NYCC - In The Loop - Apr 28, 2007

DON HAGAR writes: "The Sospiro Winds will make its New York premiere this Sunday, April 29, 2pm at St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, East 10th Street and Second Avenue.  This award-winning woodwind quintet will be performing music by Samuel Barber, Elliott Carter, and premieres by James Borchers and myself. Tickets are $10, $5 for students and seniors....and NYCC members!  A reception will follow the program.  For more information please call 718-302-0833.  I look forward to see you all there!" 

The program will include world-premiere performances of James Borchers' Quintet for Wind Instruments and Donald Hagar's complete Little Suite. In addition the quintet will perform the lyrical, impressionistic Summer Music by Samuel Barber, Elliott Carter's jazzy, neo-classical Woodwind Quintet, and the Wind Quintet in E-flat Major by Anton Reicha, a contemporary of Beethoven.

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This year's NYCC Honorary Composer Member, PAUL MORAVEC, has many pieces being performed at Mannes College of Music this week, in connection with Mannes's annual Contemporary Music Festival. Paul is Composer-in-Residence at Mannes College for the current academic year, and as such, audiences at Mannes will be treated to several of his pieces, including several premieres. 

All concerts are free and open to the public. Mannes is at 150 West 85th Street. Here are the details:

April 30, 8PM, NewMusicMannes, Madeleine Shapiro, director

Paul Moravec:  American Activities for brass quintet (World Premiere)
Minoru Miki:  Shoman III for soprano, marimba, and piano
Franghiz Ali-Zadeh:  Three Watercolors for soprano, flute, and piano
Jukka Tiensuu:  Plus for clarinet and cello
Iannis Xenakis:  Pour Maurice for baritone and piano

May 1, 8PM Mannes Orchestra, David Hayes, conductor

Robert Cuckson: Concerto for Guitar
David Loeb: Poem of an Autumn Night
Rafael Fusco: Capriccio Concertante for English Horn and Orchestra
Gilad Cohen: By Night on My Bed for Chorus and Orchestra
Paul Moravec: Northern Lights Electric (World Premiere) 

May 2, 8PM Percussion Ensemble, James Preiss, Director

(No Paul Moravec pieces this evening, but might be of interest to In The Loop readers. Steve Reich's Drumming will be performed, as will World Premieres from Davide Zannoni and David Loeb, and a NY premiere by Jennifer Higdon.)

May 3, 8PM CIRCE (Composer-in-Residence Chamber Ensemble), Keith Fitch, Director

Paul Moravec: Scherzo
Paul Moravec: Atmosfera a Villa Aurelia
Ryan Chase: mused rhyme (World Premiere)
Evan Lewis: Downward to darkness, on extended wings (World Premiere)
Paul Moravec: Chamber Symphony (NY Premiere)

NYCC - In The Loop - April 20, 2007

Quick reminder: Sunday Salon is this Sunday, April 22, 2-5pm at the Ellington Room, Manhattan Plaza 400 W 43, enter 9th Avenue. The Ellington Room is on the second floor. If you've asked JACOB GOODMAN for some fliers advertising the June 5 concert, this will be your opportunity to pick them up.

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There are three local NYC performances by JOSEPH PEHRSON coming up. Two of them have free admission, and one a $10 charge. Joe writes:

"On Saturday, April 28, the NYU Steinhardt School of Education is honoring the retirement of composition director, Dinu Ghezzo on a concert at NYU Loewe Theatre, 35 W. 4th Street, (between Greene Street and Washington Square East). The concert begins at 5PM. (PLEASE NOTE TIME). Admission is free. I am pleased to have a piece on this concert, my new "Microproj," an electronic work in the near-just-intonation 21-note scale of "Blackjack," which I have been working with for several years now. My wife, Linda Past, will be doing one of her "dramatic-dance" interpretations of this piece on the concert as well. In addition to several pieces by Dinu Ghezzo, many using multimedia, John Gilbert has arranged an "internet multimedia" presentation, so there should be lots of variety there.

Monday evening, April 30, the Dinu Ghezzo honoring festivities continue with a concert at the Romanian Cultural Center, 200 East 38th Street (corner of 3rd Ave) honoring Ghezzo's 38 years of composing in the US. I am also happy to be included on this event with a performance of my "Profondo" for bass flute by Gerardo Levy. This concert begins at 7PM (AGAIN PLEASE NOTE TIME). It is also free of charge. Other composers on the concert include Leo Kraft, Robert Rowe, Wendy Luck, and several others.

On Wednesday, May 2, the American Festival of Microtonal Music and Johnny Reinhard will host a performance of my "Blackjinn," a work for woodwind quintet in the near-just-intonation 21-note "Blackjack" scale. The concert is at the Bowery Poetry Club, located at 308 Bowery at Bleecker Street (6 train to Bleecker). The club concert begins at 10PM (YET AGAIN, PLEASE NOTE TIME). Other composers on the program include Elodie Lauten, Kyle Gann and Johnny Reinhard. Bass trombonist Dave Taylor will also be featured. Tickets are $10 and, as in most club concerts, food and beverages are available. Further information may be found at www.afmm.org, in addition to some great streaming videos of previous events."

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Composer and tenor STEVEN EBEL would like to invite composers to a concert on May 1, featuring 10 World Premieres of songs on Shakespeare texts. In fact, he'd like to offer comps to the composers on our In The Loop list, but you'll have to contact him, as no comps will be given at the door. You can contact Steven at stevenebel@gmail.com or call him at 646-344-0535. (Please RSVP by April 29.)

