Rob Voisey sent along this about the upcoming Vox Novus concert at Jan Hus Church:
MARCH 28TH,2010 (NEW YORK, NEW YORK) Vox Novus in collaboration with the Remarkable Theater Brigade and Jan Hus Church is proud to present their monthly chamber concert series Sunday, March 28th at 1:00. This month’s special Women’s History Month concert features performances by Nadine Carey (voice), Jasmin Cowin (harp) Laura Jordan (marimba), Margaret Lancaster (flute), Milica Paranosic (voice, berimbau, electronics), Daisy Press (voice), Jody Redhage (voice, cello), Theresa Thompson (flute), Heesun Shin (violin), Mara Waldman (piano), and Sophia Yan (piano) performing the composition of Rebekah Driscoll, Emily Koh, Laura Koplewitz, Dorothy Rudd Moore, Milica Paranosic, Daisy Press, Jody Redhage, Faye-Ellen Silverman, and Molly Thompson.
One of Kyle Gann’s Favorite Women Composers of All Time, Milica Paranosic has also been portrayed: …”free-wheeling, performance-art-type cat “(Kyle Gann) …”a painter, a music Jackson Pollack”, (SEAMUS, Eric Somers) … and her music: “amazing….astonishing…” (Jack Anderson, New York Times), and “edgily comical” (Klaus Klingbeil, Der Lausitzer Rundschau, Germany). Allan Kozinn of The New York Times labeled her “Parabaraba,” a piece commissioned and performed by the New Juilliard Ensemble, the most captivating piece on the program.
The New York Times describes Molly Thompson’s music as “rhapsodic music with…jazzy outbursts and exuberant chaos.” The LA Times called her Draft of Shadows “a clever mash-up of tango, rock rhythms, and taped city noises, more party music than parlor music” and Spoleto Today called The Great Hush “eerie and lovely.”
“ Called an “adventurous cello songstress” (Time Out New York), cellist, composer, and vocalist Jody Redhage is “a new music dynamo…Redhage is cultivating a repertoire of indie art songs that breaches genre boundaries and makes for stirring listening” (MusicWorks Magazine). Her dual passions for chamber music and new music have led her to participate in an array of cutting-edge projects.
More info: robvoisey@voxnovus.com
Hailed as “our leading exponent of the avant-garde flute” (Kyle Gann, Village Voice), Margaret Lancaster has built a large repertoire of new works composed for her that employ extended techniques, dance, drama, multi-media and electronics. She has recorded on New World Records, OO Discs, Innova, Naxos and Tzadik, and was selected for Meet the Composer’s New Works for Soloist Champions project.
Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times writes of pianist Sophia Yan, “…the music literally pulls her off the piano bench; she ranges up and down the keyboard so quickly and with such ferocity that mere sitting will not do.”
Composer’s Voice Concert Series is an opportunity for contemporary composers to express their musical aesthetic and personal “voice” created in their compositions. Started in 2001, the “Composer’s Voice” concert series is presenting its 46th concert Sunday March 28th.
Composer, arts administrator, educator, and now, festival curator, Laura Kaminsky is exactly the type of advocate contemporary music needs to ensure its survival. Until recently a dean at the Conservatory of Music atPurchase College/SUNY (she remains on the faculty), she’s currently Associate Artistic Director at Symphony Space. Since her arrival, Kaminsky has done a great deal to enhance the music programming at the venue.
“Symphony Space has long been known for its literary events. But in recent years we’ve been hard at work to create an increased role for music in our programming: both in terms of performances and in our educational activities. We’re trying to create a home at Symphony Space for all different kinds of music. I’m particularly pleased with our incorporation of Latin American music into various projects. We are lucky to have both classical composer Tania León and jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill and his Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestrainvolved in our programs.â€
Despite the currently gloomy economic times, she’s helped to organize an ambitious weeklong undertaking spotlighting contemporary music: Composers Now. It all started with a conversation she had with León.
