Friday, March 6th, 2026
Art Sanctuary (back room)
1433 S. Shelby Street
Louisville, KY 40217

$15 advance tickets, $20 day of show
Advance tickets available online at Art Sanctuary;
Physical tickets available for in-person purchase on Wednesday February 4th at Surface Noise (cash only), 600 Baxter Avenue, Louisville KY 40204

18+
7:00 PM doors
8:00 PM music

Performed by [Switch~] Ensemble. Details TBD

Prisoner’s Cinema is a collaboratively-composed and performed work by Sarah Hennies and Tristan Kasten-Krause for double bass, percussion, and a single candle flame. 

This piece explores the links between sight, hearing, and perception and is partly inspired by “trataka,” a style of yogi purification meditation that involves staring at a single point (such as a candle flame) for extended durations. The instruments are closely tuned to one another to produce beating effects and psychoacoustic phenomena such as “three-dimensional” sound, where it feels as though the music is moving through space. 

Hennies and Kasten-Krause believe in a style of adventurous music that is both challenging and accessible and that offers any potential audience member an experience that may change and broaden their experience of music, sound, the world, and themselves. 

Tickets to singular performances go on sale January 10, but you can secure your Festival Pass to The Dark now!

Join us for an intimate duo performance by composer and percussionist Sarah Hennies and bassist Tristan Kasten-Krause, presented in connection with Zak Prekop: Durations. Hennies and Kasten-Krause will present a 40-60 minute set of experimental music within the Museum’s galleries, offering a meditative, resonant experience that blurs the boundaries between sound, space, and visual art.
Sarah Hennies is known for her immersive and durational performances that explore psychoacoustic phenomena, queerness, and the act of listening. Her duo with Kasten-Krause combines sensitivity and restraint, crafting quiet, expansive works that unfold gradually over time.

This event is presented in conjunction with Zak Prekop: Durations (on view through March 30, 2026), an exhibition exploring visual rhythm, repetition, and the temporality of painting. It also marks the launch of Zak Prekop’s first museum publication, Zak Prekop: Durations. This fully illustrated, 32-page softcover catalogue features bold new abstract paintings by the artist, along with an interview between Prekop and curator Eduardo Andres Alfonso. The catalogue will be available for purchase at the event.

What does it mean to compose from within a voice that has been politicized, pathologized, and—more often than not—unheard? A Voice and Nothing More centers on the sonic textures of trans experience—not as metaphor or identity cue, but as a vantage point for composition, a material starting point.

At the core of the program is a screening of Sarah Hennies’ Contralto (2017), a quietly forceful work that stages the voice—low, wavering, searching—as both subject and score. A live percussion performance extends the film’s inquiry into the embodied tension between performance and performativity, between being heard and being legible.

After the screening, Hennies is joined in conversation by composers Andrew Yee, inti figgis-vizueta and Lulu West to reflect on the GLISS Composition Residency, an experimental initiative for transfeminine composers. Together, they discuss how composition becomes a space of sounding out—a dynamic working through notation, improvisation, resonance to make oneself audible on one’s own terms. The conversation is moderated by Josefina Barcia.

Please join us for the world premiere of Prisoner's Cinema, a collaboratively composed and performed work by Sarah Hennies and Tristan Kasten-Krause with double bass, percussion, and a single candle flame. This piece explores the links between sight, hearing, and perception and is partly inspired by “trataka,” a style of yogi purification meditation that involves staring at a single point (such as a candle flame) for extended durations. The audience will be instructed to fix their gaze on the flame of the candle while Hennies and Kasten-Krause perform a work of high sustaining tones. The instruments are closely tuned to one another to produce beating effects and psychoacoustic phenomena such as “three-dimensional” sound, where it feels as though the music is moving through space. Hennies and Kasten-Krause believe in a style of adventurous music that is both challenging and accessible and that offers any potential audience member an experience that may change and broaden their experience of music, sound, the world, and themselves.

Each 30-minute performance will admit 15 audience members. Advance RSVP is required and timeliness is expected.

‍This project was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

PERFORMANCE: Sarah Hennies + Tristan Kasten Krause
Thursday, August 7th, 2025 at 7pm
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center {120 College Street}
TICKETS – $12 General Admission / $8 for BMCM+AC members + Students w/ID

Hennies-Kasten-Krause performs and then Bozzini Quartet will give the Canadian premiere of “Borrowed Light” for string quartet.

For our fourth night of What Is: heart(break), the East End United’s sunken basketball court sets the stage for the tragicomedy that culminates when the heart gets messy, or maybe…a little too curious. 

Cheekily exploring the idea of a rebound, Sarah Hennies, Tristan Kasten-Krause, and the Imaginary Percussion Ensemble premiere a new collection of percussion pieces called “Suite May Sixteen” that celebrate vulnerable, clumsy versions of ourselves trying to pick up the pieces and reimagine how everything can fit together again.

Throughout the night, sounds will bounce and rebound on a slew of percussive instruments such as the vibraphone, marimba, xylophone, drums, cymbals, and readymades. Reverberating and resolving, these percussive sounds take over the court in full chaos, echoing the often complicated rhythms of the heart. 

