Pittsburgh New Music Net

The Inn in Lawrenceville
Door: $10 adults / $8 students and seniors
Discounts available in advance at www.alia-musica.org

Alia Musica Pittsburgh presents The Gemini Duo and thingNY in an evening of new music and art on June 15 at The Inn in Lawrenceville. The performances by the two visiting ensembles will be set against a new, large group exhibition titled Disambiguate at The Inn’s Butler Street gallery space curated by Stephen Tuomala and Sarah Humphrey.

The Gemini Duo (Jubal Fulks and Lauren Varley) offers a program of new works for violin and horn, including the premiere of two new works: Locus, by Alia Musica’s John Arrigo-Nelson, and Groundings, by New York composer Joseph DiPonio.

Jeff Young and Paul Pinto of the experimental music ensemble thingNY perform their engaging and dynamic two-man opera, Jeff Young and Paul Pinto, Patriots, Run for Office on a Platform of Swift and Righteous Immigration Reform, Lots of Jobs, and a Healthy Environment: An Opera by Paul Pinto and Jeff Young.

Come and check out The Inn’s fantastic new space; mingle, eat, drink, and be a part of this exciting art happening!

The Inn is located at 5601 Butler Street in Pittsburgh (Lawrenceville) 15201.  The event will take place on the second floor (stairs only; no elevator).

The Trillium Ensemble performs its season finale at Frick Fine Arts Auditorium (Frick Fine Arts Building, Oakland, 15260) on Saturday, June  8, 2013 at 7:30pm.  Tickets can be purchased with cash at the door:  $10/adults and $5 children.  Silent Spring features  two new works, the completion of John Adams’ Gnarly Buttons, and a work for flute and electronics by University of Pittsburgh Professor, Mathew Rosenblum.

Trillium Ensemble commissioned Silent Spring by Mark Fromm, local composer and member of Alia Musica Pittsburgh. The work takes its name from the book by Pittsburgh native and conservationist, Rachel Carson. Fromm exploits Trillium Ensemble’s versatility in this piece, using singing pianist, extended flute techniques and bass clarinet. The piece evokes the arrival of spring in birdsong and the starkness of no birds singing. This piece is sure to stir the emotions.

The  world premiere piano solo, On The Ceiling Of The Sky by Matthew Heap, presents a three movement rhythmic thunderstorm that unfolds before the listener.  With descriptive titles, One Thousand Refracting Dew-Drops, Gathering Clouds, and Inside the Thunderclap, the piece utilizes the entire range of the keyboard. Unevenly accented yet lyrical lines, polyrhythms that weave smoothly in and out between both hands of the pianist, and tonal clusters help to portray the moods of the different movements within the work.

Under the Rainbow, for flute and pre-recorded CD, returns to its premiere performance space. Mathew Roseblum’s piece takes the listener on a journey through a variety of musical styles including techno, karaoke, lounge, cartoon soundtrack, and naturally features members of the cast of the film The Wizard of Oz.

Trillium Ensemble strives to make classical music fun and accessible to audiences of all ages. Founded in 2010, Trillium has performed in venues throughout the Pittsburgh region, and has commissioned works by a number of young professional composers in the area. Email trillium.ensemble@gmail.com to reserve tickets in advance!

The American University Sax Quartet

Two fine new music concerts coming up starting tomorrow:

First, the Phillips family plays music of Eugene Phillips

The Phillips Family will perform a concert featuring two new works by Pittsburgh composer Eugene Phillips: Quintetto Concertante for soprano, flute, two violins and viola, plus his Suite for Viola and Bass Flute. Both works were written at the request of the Phillips family and are being premiered here in Pittsburgh. The Suite for Viola and Bass Flute features the newly invented bass flute, a giant flute sounding two octaves below the standard instrument.

Second, The American University Sax Quartet plays Brooks

The American University Saxophone Quartet is visiting Pittsburgh from Washington DC. They will be joined by University of Pittsburgh faculty and student performers Roger Zahab (violin/viola), Jonghee Kang (piano), and Eric Wiegandt (percussion) for a program that will feature works by George Tsontakis, Michael Torke, Paul Hindemith, Elliott Carter, Aaron Brooks, and Roger Zahab.

