May 26 2009 Concert Flier

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In The Loop | Apr 18, 2009

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Our April SUNDAY SALON is tomorrow, April 19, at The Ellington Room at Manhattan Plaza, 400 West 43 Street, second floor, from 2-5pm. GENE MC BRIDE will introduce our special guest, the esteemed composer Raoul Pleskow. Still composing at age 78, he will be speaking about changes in his personal compositional style over time, and will discuss his own life in music and his great wealth of knowledge of new music spanning many years. He will present his latest composition "Dialogue for Three Instruments." 

Also, tomorrow we will hear NATALIYA MEDVEDOVSKAYA's The First Snow for oboe, bassoon, violin, and piano recorded by the Poulenc Trio with Anton Lande, violin

And also: GENE McBRIDE's Movements for Violin and Piano presented as a Sibelius generated file.

 

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RICHARD MCCANDLESS's percussion quartet, Pile Driver, was performed this past Tuesday at the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio. The performance was by The Oberlin Percussion Group under the direction of Michael Rosen. Regarding Pile Driver, the Washington Post wrote "The concert ended with a piece by McCandless called 'Pile Driver,' which he introduced with the half-boast 'This piece is not subtle,' but the poetry McCandless found in the cacophony made Pile Driver absorbing." 

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Guitarist OREN FADER writes: "I'm playing two amazing pieces this Saturday, April 18th at 8 pm, accompanied by members of the Fireworks Ensemble." The pieces are Joan Tower's Snow Dreams (guitar and flute), and Charles Wuorinen's Sonata for Guitar and Piano. Also on the program: Nataraja, for flute and piano, by Jonathan Harvey; Vox Balanae, for amplified flute, cello and piano, by George Crumb; Time of Desperation, for solo piano by Caleb Burhans. The musicians are Oren Fader, guitar, Elizabeth Janzen, flute, James Johnston, piano, Leigh Stuart, cello. Details: "Members of the Fireworks Ensemble play Tenri" TONIGHT: Saturday, April 18th at 8 pm. Admission by donation at Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A West 13th Street, NY, New York 10011. 

In The Loop | Apr 11, 2009

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Our April SUNDAY SALON is a week from tomorrow, April 19, at The Ellington Room at Manhattan Plaza, 400 West 43 Street, second floor. We meet from 2-5pm and all are invited and encouraged to attend. Again we will be privileged to have a special guest: the Salon will feature a presentation by the esteemed composer Raoul Pleskow. Still composing at age 78, he will be speaking about changes in his personal compositional style over time, and will discuss his own life in music and his great wealth of knowledge of new music spanning many years. He will present his latest composition "Dialogue for Three Instruments." 

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Baritone RICARDO RIVERA has several performances of note upcoming in April. He will be singing a new piece for Baritone and Orchestra on April 13th at 8:30 with the Arts Symphony Orchestra, with conductor Stilian Kirov. Featuring new works by composition students at Juilliard and other new works including: Soliloquio en las Olas (2009) for Baritone and Orchestra, composed by Reinaldo Moya (b.1984) with a text by Pablo Neruda. Monday, April 13th, 8:30 PM, The Juilliard School, Room 309, 60 Lincoln Center Plaza (at Broadway), third floor. Admission is free, no reservations necessary.

Ricardo will also be featured in "Chromatic Voice Exchange" with conductor Saya Callner. Featuring new works for choir by composition students at Mannes and other works, including: We Are Five Friends, composed by Ronnie Reshef, a dramatic work for five solo singers and percussion on a text by Kafka. He'll also perform a song for baritone, clarinet, and piano, Shlosha Yamim (Three Days), composed by Ronnie Reshef with a text by Lea Goldberg. This event will be held Sunday, April 19th, 7:30 PM, at Mannes College of Music, Goldmark Hall on the third floor. Admission is free, no reservations necessary.

Ricardo will perform in a chamber opera, Borges and the Other #2, composed by Matthew Welch on a text by Jorge Luis Borges. The conductor is Matthew Welch, featuring his eclectic ensemble Blarvuster. Tenor Nick Hallett is also featured in this performance. Friday, April 24th, 8:30 PM at Roulette, 20 Greene Street (between Canal and Grand). 

Admission: $15 / Harvestworks & DTW members, 

Students, Under 30 & Seniors: $10; 

Roulette members / Location One members: FREE.

Reservations/Tickets: 212.219.8242 

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RICHARD BROOKS thought the NYCC readership would be interested to know about the world premiere of a new play about the life and music of Virgil Thomson. It is called Oh Virgil! A Theatrical Portrait written by Wallace Norman in collaboration with Larry Alan Smith. A two-week limited engagement will run May 1 thru May 10.  The play is produced by Woodstock Fringe in association with Judson Arts. You can learn more about this production at www.woodstockfringe.org. Tickets ($18, group rates available) can be ordered at that website or by calling (845) 810-0123. The venue is Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South (corner of West 4^th Street and Thompson Street). Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 3pm.

April 5 Concert Program: Sneak Peak!

Here's an advance copy of this Sunday's concert at Saint Mark's Church in the Bowery; 131 East 10th Street near Second Avenue; 3pm. Click for a larger, browsable view.

In The Loop | Mar 28, 2009

REMINDER: Our THIRD CONCERT OF THE SEASON is just around the corner: Sunday, April 5 at 3pm at St. Marks Church, 131 East 10th Street. To see the flier (and please forward it to your colleagues!) for all the pieces and performers, click: http://www.nycomposerscircle.org/April_5_2009_Flier.jpg

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Congratulations to RICHARD BROOKS whose Lyric Piece for solo cello was premiered by Zoe Hassman on March 26 at 11:30 am at Nassau Community College in Garden City.

