Calendar

Uruguayan-American pianist Polly Ferman will be in concert with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, presenting music of Astor Piazzolla on Saturday, January 13 – 8:00 PM at the Sha Tin Town Hall Auditorium, 1 Yuen Wo Road in Hong, Kong, China.

Ms. Ferman will be joined by conductor German Gutierrez in a performance of Piazzolla’s Invierno and Verano Porteno for piano and strings. Bandoneon master Daniel Binelli will perform the composer’s Concerto for Bandoneon and Chamber Orchestra and will also join Ms. Ferman for performances of other Piazzolla masterworks.

For tickets and information, call URBTIX at 2734 9009 or visit the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong at http://www.ccohk.com/. More about the concert at http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/music/jan07/citychamber.html.

Read Polly Ferman’s new Imágenes newsletter at http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/jan07/PF_nws_010407.htm.

Visit her website at http://www.pollyferman.net.

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project Presents the 9^TH Annual Boston Connection Concert Featuring New England Conservatory Alumni and Boston-Based Composers

As Part of BMOP’s 10^th Anniversary Season

Boston, MA— The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the country’s premier new music orchestra, hosts the 9^th annual Boston Connection concert Saturday, January 20^th @ 8:00pm at Jordan Hall (30 Gainsborough Street).  To honor and acknowledge the vibrant health of Boston’s new music community, BMOP, along with special guest artists including the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Kenneth Radnofksy (saxophone) and Andrew Beer (violin), will perform a range of musical styles from local Bostonian composers, including three NEC alumni composers, in addition to the selected score from the 9^th annual BMOP/NEC composition competition.

According to Gil Rose, BMOP’s Artistic Director and Conductor, this concert has become a significant Boston tradition.  “The city of Boston has been planting seeds of new music composers for years.  This concert is an opportunity to highlight their growth and emerging careers.”  BMOP/NEC’s evolving relationship began in 1997 out of a mutual desire to give Boston-based composers and performers a venue for presenting new music. Today, Jordan Hall remains BMOP’s primary venue, and NEC faculty, alumni, and student composers continue to provide a rich repertoire for the orchestra, as demonstrated by the annual Boston Connection concert.

NEC alumnus Michael Gandolfi presents the world premiere of his Saxophone Concerto with guest artist Kenneth Radnofksy.  A Boston native, Gandolfi is the most local of the evening’s Boston-connected composers, having grown up in Melrose, currently living in Cambridge, and still teaching at NEC.  Fellow NEC alumnus Mathew Rosenblum employs a unique 21-pitch octave evident in his Möbius Loop, a one movement four-part-split personality of saxophones performed by the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, for whom the work was composed.  In Möbius Loop, the composer’s interest in pop music, freer jazz forms, and Cuban music is reflected.  Like Rosenblum, David Rakowski attended both NEC and Princeton and is one of the most exuberant and popular personalities in Boston’s new music scene.   The perpetual-motion element found in his Winged Contraption is one encountered frequently in Rakowski’s music.

Though composed fifteen years ago for a workshop performance by the American Composers Orchestra, the BMOP performance will be its first public performance. The piece was a 60th birthday present for Boston-based composer Martin Boykan.  As a technical exercise for himself, Rakowski composed, orchestrated, and copied to score for days, and ended this nine-minute piece at the end of the 60^th page of the full score.  Both Rakowski’s Winged Contraption and Rosenblum’s Möbius Loop will be recorded by BMOP for future release.

Rounding out the program is Mario Davidovsky’s Concertino for Violin and Chamber Orchestra; a concerto reflecting an engagement with music history.  “I intended to lift the particular 20^th century form of ‘violinism’ out of its original historical context, and embed it into the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic fabric of a composition written at the end of this century,” explains Davidovsky.  Known as a pioneer for usage of electronic soundscapes, he is the former director of Harvard University’s Studio for Electrocacoustic Composition, the current Professor Emeritus, and an elder statesman and mentor for many of Boston’s young composers. 