Curated by Tad Michalak.

Wednesday, April 30th at 8pm, join ISSUE Project Room in celebrating the release of The Quiet Sun, a highly anticipated new LP by Sarah Hennies & Tristan Kasten-Krause. Originally presented as a short duet between Hennies & Kasten-Krause as part of ISSUE's 20th Anniversary activities in 2023, the duo have since expanded their collaboration. Set for official release this Spring, the album reflects the artists’ deep ties to the organization and the broader community.

Experimental music writer Vanessa Ague, creator of The Road to Sound blog, describes the album as an exploration of sonic observation, where “timbres across percussion and string instruments gradually meld into one; pitches gently float into consonance after bristling in dissonance.” She continues, “With The Quiet Sun, their debut duo album, the two musicians present two pieces that survey their nuanced approach to sound as it grows over time. The album, recorded at ISSUE Project Room, presents two works that each show a different lens into the large-scale forms they have developed together.” 

Each side of the album highlights the subtle, intricate movements of the duo’s long-form compositions. The A-side, “Axo,” unfolds from a delicate interplay of high-pitched tones, held taut and shimmering, gradually giving way to the bold resonance of gongs and a deep, steady pulse. The B-side, “Axonic,” takes on a darker, more ominous character—sharp scrapes, distant vibrations, and cutting distortions weave a sonic landscape shrouded in mystery, evoking the dim-lit corners of the room where it was recorded. 

Though both compositions share thematic and technical elements, they reveal the vast possibilities inherent in the quietness of perception. Sounds blend seamlessly, creating an immersive listening experience that emphasizes the beauty of close attention and transformation over time. As Ague reflects, “Hennies and Kasten-Krause’s music reminds us that over time, anything can and will change—and there is beauty held in the patience of watching it unfold.”

ISSUE Members receive 50% off tickets for The Quiet Sun LP Release using their unique code at checkout, a discount to purchase the album at the event, and enjoy exclusive access to limited-capacity events.

Sarah Hennies/Tristan Kasten-Krause duo performs with Matt Krefting opening and Christian Hirsche (Germany) headlinine.

concertnova presents Sarah Hennies as we explore queer & trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought with an immersive installation from local artist Lizzy Duquette.

The UC San Diego Department of Music is celebrating the 10th Anniversary of the Reed Family Concert - join the celebration!

Come see amazing performances by past and current students, professors, and local musicians, performing new works written by Delong Wang, Sarah Hennies, and György Ligeti. Directed by Distinguished Professor and Reed Family Presidential Chair, Steven Schick.

PROGRAM: 

Sarah HENNIES - SETTLE (2012) [12']
for two vibraphonists playing one vibraphone

Sarah HENNIES - THOUGHT SECTORS (2020) [58']
for percussion solo
 
PERFORMERS: 
​
Sarah HENNIES, vibraphone
Steven SCHICK, percussion soloist

To mark the end of a great year at the shop, we’ve organized something special: on Saturday, December 7th, Af Ursin makes his US debut alongside a performance by Sarah Hennies and music provided by DJ Vivid Oblivion at an intimate, spacious private Williamsburg residence. The address will be shared with ticket holders the day before the show.

Over nearly three decades, the Belgium-based Af Ursin has released a steady stream of alchemical recordings both solo and in collaboration with the likes of Anne Gillis, Christoph Heemann (as In Camera), and Andrew Chalk (as Elodie). With antecedents within both the more esoteric strains of industrial musick and the classical avant-garde, it would be tempting to call Af Ursin a torchbearer for a hallucinatory approach to expansive sound if not for the hushed, chamber ambience of much of his output. Candlebearer seems a more apt metaphor for the blurred timbres of his structured improvisations; a music that passes intimately through darkness without entirely illuminating it.

In addition to his La Scie Dorée imprint, Af Ursin runs the Metaphon label, dedicated to publishing electronic and instrumental music from the 20th century, with a focus on Belgian composers as well as the music of Michael Ranta—an American composer and percussionist best known as a performer of choice for Stockhausen, Jean-Claude Éloy, and Luc Ferrari. Ranta serves as the connective tissue linking Af Ursin with Sarah Hennies, who has undertaken a recording project documenting never before heard Ranta chamber works mostly composed in the 1970s while he was living in Taiwan. Tomorrow, Important Records issues Transits: Volume 1, the first in this series.

Sarah Hennies is a composer and percussionist based in upstate New York whose work is concerned with a variety of musical, sociopolitical, and psychological issues including queer and trans identity, psychoacoustics, and the social and neurological conditions underlying creative thought. As a scholar and performer she is engaged with ongoing research about the percussion music of Iannis Xenakis. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Bard College and her work has been released by Blume, Black Truffle, and New World Records. For this event, she presents a solo vibraphone and gong performance.

Presented in collaboration with Shared Shapes.