The American University Saxophone Quartet is a premier ensemble at American University in Washington DC. Regularly featured at university events, the quartet is committed to the study and performance of contemporary music for classical saxophone. This past semester the group commissioned and premiered a piece by Pittsburgh composer, Aaron Brooks. The work will be performed again at the University of Pittsburgh in May as part of a university exchange. In 2010 the group also premiered THAWST II by Katerina Stamatelos at the International Saxophone Symposium at George Mason University. Coached by Dr. Noah Getz, the quartet consists of Helen West, a recent graduate in music performance and economics; Vincent Guerrero, a junior studying music performance and education; Peter Jones, a senior studying accounting; and Charley Fogel, a recent graduate in psychology.

The Shop, 8 p.m.
$6

Dynamo Sound Collective Presents:

MOONRISES
[Chicago | Captcha Records]

Plastic Crimewave (aka Steve Krakow) on guitar, Libby Ramer on organ, and Ben Baker Billington (Quicksails, Tiger Hatchery, Wasteland Jazz Ensemble) on drums.

“They take you way beyond yr average wanna-be psych band….. sublime space-outs change to propulsive noise-assaults on a dime…..eastern drone, guitar affects cascading all around, slowly building into one propulsive ecstatic end of the world jam…precision drum freakouts plus hypnotic guitars and interstellar organ… you have to see ‘em to believe the glorious noise they make…..” – Tiny Grooves

Incredible. One of the best psych-rock bands out there right now. If you dig Wooden Shjips, Egg, EL&P, Neu, Agitation Free, Blue Cheer, etc… you must attend this gig.

OUTSIDEINSIDE
[Pittsburgh | Machine Age Studios]
Two parts Carousel + 1 part Panfilo = hard rock blues.
Bring your motorcycle.

JOHN KASUNIC
[Pittsburgh | Facing the Facts | Pay The Rent]
Sup.

FRIZZ
[Pittsburgh]
Bunch of mutants making loud rock music for mutants.
Video being projected by
JOSH RIEVEL
[Pittsburgh]

BYOB

Saturday, May 11, 8 pm
The Alloy Studios
Tickets  

Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s Hear/Now performance series continues with an evening of premieres at The Alloy Studios. Hear/Now is a celebration of traditional and obscure music, movement, and sound arts. Discover noteworthy and emerging acts in the constantly unpredictable and experimental genres in an intimate and up-close setting. From ensembles to soloists, electronic to instrumental, Hear/Now features talented artists from Pittsburgh and beyond.

Maree ReMalia | merrygogo in collaboration with David Bernabo
Premiere - slants revisited/take away the mountain

This premiere performance is the third project in the slants series through which Maree | merrygogo is continuing to make collaborative work in 2013. This duet draws from the solo slants revisited for 1. These works both experiment with material and explorations used in the creative process for the original duet, slants, which Maree created through the PearlArts Studios Artists-in-Residence Series (2012-2013) in collaboration with Korean movement artist, Hyunjung Lee. The original duet offers source material to explore the endless iterations through which movement and themes can evolve in the development of existing work. The original slants duet is a playful amalgamation where the creators demonstrated their multi-layered experience in each passing moment. Their abstracted expressions drew from everyday encounters and their influences in traditional Korean dance, classical ballet, Africanist forms, contemporary dance, and the Gaga movement language. Through slips of the absurd and flashes of introspection, the ever-shifting montage revealed the range of the duo’s relationship from their comedic banter to living with Korean han (an inherent “soulful sadness” or “perseverence”).

Find out more about Hear/Now.

Kresge Theatre
Free, 8 p.m.

What do you get when you make a couch out of the kite-eating tree?

Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble performs

Mason Bates’ Omnivorous Furniture for chamber orchestra and electronica

Featuring the North American premiere of Leonardo Balada’s Caprichios No. 7 for solo clarinet and ensemble.

