On Monday, April, 22, Cantaloupe Records inaugurated its Cantaloupe Café series at The Strand in NYC. It took the form of an evening of music and conversation around Shelter—a collaboration between Bang on a Can co-founders Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe and David Lang.
Martha Cluver, Mellissa Hughes, and Caroline Shaw (known together as Va Vocals) performed “I Want to Live.”
coLABoratory: Playing It UNsafe (Workshop V) | American Composers Orchestra
coLABoratory: Playing It UNsafe is the first and only professional research and development lab to support the creation of cutting-edge new American orchestral music through no-holds-barred experimentation, encouraging composers to do anything but play it safe.The composers participating in coLABoratory this season are Du Yun, Troy Herion, Raymond J. Lustig, Judith Sainte Croix, and Dan Visconti, selected from a national search for their willingness to experiment and stretch their own musical sensibilities, and their ability to test the limits of the orchestra. This season, coLABoratory will include a unique incubation process of workshops, public readings, collaborative feedback, and laboratory performances of music, open to the public, taking place from November 2012 through April 2013. Each composer’s work is developed with the orchestra over the course of the season in a process that includes ACO’s Music Director George Manahan, ACO’s artistic leadership Robert Beaser and Derek Bermel, mentor composer Morton Subotnick, plus ACO advisors and members of the orchestra. Tuesday, April 2 at 2 PM FREE The DiMenna Center, 450 W 37th St., New York, NY ..:: Website
Premiere of Violin Sonata No. 2 | Robert Sirota
Robert Sirota – Photo by Brian Hatton
Violinist Laurie Carney and pianist David Friend will give the world premiere of Robert Sirota’s Violin Sonata No. 2. Sirota wrote the sonata for Carney, a founding member of the American String Quartet (ASQ), and dedicated it to their mothers who both passed away recently. The concert will also include Brahms’ Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 2 in A Major; Messiaen’s Theme and Variations; and Faure’s Piano Quartet in C Minor with violist Daniel Avshalomov (also of the ASQ) and cellist William Grubb (Carney’s husband). Tuesday, April 2 at 7:30 PM FREE Manhattan School of Music’s Greenfield Hall, 120 Claremont Ave., New York, NY ..:: Website [Read more →]
Atmospheric Shift: Music of the Elements & The Ice:STORM/The Wind:TORNADO | Two Sides Sounding & Zentripetal
TSS teams up with new music duo Zentripetal for series of musical perspectives on the climate extremes experienced globally and seen locally in Brooklyn, as heard through element-inspired chamber music of living composers. Part one of an ongoing project that explores how forces of nature affect individuals every day, from heat and humidity to winds and rain. Music by Eve Beglarian, Gloria Coates, Michael Djupstrom, Daniel Felsenfeld, Lei Liang, Gilda Lyons, and Michael Rose, plus TSS-commissioned works by Kala Pierson and Kamala Sankaram, and a world premiere by Lynn Bechtold. Monday, March 18 at 8 PM Tickets $15, $10 students/seniors/artists South Oxford Space, 138 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NY ..:: Website
Those Who Do Not Move | Ensemble Sospeso and Moto Perpetuo
Nicholas DeMaison, conductor
These two organizations team up to present the world premiere of Those Who Do Not Move for large ensemble of speaking musicians, live electronics, and dancers by Lewis Nielson. Sharing the program is the US premiere of Simon Bainbridge’s Garden of Earthly Delights for solo mezzo soprano and counter tenor, large ensemble, 8 voice choir, and video. Tuesday, March 19 at 8 PM Tickets $15, 10 members/students/seniors Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY ..:: Website [Read more →]
Red Light New Music, a composer collective and new music ensemble now in its seventh season, presented Music in Layers on May 21 at Symphony Space in New York City. The performance included pieces by six composers, interwoven by ambient soundscapes and interludes designed by Christopher Cerrone and Adrian Knight. The concert highlighted new arrangements of works by Cerrone and Knight, as well as additional local composers Vincent Raikhel, Liam Robinson and Scott Wollschleger, plus one piece from John Cage. Cerrone and Knight based the electronic interludes on field recordings collected from New York City; Harriman State Park; Stockholm, Sweden; and Miami, Florida. These electronic interludes were meant to create a seamless listening experience, connecting one piece to the next, as well as encouraging the audience to appreciate the musicality of everyday existence.