Here's some of the PR about the concert:

When: May 1st 8pm

Where: St. Peters at Citicorp, E. 54th Street at Lexington Ave

New Music New York will present "21st Century Shakespeare: Chamber Music Inspired by the Bard for the New Millennium", featuring music by established and rising American composers and well known international composers. The concert will feature an ensemble of some of the finest contemporary music performers in the city, including 6 vocalists, harp, guitar, flute, violin, cello, and piano. Words from The Tempest , Twelfth Night, Much Ado , King Lear, Cymbeline and Shakespeare's immortal sonnets ...

Pieces are by Sondra Clark, Steven Ebel, Scott Gendel, Stephen Gorbos, William George, William Holab, Gustav Hoyer, Marga Richter and Lou Warde as well as the world premiere of Marc Blitzstein's trio from a Winter's Tale, which was recently discovered at the Library of Congress. Chris Berg's Fear no more, a New Music New York 2003 commission will be reprised, as well as songs by NYC composers David Amram, Tom Cipullo, Lee Hoiby, Richard Hundley, Leonard Lehrman, Thomas Pasatieri and Ben Yarmolinsky.

Tickets are $20 available through SmartTix: (212) 868-4444, www.smarttix.com, and at the door. (OR: Take advantage of the comp as mentioned above!) For more information, visit www.newmusicnewyork.com.

Recorded Reading, April 19, 2007

Here are some pics from the Recorded Reading of April 19, 2007, held at Frank and Camille's Fine Pianos, 29 West 57th Street. We heard pieces by ROGER BLANC, VICTOR FROST, RICHARD RUSSELL, and JOHN DE CLEF PIÑEIRO.

The players included Mary Barto, flute, Ben Ringer, clarinet, Christopher Lee, bass clarinet, Monica Chung, piano, Victor Frost, piano, Sofia Dimitrova, soprano, and Stanichka Dimitrova, violin.

(Click image for larger size.)

NYCC - In The Loop - April 17, 2007

The next Recorded Reading of the season is this Thursday evening, April 19, 6:30-8:30 PM at Frank and Camille's Fine Pianos, 29 West 57th Street, Second floor. We'll be hearing pieces from JOHN DE CLEF PIÑEIRO, VICTOR FROST, RICHARD RUSSELL, and ROGER BLANC. Although everyone is invited, seating is extremely limited and is first-come, first-served. 
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Our next Sunday Salon is this Sunday, April 22, 2-5pm at the Ellington Room, Manhattan Plaza 400 W 43, enter 9th Avenue. The Ellington Room is on the second floor.

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It's not too early to start thinking about ways to publicize our June 5 concert, our last of the 2006-07 season. It should be an exciting event as we'll feature several performers and composers new to the NYCC, including a piece by our Honorary Composer Member for the current year, 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner PAUL MORAVEC. With publicity in mind, JACOB GOODMAN is preparing a flier and will bring copies to this Sunday's Salon. Please email him and let him know how many copies you can make use of, to post around your neighborhood or to send to your mail list. Jacob can be reached at jgoodman@ccny.cuny.edu

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Here's a note from DEBRA KAYE:

Dear NYCC'ers: I wanted to  let you know about my concert this Sunday.  I realize there's a conflict with the NYCC salon, but I thought I'd say "hi" and let you know about it anyway. 
Hope you are all well and thriving,  --Debra

It's happening, the premiere of My American Shtetl, for piano trio and narrator. The text comes from two classic stories by Yiddish author, Sholom Aleichem.  And it's been a special treat to have his granddaughter, the author Bel Kaufman, (Up theDown Staircase) narrating.  I have a recording of her reading the text, and it's something I can listen to again and again.  She is adirect link to the source and the spirit of these stories that so vividly describe the immigrant experience. 

Weill Hall, 154 West 57th St.

2pm, Sunday, April 22nd

Tickets:  $32  Students/Seniors at the door:  $18

Carnegie Charge  212-247-7800

www.carnegiehall.org

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Composer and percussionist RICHARD McCANDLESS (a new NYCC member this year) is presenting the premiere of his piece Canyons for percussion and electronics on the North River Music Series on Thursday, April 26, 2007, 8:00 PM, Greenwich House Arts, 46 Barrow Street, New York, NY. Other works on the program by McCandless include Voyager for percussion and tape; Childhood for speaking percussionist; and Pile Driver for percussion duet. Also on the program are three pieces by composer/percussionist Rich O'Meara. More information is available at www.gharts.org.

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Honorary Composer Member PAUL MORAVEC's Northern Lights Electric will receive its World Premiere with The Mannes Orchestra, under the direction of David Hayes, Tuesday May 1, at 8PM. Also on the concert are works by Mannes faculty David Loeb and Robert Cuckson, and Mannes students Rafael Fusco and Gilad Cohen. The concert is free and open to the public, and will be at Mannes College's Concert Hall, 150 West 85th Street. More information at http://www.newschool.edu/Mannes/events.aspx?id=5296

Paul Moravec in the News

Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Moravec, this year's NYCC Honorary Composer member, has been named artist-in-residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. He will introduce new works and lead the institute’s annual concert series in a term beginning on July 1.

A nice press release about this can be found at:
http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6240.html

Recorded Reading, March 29, 2007

Here are some pics from the Recorded Reading of March 29, 2007, held at Frank and Camille's Fine Pianos, 29 West 57th Street. We heard pieces by EUGENE MARLOW, KEVIN McCARTER, RICHARD RUSSELL, and JACOB GOODMAN.

The players were Mary Barto and Aki Kasuga, flutes, Ben Ringer, clarinet, Susan Talamini, viola, and the Stella Trio: Jannina Barefield, violin, Laura Metcalf, cello, Monica Chung, piano.

(Click images for larger size.)