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CESAR VUKSIC is the recipient of a Composition Grant from "New Music Collective", a Brooklyn based organization devoted to the performance of Contemporary Music. The Grant allowed him to write for any combination of instruments or voices he wanted. His choice was writing a piece for Choir and Piano titled Wind. The composer explains: "In this composition, based in my own lyrics, I intend to express my impressions and feelings about "wind", which has been always a fascinating subject for me." The piece will be premiered on May 16 at the Brooklyn Conservatory. It will receive two more performances in June, in a Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale Program titled Songs of Nature.   

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BILL VOLLINGER will be having two premieres of his piece Raspberry Man, for narrator and instrumental ensemble, based on the story of a man who used to stand outside Jack Dempsey's Broadway Restaurant in the 1960s and stick his tongue out at the passers-by. The quartet version will be performed on March 31 at the University of Nebraska Kearney New Music Festival with Andrew White narrating, and the septet version will be performed on April 4 at the SCI National Conference in Santa Fe NM with the composer narrating. 

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Keep your announcements, concerts, and good news coming to your friendly In The Loop editor, Richard Russell, at InTheLoop@nycomposerscircle.org. (And let me know if you prefer to be removed from the list.) Until next time, let's keep each other In The Loop!

Announcing the Third Annual NYCC Composition Contest

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The New York Composers Circle is pleased to announce its third annual composition competition, open to composers of all ages who live in the New York metropolitan area, other than NYCC members.
The winning composition will be performed at one of the NYCC's concerts during the 2009-2010 season, and the winner will also receive one year's free membership in the NYCC.

Please submit no more than one score, together with a CD (if available), of a solo or chamber ensemble work preferably 6-12 minutes in length, but in no event more than 15 minutes, and scored
for not more than four performers on instruments not requiring purchase, rental or cartage costs. The work should not have been previously premiered. Include in your covering letter a brief bio, a
brief program note for your work, and contact information (phone, e-mail and mailing addresses). All submissions not accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope will be discarded after
the winner is announced.  The deadline for receipt is Friday, May 15th.

Send your submission to:

           New York Composers Circle
           c/o Jacob E. Goodman
           310 West 72nd St., 16A
           New York, NY 10023
           Phone: (212) 787-8309
           E-Mail: jgoodman@ccny.cuny.edu

Submissions may also be left with the doorman at that address.

In The Loop | March 3, 2009

On March 5, STANI DIMITROVA will perform RICHARD RUSSELL's Sonata for Violin and Piano at the SUNY Stony Brook Staller Center Recital Hall. This is an afternoon concert, starting at 3pm; admission is free. For directions, see http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/CAS/Music.nsf

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Mezzo soprano ANNA TONNA and pianist Daniel Daroca will present a recital of art songs by composers from Puerto Rico on Saturday March 7, 2009, 3 PM, at La Casa, 1230 Fifth Avenue, Suite 458 (between Fifth and Madison Avenue). Suggested Donation: $10.00. For more information contact (212)722-2600 or email lacasaprnyc@verizon.net

Dominican-American mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna and Cuban pianist Daniel Daroca will showcase songs by Puerto Rican composers from the past and present. Ms. Tonna and Mr. Daroca will highlight the various compositional styles of Puerto Rico's most important classical composers in the genre of art song and their song settings of Puerto Rico's national poets. This same concert will be presented at The Casals Festival of Puerto Rico by these artists on March 19, 2009. La Casa's performance will constitute the New York premiere of several of the pieces to be performed, including the "Tres Canciones de Luis Palés Matos" by Luis Prado.

This concert demonstrates the rich repertoire and variety of Puerto Rico's classical composers, with styles that show influences from folklore to romanticism, to more modern and contemporary idioms. Ms. Tonna and Mr. Daroca will interpret songs by Héctor Campos-Parsi, Awilda Villarini, Julio Mirón, Luis Antonio Ramírez, Jack Delano, Narciso Figueroa, Ernes to Cordero and Luis Prado.

The program will conclude with "Tres Canciones de Luis Palés Matos" by the young Puerto Rican composer Luis Prado. This cycle was first premiered by the mezzo Nancy Fabiola Herrera in Philadelphia. The cycle was first presented by Ms, Tonna and Mr. Daroca in Puerto Rico at the Festival Iberoamericano de las Artes in August of 2008, and was requested again for the March 2009 Casals Festival of Puerto Rico.

Mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna returned recently from Madrid where she served as U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Spain from 2007-2008. She completed an investigation of the Spanish composer Julio Gómez (1886-1973) at La Fundación Juan March, under the tutelage of the distinguished Spanish pianists Miguel Zanetti and Jorge Robaina of the Escuela Superior de Canto of Madrid. In the fields of recital and concerts, Anna Tonna has bowed with the following organizations: Música de Cámara, Los Amigos de la Zarzuela, Elysium Between Two Continents and Joy in Singing in Nueva York. The mezzo soprano has appeared in Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center), Weil Recital Hall (Carnegie Hall) CAMI Hall, Merkin Hall and New York's Town Hall.

Cuban born pianist Daniel Daroca has given recitals and master classes in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Mr. Daroca has worked as an accompanist at the Juilliard School and is currently on the faculty of Kean University. He has participated in the opera seasons of Opera de Colombia and Wexford Festival Opera, among others. The Alban Berg Stiftung, the Verein der Freunde der Musiklehranstalten (Vienna), the Folkwangschule Essen, the Rotary Foundation International, and the Manhattan School of Music have endorsed his accomplishments through honors and fellowships. Mr. Daroca is a vocal coach and a frequent collaborator in vocal recitals.