Date(s): August 9, 2026
Type of Show: Concert
Showtime(s): 7:00PM
Tickets: $20 + tax/fee
Bark Culture
Bark Culture is a Philadelphia-based trio led by vibraphonist Victor Vieira-Branco, featuring Joey Sullivan on drums and John Moran on bass. The band is touring their new record The Giant is Awkward set for release on June 5th, 2026.
The Giant is Awkward is the second album by vibraphonist and composer Victor Vieira-Branco’s Bark Culture. The ensemble—featuring John Moran (double bass) and Joey Sullivan (drums)—is joined by pianist and composer Sam Yulsman for five pieces that mirror the prismatic nature of a sound Vieira-Branco has been tirelessly crafting with the group since 2021. With the addition of Yulsman, the group reveals, as Peter Margasak states, “a heightened sensitivity and grace, with increased harmonic splendor thanks to the added chordal voice. The record also marks the vibraphonist’s clear growth as a composer.”
The band’s 2024 debut, Warm Wisdom, received high praise, with New York Times jazz critic Hank Shteamer listing it among his top debuts of 2024, as well as landing a spot on Bandcamp’s Best of Jazz for September 2024. Since then, Vieira-Branco has joined Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra and the Chad Taylor Quintet, the former of which released the album Smokeshifter, featuring three pieces penned by the vibraphonist. The core trio of Bark Culture was also heavily involved in Rob Mazurek’s score for Kelly Reichardt’s 2025 film The Mastermind.
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An ensemble defined by restlessness and sonic curiosity, this improbable improvising trio rides the edge between sonorous melodies, atonal outbursts, and tilted grooves — creating music that feels both elemental and unpredictable.
Individually, each artist in the trio brings a distinct voice: Will Greene’s saxophone moves effortlessly between melodious phrasing and jagged rupture; Ishmael Ali’s cello oscillates between textural articulations, idiomatic gestures, and rhythmic grooves; and Lily Finnegan’s percussive approach spans pliant, groove‑oriented dialogue to fractured, pointillist soundscapes, providing a platform for both abstraction and lyricism. Together, their interplay coalesces into a dynamic conversation that propels the trio into spaces at once visceral, exploratory, and delightfully capricious.
WILL GREENE plays guitar and saxophone and currently resides in Chicago, after spending many years as an active member of various Brooklyn, NY music communities. His musical practice explores time-bending, pitch excursions, and interactive notions.
In addition to an active schedule of jazz and improvisation adjacent activities,
Will is a member of avant-thrash outfit TRIGGER, italo-prog orchestra TREDICI BACCI, and leads the CHICAGO MICROBES.
He is also proud of and grateful for his past and ongoing collaborations that have taken him across the United States and several continents. A woefully abbreviated list of these collaborators: John Zorn, Joe Morris, Raf Vertessen, Elias Stemeseder, Zoe Christiansen, Kenny Wollesen, Max Jaffe, Henry Fraser and Carrie Furniss.
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Ishmael Ali is a dynamic cellist, guitarist, improviser, and composer based out of Chicago. His work centers on exploring sound through improvisation, experimentation, composition, and collaboration, focusing on a wide array of idiomatic approaches in an ever-changing, always-growing list of projects informed by diverse influences.
While varying drastically, a common thread in his work is the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate elements to create something new: both foreign and familiar.
Ishmael is leader or co-leader of a plethora of working projects including Hearsay, Ensemble Ziraph, and Akjai.
He currently performs with Kahil El Zabar and the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble and has performed and recorded with Avreeayl Ra, Josh Berman, Jim Baker, Fred Jackson, Ed Wilkerson, Angel Bat Dawid, Jason Stein, Tom Skinner, and many more.
In addition to performing, Mr. Ali is a co-curator of the Thursday night Improvised Music Series at Elastic Arts, a co-founder and audio engineer at Marmalade, a recording and rehearsal space in the West Loop, and along with close friend and collaborator Bill Harris, runs the co-operative record label Amalgam Music.
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Lily Finnegan is a Chicago-based drummer, composer, improviser, and organizer. She was spotlighted by The Chicago Reader as a “Chicagoan of Note” and included in The Chicago Sun Times “Next Generation of Jazz Musicians.” She leads her own quartet, Heat On, which released their debut album on Cuneiform Records. Other projects include improvisational duo with gabby fluke-mogul and playing in Ken Vandermark’s Edition Redux. Finnegan has collaborated with wide ranging artists including James Brandon Lewis, Macie Stewart, Bill Orcutt, Edward Wilkerson, Nick Dunston, Tashi Dorji, Lia Kohl, Patrick Shiroishi, Brandon Seabrook, and Shanta Nurullah. She is a member of the Catalytic Sound Collective and co-curates the Option Series. In 2026 she became a Next Jazz Legacy awardee.
Quay
Quay is a Durham instrumental trio making considerately spontaneous music built from experienced instinct and groove.
Born from the talents of: Guitarist Ryan Johnson, drummer Yan Westerlund (Quetico), and bassist MK Rodenbough (Rodes Baby). While Quay pulls from inspirations like Sam Wilkes, Sam Gendel, and Blake Mills, the deeper thread of inspiration is from the vibrant community of artists in the triangle music scene. Their songs unfold patiently, then arrive with force using singable melodies, thoughtful harmonies, and rhythmic motifs that reveal the band’s collective influences.
All three are longtime fixtures of the Triangle scene, with years spent leading projects, backing records, and chasing sounds across local and national studios and stages. For Johnson, Quay marks a new chapter. After a career as a long-time collaborator, this is his first foray into leading a musical project. He remains focused on the deep, collaborative nature of it.
Over the past year he’s been writing, playing, and gradually pulling it all together with this team of talented friends. What began as a recording experiment with no pointed ambitions beyond the studio became something louder and more alive. Quay will begin recording their first album in early September.
The ArtsCenter shows are (almost always) seated. We have a nice bar with wine, beer, cider, soft drinks, snacks and always free water. If you need special assistance, please do contact us at boxoffice@artscenterlive.org or 919.929.2787 and we’ll be sure to accommodate you as best as we can.