“Tania pointed out that poets and playwrights generally have a much greater public presence than composers. Oftentimes performers become the focus of an event and, apart from their music, we don’t get to know the composers too well. So, we decided to help to organize a festival that gives composers in New York a public face.â€
The Composers Nowfestival has involved dozens of presenters, ensembles, and organizations. And Kaminsky is quick to eschew any notions of single-minded leadership, remarking instead that, “This was very much a team effort. I lived for a time in West Africa and I learned there that it really does take a village. The idea of Composers Now took shape gradually and somewhat informally, beginning as a series of conversations over lunch or a cup of coffee with various area presenters and arts professionals.â€
“It seemed as if it was just as we were getting started that the economy took a drastic turn for the worse. For a little while, our informal group of organizers was reluctant to broach the issue, but eventually we started to talk openly about the funding challenges we were all experiencing; about being nervous about the future of our organizations and of this project.â€
“I learned something very valuable from those conversations: when people trust each other enough to speak the truth, great things can happen. Once we had had voiced our concerns, we were able to set about finding ways to make Composers Now a reality. By getting creative, we found a solution. The organizers were able to find a week in the ’09-’10 season when we could all commit to programming contemporary music or involving composers in some way.â€
Kaminsky and company didn’t look at this as an event exclusively open to composers of concert music. In likeminded spirit to her work at Symphony Space, Composers Now has welcomed a wide range of styles and genres, including Latin American music and jazz. Within the confines of its contemporary classical programming, the composers highlighted have been from a similarly catholic array of styles, ranging from a concert by ‘downtowners’ Bang on a Can to a Composers Portrait of Benet Casablancas at Miller Theatre.
“If all goes well, we want Composers Now to stretch beyond the boundaries of New York City in coming years. I don’t see why this shouldn’t be a nationwide program that raises awareness of composers with events throughout the United States.â€
If a village’s worth of arts presenters can achieve what Composers Now 2010 has done in NYC, imagine what arts organizations across the whole country could do?
Sure, the recession has caused for cutbacks in the arts. But composers are a resilient bunch. This week, New York City will be the site for the first Composers Now festival. Coordinated by Symphony Space Associate Artistic Director Laura Kaminsky and composer Tania León, the festival involves a host of area venues and organizations.
The activities start Monday morning with a panel discussion and a marathon concert from 12-6. Tonight alone, there are events at Symphony Space, the Schomburg Center, the Morgan Library, the Jazz Gallery, and the Flushing Branch of the Queens Library.
Composers Now will run throughout the week – and so will our coverage on Sequenza 21. Steve Layton’s started things off with an interview of Michael Hersch. I’ll be posting an interview with Laura Kaminsky. We’d love to hear reports from attendees about the various Composers Now events: a truly ambitious undertaking that we hope lots of you will be able to enjoy.
For those readers who won’t be in the New York area this week: take heart. If all goes well, Composers Now hopes to create festivals in many more venues in years to come.
After my church gig on Sunday, I’m presenting a faculty recital at Westminster Choir College. I’ll be singing pieces by two student composers from our program: Michael Fili and Matthew Samson. Pianist Rebecca Leshures will premiere three pieces by Robert Thomas. Jody Redhage will be singing a set of my songs, a set of hers, and a piece by Daniel Felsenfeld. Joe Arndt will be playing my solo organ work Spiritual Variations. Flutist John McMurtery and pianist Ashlee Mack will perform works by Robert Morris, James Romig, and yours truly.
Faculty Recital: 21st Century Music with Christian Carey
Despite the impending snow this weekend will be a packed one.
I’m attending the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’sconcert this Saturday at Carnegie Hall. Pianist Angela Hewitt will be appearing with the ensemble, performing as soloist in Bach’s Concerto for Piano and Strings in D minor. Christopher Taylor will be the piano soloist in the premiere of a new work by Peter Maxwell Davies. The latter piece, Sea Orpheus, is a trope on Bach’s chamber concerto style, using Brandenburg #5 as its inspiration. Dvorak’s E major Serenade for Strings and Stravinsky’s Basel Concerto round out the program. I’ll be reviewing the concert for Musical America.
This Sunday, the Prism Quartet is celebrating 25 years of concertizing and the release of various CDs with a show at Le Poisson Rouge (details below). The show will feature music from their recording catalogue, focusing on their most recent projects. They’ve also shared a sneak peek at their set list, with audio clips below.
