Incantation New York Performances

At National Sawdust, “Incantation” refers not to the recent Taiwanese horror film, but to a classical album-release performance led by saxophonist Caleb Wheeler Curtis with pianist-composer Jason Moran. The program moves as an ensemble study, with abrupt shifts in texture and group momentum, and Moran’s language threading between composed structure and improvisational logic. No specific NYC premiere history is established for this work, but its placement in Brooklyn’s new-music ecosystem matters. The piece treats “incantation” as a method: repetition and restraint used to test what collective sound can summon.