Fifth Annual Composers Competition Winner Announced

The New York Composers Circle has just announced the winner of its Fifth Annual Composers Competition. He is MAX GITECK DUYKERS, and the name of his winning entry is "Glass Blue Cleft," a string quartet in three movements.

Mr. Duykers is a doctoral student at Stony Brook University.  His winning piece has been recorded by the Escher Quartet and issued last year on the Bridge Records label. It will receive its world premiere performance at the final New York Composers Circle concert of next season, on June 2, 2012, at the Symphony Space Thalia.

A second entry was awarded an honorable mention: "Song in Mistranslation," for flute, clarinet, and cello, by LEMBIT BEECHER.

In The Loop | June 19, 2011

Our final SUNDAY SALON of the 2010-2011 season is June 26 at 2pm at RICHARD BROOKS's house in Brooklyn, 252 DeKalb Avenue. Assuming nice weather, this will be a year-end picnic with food and drink available. Please RSVP to 718-398-3579 or capstonerecords@earthlink.net 

As for directions, Richard writes, "252 DeKalb Avenue is between Vanderbilt Avenue and Clinton Avenue in Clinton Hill. The closest subway stop is Clinton-Washington on the G line. Take the A train (or C) to Hoyt-Schermerhorn (3rd stop in Brooklyn), cross the platform for the G to Queens and go 2 stops to Clinton-Washington. When you exit the train turn right, go to the last staircase up to the mezzanine level. Go through the turnstile and turn right for the stairs to the street. You will end up at the corner of Lafayette and Clinton. Turn left, crossing Lafayette and walk one block on Clinton (notice the nice architecture, too!) and turn left onto Dekalb. The house is the next to the last on the left hand side of Dekalb. Go up the stoop and ring the bottom bell (press hard as it sometimes doesn't ring clearly).

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You might have already received this email from JACOB GOODMAN, but in case you didn't, he writes: "I don't know whether you saw the op-ed piece in the Sunday (June 12) NY Times editorial section by someone complaining that the Vanderbilt University radio station has been sold to public radio, and that the rock music he was used to hearing has been replaced by

classical music. My rejoinder appears in today's (June 14) Times, in the Letters to the Editor column.  If you want to look at it and don't have the print edition, you can find it on the Web, at http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html.

Just scroll to the bottom and click on "Letter: Classical Music Radio."

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Peri Mauer writes: "I'll be performing my new work, "Blogarhythm on the Rocks", in Central Park on Tuesday, June 21st, 3:00-4:00 pm in the Central Park Dairy Lawn (5th Ave. and 64th St) as part of Make Music New York 2011. Hope you can stop by! It's a lovely spot in the park, and should be a pleasant way to spend some time in Central Park on the first day of summer." 

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Oboist Keve Wilson and her trio (Florian Höfner, Mat Fieldes) will perform DAVID PICTON's piece "Adirondack Nostalgia", a song which David wrote the music and text for, and set it in a few different arrangements. This one is an instrumental arrangement for piano, oboe, and english horn. The event is a Free CD Release Party for Composers Concordance Records/NAXOS. Special guest joining in is Kathy Halvorson. There will also be music by Cole Porter, Henry Mancini, and Astor Piazzola. Thursday, June 23 · 7:00pm - 8:00pm at Cafe Vivaldi, 32 Jones Street in Manhattan.

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Here's a mini-press release from JACOB GOODMAN: The New York Composers Circle has just announced the winner of its Fifth Annual Composers Competition. He is MAX GITECK DUYKERS, and the name of his winning entry is "Glass Blue Cleft," a string quartet in three movements.

Mr. Duykers is a doctoral student at Stony Brook University.  His winning piece has been recorded by the Escher Quartet and issued last year on the Bridge Records label. It will receive its world premiere performance at the final New York Composers Circle concert of next season, on June 2, 2012, at the Symphony Space Thalia.

A second entry was awarded an honorable mention: "Song in Mistranslation," for flute, clarinet, and cello, by LEMBIT BEECHER.