New Hazlett Theater

TICKETS NOW ON SALE at www.pittsburghsymphony.org/dybbuk or call (412)-392-4900   More information at the Festival’s website: www.pjmf.net

The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds is a multimedia chamber opera composed by Ofer Ben-Amots and inspired by the timeless Yiddish play of the same name.

A young woman, Leah, near-death, awakens to the whisper of a clarinet.  She slowly realizes the sound is the spirit of her dead lover Hannan.  As the rest of the opera unfolds in flashback, she must choose between life with a man she does not know and death with her beloved, who has possessed her as a Dybbuk: a deceased soul who takes possession of a living body.

The music intertwines folk elements with contemporary textures to create a haunting, self-contained world, while multiple video projections and dance combine to tell a powerful story of faith, mysticism, and passion between two ill-fated lovers.          “…transcendent” – Houston Arts Week

“The Dybbuk” is sung in Hebrew, with English supertitles.

The Dybbuk: Between Two Worlds marks the 10^th Anniversary production of the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, an annual concert series devoted to improving cultural life for Pittsburgh’s Jewish and artistic communities at large.

TICKETS NOW ON SALE at www.pittsburghsymphony.org/dybbuk or call (412)392-4900   More information at the Festival’s website: www.pjmf.net

The Space Upstairs
Free admission

The trio will premiere the works by spotlight compsers Alan Tormey, Ryan Stewart, Chris Massa, Adam Rook, and Ash Madni, as well as Elliott Carter’s ‘String Trio’. TSU is a loft space located above Construction Junction with entrance doors at the intersection of Thomas and Lexington. On street parking is available.

Helpful advice from BOST:

DO NOT PARK IN THE CONSTRUCTION JUNCTION PARKING LOT. CJ closes the gates and your vehicle may be locked into the lot, leading to much sadness post-concert. The Space Upstairs IS NOT handicap accessible.

L-R: Linda Fisher, bassoon; Robin Driscoll, oboe; Rob Frankenberry, piano

Bellefield Hall Auditorium
Free

Animé BOP! will present a concert of recent works by composers with Pittsburgh roots. The program will include Nancy Galbraith’s Incantation & Allegro, James Ogburn’s Complements and Collisions, the premieres of eX (e to the x) by Mark S. Fromm, Semplicemente by Noah Rectenwald, and Robert Frankenberry’s arrangement of Daron Aric Hagen’s Tryst. Animé BOP! will also screen Will Zavala’s short film Virgil Cantini: The Artist in Public while performing Philip Thompson’s score live.

Anime’ BOP! is the result of three colleagues exploring the exciting repertoire possibilities of piano and double reeds. The ensemble is devoted to performing a wide array of musical periods and styles, as well as discovering new compositions through arrangement and commissions. Its members are:

Bassoonist Linda Morton Fisher is currently principal with the Pittsburgh Opera, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Civic Light Opera, the Lancaster (OH) Festival Orchestra and the Westmoreland Symphony, as well as the instructor of bassoon at the University of Pittsburgh.

Oboist Robin Driscoll is principal oboe with the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet as well as with the Wheeling Symphony.  He appears throughout the United States as a soloist and has played with the Cleveland Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony. Mr. Driscoll is a member of the faculties of University of Pittsburgh and the North Carolina School of the Arts.

Pianist Robert Frankenberry leads a multi-faceted career as a tenor, pianist, and conductor, performing regularly in Chicago, New York and Pittsburgh. Robert is currently artistic administrator for the Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, and is a member of the IonSound Project and Music on the Edge Chamber Ensemble.

I’ve been so busy putting together the video interviews with Robert Dick that I’ve neglected a couple things that are happening real soon.

First off, there’s a noise/post-rock/ambient… show happening at Garfield Artworks featuring Aidan Baker and Insect Ark (AKA Dana Schecter) happening at Garfield Artworks TONIGHT at 8 p.m., so check it out if you can.

Second, in between his performances with Alia Musica, Robert Dick is giving a free lecture at Pitt on Friday at 4 p.m. It’s titled Successful Composition with Extended Techniques, sumpin’ he knows a little about. Come on over to Pitt to hear him.