In Lagrimas y Locuras, Mapping the Mind of a Madwoman, Joelle Wallach returns to her interest in music which expresses a specific inner life, a particular psychological landscape. Based on the Mexican folksong La Llorona, and commissioned by Ms. Cervantes from Ms. Wallach as part of her Song of the Monarch, Women in Mexico project, Lagrimas y Locuras reveals the inner monologue of La Llorona herself as she haunts the banks of Mexican waterways, railing against her fate, the betrayal of her lover and the result of her own impetuous rage.

Also on the program are other Song of the Monarch solo piano works by Brazil’s Silvia Berg, Colombia’s Alba Potes, Spain’s Pilar Jurado, the U.S.’s Anne LeBaron and Mexico’s Gabriela Ortíz, and Georgina Derbez. Ms. Cervantes will also present works by C.P.E. Bach and Debussy. More about the Song of the Monarch project at http://cantodelamonarca.com/eng.html.

For more concert information, call 418-182-0193 or visit http://www.doloreshidalgo.gob.mx/museo/principal_I.html.

Much more about Ana Cervantes at http://cervantespiano.com/.

The 4Tay label has released two CDs of Dr. Wallach’s music – The Door Standing Open – a critically acclaimed collection of songs and chamber works (CD 4034) – http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/joellewallach and The Nightwatch – more songs and solo piano works (CD 4035) – http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/joellewallach2. More about her at http://www.joellewallach.com.

Known as the nation’s foremost label launched by an orchestra and devoted exclusively to new music recordings, BMOP/sound today announced the June 18^th release of two new composer-centric albums – Michael Gandolfi: From the Institutes of Groove and Jacob Druckman: Lamia – both performed by the ever-intrepid Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP).

As a follow-up to the composer’s first BMOP/sound album Michael Gandolfi: Y2K Compliant (2008), From the Institutes of Groove is the latest endeavor in a long-standing affair between Michael Gandolfi and BMOP.  The recording’s three concertos showcase Gandolfi’s multifarious compositional techniques such as post-minimalist textures and interlaced grooves as well as intellectual inspirations such as science and architecture.  As evident throughout, he provides a stage for the soloists to reveal their single musical personalities and the varying facets of their respective instruments.

Two of the album’s works were written exclusively for BMOP: the 20-minute, four-movement Fantasia for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra featuring saxophonist Kenneth Radnofsky; and the eponymous From the Institutes of Groove featuring Venezuelan bass trombonist Angel Subero.  In Institutes, Gandolfi plays off Angel’s versatility as both a salsa and classical player.  Soaked in rhythmic patterns, the first movement “Too Jazz for Rock” is inspired by big-band sounds while the second “Rising on the Wing” a minimalist-like groove.  Rounding out the recording is Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra featuring Richard Svoboda, principal bassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. 

BMOP/sound’s second release this summer is Jacob Druckman: Lamia – a selection of five works that best represent Druckman’s mature period of polystylistic composition.  It exemplifies the composer’s talent for timbral possibilities and homogenous interplays.  The album includes the numinous Lamia (meaning “sorceress” according to Greek mythology) featuring mezzo-soprano Lucy Shelton and the sprightly Nor Spell Nor Charm (1990) inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to name a few.  A Pulitzer-prize winning composer, Druckman is “best known for his vividly scored and viscerally dramatic orchestral works”(New York Times).

About BMOP/sound                                                                                                                

BMOP/sound, the Grammy-nominated signature record label of the acclaimed Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), an eclectic, composer-centric catalog of both rediscovered classics of the 20th century and the music of today’s most influential and innovative composers. Since its launch in 2008, BMOP/sound recordings have received several accolades including: “Best of 2008” lists for its five inaugural releases in the New York Times, Boston Globe, National Public Radio, Time Out New York, American Record Guide, and Downbeat Magazine, among others; five Grammy nominations in 2009 for Charles Fussell: Wilde, in 2010 for Derek Bermel: Voices and in 2011 for Steven Mackey: Dream House.  The New York Times proclaimed, “BMOP/sound is an example of everything done right.” For more information, visit http://www.bmopsound.org.