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project has had an outstanding reputation amongst Boston’s most innovative and performing arts organizations for attracting multi-generational audiences and providing thematic, diversified programming, and a national reputation for performing and recording new orchestral music at the highest level.  Founded in 1996 by Artistic Director Gil Rose, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project strives to illuminate the connections that exist between contemporary music and contemporary society by reuniting composers and audiences

in a shared concert experience.  In just 10 years, BMOP has received eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Orchestral Music, and at the 2006 American Symphony Orchestra League conference BMOP received the prestigious John S. Edwards Award for Strongest Commitment to New American Music.  BMOP has appeared at the Bank of America Celebrity Series, the Boston Cyberarts Festival, Tanglewood, the Festival of New American Music (Sacramento, CA), and Music on the Edge (Pittsburgh, PA).  In Boston BMOP performs at Jordan Hall and Symphony Hall, and has performed in New York at Miller Theater, the Winter Garden, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.  BMOP recordings are available from Albany, New World, Naxos, Arsis, Oxingale, and Chandos, and are regularly reviewed by national and international publications including The New York Times (Best CDs of 2003), the Chicago Tribune (Best CDs of 2004), Gramophone, Fanfare, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Time Out New York (Best CDs of 2004), The Boston Globe (Best CDs of 2003), Paris Transatlantic Monthly, LA Weekly, Opera Now, BBC Music, and American Record Guide.
BMOP is generously supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Meet the Composer and other private foundations, and individuals.

Gil Rose, Artistic Director, Founder, and Conductor for BMOP, is recognized as one of a new generation of American conductors shaping the future of classical music.  Since 2003, Rose has served as Music Director of Opera Boston, launching the much-celebrated Opera Unlimited, a ten-day contemporary opera festival performed with BMOP.  He was recently chosen as the “Best Conductor of 2003″ by Opera Online.  The Boston Globe claims he “is some kind of genius; his concerts are wildly entertaining, intellectually rigorous, and meaningful.”

Lisa Bielawa is a New York-based composer-vocalist and enthusiastic advocate for new music, and the new Composer-in-Residence for BMOP starting October 2006.  Bielawa currently serves on the Board of the American Music Center and teaches composition through the New York Youth Symphony Making Score program.  She is also one of the founders and co-directors of the MATA festival, which was New York Times reviewer Allan Kozinn’s #1 Classical Pick of the Year.  In the works is her piece for migrating ensembles and soprano Susan Narucki for performance in public spaces, a multi-year project of Creative Capital.

Ticket Information:
Tickets range from $21 – $42 for the January 20^th concert at Jordan Hall.  Special pricing for students $10.  Seniors receive a 10% discount. FREE pre-concert talk @ 7:00pm. For tickets, call BMOP at 617.363.0396 or visit www.bmop.org.   Tickets are also available for sale at the Jordan Hall Box Office three weeks before the concert and at the door, subject to availability.

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Boston Modern Orchestra Project Presents the Second of its 2007 Club Concerts Series

WHEN:        Tuesday, February 6^th @ 7:00pm.  Doors open at 6:00pm. The next Club Concert is scheduled for April 3^rd, 2007.

WHO:          Members of the Boston Modern Orchestra Project including BMOP’s Composer-in-Residence Lisa Bielawa, Sarah Bob (piano), Aaron Trant (percussion), and Gabriela Diaz (violin).

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Contemporary Music Concert Series @ the Chelsea Art Museum
Saturday, January 20th @ 2 pm

Presented by Nina Colosi, The ProjectRoom.org with Jen Stock, composer/curator.

1-BIT MUSIC, “Part handheld danceteria, part art,” (Wired) is a project by composer/artist Tristan Perich, who accompanies his 1-bit minimal glitch/dance music live on drums.

COREY DARGEL is a composer/lyricist/singer who performs art songs that “smartly and impishly blur the boundaries between contemporary classical idioms and pop” (New York Times). He performs a set of original music with Jim Altieri on violin.

SOUNDBOOK ONE performs songs for computer, electric guitar, and percussion by composer/curator Jen Stock. Jen Stock, laptop; Mark Dancigers, guitar; Koven Smith, drums.

INGRAM MARSHALL’S SOE-PA for guitar and digital delay performed by Evan Drummond.

Chelsea Art Museum
Home of the Miotte Foundation
556 West 22nd Street @ 11th Avenue
212-255-0719
ChelseaArtMuseum.org

$10 general, $7 students/seniors includes Museum admission, includes museum admission.
FREE for Museum members.

Composer/Performer Information
Jim Altieri: http://www.tweeg.net
Mark Dancigers: http://www.markdancigers.com
Corey Dargel: http://www.automaticheartbreak.com
Evan Drummond: http://www.evandrummond.com
Tristan Perich: http://www.onebitmusic.com
Koven J. Smith: http://www.kovenjsmith.com
Jennifer Stock: http://www.soundbookone.com

For information:
nina.colosi@gmail.com
646-425-0981

Charles Griffin’s The Far Field for high voice, clarinet and piano will be heard in a performance by soprano Melissa Fogarty on Tuesday, January 9, 8 PM at the Church of the Incarnation, 25 East 35^th Street  in New York City.

