In The Loop | May 16, 2008

What strange weather we've been having in New York! Beautiful one day, then hot, then cold, sunshine, rain… It's like April showers and May flowers got their months mixed up. But one thing you won't want to have mixed up on your calendar is the May 20 NYCC concert. That's next Tuesday! Lots of great stuff on tap: The winning piece of our first Composition Competition (by DANA DIMITRI RICHARDSON) will be presented. We'll also hear from this year's Honorary Member, DINU GHEZZO, who has (not coincidentally) been very helpful in launching this concert at New York University. Other composers include EUGENE MARLOW, RICHARD MCCANDLESS, MIKI NAKANISHI, JOSEPH PEHRSON, RICHARD RUSSELL, and MATTHEW P. STECKLER. (And here's a huge thanks in advance to our producer, RICHARD BROOKS!) It promises to be a terrific, exciting concert in a new venue for the NYCC: NYU's Frederick Loewe Theater, 35 West 4th Street, starting at 8pm. Bonus fact: I believe this is NYCC's first concert below 14th Street!

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And can you believe June will be here in two weeks? While we're thinking about calendars and dates, make a note that the final concert of the season is very soon: June 7. More details about that in a future In the Loop. (Or, if you just can't wait, head to the calendar section of nycomposerscircle.org)

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DON HAGAR writes with a correction for the May 24 concert notice about the Xanthos Ensemble. The venue has been changed to Roulette, 20 Greene St. (between Canal and Grand St.); and the performance will start at 8:00 p.m. The full press release can be found at the May 6 posting, below.

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This Sunday we'll hold our May 18 Sunday Salon at the Ellington Room, Manhattan Plaza 400 W 43, second floor (enter 9th Avenue) from 2-5pm. We have several live performances on offer! Here's the revised program:

1.  Discussion of Organizational Matters and Reports 

2.  Audio-Visual Presentation

MARTIN HALPERN will be presenting a DVD of his recently produced chamber opera The Damned Thing.  He will also be sharing with us his thoughts on the work.

3.  Audition of Members' Works

GENE MCBRIDE -- Chaja's Consolation for soprano and piano (to be performed live by

Demetra Adams and Gene McBride) it is the first vocal of an opera work in progress  3 minutes

 

GENE MCBRIDE -- Sentient Moments for solo piano

(to be performed live by Gene McBride)  3 minutes

 

CHRISTOPHER MONTGOMERY -- Two Cities for chamber orchestra, 12:28 minutes

 

JOSPEH PEHRSON --  Quixoddities for bassoon and piccolo (which was recently premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia)  9 minutes

 

DON HAGAR -- Skeleton Earth for voice and piano (to be performed live by Tamara Cashour and Cesar Vuksic) 2 minutes

 

TAMARA CASHOUR -- Six Lyrics of Marilyn Hacker for Mezzo Soprano, guest Soprano, Flute, English horn, Guitar, and Piano (MIDI version of work)  15 minutes

4.  Audition of Guest's Works (time permitting)

Cory Daniel Fields -- (two live performances of works by this guest may be presented,

time permitting)  

Duet for Horn and Viola with hornist Katherine Smith and Violist Jen Herman. 5 mins

Three Rustic Scenes  (2nd mov't) with violinist David Bousso and pianist Jason Wirth. 5 mins

 

5.  Conclusion and Refreshments

May 18 Salon Program

Please note that this Salon will be quite special in featuring five
works performed live.

May 18th Salon
at the Ellington Room, 2:00 p.m.

Program

1. Discussion of Organizational Matters and Reports

2. Audio-Visual Presentation

Member Composer Martin Halpern will be presenting a DVD of his
recently produced chamber opera The Damned Thing. He will also be
sharing with us his thoughts on the work.

