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Live from The John Cage Trust: Lecture on Nothing + Extended Lullaby (Audio)

Jun 27, 2026
Performed by Erica Kaufman, Phil Pardi, George Quasha, Haley Gillian, Mike Jones, Tony Kirk, and Juan Diego More Rubio with an introduction by Jeffrey Lependorf.

Cagecircle: Composition for an Exhibition (June 27 – July 31, 2026) brought together a dazzling variety of archival items—from twenty-two collections—to create an unexpected cabinet of curiosities. For this collaboration between the John Cage Trust and Bard College’s Stevenson Library, John Cage’s methods of chance procedures were used as a tool for anarchic curation. For the opening of the exhibition, on Saturday, June 17th, the John Cage Trust presented an immersive performance of Cage’s “Lecture on Nothing” (1950), performed surrounding the audience by multiple voices arranged using these same chance procedures, along with his “Extended Lullaby” (aka “Four3,” aka “Beach Birds,” 1991). The reading performers were Erica Kaufman, Phil Pardi, and George Quasha. The musicians were Haley Gillian, Mike Jones, Tony Kirk, and Juan Diego More Rubio. The event began with a brief talk by John Cage Trust Executive Director, Jeffrey Lependorf.