Moore (cello).

Performance dates and times: 

Friday, May 16, 7:30 - 8:45pm CT

Saturday, May 17, 2 - 3:15pm CT

Tickets are available through The Jung Center of Houston's website. 

And on May 14, 2025, 5-8 pm CT, Rachel Cohen will lead an in-person class in Action Theater at The Jung Center of Houston. 

Come meet more of yourself in this introduction to Action Theater improvisation. Through simple, fun exercises playing with movement, sound, and language, participants explore living in their bodies as well as their minds, mining and reveling in the multidimensional nature of being a human. Explore radical existence in the present moment, audacious sensitivity to the self and others, and the ripe accessibility of limitless imagination! It is amazing training for performers; it is also amazing training for life. Whether you're a neophyte or an experienced improvisor, come and play!

More details and registration here. 

Assemblage is funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.

All photos by Andreas Troeger.

Assemblage Performance Photos

Images from a dream? 

These photos are from our Aug 3-4, 2024 performances of Assemblage at The Brick Aux, NYC.

Assemblage was directed and choreographed by Rachel Cohen, with original music and arrangements by yours truly, Chris Becker.

Featuring Rachel Cohen, Fina, Masumi Kishimoto, Meghan Schardt-Gensberg, Austin Birdy (vibraphone, percussion), Sam Gray (viola), Lucia Stavros (harp), and Caitlin Thomas (cello).

Thank you to everyone who braved the rain to experience these extraordinary performances. 

All photos by Andreas Troeger.

Assemblage Music Sources and Credits

Assemblage

Presented by Racoco Productions

Conceived and Developed by Rachel Cohen and composer Chris Becker

Performances: August 3, 7:30 p.m., and August 4, 2:00 p.m. 

at the Brick Aux, 628 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 

$20 suggested donation

RSVP at info@racoco.org

Score Sources, and Sample Credits

“Chopin (Bouncing Balls)”

Emil von Sauer plays Frédéric Chopin’s Etude No.3. in E, op 10.

78rpm recording digitized by https://78.kenyszer.com/

Vintage toy samples from Sounding the Collection

Courtesy of The Powerhouse Museum Group, Sydney, Australia

Sheep bells recording by Jil Guyon

All other field recordings by Chris Becker

“Jimbo’s Lullaby” from Children’s Corner for solo piano by Claude Debussy (1908)

“The Aspen” from The Five Pieces (a.k.a. The Trees) for solo piano by Jean Sibelius (1914)

Toys photo by Rachel Cohen

Racoco Productions presents "Assemblage," August 3 and 4, 2024 at the Brick Aux,

 

A MIDI realization of Chris Becker's arrangement of Debussy's "Jimbo's Lullaby" for vibraphone, harp, viola, cello, and toys. Video created by Rachel Cohen. 

Racoco Productions presents Assemblage #1, a multidisciplinary, multimedia work featuring live chamber and electronic music by composer Chris Becker, choreographed and improvised movement by Rachel Cohen, and real-time collage-making using zip-loc bags of curated materials left behind by Cohen’s mother, a quiet artist and quilter, who passed away in February 2020. 

Through intimate videos and live performances, Assemblage #1 explores impermanence, ancestry, and artist identity, and the human effort to fit the pieces together.

Assemblage #1 features live performances of original compositions and arrangements for cello, viola, harp, and vibraphone. With performers Rachel Cohen, Fina, Masumi Kishimoto, Meghan Schardt, and Austin Birdy (vibraphone, percussion), Sam Gray (viola), Lucia Stavros (harp), and Caitlin Thomas (cello).

Performances: August 3, 7:30 p.m., and August 4, 2:00 p.m. 

at the Brick Aux, 628 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 

$20 suggested donation

RSVP at info@racoco.org

Racoco at Women in Motion Salon, April 13, 2024

 

Assemblage. Choreography by Rachel Cohen, music by yours truly. Excerpt from a work-in-progress as seen April 13, 2024 in Brooklyn.

Thank you Racoco Productions and Women in Motion. I look forward to seeing you all in person sooner rather than later!