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Bombe Fits | 2026–2027 Season

Bombe Fits is a new chamber ensemble dedicated to creating and performing experimental music that pushes beyond traditional genre boundaries. Drawing on influences from rock, heavy metal, jazz, electronic music, and other non-classical traditions, the ensemble seeks to expand the possibilities of contemporary chamber music, challenge audience expectations, and foster experimentation through collaboration with artists across disciplines.

Alongside performance and commissioning, Bombe Fits is committed to education, community engagement, and using the arts to engage with issues of social justice. The ensemble seeks partnerships with nonprofit organizations, schools, universities, and other community institutions to connect its artistic work with broader communities.

Bombe Fits made its debut on June 25, 2026, in Philadelphia with a program featuring seven world premieres that combined elements of traditional art song with influences from non-classical genres. Composers were invited to create new works for voice, percussion, guitar, bass, and electronics, with several joining the ensemble onstage to perform their own music. Two days later, Bombe Fits made its New York City debut with an intimate house concert in Tribeca, beginning the ensemble’s expansion beyond Philadelphia.

2026–2027 Season

Building on its inaugural performances, Bombe Fits is expanding its repertoire, recording projects, educational programming, and community partnerships. Current and upcoming projects include:

  • Philadelphia Fringe Festival debut — September 25–26, 2026

  • Music video recording with Four/Ten Media — September 27, 2026

  • Development of a new song cycle with composer Brendan Sweeney

  • Artist residencies and educational partnerships centered on the creation and premiere of new student compositions

  • Workshops and instruction for high school and university students in private lessons, chamber music coaching, interpreting new-music scores, extended techniques, musical entrepreneurship, and integrating electronic media into live performance

  • A studio recording of the ensemble’s current repertoire

Bombe Fits Personnel

Katy Avery — Artistic Director & Soprano
Daniel Spratlan — Operations, Conductor & Guitar
Thomas Schuttenhelm — Engagement & Guitar
Pat Nugent — Bass
Evan Chapman — Percussion

Composers

Bombe Fits has commissioned and performed music by:

  • Emma Cardon-Wake

  • Brendan Sweeney

  • John Conahan

  • Kevin Crouch

  • Evan Chapman

  • Tim Mukherjee

Support Bombe Fits

Support for Bombe Fits helps make possible future performances, commissions, studio recordings, educational outreach, and artist residencies. As the ensemble continues to grow, funding will directly support the creation and performance of new work while expanding opportunities to collaborate with students, artists, and communities.

This Silent Music

Premiered August 8, 2026 · Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, Philadelphia

This Silent Music is a multidisciplinary concert experience created to encourage performers and audiences to be fully present—to reconnect with their emotions, their communities, and the natural world through music, science, and art.

The project grew from the feeling of “screaming into the void”: the experience of living amid injustice and uncertainty until it becomes all too easy to feel desensitized or disconnected. Three composers were commissioned to respond to that idea, exploring nature, identity, community, and the universe in relation to our humanity.

The world premiere took place at Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, home to one of artist James Turrell’s Skyspace installations. Turrell’s architecture frames an opening in the ceiling through which the changing sky becomes part of the artwork. As evening fell, the audience experienced the music alongside the changing light, sunset, and night sky.

At the center of the program was a collaboration among composer LJ White, astrophysicist Becka Phillipson, and soprano Katy Avery. Phillipson served as the project’s astrophysics consultant and created audible light-curve sound files derived from her research on black holes. These sounds and the science behind them became source material for White’s composition, connecting astrophysics with questions of visibility, identity, and belonging and allowing phenomena otherwise beyond human perception to become part of the musical experience.

Composer Mieke Doezema created a song cycle for soprano, marimba, and auxiliary percussion inspired by the natural world and designed to invite mindfulness and contemplation. Soprano Liz Lang, exploring her Lebanese heritage, commissioned composer Alex Wakim to create a song cycle examining identity and community while drawing upon Arabic musical traditions.

The Future of This Silent Music

This Silent Music was conceived from the beginning as more than a single performance. Following its Philadelphia premiere, we are working toward bringing the project to other James Turrell Skyspace locations around the world, allowing each performance to respond to a new place, community, and environment while preserving the intersection of music, science, visual art, and the natural world at the heart of the project.

Future iterations may also expand beyond the concert itself through community and educational programming, including conversations with composers and performers, voice masterclasses, and public talks exploring black holes, astrophysics, and the process of transforming scientific data into sound.

As This Silent Music moves into its next phase, ongoing support is essential to making future performances possible. Contributions help support artist and composer fees, travel, venue and production costs, educational programming, and the continued development of a project designed to grow across communities and locations.

Collaborators

  • LJ White, composer

  • Mieke Doezema, composer

  • Alex Wakim, composer

  • Becka Phillipson, astrophysics consultant and creator of the audible light-curve sound files

  • Katy Avery, soprano and producer

  • Liz Lang, soprano and co-creator

  • Darren Lin, percussion

Love Between Worlds Album

Fall 2027

In October 2025, I presented two house concerts of music for soprano, harp and violin that featured a world premiere song cycle by Tim Mukherjee, two new arrangements by Scott Wheeler, another song cycle by Philadelphia-based composer Melissa Dunphy, and a rarely performed song by late 19th century composer Mel Bonis. Due to the unusual nature of the instrumentation as well as having these new pieces written for me, I am pursuing making a studio recording in the fall of 2026. Scott Wheeler has agreed to arrange the remainder of the songs from his cycle “Falling in Love with Ghosts”, originally written for soprano, Kathryn Levy and piano. Multiple Grammy-winning recording engineer Andy Kravitz has agreed to record, mix and master the recording, as well as connect us with his vinyl manufacturer, Studio 4 Vinyl. I am hoping to pursue working with New Focus recording to disseminate the album, and Philadelphia-based artist Marie Bender will work with her on creating album art.

Funding needs:

  • Studio recording/mixing/mastering with Andy: $13,500

  • Artist Fees: $2400

  • Vinyl Manufacturing: TBD

  • Record release fees: TBD

Body Image Multidisciplinary Project

Fall 2027

This project will address body image and disordered eating as experienced through the lens of female-identifying performance artists. I hope to bring awareness to the fat liberation movement as well as provide access to education on disordered eating, a much misunderstood concern that affects 28.8 million Americans. The performance will include a concert-length piece of music for soprano and chamber ensemble written by composer Emma Cardon-Wake with a libretto by Athena Kildegaard, modern dance choreographed by Lila Kushner, film projections by Kathryn Fulp, and costume design by Jess Holmes. Due to the expansive nature of this project, we are sharing a proof-of-concept film that was shot at our intended performance space by Katherine Reeves in May 2026. We will share this film with potential donors and grant providers to raise funds for the final project. Donations will go toward covering costs associated with the proof-of-concept film, as well as future project needs such as paying the artistic team, travel for out-of-town artists, renting the space, and recording.

As someone in recovery from disordered eating, I am very passionate about this subject. I have heard countless stories from other women who have struggled with their relationship with their bodies, whether they have been diagnosed or not. I believe every body deserves to be free from the oppression of societal expectations, and we should work tirelessly to silence the voices that prevent us from celebrating the natural beauty of our unique bodies.

Please connect with me via email if you would like to support this project with a more substantial gift. All donations are tax-deductible thanks to my fiscal sponsorship through the International Foundation for Contemporary Music, a 501(c)(3) organization.  

See our Proof-of-Concept

Collaborators:

Support the Project