In The Loop | May 17, 2011

The next SUNDAY SALON is this Sunday, May 22 at 2pm. We will be meeting in JACOB GOODMAN's apartment, 310 West 72 Street (#16A). There will be a special presentation by LEONARD HINDELL, a bassoonist with the New York Philharmonic for 33 years, a frequent performer with new music groups, and a performer member of the NYCC, will give a talk/demonstration entitled "The Versatile Voice of the Bassoon." He writes: "Long considered the Character Actor of Music with few notable examples of concerti and sonatas, the bassoon has been evolving into an interesting vehicle for more prominent exposure." He promises to bring some interesting examples, including a rehearsal with Igor Stravinsky making comments about the Rite of Spring.

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The fourth and final (but not least!) concert of the NYCC 2010-2011 season is just around the corner: Saturday June 4 at 7:30pm (note the earlier start time!). The venue is the Symphony Space Thalia, Broadway and 95^th Street. Tickets are $20 payable at the door. This concert promises to be quite eclectic and varied—the sundry pieces are scored for everything from harp to mandolin, guitar to marimba, and even an electric cello (to name a few). Composers include ROGER BLANC, JOHN EATON, HUBERT HOWE, RICHARD McCANDLESS, JOSEPH PEHRSON, and ROBERT S. COHEN.

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PERI MAUER will be conducting and playing cello with her new piece, "Scene 3: Blogarhythm on the Rocks," for chamber ensemble on June 21st, 3 pm, in Central Park (64th and 5th), as part of Make Music New York 2011.

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The musicologist, scholar, and composer Lawrence Kramer asked me to share the following opportunities: one if a call for papers and the other is a call for piano compositions.

Here's the announcement:

Counterpoints: Nineteenth-Century Music and Literature

19th-Century Music is sponsoring this one-day interdisciplinary conference at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus on Saturday, October 22, 2011. Graduate students, part-time and junior faculty are invited to submit abstracts (maximum: 500 words) to the editor, Lawrence Kramer, lek791@gmail.com, by June 30, 2011 (extended from April 30). Papers selected for presentation will be considered for publication in a special issue of the journal.

The topics may range as widely as the contributors' imagination can compass. Possibilities include, but are by no means limited to, portrayals of music or musicians in nineteenth-century literary works, musical representations in nineteenth-century music of literary genres, characters, or texts, literary opera, incidental music, aesthetic theories, models of performance, treatments of nineteenth-century music in twentieth- and twenty-first-century literature and film, treatments of nineteenth-century literature in twentieth-and twenty-first-century music, including opera and film music, and the list goes on. As always, we define the chronological borders of the nineteenth century very loosely.

We are also considering a piano recital combining old and new compositions inspired by literary works and would like to feature a group of younger pianists from the same pool of applicants as the CFP. If you would like to be considered for a spot on the program, please include a resume and performance sample. If the file size of the latter exceeds 10mb, please use a file delivery service such as Dropbox or YouSendIt.

In The Loop | Apr 3, 2011

Our NEXT NYCC CONCERT is this Tuesday, April 5, at 8pm. The venue is Saint Peters Church at Citigroup Center, Lexington & 54th Street. A $20 suggested donation is payable at the door, but as always, students are admitted free. The concert lineup is as follows:

Brian Fennelly's Sock Monkeys, for two clarinets

Debra Kaye's Finding Accord, for piano trio

Eugene Marlow's Three Pieces for Woodwind Trio (fl, cl, alto sax)

Peri Mauer's Rhapsodance, for clarinet and piano 

Gayther Myers's Sonata Solo, for unaccompanied bassoon 

David Picton's Music for the Birds, for woodwind quintet 

Richard D. Russell's Fast Tides, Slow Tides, for flute and piano 

Cesar Vuksic's Tango Variations, for clarinet and piano

Our many performers include Michael Laderman, flute; Keve Wilson, oboe; Lis Rubard, horn, Adam Berkowitz & Vasko Dukovski, clarinet; Timothy Emerson & Edward Zeigman, bassoon, Javier Oviedo, saxophone, Cesar Vuksic & Nina Yenik, piano, Amy Kimball, violin; Arthur Cook, cello.

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Our next SUNDAY SALON Salon is Sunday, April 17, at 2:00 pm, at Eugene McBride's apartment, 484 West 43rd St., Apt. 14M.

