Join us for an evening of experimental collaboration at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center with Ida Dierker, Brandon Gouin, and LOCALLC (Landon George and Adam McDaniel).
LOCALLC is a revolving door of local live collaborators. This iteration of the collective features multi-instrumentalists Landon George and Adam McDaniel.
Landon George (b.1995) is a multi-instrumentalist and serial collaborator based in western North Carolina. His work draws from a variety of influences, ranging from free improvised chaos to minimalist country ballad singing.
Adam McDaniel is a music producer and multi-instrumentalist living in Asheville, North Carolina. Adam’s role as a producer in pop, rock, and jazz is characterized by a propensity for experimentation and the inclusion of musique concrète techniques. As founder and co-owner of Drop of Sun Studios, Adam McDaniel is dedicated to the arts community of Asheville and beyond, fostering a space and time for artists to seek and discover spiritual and emotional truth in music.
Ida Dierker and Brandon Gouin are a piano/percussion duo founded on free improvisation and are committed to performing works of contemporary music. The pair met in an improvisation class at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and since then have performed as an improvised duo in Baltimore’s free scene. Dierker/Gouin have performed many well known works by composers such as Globokar, Feldman, Meredith Monk and Kagel as a part of UMBC’s New Music and Percussion Ensembles. Ida and Brandon are members of the Hi-Tom Ensemble, a group focused on performing works by underrepresented composers and adapting New Music staples to smaller and more accessible instrumentations. In 2024, Ida and Brandon attended the contemporary music festival, Nief Norf in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Growing up in Baltimore City, Ida Dierker studied classical piano. She attended the Baltimore School for the Arts and later the University of Maryland Baltimore County, where she studied music performance with Dr. Daniel Pesca and Dr. Teodora Adzharova. During her time at UMBC, she developed a deep appreciation for New Music and improvisation. She has worked directly with composers and performers such as Lois V. Vierk, George E. Lewis, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Chelsea Loew, and Vicky Chow. In 2025, Ida completed both her senior recital titled “Taking Back the Piano”, as well as completing an undergraduate research award. These two projects focus on works solely by women and non-binary composers. Since graduating, Ida has played High Zero, a longstanding Baltimore improvised music festival and performs in the city’s experimental scene as a soloist and member of Hi-Tom Ensemble. She also writes and performs her original songs. Ida’s original song “Figures” appears on More Noise Radio’s compilation album, “Sounds of Baltimore”. Ida teaches private piano lessons full time and aims to bring her love for exploring and experimenting to her students.
Brandon Gouin is an improvisor and performer of contemporary music from Laurel, Maryland. His current projects involve bringing contemporary music to Baltimore City and DC schools and commissioning composers to write accessible works of music for performers of different physical ability. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County where he studied with Tom Goldstein. He also completed the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Contemporary American Music program from UMBC, studying under Dustin Donahue. In both 2023 and 2024, Brandon attended the Nief Norf festival of New Music in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has had opportunities to work with composers such as Annea Lockwood, Robert Morris, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Chelsea Leow. Brandon teaches private drumset lessons and performs in the Hi-Tom Ensemble.