LAST DAYS! Call for testimonies/tributes: In memoriam Joel Chadabe

Joel Chadabe (1938-2021) was not only a pioneer in electronic music in his own right, he was a major champion of others’ music as well, with an inimitable entrepreneurial spirit.

Photo: Carlo Carnevali (courtesy of the estate of Joel Chadabe)

Joel was a close friend of Iannis Xenakis, the two having first met in Berlin in 1964 as Ford Foundation Fellows, and they always remained close. In 1997, Joel released, on his EMF (Electronic Music Foundation) label, the first CD of Xenakis’s electronic music, which became the best-selling disc in his catalogue. More recently, Joel’s e-publishing company Intelligent Arts entered into an agreement with Xenakis’s historic publisher Pendragon Press to release updated e-versions of the Xenakis Series in print copy (ongoing).

In fact, thanks to Joel’s tireless promotion, through his programming of concerts and other events, including after Xenakis’s death, Xenakis’s reputation flourished, especially in North America. Even on his own website, Joel dedicated a whole chapter to Xenakis, including several citations of personal conversations between the two: https://joelchadabe.net/xenakis/

Joel was also a founding member of the Xenakis Project of the Americas (XPA).

An Open Call for Testimonials and/or Tributes to Joel Chadabe

To honor Joel’s contributions, XPA, as a partner in the Meta—Xenakis consortium, will dedicate a special session during its leg of the marathon Symposium (September 30, 2022, between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York City) to him.

Therefore, we are making an international Open Call for testimonials and/or tributes to Joel Chadabe. These can be photos, videos, recordings, an improvisation, a poem, etc. honoring and remembering the man and musician who has touched so many of us. Because of our anticipation of a worldwide response, we kindly request that each submission be under 3 minutes. Depending on the various media we will collect, we will determine the most appropriate way of presenting this compilation/montage both in New York and on our website.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: June 1, 2022

Please submit to: joeltribute@meta-xenakis.org