Ms. Fogarty will be joined by clarinetist Christopher Cullen and pianists Laura Barger and Jennifer Griesbach for the Griffin work, as well as music by Rodrigo, Britten and Schubert. For more about Melissa Fogarty, please visit http://www.melissafogarty.com/.

The Far Field is based on a text by renowned American poet Theodore Roethke. The third movement of the work can be heard online at http://www.charlesgriffin.net/audio.html.

Suggested donation for this concert is $20. For more information about this concert, please call the church at 212-689-6350 or visit http://churchoftheincarnation.org/.

Read Charles Griffin’s From the Faraway Nearby blog on Sequenza 21 at http://www.sequenza21.com/latvia/ and his newsletter of the same name at http://www.jamesarts.com/releases/oct06/CG_nws_100206.htm. You can also hear a marvelous new Noizepunk & Das Krooner interview with him at http://www.kalvos.org/nkshows.html. 

Much more about him at his website – http://www.charlesgriffin.net/.

New York composer Michael Colina’s Habanera for violin, flute, clarinet, bassoon and piano will be performed as part of a special tribute to composer Keith Gates on Sunday, January 7 – 2PM at Watson Chamber Music Hall on the campus of the North Carolina School of the Arts, 1533 South Main St. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The program will feature works written by and for Gates, a composer who graduated from the NCSA high school program in 1967 and stayed for two years of undergraduate study before going on to The Juilliard School, where he earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music and studied composition with Vincent Persichetti and Hugo Weisgall.

Flutist and conductor Ransom Wilson, who graduated from the NCSA School of Music in 1969, recruited NCSA music and drama alumni from across the country to perform on the concert. School of Music faculty and students will also perform.

Performers for the Habanera will be Joseph Genualdi, violin Robert Carter, clarinet; Ransom Wilson, flute; Andrew Cordle, bassoon and Michael Colina at the piano.

Admission is free, but tickets are required. Please call the NCSA Box Office at 336-721-1945 or visit them online at http://www.ncarts.edu/.

Much more about Michael Colina at http://www.michaelcolina.com/.

The Quintet of the Americas will present “Borrowing the Theme,” a concert on Saturday, January 6, 2007 at 2:00 p.m. at The Flushing Library Auditorium, 41-17 Main Street in Flushing, Queens, New York. Special guest artist will be Gaudencio Thiago de Mello, organic percussion.

The Quintet will return to the Flushing Library for a concert of music based on themes borrowed from TV soundtracks, older music and sounds from nature. “Mozart Fantasy,” a new work by Douglaston composer James Cohn, will be featured. Mr. Cohn was commissioned by the Quintet to composer this work in honor of Mozart’s 250th Birthday year. Also featured will be new works by Brazilian composer Gaudencio Thiago de Mello. Rob Paterson’s “Suburban Waltz Fantasy”, filled with theme songs from old TV shows, Elliott Schwartz’ “Bird Bath” which includes bird calls and quotes of other pieces related to birds, Concerto No. 2 after Vivaldi (originally for organ) arranged for wind quintet by Mordechai Rechtman, a suite of Brazilian Songs by Ernesto Nazareth and As Proesas de Nolasco by Pixinguinha will also be performed.

This concert is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact The Flushing Library at 718- 661-1200 or visit their website at http://www.queenslibrary.org.

Visit the Quintet of the Americas at http://www.quintet.org.

Music by American composer Beth Anderson will be presented at two New York City concerts during the first week of January 2007.

Tuesday, January 2 – 7:30 PM, the Jade String Trio will perform the composer’s Jasmine Swale and other works written for them based on Chinese Folk Tunes from different regions, including pieces by Victoria Bond and Joelle Wallach, at Saint Peter’s Church at Citicorp Center, 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street in New York City. This concert is sponsored by New York Women Composers.

Tickets to the January 2 concert are $20, $10 for student/senior. For reservations or more information, contact the Jade String Trio at (212) 666-5708. Visit them online at http://www.jadestringtrio.com/.

Saturday, January 6 – 8 PM, the composer will perform several of her text-sound works, including If I Were A Poet, Country Time, The People Rumble Louder, Yes Sir Ree, I Can’t Stand It, I Wish I Were Single Again and Ocean Motion Mildew Mind from her Pogus CD Peachy-Keen-O as part of the month-long Independents Festival at the Issue Project Room, 400 Carroll Street, between Bond and Nevins in Brooklyn, New York. Presented by Front Porch Productions, Pogus Records and the Issue Project Room, this program will also include performances by Monique Buzzarte, LMB (Katherine Liberovskaya/Al Margolis/Monique Buzzarte) and Nick Didkovsky with the Sirius String Quartet. For more about the Independents Festival and more about the Issue Project Room, visit http://www.issueprojectroom.org/events.html.