LIFE ON EARTH
       a new work for chamber ensemble by PERI MAUER

     Music With a View Festival 2013 
     Wednesday June 19, 2013 7 PM
  The Flea Theater
41 White St.
NYC

Life on Earth Orchestra
Peri Mauer - composer, conductor, cellist
Art Baron, Kevin Clark – trombone
Sandy Coffin, Jack Walrath, Jordan Hirsch – trumpet
Carolyn Clark – french horn
Isabel Kim, Armando Vazquez – clarinet
Virginia Chang Chien – oboe
Lisa Loren, Stephanie Bazirjian, Don Hagar – flute
Judith Insell – viola
Jennifer Axelson, Inna Langerman – violin
Clarissa Howell, Peri Mauer – cello
Phil Smith – bass

Free admission
http://www.theflea.org/show_detail.php page_type=0&page_id=3&show_id=136

The opera, by composer/librettist Judith Sainte Croix and co-librettist Diana Carulli, depicts the effects of personal transformation on rainforest ecology.

The composer has written about the opera, “It tells the story of an ethno-botanist named Howard (Douglas McDonnell, dramatic tenor) looking for a healing plant in the rainforest. A local shaman, (Mary Hurlbut, soprano) puts an end to his exploration with a poison dart. Meaning only to stun him, she requires the aid of a Spirit Being, Lizard (Courtenay Symonds, coloratura) when his coma turns fatal. The intricacies of Howard’s connection to the forest, Lizard reveals, includes a ruthless trio of corporate executives, (Jessica Bowers, mezzo soprano, David Schmidt, bass baritone, Chad Kranak, tenor) who can only be stopped by Howard. They set about reviving him with extraordinary measures that include choruses of the Spirits of Nature.”

Ms. Sainte Croix’s music uses aural imagery evocative of the jungle to express a deeper, underlying reality. Ms. Sainte Croix refers to her style as evo-impressionism –that is, evocative music on themes of ecology and the evolutionary impulse of the universe. More about her at http://sonoratrio.com/Bio_Pages.html.

The opera is orchestrated for the Sonora Trio, Andrew Bolotowsky, flutes; Oren Fader, guitar; and Judith Sainte Croix, piano and tarka.

This performance is funded by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Sonora House, The Jerome Foundation and private donors.

Tickets are available at the door, with a $15 suggested donation.

The concert will start at 8 PM and will take place at the auditorium of Christ & St. Stephen’s Church (120 West 69th St) in Manhattan. Admission is free. No tickets needed.

Jose Serebrier

The featured composers are Latin Grammy awardees Carlos José Castro (from Costa Rica) and José Serebrier (from Uruguay). Violist Edmundo Ramírez will be the featured soloist for the American premiere of Castro’s Serenata de la Luna (Serenade to the Moon) for viola and string orchestra. The performance of Serebrier’s Adagio for Strings being heard in New York for the first time will mark the celebrated composer/conductor’s 75^th birthday.

Carlos Jose Castro

Accordionist William Schimmel (described by the NY Times as“…a virtuoso accordionist whose performances and recordings can be both entertaining and provocative”) will be the soloist for the first American performance of Anna Veismane’s Why Me? Originally from Latvia, Ms. Veismane is one of the most exciting young composers working in Eastern Europe at the moment.

Anna Veismane

Flutist Lisa Hansen will perform the solo part in Charles Norman Mason’s Soumaya for flute and strings. Mason was recently appointed Chair of the Composition Department at the University of Miami’s School of Music. Soumaya is a work inspired by the museum of the same name built by financier Carlos Slim in Mexico City to honor his departed wife.

Charles Mason

The program will conclude with Yellow Ribbons No. 48 by Max Lifchitz, the orchestra’s founder. The three movement work belongs to a series of works honoring the former American Hostages in Iran. Oboist Kathy Halvorson and clarinetist Nuno Antunes will be the featured soloists.

The composers will be present at the concert and will introduce their music to the audience.

 North/South Consonance’s 2012-13 season was made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; grants from the Arthur Berger Fund and the Music Performance Trust Funds; as well as contributions by many generous individuals.

His Broomstick for violin and piano will be performed on Thursday, June 20 at 8:00 PM at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 115 W 7th Street in Charlotte, North Carolina as part of the Charlotte New Music Festival.

The composer writes, “In outlining his second artistic principle – Quickness – Italo Calvino describes himself as “a Saturn who dreams of being a Mercury,” an older man predisposed to introversion and melancholy who nonetheless aspires to the speed and agility of the young god in winged sandals. That image tweaked a musical response from, and the result was Saturn Dreams of Mercury.