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Soprano SOFIA DIMITROVA will perform two pieces by Mannes College composers on April 10th at 4:30PM at Mannes Concert Hall, 150 West 85^th Street, second floor. The concert is free and open to the public, and is the Masters graduation recital for both composers. The pieces are Tomer Adaddi's "Green Eggs and Ham", a witty and fun piece, and Avner Finberg's "Anfractuous Songs", a set of songs on the poetry of Updike. Both works are scored for voice, flute, clarinet, violin,  'cello, percussion and piano.

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BRIAN FENNELLY's The Other Side of Time, a 15-minute piece for 30 winds, brass, and percussion, will receive its  European premiere on April 12, in Zagreb, Croatia, as part of the annual World Music Days festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music, held this year in conjunction with the Zagreb Biennale. Chosen for performance by the ISCM International Jury, it will be part of a full program by the Croatian Army Symphony Wind Orchestra conducted by Tomislav Fačini. This is the fifth time Brian's music has been chosen for performance at the World Music Days, previously in Reykjavik, Jerusalem, Brussels, and Toronto.

 

The Other Side of Time (2009), music intended to convey an unspecified kind of spiritual journey, was commissioned by the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble and its director Charles Peltz. It was premiered at Jordan Hall, Boston, in February 2010. Their performance has been recorded for release on Albany Records.

 

The full score can be viewed at Brian's American Music Center webpage:

http://amc.net/files/13991/THE%20OTHER%20SIDE%20OF%20TIME%20final%20score.1.29.10%20pdf1.pdf 

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DEBRA KAYE's The North Wind & the Sun (1998), a cantata for young voices based on the fable by La Fontaine, will be performed May 31 & June 2 at 6pm. Performed by children of the Greenwich House Music School, Mimi Hsu will direct with Debra at the piano. The venue is the Greenwich House Music School, Renee Weiler Concert Hall (2nd floor), at 46 Barrow St.

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Last week CESAR VUKSIC performed a solo recital, "Night Music"  with pieces by Debussy, Bartok, Piazzolla, Ginastera, and a premiere, "Wild Vocalise" written by Cesar. The venue was the Consulate General of Argentina, and special guest was contralto Christina Ascher.  

Also last week ROGER BLANC's piano piece "Sixty Second Man" was performed at the Jan Hus Church, on East 74th Street as part of a Vox Novus "Composer's Voice" series concert. The pianist was virtuoso Shiau-uen Ding.

Congrats, Cesar and Roger!

NYCC | In The Loop | Dec 13, 2010

Our next SUNDAY SALON is this Sunday, December 19, at 2 pm at the CUNY Graduate Center, Room 3491. The Graduate Center is on Fifth Ave., and occupies the entire block between 34th and 35th streets. The entrance is on the east side of Fifth Ave. A list of NYCC members will be provided to the guards and you will need a photo ID to be admitted. To make sure you are on the list, please RSVP to Richard Brooks at capstonerecords@earthlink.net

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Our friends over at Composers Concordance are announcing Composers Concordance Records, with a CD release party this Wednesday, December 15 · 8:00pm - 10:00pm at St Mark's In-The-Bowery, 131 East 10th Street [2nd Ave]

From the press release: "Please join us as we celebrate the launch of our new label distributed by Naxos."

Composers Concordance Records

http://www.composersconcordancerecords.com/

& 

the release of our 1st CD 'Ballets & Solos'

http://www.wix.com/noizepunk/ballets--and-solos

http://www.amazon.com/Ballets-Solos/dp/B0041XTQ9I

http://www.naxosdirect.com/Ballets--Solos/title/COMCON001/

Wednesday's event will feature performances by pianist Taka Kigawa, violinist Lynn Bechtold, oboist Keve Wilson, dancers Megan Sipe & Linda Pehrson, with Di. J. Noizepunk (aka Gene Pritsker) remixing the album.

Drinks will be served!!!

Please RSVP on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173274236031886&num_event_invites=0

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EUGENE MARLOW, founder and leader of The Heritage Ensemble, would like to invite you (and your significant other) to a concert of The Heritage Ensemble, next Thursday, December 16, at the Baruch Performing Arts Center. The concert starts at 7 p.m. If you can come, please let Gene know and send the name of your significant other.