The quartet’s latest CD, Antiphony, is a collaboration with New Music from China. It includes works by Wang Guowei, Zhou Long, Lei Lang, Chen Yi, Tan Dun, Ming-Hsiu Yen.
Thus far I’m really enjoying the title work, by Zhou Long. In addition to the saxophones, it features Erhu, Daruan, and percussion in a piece that explores folk resonances and microtones in a finely sculpted modernist-tinged amalgam. Yen’s Chinatown lands on the other side of ‘town,’ stylistically speaking, but is equally fetching. Zesty minimal ostinati are juxtaposed against Sun Li’s vibrant pipa playing. It’s a postmodern audio travelogue that indeed captures its eponymous neighborhood’s energy and diversity. I’m still seeking out scores for the Tan Dun and Chen Yi works; more once I’ve had time to digest them.
25th Anniversary CD Release Concert
Le Poisson Rouge
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Doors open at 6:30 PM, show at 7:30 PM
158 Bleecker Street, New York City
Information and ticketing: 212.505.FISH (3474),
Audio clips previewing their set list for the LPR gig:
Steven Mackey: Jackass from Animal, Vegetable, Mineral Roshanne Etezady: Keen Jacob TV: Jesus is Coming William Albright: Pypes Jacob TV: Pitch Black Lei Liang: YUAN
Faculty Recital:Â 21st Century Music with Christian Carey
February 7, 2009 at 3 PM
Bristol Chapel,
Westminster Choir College of Rider University
101 Walnut Lane, Princeton NJ 08540
Free admission
Program Notes
The pieces on this program, with the exception of Odds and Ends by Robert Morris (1996), have all been composed in the past ten years. The Morris work has a Princeton connection; it was an eightieth birthday present for composer Milton Babbitt, a longtime professor at Princeton University who still lives a short distance from here.
Michael Fili’sSonnet is part of a group of Shakespeare settings. Originally written for baritone, Mike agreed to ‘tenor-ize’ this one for me to sing at his senior recital. Matthew Samson’sKiss Me is a thoughtful setting with somewhat unorthodox notation. It includes cummings-like performance directions throughout – a continuous dialogue between composer and performers.
Robert Thomas composed three couplets to celebrate two weddings and an anniversary. One of them was a wedding gift for Kay Mitchell and me. The piecesare, appropriately enough, Two-part Inventions.
Jody Redhage is one of a very small number of singing cellists and a fine composer. The group of songs she’s performing today is by a diverse selection of poets – Wyn Cooper, William Carlos Williams, and her sister Jill. Redhage has also commissioned a number of other composers to write for her, calling the results indie art songs. Both Daniel Felsenfeld and I have been fortunate towork with Jody; she’s a talented and dedicated advocate.
Three Settings of Jane Kenyondepicts different moods and themes prevalent in Kenyon’s poetry. Song is a paean to nature and simple pleasures – exuding joy at simply being alive and in love. Otherwise deals with the frailty of human life. Written while Kenyon was battling cancer (to which she ultimately succumbed), it is both beautiful and harrowing. Its logical answer is found in Let Evening Come, a poem embracing impermanence, confident that “God will not leave us comfortless†despite the lengthening shadows of impending night.
Joseph Arndt was a student in the first Musicianship course I taught at Westminster Choir College. After graduating, he commissioned Spiritual Variations for the recital series he runs at Grace Church in Newark, New Jersey. The piece is a short suite, utilizing three early American spirituals as source material: “Brethren, We Have Come to Worship,†“I Am a Poor Wayfarin’ Stranger,†and “What Wondrous Love is This.â€
All three of my Flourishes were written for flutist John McMurtery. Each however, has a different dedicatee. Silver Lion Flourish was written for Leo Feigen to celebrate the silver anniversary of his Leo Records. Butterfly Flourish was written for Pete Gershon on the birth of his daughter Lela. Locrian Flourish was commissioned by the Locrian Chamber Players and is dedicated to their director David MacDonald.
