Future Tenant and Pittsburgh-based experimental ensemble Suavity’s Mouthpiece host the Nuance Exhibition, an annual event representing a broad cross-section of the Burgh’s experimental music. This year’s artists inlcude:
Disposable Redhead – A brand new live electro-acoustic sound lab, featuring daring improvisational electronics in a successful endeavor to diverge from the “harsh sequencing of modern electronic music.”
IvenFaint – A staple of local innovative performance art for nearly two decades, the duo IvenFaint presents a revitalized and modern reassessment of the bold spirit of post-punk. Utilizing carefully crafted video and light projections, the group brings a new visual nature to the performance of independent music
Suavity’s Mouthpiece – Anti-pop
and special guest
Christiane D – An award-winning, multi-talented artistic force, who for 20 years has fused the visual, spoken, performance and visual arts in an unending compendium of sounds, forms, shapes, and words that represent her unique worldview.
July flees away, and along with it, the 2012 Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble season. PNME’s final concert, “To the Earth,” will feature Rzewski’s work by the same title with Cage’s 4’33″ and Crumb’s Idyll for the Misbegotten, all anchored by Messiaen’s classic Quartet for the End of Time. the last concert is tonight in just a few hours.
The end of the PNME season doesn’t mark the end of an exciting summer of new music in the Burgh though, as Eclectic Laboratory Chamber Orchestra presents “The Looking Glass,” a concert including music by Philip Glass alongside transcriptions of jazz, pop, and New Wave music. ELCO’s energetic summer of music making is yet another sign of how vital the Burgh’s new music scene is. The concert takes place on Sunday night at the Union Project at 7 pm.
Union Project is pleased to welcome Eclectic LaboratoryChamber Orchestra (E.L.C.O.) to the stage to present The Looking Glass on Sunday July 29th in our Great Hall at 7 pm. One of Pittsburgh’s most versatile orchestras, E.L.C.O. makes it their mission to tear down distinctions of genre and demolish preconceived notions about music by presenting a repertoire spanning from the Middle Ages to present day, placing emphasis on classical, modern classical, and pop music.
The music of The Looking Glass takes its inspiration from the Pop Art, Op Art, and Minimal Art of the late 1960s in order to explore the musical connections between Classical Minimalism, Jazz, Funk, and Contemporary Dance Pop. Throbbing, pulsating beats, hypnotic cycles of melody, and sweeping instrumental soundscapes are the hallmark sounds of The Looking Glass.
In this endeavor, the Eclectic Laboratory Chamber Orchestra presents music that focuses on pulse and repetition, with a spotlight on the music of Philip Glass and other so-called minimalist composers. Unlike much of the modern classical music which preceded it, minimalist music often emphasizes a recognizable pulse and tonal melodies, with a clear connection to pop music and the music of various non-western traditions (Indian classical music, Indonesian gamelan, African drumming, etc.) The program will highlight the connections of this music to pop art and the loft party culture that spawned it by presenting it alongside transcriptions of jazz, pop, and New Wave music.
All proceeds from “The Looking Glass” will go to benefit Union Project and will help make space to connect, create, and celebrate Community.
Get tickets here! Just $10 gets you concert admission as well as free beer generously donated by our friends at the Duquesne Brewery!
A reminder to all Pittsburgh-related composers: this Friday is the deadline for submission to the Call for Scores and Commission Competition with Alia Musica and the PNME, a new opportunity for Pittsburgh-related composers that offers both a performance of an existing work and a commission for a new piece.
Nice job by the trad media highlighting some of the innovative music happening this weekend. Andy Druckenbrod previews Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble in the Post-Gazette as does Mark Kanny in the Trib. But in all the (justified) hoopla about the new PNME season, don’t miss out on Relative Positions which is featured in the City Paper this week. Relative Positions is an interdisciplinary event that includes a new piece by the Burgh’s own David Gerard Matthews with ELCO performing.
Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble’s 2012 Season starts tonight! As promised, here is an interview with PNME flutist Lindsey Goodman and violinist Nathalie Shaw. They talk about their big solo pieces on this weekend’s opening concert—Nathalie will play a work by Maderna called Pièce pour Ivry and Lindsey will give the professional premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Taking Charge—and they demonstrate their page turning techniques for Randall Woolf’s Quicksilver. You won’t want to miss that. And what else… Oh Yeah! Fashion!
New music fans have a lot to choose from this weekend as Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble gets underway, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh launches a new summer season that includes new mini-music dramas with each performance, and ELCO premieres a new work by David Gerard Matthews, On the Origin of the World, with Shanna Simmons Dance—part of Relative Positions at the Union Project.
And what am I doing to celebrate July Fourth you ask? Why interviewing THEEEEEEE One and Only Lindsey Goodman about the upcoming pnme season, of course. Look for lots of good insights from Lindsey is this space soon.
E.L.C.O. is pleased to be participating in Relative Positions in collaborations with Shana Simmons Dance at the Union Project on the evening of July 6. The evening encompassing the multi-disciplinary work as a whole is based loosely on Improv, presented at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2010, the event is structured as an immersive performance “tour” through the Union Project on N. Negley Ave in Pittsburgh.
Over twenty artists — choreographers, musicians, writers/poets, installation artists and visual artists — have been commissioned to create work at the site. Each artist/group presents a 5-20 minute piece that continues on a loop throughout the evening. Audiences have a choice in their experience: staying in one area to view one piece multiple times, or moving through the venue at their own pace. E.L.C.O. debuts original composition On the Origin of the World by David Gerard Matthews with the dancers of Shana Simmons dance.
TICKETS
6PM – VIP Experience – $25, 2 for $40
7PM – Gen. Admission – $15
Click HERE for more information, online ticket buying, maps and schedule or e-mail elco.events@gmail.com
Let’s start with the most important thing to know about Nightcaps for new music fans: The complete series of mini-music dramas by living composers will happen on Sunday, July 15 at 5 p.m. (which I guess would make it more of a cocktail, but… details!) Performances of the individual mini-music dramas take place after the main bill on the dates indicated.
With a libretto by Rob Handel, the basic idea is that each mini-music drama takes place in a different room of the same hotel. If you are planning to go mainly for the min-operas, you’ll want to catch the complete Nightcaps series on July 15 at 5 p.m. Here’s the run down for the whole series:
• Friday July 6, 10:00pm. Valkyrie Suite, Eric Moe
• Saturday July 7, 10:00pm. Bridal Suite, Dwayne Fulton
• Sunday July 8, 5:30pm. Presidential Suite, Roger Zahab
• Thursday July 12, 10:00pm. I Hope the Moonlight Suite is Okay, We Recommend it When the Honeymoon Suite isn’t Available, Gilda Lyons
• Friday July 13, 10:00pm. George Washington Suite, Daron Aric Hagen
• Saturday July 14, 11:00pm. Honeymoon Suite, Alberto Garcia Demestres
• Sunday July 15, 5:00pm. Complete Night Caps Series
