Broadcloth performs improvised music with a nod to various compositional outlets. Using a unique instrumentation of voice, cello and accordion/recorders, the trio plays from notated, graphic, embroidered, and textual scores in addition to completely spontaneous pieces. Without shying away from virtuosity, Broadcloth creates music that reflects the order of composition and the risk of unpredictable musical interactions. Emphasis lies on establishing a holistic sound that favors cooperation over hierarchy.
Anne Rhodes (b. 1976) grew up in Portland, Maine, where she began studying voice at the age of 16. She holds a B.M. in Voice Performance from Boston University’s School for the arts and an M.A. in Music Performance from Wesleyan University, where she focused on experimental music, improvisation and collaborating with composers. She has performed withConnecticut Opera, Yale Opera, Portland Opera Repertory Theatre, the FLUX Quartet, New Haven Improvisers Collective, and the hip-hop duo Mirror Boiyz, and has premiered works by composers including Anthony Braxton, Neil Leonard, Taylor Ho Bynum, Mikael Karlsson, and Alvin Lucier. She is a principle singer in the Trillium Project, an opera company lead by and dedicated to performing the works of Anthony Braxton. Anne currently studies voice with Elizabeth Saunders. As a day job, she serves as Research Archivist for Yale University’s Oral History of American Music.
Cellist Nathan Bontrager performs improvised music ranging from the avant-garde to world folk styles. While earning his M.M. at the University of Maryland, Bontrager began to focus more heavily on contemporary works and frequently played with local new music ensembles such as Mobtown Modern and the Great Noise Ensemble. In addition, he co-founded The Experimental Music Performance Organization (T.E.M.P.O.), an ensemble committed to premiering new works which remains active. Upon moving to Connecticut, Bontrager became increasingly active in the experimental music scene in New Haven (Firehouse 12, the Uncertainty Music Series), New York (the Stone, Evolving Voice Series), and throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. In addition to Broadcloth, he can be found performing with the folk group Dr. Caterwaul’s Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps, Anthony Braxton’s Tri-Centric Orchestra, the American Baroque Orchestra, and the New Haven Improvisers Collective.
Accordionist Adam Matlock followed a path from a ground work of classical piano pedagogy and the African-American Spiritual tradition toward a wider range of folk, jazz and new music. After abandoning study of the piano in favor of playing keyboards in rock bands, Matlock formally returned to music while working on a B.A. at Hampshire College, which combined the study of music composition and fiction writing, teaching himself the accordion for the sake of performing Klezmer with the Valley Kapelye under the direction of Adrianne Greenbaum. He studied theory, improvisation and composition under Michael Dessen and Margo Simmons-Edwards, and for his thesis composed two long-form dramatic works combining an extended narrative and incidental music. Since then, Matlock has further explored the intersections of narrative and music in capacities ranging from film soundtracks, to formal compositions, to songwriting. Matlock composes electronic music under the moniker G. Zarapanecko, and neo-cabaret songs under the name An Historic, and approaches collective folk deconstruction and film scoring with Dr. Caterwaul’s Cadre of Clairvoyant Claptraps. He also performs with the Elm City Guitar Quartet +3, the Erasmus Quintet, and other groupings of the New Haven Improvisers Collective, and continues to devour most new types of music set in front of him, most recently as the accordionist for the Yale Tango Orchestra and Yale Klezmer Band.
Broadcloth 
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