3. Audition of Members' Works

Gene McBride -- Chaja's Consolation for soprano and piano
(to be performed live by Demetra Adams and Gene McBride) it is the
first vocal of an opera work in progress 3 minutes

Gene McBride -- Sentient Memories for solo piano
(to be performed live by Gene McBride) 3 minutes

Christopher Montgomery -- Two Cities for chamber orchestra, 12:28
minutes

Joseph Pehrson -- Quixoddities for bassoon and piccolo
(which was recently premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia) 9 minutes

Don Hagar -- Skeleton Earth for voice and piano
(to be performed live by Tamara Cashour and Cesar Vuksic) 2 minutes

Tamara Cashour -- Six Lyrics of Marilyn Hacker for Mezzo Soprano,
guest Soprano, Flute,
English horn, Guitar, and Piano (MIDI version of work) 15 minutes

4. Audition of Guest's Works (time permitting)

Cory Daniel Fields -- (two live performances of works by this guest may be presented, time permitting)
Duet for Horn and Viola with hornist Katherine Smith and Violist Jen
Herman. 5 mins
Three Rustic Scenes (2nd mov't) with violinist David Bousso and
pianist Jason Wirth. 5 mins

5. Conclusion and Refreshments

In The Loop | May 6, 2008

GENE MCBRIDE is stage managing the following production, and wants to pass it along to In The Loop readers. He reports last Sunday's performance was excellent and strongly recommends the program.
Yom Hashoah |Holocaust Remembrance Program
Waltz for a Shattered World (1990) | Wednesday May 7 @ 8 pm
Sasha Spielvogel's Labyrinth Dance Theater
"Avishai Ya'ar," Composer: David Majzlin Orchestrator
Downtown Chamber Players conducted by Mimi Stern-Wolfe
Michael Cohen: From The Wall (N.Y. Premiere)
Roz Woll, mezzo–soprano; & the Downtown Chamber Trio
Leo Smit (1900-1944): Sextet for winds and piano; Dutch-Jewish composer who perished in Sobibor.
John Williams: Theme from "Schindler's List" for Violin with piano, Galina Heifetz, violin
Suggested Donation $10-$20
info: dmpmimi@msn.com or 212 477 1594
Downtown Music Productions, Mimi Stern-Wolfe, artistic director
East Village Concert Series |St Marks in the Bowery 10th street (near 2nd Ave.)
Downtown Chamber Players: Andrew Bolotowsky, flute; David Hopkins, clarinet; Jeffrey
Hale, oboe; Atsuko Sato, bassoon; Joseph Trent, flute; Daniel Barrett, cello; Rachel Golub,
violin; Elizabeth Rodgers, piano; Sam Lazzara, percussion; Mimi Stern-Wolfe, conductor

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DON HAGAR is producing the following concert and can offer a $5 admission charge to NYCC Members. And hey, he has a piece scheduled on the program, as well! Here's the press release...

Boston's newest contemporary chamber group Xanthos Ensemble brings a riveting program of chamber works to New York, presenting a concert at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery on Saturday, May 24, 2008 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets will be available at the door for $15 (students and seniors $10).

Xanthos Ensemble, currently Ensemble in Residence at The Boston Conservatory, will perform a program to include Charles Wuorinen's New York Notes, Pierre Boulez's Dérive, and Mario Davidovsky's Flashbacks, and world premiere of Three Nature Songs by Ohio native Daniel Knaggs, student of Bright Sheng. Also included on the program will be works by Brooklyn resident DONALD HAGAR and Canadian composer and flutist Derek Charke.

The seven core members of the Xanthos Ensemble will be joined by special guests, Jeffrey Means, conductor, Chi-Ju Juliet Lai, clarinet, and Leo Eguchi, cello. Currently in its third year of performing, the ensemble has championed the works of American composers and premiered  dozens of pieces. This appearance marks the Xanthos Ensemble's second New York City performance,with the first being at St. Marks Church during the 2006-2007, in collaboration with the Boston-based Composers in Red Sneakers. The Xanthos Ensemble is dedicated to the promotion of contemporary chamber music, through the exposure of new music repertoire to new audiences in the Boston area, throughout the country, and abroad. Its mission has grown from the belief that the inspiration and knowledge of contemporary music in the community at large will increase the awareness and educational benefits of new music for our musical
culture, and for our society as a whole.

Elliott Carter to be Next Honorary Member

A LETTER FROM OUR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:
Dear Members,

It is with a sense of pleasure and deep satisfaction that I want to share with you who our newest Honorary Member is, and at the same time I want express my appreciation for all of you who have in various ways contributed so much to making the New York Composers Circle what it has now become and will become in the new music community now and in years to come.