Tickets to the January 6 concert are $15. For more information, contact the Issue Project Room at 718-330-0313.

For more information about composer Beth Anderson, including a bio, list of works, discography and much more, please visit http://www.beand.com.

The San Francisco Chamber Orchestra celebrates the New Year with four free concerts featuring Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto, Schubert’s Fifth Symphony and Handel’s Trumpet Concerto in G minor.  With trumpeter Jeff Strong and pianist Robert Schwartz. 

Friday, Dec. 29 at 8pm, Herbst Theater, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco

Saturday, Dec. 30 at 8pm, Marin Showcase Theater, 3510 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael

Sunday, Dec. 31 at 8pm, First Congregational Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley

Monday, Jan. 1, 3pm,St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 600 Colorado Ave., Palo Alto

Information: 415-248-1640 or http://www.sfchamberorchestra.org

ROBERT ASHLEY: CONCRETE (Premiere)

PERFORMANCE INFO
5 performances: January 17-21, 2007 [Wed-Sun] at 8 p.m.

LOCATION
La MaMA E.T.C. Annex, 74A East 4th Street, New York

TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets: $20 / $15 – Box Office: 212-475-7710
Online tickets and information: www.lamama.org

CREDITS
Text, music and direction by Robert Ashley
Singers: Sam Ashley, Thomas Buckner, Jacqueline Humbert, Joan La Barbara
Electronic orchestra: Robert Ashley
Mixing and live electronics: Tom Hamilton

More information….

La MaMa E.T.C., in association with World Music Institute’s “Interpretations” Series, is pleased to present the premiere of Robert Ashley’s new opera, Concrete, January 17-21, 2007. The pioneer opera composer whose hyper-dense and accelerated scores have been praised for “taking opera into the multimedia age” (The Wire) further explores what he began in Dust (2000) and Celestial Excursions (2003),, the speech rhythms and states of mind of seemingly ordinary people. Conceived, written and composed by Ashley (76), Concrete makes public the ruminations of an old man and his reminiscences of people he has loved and worked with, all who have gambled spectacularly with money and with their lives. The cast features new music luminaries Sam Ashley, Tom Buckner, Jacqueline Humbert, and Joan la Barbara, who have sung Ashley’s work for the last 20 years and are fluent in his unique vocal techniques, and Tom Hamilton, who processes and mixes the voices and orchestra. Unique to this opera is that Ashley creates the computer-generated orchestra live, making the dialogue between the voices and the orchestra new at each performance.

Like Dust which captured the ramblings of homeless people and Celestial Excursions which ventured into the confined world of an old people’s home, Concrete takes an inward look at the human condition in an individual. In the opera, the singers are not characters in the traditional sense but voices speaking as part of an old man’s musing. The work is structured around five internal “discussions” in which the singers use a rapid and rhythmically altered conversational style. The “discussions” are about ideas that are “right in front of us” but rarely discussed: why are buildings in a city so perfectly aligned when the earth is round? Why do games that people play so often move counter-clockwise? What makes people keep secrets? Interjected into these “discussions” are four solo arias in which each of the performers tells the short but detailed life of someone the old man has known in the past and whose life holds some kind of secret. These are the lives of ordinary people who did extraordinary things for which they will never be recognized. Only the audience hears their stories, no one is named: these are “secret” lives.

“The characters I’m interested in,” Ashley explains, “are marginal, because everybody is marginal compared to the stereotypes. I am interested in their profoundly good qualities, and I’m not interested at all in evil. The characters in my work are as bizarre and unreal as the characters in William Faulkner. They just happen to be ordinary people who are spiritually divine.” (The Wire magazine, 2003).

Important to this opera is a unique ensemble and solo singing technique invented by Ashley. Singers are entirely free of any obligation to bars and beats in the expression of their character as part of one of the internal “discussions” or as a storyteller. All of the singers’ decisions about pitch, inflection, and manner are derived from what happens melodically and harmonically in the orchestra. Ashley creates the orchestra using a computer program that has gained popularity among dance club DJs, but has not been used in longer concert or staged works. It allows the operator to place pre-recorded orchestral “samples” (in this case, all created by Ashley) anywhere in the ongoing mix and to create any level of harmonic and rhythmic density in the mix. The samples can be re-used and re-processed in any way to create orchestral “themes”. Thus, in each performance the singers will be working with a new orchestra, but one that is based on familiar materials.

Concrete is funded by the MAP Fund at Creative Capital and the Phaedrus Foundation.

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