 

The Heritage Ensemble is a quintet devoted to the concert performance of Hebraic melodies in various jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Brazilian styles, with a modicum of classicism for good measure. They will be performing pieces from their current album--"Celebrations" which so far has garnered over 21 reviews, including one today in the LA Times--and a forthcoming album to be released in spring 2011.

 

Multi-Grammy nominee Bobby Sanabria is the group's drummer (also co-producer of the current album).

 

You can reach Gene at MEIIEnterprises@aol.com.

NYCC | In The Loop | Feb 3, 2011

Our Second Concert of the Season is just around the corner: Tuesday, February 15 @ 8pm. We will again be at Saint Peters Church at Citigroup Center, Lexington & 54th Street. There is a $20 suggested donation, payable at the door. Our NYCC composers on the evening include JACOB E. GOODMAN, CARL KANTER, DANA DIMIITRI RICHARDSON, and two of our honorary composer members, JOHN EATON and PAUL MORAVEC.

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In a concert on Saturday, Feb. 5th at 6 PM, the Glass Farm Ensemble is presenting two songs of GENE McBRIDE at the Barysnikov Center (37 Arts building), 37th St., between 9th and 10th Aves. NYC. The songs are from a set of two songs in the collection Fancy, written for tenor, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano. The songs are (1) "Times Like These" expresses the current situations we find ourselves in... and greed. Also (2) "A Man, a Woman, and a Dog" is about freedom, individuality, and love.

Gene shares: "The last song mentioned utilizes the words of George Sand excerpted from her letter to Gustave Flaubert in 1871. Her words are entirely apropos for today, "Humanity is outraged in me and with me. We shall not dissimulate nor try to forget this indignation which is one of the most passionate forms of love." Hope you can attend." Other composers on the program are Daniel Fueter, Bruno Mantovani, and John Morton.

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BRIAN FENNELLY writes in to share that on February 5, there will be a premiere performance of his Fantasia Concertante (2009) for violin, cello, and orchestra by soloists Duo Parnas (Madalyn and Cicely Parnas) with the Indiana University New Music Ensemble under David Dzubay; at the Jacobs School of Music, in Bloomington, Indiana. You can visit parnasmusic.com for more info. NYCC concert goers will remember 'Sigol' for Two which was performed by the Duo Parnas — this is an expansion with orchestra of that piece, which is recorded on their Sheffield lab CD

"Gare du Nord." This CD was chosen by Gene Gaudette on his blog as one of the 10 best CDs of 2010. 

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A new bill of chamber operas by MARTIN HALPERN, "The Hour Glass" and "The Death of Peer Gynt," will be produced at the New York New Church, 114 East 35th Street in Manhattan, on February 17, 18 and 19, 2011, at 8 PM. Tickets, at $20, can be purchased in advance online at www.Theatermania.com or by calling 212-352-0255.

Both operas deal with an aged man confronting his death. In the first opera, freely based on images from W.B. Yeats's play "The Hour Glass," a much admired professor of religion is visited in a dream by a woman representing the spirit of doubt inside him. In the second opera, freely based on the final scenes of Henrik Ibsen's "Peer Gynt," the anti-hero Peer is forced to accept judgment as one who has failed to find a true identity, and must therefore be "melted down like all such damaged goods."

Featured in "The Hour Glass" are baritone Jim Trainor as the professor and soprano Yvonne Bill as the woman. Featured in "The Death of Peer Gynt" are baritone Joshua South as Peer, tenor Jean Hebert as an Emissary from the place of judgment, and soprano Jacqueline Thompson as Solveig, the loving wife whom Peer abandoned many years ago. The pianist for both operas is Earl Buys. The stage director is David Macdonald, and music direction is by the composer.

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JOHN EATON's "Sor Juana Songs" (1998) will be performed at the Tenri Cultural Institute at 43A West 13th St. on Friday, Feb. 25 at 8pm by the incredible singer Christina Asher and the wonderful pianist Taka Kigawa. John writes, "Three sonnets by, in my opinion, the greatest Latin American poet, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. To capture their themes of, respectively, illusive love, defying the overbearing authority of her male detractors, and the loss of love, I have used microtones in the voice as well as as well as singing into the piano strings, and such piano techniques as holding "lesser" sonorities with the middle pedal of the piano and catching sf passages or chords by the quick change of the right pedal - the last three of which create softer, echoing images of previous events. This is perhaps my favorite and most moving song cycle."