Other composers on the June 19 program include Schubert, Beethoven, Mark O’Connor, Michael Kurek and Scott Joplin. Visit The Atlantic Ensemble at http://atlanticensemble.com/.

The concert is free and open to the public, but donations will be accepted. For more information, visit http://www.firstparishtruro.org/.

Dillon writes about Broomstick, “To illustrate the first of his six artistic principles – Lightness – Italo Calvino recalls the weight of the domestic life borne by women through the centuries. In a leap that conveys the power of the imagination, these women took the tool of their servitude – the broom – and transformed it into an extraordinary symbol of lightness and power, donning their steep-peaked hats and soaring off to the moon.”

Other composers on the program are Adam Neal, Elizabeth Kowalski, Paul Watkins, Kim Chung Eun, Kaitlyn Wagner, Zach Albrecht, Ron Parks and Evan Williams.

For tickets and more information about the June 20 program and the Charlotte New Music Festival, visit http://www.charlottenewmusic.org/.

Naxos has issued Lawrence Dillon Violin Music (Catalogue No: 8.559644 – http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559644), featuring seven chamber works performed by violinist Danielle Belen, 2008 Grand Prize Winner of the Sphinx Competition. His other recent, critically-acclaimed CD release, Insects and Paper Airplanes, is on the Bridge label – http://www.bridgerecords.com/catpage.php?call=9332. His music is published by American Composers Alliance – http://composers.com/. Visit his website at http://www.lawrencedillon.com/.

The Quintet of the Americas will present A Celebration of Queens Composers on Sunday, June 16 – 2:00 PM at Queens Botanical Garden, 43-50 Main Street in Flushing, New York. The concert is presented in collaboration with the Latin American Cultural Center of Queens.

The program will feature Wind Quintet by Beata Moon (a resident of Forest Hills), Quintet No. 2 for Winds by James Cohn (who lives in Douglaston), The Stuff of Comets by Dylan Glatthorn (Astoria) and Sincerita by Christopher Caliendo (originally from Jackson Heights).

The concert will also feature music by past Queens residents including jazz by Louis Armstrong (whose house is in Corona), Asian-influenced music of Soong Fu-Yuan, rags by Scott Joplin (who lived his last years in Queens), Pavanne by Morton Gould (who grew up in Richmond Hill) and music from the Harry Potter films by John Williams (born in Flushing).

The June 16 concert is free with Botanical Garden admission. For more event information, call 718-230-5189 or visit http://www.quintet.org/concerts.html. This concert is ADA accessible. For MTA transportation information, visit http://tripplanner.mta.info/_start.aspx.

Visit the Quintet at http://www.quintet.org and become their friend at http://www.facebook.com/groups/325982319921/.

“’Summer of Sound’ performances are 90 minutes of pure out-of the-box adventures in sound,” says Worby, who founded MUSE/IQUE in 2011.  “Linking master artists like Patti Austin with unexpected musical pairings represents what MUSE/IQUE is all about.”

Worby coaxes Austin, a “vocal powerhouse,” to explore the far reaches of her staggering stylistic range with repertoire spanning Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars and Ira Gershwin’s Swanee, Slap that Bass and Lady Be Good to Tena Clark’s emotional Way Up There (written for NASA’s Space Shuttle Challenger), Duke Ellington’s apt Sophisticated Lady and the Beatles’ Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.  A special Paganini match up also features Austin on Sam Coslo’s hip jazz tune Mr. Paganini, which follows a blistering performance by MUSE/IQUE Concertmaster Roger Wilke of the second movement of Paganini’s tour de force Concert No. 2, one of the most difficult pieces ever written for violin.   Other orchestral works include Glinka’s Russina und Ludmilla Overture, a Dave Brubeck medley and Weill’s New York Suites: September Song and Mack the Knife.

MUSE/IQUE’s “Summer of Sound” continues on July 27 with “Moving Pictures,” featuring groundbreaking cellist Matt Haimovitz and actress Wendie Malick (“Hot in Cleveland”) in a fresh take on motion picture scores by Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith and Erich Korngold as well as a world premiere of a work by Peter Golub, prolific composer for films and theatre and director of Sundance’s Film Music Program, and some Bach and Beethoven as well.  It concludes August 17 with “Lose Your Senses with Ellis Hall,” which brings together celebrated vocalist/pianist virtuoso Ellis Hall, former Tower of Power lead singer, with the MUSE/IQUE orchestra, for a blend of soul by Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and beyond with works by Beethoven, Vivaldi and Bach, to celebrate life through music.