PROGRAM:

John CAGE - IN A LANDSCAPE (1948) [8']
Sarah HENNIES – MOTOR TAPES (2023) [56']

Vicki RAY, piano (Cage)
​
ECHOI (Hennies):
Andrew McINTOSH, violin
Wendy RICHMAN, viola
Niall FERGUSON, cello
Matt KLINE, double bass
Michael MATSUNO, flute
Brian WALSH, clarinet
M.A. TIESENGA, saxophone
Nev WENDELL, trumpet
Mason MOY, trombone
emma denney, guitar
Richard AN, piano
Jonathan HEPFER, percussion

​Jonathan HEPFER, artistic director
Joshua RUBIN, technical consultation

This concert is underwritten by a generous gift from Margaret Morgan & Wesley Phoa

Saturday, September 7th, at 8pm ISSUE welcomes an elusive performer to open its Fall 2024 Season. After more than 20 years, American composer Frankie Mann will make her return to New York at the First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn. After last performing at Roulette Intermedium in 2000, she will be accompanied for this landmark occasion by longtime collaborator David Behrman, Allison Easter, Sarah Hennies and John King to present Descent, a new work for traditional acoustic and electronic instruments and soundscapes. Contemplating the etymology of the word “descent,” the artists explore its meanings–who and where you come from; the sense of entropy in our society; a melodic downward turn–to imagine what it looks like to go beyond this seemingly inevitable, human fate.Join as an ISSUE Project Room Member at any level and receive a free ticket to the event!

As with many women engineers, it is only recently that Frankie Mann is becoming recognized for her pioneering work in music and technology. She began her career in the 1970s when the shift from analog to digital technologies was quickly evolving, requiring Mann to (quite literally) write her way into the male dominated history of electronic music composition. Entering higher education at Oberlin Conservatory and later, what was once Mills College in California, the classically trained musician would go on to receive a Fullbright scholarship for her gifts in computer science and music despite the conservative nature of the emerging field. While much of Mann’s work has existed on the peripheries of history, this September, ISSUE brings forth a selection of her past works in conversation with present-day works and collaborators in celebration of the artist’s legacy.

From who and where do we descend? This thematic question finds resonance with the work of Sarah Hennies. Alongside Mann’s explorations of lived experience, Hennies often examines sonic peripheries through her study of psychoacoustics and queer and trans identity, and the messy, perhaps biological entanglement from which our curiosities and identities are formed. The artist’s work spans many years with ISSUE across disciplines including film and composition, and for this event, she will open the evening by working with difference tones for solo bowed vibraphone before joining Mann, Behrman, Easter and King.   

Saturday, June 8 at 1 pm and 4 pm

As part of the performance program organized by guest curator Taja Cheek for Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing, Sarah Hennies presents Motor Tapes, a one-hour work for a large ensemble. Taking its name from neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás’s characterization of the human brain as containing innumerable “tape loops” that run continuously within the mind, Motor Tapes is composed of densely overlapping patterns of sound, with musicians representing synapses that both fire independently and work together to achieve complex activities. Llinás’s description of this phenomena is strikingly musical: “The activity in the basal ganglia is running all the time, playing motor patterns and snippets of motor patterns amongst and between themselves […] they seem to act as a continuous, random, motor pattern noise generator.” “I am interested in the motor tapes theory,” Hennies has said, “because it suggests that alongside lived experience there is a mysterious biological basis for our inclinations, talents and identities.”

Motor Tapes will be performed by Lauren Cauley, Laura Cocks, David Friend, Madison Greenstone, Judith Hamann, Tristan Kasten-Krause, Hannah Levinson, Christopher McIntyre, Erin Rogers, Brendon Randall-Myers, Bill Solomon, and Nate Wooley.

Motor Tapes was commissioned by GMEA - Centre National de Création Musicale d’Albi-Tarn and premiered by Ensemble Dedalus at the Darmstadt Summer Course in August 2023

“What do Adele, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey and La Esterella have in common? They are all contraltos or contraltos. The lowest female voice is also the starting point of the controversial film 'Contralto' by the American composer and percussionist Sarah Hennies. Should women also 'sound' feminine, and what is the relationship between gender and pitch? Hennies' groundbreaking audiovisual work explores transfeminine identity through voice feminization therapy. The cast consists of transgender women, the soundtrack is extremely varied. A compelling film screening with live music accompaniment by GAME.”

Sarah Hennies is a visionary American composer and percussionist, who “writes music rife with psychological effects and emotional undercurrents” (The New York Times). Meditative yet propulsive, challenging yet engaging, her work is concerned with a variety of musical and sociopolitical issues, including queer and trans identity and psychoacoustics. For her Portrait, two brilliant ensembles—the Mivos Quartet and Yarn/Wire—perform new works written especially for them.

Free admission • Doors open at 5:30PM, music at 6PM
Onstage seating is first-come, first-served.

The intrepid and virtuosic piano/percussion quartet Yarn/Wire takes a deep dive into the music of Sarah Hennies, starting with this Pop-Up Concert and followed by a Composer Portrait of her work on Thursday, April 4. Primers is a 30-minute work written for the ensemble that is both rhythmic and propulsive as well as subtle and meditative. Notes are juxtaposed with silence to create an aethereal and altogether unique sonic experience.

Sit onstage and enjoy a free drink during these hour-long weeknight Pop-Up Concerts, and mingle with the musicians and fellow concertgoers after the show.