By your contribution of efforts, talents and works, you have made it possible to create a new home for new music that can welcome the world-class reputations of our current honored roster of Honorary Members: Tania León, Ezra Laderman, John Eaton, Paul Moravec, Dinu Ghezzo, and now, perhaps this country's most celebrated and esteemed creator and steadfast champion of new music, Elliott Carter.

This year, on December 11th, Mr. Carter, and many of us here and around the world, will be celebrating his centennial anniversary as the most senior and singular artistic and productive force in new music still with us today. In an amazingly productive career spanning most of the 20th century and the beginning of this 21st century, his extraordinary output of marvelously opulent and complex landmark works has expanded the boundaries of what new music can successfully express and deliver in our most complicated and challenging times.

In his honor and in special recognition of this "landmark" year in his creative life, the NYCC will be featuring one of Mr. Carter's chamber works at our first inaugural concert of the 2008-2009 concert season that will also take place in early December.

I'm confident that I speak for all of us at the NYCC in extending our most heartfelt welcome to Elliott Carter as our newest Honorary Member.

John de Clef Piñeiro
NYCC Executive Director

In The Loop | Apr 28, 2007

Violinist STANI DIMITROVA will be presenting her Masters graduation recital tomorrow evening, April 29, at Juilliard's Paul Hall. The concert has an early start time: 6pm. Stani will be performing works by Franck, Brahms, Lutoslawski, and Ravel. The concert is free and open to the public.

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JOSPEH PEHRSON writes: "I am happy to announce that NYCC member CESAR VUKSIC will be premiering a piece of mine at Brooklyn Conservatory on Saturday, May 3 at 8PM. The piece is "Transpian" for piano and electronics in the "near just intonation" scale of "Blackjack" that I frequently use. This piece, I feel, is quite resonant and challenging for the pianist.  I'm glad I'm not trying to play it myself (ha, ha...)

 

Also on the concert are compositions by Brahms, Vuksic, Jerome David Goodman, Bartok and Debussy. Brahms, Bartok and Debussy did not object to having the Pehrson work on the program...

 

To get to the Brooklyn Conservatory, please take the "Q" Train express to 7th Avenue station in Brooklyn. That's 3 blocks away from the destination:  Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, 58 Seventh Avenue, Brooklyn. 

Looking forward to seeing you there!"

Cesar also writes in with a practical matter: admission is $10 for adults and $5 for students/seniors.

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STANI DIMITROVA will premiere RICHARD RUSSELL's first Violin Sonata on May 11 at 3pm, with Jenny Huang gracing the piano. The venue is the historic Blessed Sacrament Church at 152 West 71 in Manhattan. Also on the bill is SOFIA DIMITROVA who will be performing a special piano/vocal arrangement of Rich's Three Elegies. Other pieces are by Mozart, Saint-Saëns, and new pieces by Evan Lewis and Raphael Fusco. The performance is being presented by the Musica Bella Orchestra. Suggested donation is $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors.

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Although there's admittedly not much connection between this event and the New York Composers Circle, fans of new music will want to know that this week Mannes College of Music is hosting its annual Contemporary Music Festival, highlighting the works of composer-in-residence Jennifer Higdon. Monday (Apr 28) the Mannes Percussion Ensemble performs. Tuesday (Apr 29), Madeline Shapiro's NewMusicMannes Ensemble performs (with soprano TIFFANY DUMOUCHELLE on the bill). Wednesday (Apr 30) the CIRCE Chamber Ensemble performs, and Thursday (May 1) the Mannes Orchestra performs. A work or two of Jennifer Higdon is programmed each evening, and the programs feature works by faculty, along with student works that have been coached by Higdon over the last academic year. Each concert starts at 8pm and is free and open to the public. Mannes is at 150 West 85th Street. For specific programs, call 212-580-0210 ext. 4817, or email Rich Russell at RussellR@newschool.edu.

In The Loop | April 15, 2008

ROGER BLANC will present a lecture next week, "Music Preparation: Life in the Trenches" under the auspices of the Manhattan Producers
Alliance. In this three hour discussion, Roger will discuss his
experiences handling music preparation for major motion pictures, A-
list recording artists, late-night television shows and jingles.
Specific topics will include advice relating to workflow tracking,
client communications, and analysis of recorded music for purposes of
notational presentation (along with the occasional war story).