MUSE/IQUE, known for its inspired, unexpected live music events, connects master artists with new voices across a limitless range of styles.  Its counter-conventional performances, which feel more like parties than formal concerts, link musicians with great thinkers and compelling visual, cinematic and dance artists.  In the two years since MUSE/IQUE was founded by Artistic Director Rachael Worby, it has grown from one performance with a handful of devoted followers to a major cultural presence that reaches vast audiences.  Its considerable membership currently numbers nearly 500 people.  In the fall and spring, MUSE/IQUE presents “Uncorked” evenings at unconventional locations, and in the summer MUSE/IQUE features three outdoor “music parties” at Caltech’s Beckman Mall, all curated by the innovative and visionary Worby.   Among MUSE/IQUE’s guest artists are Jessye Norman, Charlie Haden, Patti Austin, Mary Wilson, Flea, Rickie Lee Jones, Ellis Hall, Matt Haimovitz, Angela Bassett, Arturo Sandoval and more.  Uncorked’s “pop-up” venues have included Pasadena’s Phoenix Decorating Center (where Rose Parade floats are constructed), Art Center College of Design Sculpture Garden, Castle Press (one of the nation’s largest printing presses), backstage at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and others.  KIDS/IQUE!, a primary element of the organization, serves boys and girls, ages 12 to 18, in the San Gabriel Valley’s network of foster care services by presenting ongoing interactive experiences with professional musicians and other artists designed to compliment the service goals of the foster care facilities even as they allow MUSE/IQUE to reach otherwise underserved youth.  Other outreach programs include free and low-cost tickets for students and community groups, and “Free For All,” a free annual concert featuring a fusion of music with family friendly surprises.

Caltech’s Beckman Mall is located at 332 S. Michigan Ave. Pasadena CA 91106.  Plentiful parking is free.  To reserve a catered dinner that can be picked up on site, please contact Perfect Equation Catering at (626) 529-5585.  Concert tickets begin at $10 per person with top tier seating, $96 per person, available to MUSE/IQUE members at the $1,000+ level; students with ID are $10.  MUSE/IQUE membership, which ranges from $250 to $2,500, includes a variety of special benefits including priority seating and services.  For tickets and membership information, please call 626-539-7085 or visit www.muse-ique.com.

Patti Austin

In Lagrimas y Locuras, Mapping the Mind of a Madwoman, Joelle Wallach returns to her interest in music which expresses a specific inner life, a particular psychological landscape. Based on the Mexican folksong La Llorona, and commissioned by Ms. Cervantes from Ms. Wallach as part of her Song of the Monarch, Women in Mexico project, Lagrimas y Locuras reveals the inner monologue of La Llorona herself as she haunts the banks of Mexican waterways, railing against her fate, the betrayal of her lover and the result of her own impetuous rage.

Also on the program are other Song of the Monarch solo piano works by Brazil’s Silvia Berg, Colombia’s Alba Potes, Spain’s Pilar Jurado, the U.S.’s Anne LeBaron and Mexico’s Gabriela Ortíz, and Georgina Derbez. Ms. Cervantes will also present works by C.P.E. Bach and Debussy. More about the Song of the Monarch project at http://cantodelamonarca.com/eng.html.

For more concert information, visit https://www.facebook.com/casadecultura.abasolo.

The 4Tay label has released two CDs of Dr. Wallach’s music – The Door Standing Open – a critically acclaimed collection of songs and chamber works (CD 4034) – http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/joellewallach and The Nightwatch – more songs and solo piano works (CD 4035) – http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/joellewallach2. More about her at http://www.joellewallach.com.

All three concerts are part of the Quintet’s Memory Project, three commissions based on interviews by New York composers with seniors at three senior centers in Queens.

Repertoire for these concerts includes Carl MaultsBy’s Abuelas, Nanas and Grandmamas Unsung, created during his work with seniors at Elm-Cor Senior Center, Music for Bayside by Lembit Beecher who worked with seniors at Bayside Senior Center and Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin’s Dancing Lullaby, the product of his time with seniors at the Salvation Army in Jackson Heights. More about the project and composers at http://www.quintet.org/.

The concerts will also feature local students performing with the Quintet. Other selections on the program will be works by Louis Armstrong, John Williams and dances from South America.

The June 11, 12 and 14 concerts are free and open to the public. For more event information, call 718-230-5189 or visit http://www.quintet.org/concerts.html.