James Romig has written a number of works for McMurtery and pianist Ashlee Mack. Back when they were graduate students at Rutgers, John commissioned Romig to compose Sonnet 2, paying for the commission with, “lunch at Taco Bell, a fresh can of tennis balls, and a 7-11 Slurpee.†McMurtery has performed the piece over 40 times since and provided an analysis of it in his Juilliard DMA dissertation. Thread Sketches was commissioned for the 2001 Pittsburg State University (Kansas) Festival of New Music. The title is borrowed from a fabric artwork by Juliarose Loffredo.Double 4 was written for McMurtery and Mack in 2004. Over the course of the composition the two instrumental lines begin similarly, diverge, and then gradually reunite for a unison coda.
MyBagatelles were written for the Society of Chromatic Art and are dedicated to John McMurtery and Ashlee Mack. There’s one each for solo piano, alto flute, and alto flute/piano duo. They’ve also been performed by the Italian ensemble Dal Suono Sommerso in Rome, Italy and in Sardinia.
“Rough Edges Suite” – Kevin Norton
“++fridge” – Joe Branciforte and Chris Botta
“Trio” – Michael Sperone
“My barn having burned to the ground, I can now see the moon” – Barbara White
“For an Actor- Monologue for Clarinet (in A)”- Shulamit Ran
Performed by:
Joe Bergen – percussion
Chris Botta – guitar
Joshua Lopes – guitar
Bryan Rudderow – clarinet
Michael Sperone – percussion
Caroline Grano, Flute
Max Stehr – piano
Terrence Thornhill – cello
Jeffrey Young – violin
Saturday January 23rd, at 7:30pm
At the Paterson Museum
2 Market Street
Paterson, NJ 07501
David Lang’sLittle Matchgirl Passion, the piece that garnered him a Pulitzer Prize, is no longer exclusive property of bustling metropolises.
My Westminster colleague Andrew Megill is leading the choral group Fuma Sacra in a performance of the piece in Newtown, PA –  in its original version for four solo singers and percussion (details below).
Much press about the piece has evaluated it as a humanist, secular take on the Christian idea of a Passion play. But Megill has built a program which accentuates the spirituality of both the Lang piece and the Andersen fairytale on which it’s based.Â
Also on the concert are three Bach Cantatas:
199: Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (sung by Clara Rottsolk)
159: Sehet, wir gehen hinauf gen Jerusalem
23: Jesus nahm sich zu die Zwoelfe
There are connections between these and the idea of Lenten Passion music as well.
Megill says, “Cantatas 159 and 23 are two of the cantatas Bach wrote for Estomihi Sunday, the last Sunday before Lent, and therefore the last time Bach’s congregation would hear large-scale choral/orchestral music until the Passion at the end of Lent. Â Both have fascinating connections to the John and Matthew Passions (there’s an incredible bass aria in 159 called “Es ist vollbracht”), and the Passion chorale is used in 23. Â And both have music as profound and moving as music from the Passions.”
And if you’re willing to make the pilgrimage … errr… trip out to Newtown, the show is FREE.
Some musicians tour year round with a band in support of their latest LP. But this December, Merge recording artist Julian Koster is instead going on a caroling tour. He’s taking along his trusty dog Rudolph (no joke!) and a singing saw. You can hear Koster’s deconstruction of holiday chestnut “White Christmas” below.
You may invite the carolers to visit your house by emailing musictapescaroling@gmail.com or by mailing a handwritten letter to 450 N. Harris St. Athens, GA 30601 (due to time constraints, please send an email to let the “caroling ambassador” know you are sending a letter). Be sure to include an email address or telephone number for reply. Invitations where the hosts indicate that they would be willing to entertain outside guests on caroling night are preferred. Please note your permission to invite others from the area to your house and whether you can offer the carolers a place to sleep in your letter or email.
Once the limit on houses on a given night has been reached, the address of each house that will welcome guests will be distributed via email to all who email musictapescaroling@gmail.com and ask to attend. The addresses of the houses will not be posted online.
Proposed Caroling Path: December 7th, 8th, 9th: Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana & Lower Half of Illinois December 10th, 11th, 12th: Chicago, Illinois, Michigan December 13th, 14th, 15th: Ohio, Pittsburgh, Western NY December 16th, 17th, 18th: Upstate NY, New England (CT, RI, VT etc) December 19th, 20th, 21st: Philadelphia, NYC, Baltimore, DC, Chapel Hill
from Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
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