Time: Tuesday, April 22nd, 6:30-9:30pm
Location: Manhattan Producers Alliance
Space is still available!
Registration closes on 04/21/2008.
$75.00
The Manhattan Producers Alliance is located at:
13 West 36th Street, Suite 800 (buzzer #8)
New York, NY 10018
(212) 465-8540

To register go to:
http://www.manhattanproducersalliance.com/index.php?s=education&p=seminar_info&id=14

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JOSEPH PEHRSON sends the following press release about the next
Composers Concordance concert: On Friday, May 2, 2008 at 8PM at the
Greenwich House Music School, 46 Barrow Street in New York City, the
Composers Concordance springs into action with a varied concert that
celebrates the natural world, and a bit of the supernatural. John
Adams, Hallelujah Junction for two pianos is a work inspired by the
name of a truck stop on Highway 49 at the California-Nevada border.
Intricate rhythms proclaim this joyous and funky location. The work
will be performed by Judith Olson and Paul Hoffmann on pianos.

Another natural scene is depicted by Robert Martin in his Across the
Open Land from his duo instrumental collection, Watercolors. Erin
Lesser, flute and Victoria Paterson, violin, will speak this interplay.

Real singing and speaking will be heard from Jody Redhage, celebrated
for her ability to sing while playing cello in her performances and
who asks composers to write specifically for cello with voice. She
will be singing and playing Ted Hearne's Warning Song.
We go from the natural to the dramatic with Masks for solo flute by
Oliver Knussen, as performed by the virtuouso performer and new music
champion Erin Lesser. Through three different stage positions,
Knussen shows the many faces of new music in a miniature mono-drama.

The speaking theme continues with poetry recitation in Anton Rovner's
Evening Bent the Branches for voice and piano: 9 poetry recitations
by Linda Past with piano by Nataliya Medvedovskaya.

We swing into spring with the premiere of a new piece by Patrick
Hardish, Solo for Pete, written for percussionist Peter Jarvis, who
will be playing drum set. In this piece there is some influence from
the solos of jazz greats Buddy Rich and Louie Bellson.

Even more percussion is in store with a performance by composer Robert
Paterson of his own composition for marimba, Piranha. Paterson has
perfected the astonishing technique of six-mallet marimba playing,
which will be shown in this work. His wife, the distinguished
violinist Victoria Paterson, will join him in a second piece, Braids,
for violin and marimba for a true matrimony of sounds.

Tickets are $12, $10 Students/seniors, A reception will follow the
concert. We look forward to seeing you there!

In The Loop | Apr 11 2008

Congratulations to RICHARD BROOKS, whose Coeur di Lion, Mon Coeur was performed by lark ascending at the Austrian Cultural Forum earlier this week.

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ROGER BLANC will perform live at Gizzi's Coffee Bar 7:00-8:00 PM, Saturday, April 12 (with Brian O'Neill). There's a $3 cover charge. Gizzi's Coffee Bar is at 16 W 8th Street (west of 5th Ave., east of Macdougal) and the number is (212) 260-9700

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NOAH HAVERKAMP-FRERE is joining the Brooklyn Emerging Artists at NY Citi Theatre and Media at 1462 Southern Boulevard in the Bronx on April 26 for a new music concert (there may be a little rock-and-roll thrown in as well). Noah will have one or two compositions performed, and will improvise at the piano as well. The Brooklyn Emerging Artists group is a group of, well, emerging artists living in Brookln! The festivities get underway at 7pm.

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EUGENE MARLOW, NYCC's Director, Media Relations and Membership Coordinator, reports he is a recipient of a travel scholarship to attend the June 11-14, 2008 National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, Colorado. He says, "Together with some funding from Baruch College, I think I have my expenses covered. Of greater importance, I will attend this convention wearing two hats: officially, as senior co-chair of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives concert series at Baruch (how do we attract more students to our concerts?) and as a member of the NY Composers Circle." If anyone has a comment they would like to pass along to Gene, he invites some feedback. "The focus of the convention is essentially building audiences for the arts. What issues should I have in mind while I travel through the convention meetings? The classical world will be there."

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JOSEPH PEHRSON's Spinner can be watched (and listened to!) on YouTube. The performance is at the Moscow Performers Union from March. Head to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dmHte0o6Lo