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A reminder to the broader NYCC community, specifically composers who have expressed interest but not yet joined the NYCC: you might like to know we are already in the planning stages for the 2011-2012 concert season. This includes a Call for Scores deadline of February 15. If you would like to be considered for concert programming purposes in the next season, you must be a member in good standing, and should contact us about joining.

NYCC | In The Loop | Feb 26, 2011

Our February SUNDAY SALON is tomorrow, February 27 and GENE McBRIDE is once again graciously hosting the event. (Thanks, Gene!) We get started at 2pm at Manhattan Plaza, 484 W. 43 Street, Apartment 14M. This Salon promises to be a special event as we'll be discussing the life and times of the recently passed Milton Babbitt. We'll share personal insights, listen to a few pieces, and discuss his lasting influence.

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RICHARD BROOKS's "Lux aeterna" for SATB chorus, Tenor or soprano solo and organ will be premiered by the Gregg Smith Singers, March 19, 2011, 8 pm at Saint Peter's Church, Citcorp Center.

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Here's some great news to share about the New York Composers Circle: The NYCC was recently awarded a financial grant by the ALICE M. DITSON FUND of Columbia University, money that will be used to support the NYCC's concert presentations. Yay NYCC! Congrats to all the behind-the-scenes people who made this happen.

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We pass along the following opportunity for composers:

Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble, Inc (MCCE) is excited to be launching our first Composer Search. MCCE is a not-for-profit chamber music ensemble located in Staten Island, NY which strives to bring high-quality chamber music to Staten Island with a focus on contemporary music. Composer Search 2011, MCCE seeks classically trained, post-collegiate composers, age 35 and below, to submit their original compositions and be eligible to receive a commission for a new work.

For a copy of the application send an email to Anna Kivela, Program Coordinator, at mccecomposersearch@gmail.com or Tamara Keshecki, Artistic Director, at info@mcensemble.org. Applications must be postmarked by Wednesday, March 16, 2011. Visit: www.mcensemble.org

In the Loop | Jan 5, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR from all of us at the NYCC. It's time to prepare for our busy winter and spring half of the season, and we start with our next SUNDAY SALON, to be held Sunday, January 23, at 2:00 pm, at Eugene McBride's apartment, 484 West 43rd St., Apt. 14M.

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PERI MAUER's AFTERWORDS, for clarinet, cello, and piano, will be performed by CROSS ISLAND on January 23rd at 2:00 pm at Bayport-Blue Point Library, 203 Blue Point Avenue, Blue Point, NY.

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To the broader NYCC community, specifically composers who have expressed interest but not yet joined the NYCC: you might like to know we are already in the planning stages for the 2011-2012 concert season. This includes a Call for Scores deadline of February 15. If you would like to be considered for concert programming purposes in the next season, you must be a member in good standing, and should contact us about joining.

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RICHARD BROOKS received an email in late December from Candice Beckmann at Carnegie Hall regarding opportunities for composers, and would like to share. Ms. Beckmann writes:

"I am writing to you today about new music commissions and premieres happening at Carnegie Hall. Up and coming composers often look to Carnegie Hall for support by having their music commissioned, premiering a piece of music, or hosting events such as the professional training workshops. My role in this process is to share information about all of these possibilities with people such as the New York Composers Circle.

Two other items of note are our New Music Commissions and our Professional Training Workshops. The commissions webpage will be updated again soon, but you can read and listen to works going back to 2006 (www.carnegiehall.org/newmusic). The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall hosts 2-3 workshops each season and they are open to the general public. The workshop that NYCC will find most interesting is Dawn Upshaw with Donnacha Dennehy "Creating and Collaborating on New Vocal Works" in April, 2011. You can check out www.carnegiehall.org/professionaltrainingworkshops to read more details about the performances. Once January comes around there will be information about next season's application process as well."