Liam Robinson, Vincent Raikhel, Christopher Cerrone, Scott Wollschleger
Last March, and for two nights only, Brooklyn Village was performed in Downtown Brooklyn. Advertised as a “multimedia spectacular,” the show took the audience on a time travel to honor the cultural heritage of Downtown Brooklyn, and showcased the trifecta of what some people call Brooklyn’s cultural renaissance: the newly “rebooted” Brooklyn Phil, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BYC) and Roulette.
Alan Pierson and the Brooklyn Philharmonic – Photo by Joshua Simpson
From the very beginning, the retro, era-bending tone was set since the program itself came in the form of a fake issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eaglewhose date had been carefully smeared to remain intentionally vague. The “articles” introduced the pieces, the performers and the composers in a mockingly sensational way (Brooklyn Indie Rock Musician Sufjan Stevens Detained by NYPD). The dramatic dimension was introduced by Alan Pierson who greeted the entire hall with great enthusiasm (I’m paraphrasing): in these uncertain times of crisis, what Brooklyn needs is more music! Pierson thanked the people who bravely crossed the frozen east river on a sled, and the audience seemed to enjoy the good-natured, humorous atmosphere.
MATA 2012 is happening right now for the first time at Roulette, and we wanted to take the time to talk to one of the composers featured on the April 20th concert SIGNS AND SIGNALS: David Coll. David has studied at the University of Illinois, IRCAM in Paris (Cursus and Cursus 2), and at the University of California-Berkeley, receiving his PhD in December 2010. He now lives and works in Belgium.
Position, Influence (2010), for soprano and electronics will be performed by Mellissa Hughes this coming Friday and we were really curious about that piece…
How did you discover the de Gaulle speeches that you used as a textual source for Position, Influence?
It was part of the journey of gathering material for the piece. I remember spending a lot of time with Pasolini actually, but his poetry was underwhelming compared to his highly charged films. I looked at Isidore Isou as well, but nothing came together. Finally, getting more into the Enrages and the Situationists, I realized I needed to look at some historical documents. I subscribed to INA (Ed. French for National Audiovisual Institute) and all of a sudden I see de Gaulle (Ed. Charles de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969). What an incredible look and figure, I thought.
In fact the pieces opening line (Je ne me retirerai pas / I will not step down! (from office)) is the only fragment that is De Gaulle. And it is his first statement after returning from abroad and having the Mai 68 events already in full force. After that, the piece moves in many directions, and the text is mine actually.
Red Light New Music, a composer collective and new music ensemble now in its seventh season, presented Music in Layers on May 21 at Symphony Space in New York City. The performance included pieces by six composers, interwoven by ambient soundscapes and interludes designed by Christopher Cerrone and Adrian Knight. The concert highlighted new arrangements of works by Cerrone and Knight, as well as additional local composers Vincent Raikhel, Liam Robinson and Scott Wollschleger, plus one piece from John Cage. Cerrone and Knight based the electronic interludes on field recordings collected from New York City; Harriman State Park; Stockholm, Sweden; and Miami, Florida. These electronic interludes were meant to create a seamless listening experience, connecting one piece to the next, as well as encouraging the audience to appreciate the musicality of everyday existence.
Last March, and for two nights only, Brooklyn Village was performed in Downtown Brooklyn. Advertised as a “multimedia spectacular,” the show took the audience on a time travel to honor the cultural heritage of Downtown Brooklyn, and showcased the trifecta of what some people call Brooklyn’s cultural renaissance: the newly “rebooted” Brooklyn Phil, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus (BYC) and Roulette.
