Pittsburgh New Music Net

Happy New Year to all of you who faithfully read this blog!

If it seems as though the new music scene has been a little feast or famine this season, well then prepare to feast! 2010 gets underway in grand style starting this Saturday night at the Warhol when Music on the Edge hosts ICE (the International Contemporary Ensemble). And to make things just perfect, the high on Saturday is supposed to be a whopping 16º! (Is it too late for them to change their name to BALMY?)

The following week includes concerts by the Polish Cultural Council presenting Zygmunt Krauze at Frick Fine Arts Auditorium (January 13), Alia Musica Pittsburgh’s winter chamber music concert at Chatham University (January 14), and on January 18, the Emerson Quartet performing music by Ives, Janacek, Barber, and Shostokovich. While the Emerson concert isn’t new music per se, it’s hard for me to imagine anyone appreciating this program more than the new music community.

That’s what I know of for January; you can find more details at the Events Calendar. I’ll begin posting events for the rest of the winter and spring soon, so as always, if you have info about an upcoming performance, do tell.

James Laughlin Music Center, Chatham University
Tickets are $12 at the door, or $10 for students, seniors, and in advance online at www.alia-musica.org/tickets

Centered around Morton Feldman’s 1951 piece Projections II (for trumpet, flute, violin, cello, and piano), Alia Musica will perform its first concert of 2010 (the third event in its 2009-10 season) on Thursday January 14th, at 7pm, at the James Laughlin Music Center of Chatham University in Shadyside.

The program also includes music for 2 and 3 performers by Mark Fromm, Ivan Jimenez, Federico Garcia, Matthew Heap, Ayo Oluranti, and new composer member Lenny Young. Also featured is Pittsburgh-native guest composer Chris Catone, whose Le Mirlitone, for flute and fixed electronics, will be given its Pittsburgh premiere by flutist Kerrith Livengood.

For more information visit Alia Musica Pittsburgh’s home page.

Update: This concert begins at 7 p.m.

James Laughlin Music Hall

Chatham University will celebrate the Global Focus Year of West Africa at the Sounds of Africa Music Festival, Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3. Pauline Rovkah, professor of music and the festival director, has assembled Pittsburgh’s finest music scholars and musicians for an incredible weekend of free events in the James Laughlin Music Hall. For more information contact Pauline Rovkah at 412-365-1676 or rovkah@chatham.edu.

Friday, October 2, 4:00 p.m.

“Jazz Imaginings of Africa: Aesthetics, Memory, and the African Cultural Continuum”

This talk will include discussion and performance of select jazz composers’ works, which demonstrate the creative connections between traditional African music and modern jazz.

Dr. Kenan Foley, professor of music

Dr. Anicet Mundundu, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), is an expert in traditional and contemporary music from the central African region

Immediately following: Trio performance featuring Dr. Mundundu

——

Saturday, October 3, 2:00-4:30 p.m.

“Composition in Africa: Transmission and Reception” (Panel discussion, 2:00-3:00)

Moderator: Dr. Margit Hawelleck

Dr. Akin Euba, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Music, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Kenan Foley

Mr Charles Lwanga

Dr. Eric Moe, composer and pianist, professor of music, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Anicet Mundundu

Mr. Ayo Oluranti

Chamber Music Concert

Works by African composers: Kwabena Nketia, Akin Euba, Vindu Bangambula, Joshua Uzoigwe, Ayodamope Oluranti.

Performers: Kelly Lynch, Eric Moe, Roger Zahab, Robert Frankenberry, Oye

Dosunmu, Ayodamope Oluranti, Richard Page*, Pauline Rovkah, Alia Musica Sextet

*Principal Bass Clarinet of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Bellefield Hall Auditorium

$12 at the door; $10 for students, seniors, and online

Alia Musica Pittsburgh announces its Fall 2009 Concert, to take place on September 15th at 8pm in Bellefield Hall Auditorium. The concert features soprano Kelly Lynch in a program devoted to vocal music by Pittsburgh composers.

Ms. Lynch, an experienced singer of both opera and new music, will premiere the solo-voice composition The Flesh and the Spirit, by Duquesne University faculty composer Eli Tamar, and sing to various instrumental accompaniments, ranging from piano to 8-player chamber ensemble, in pieces by CMU faculty composer Reza Vali and Alia Musica composer members Federico Garcia and Matthew Gillespie.

Continue Reading “Alia Musica and Kelly Lynch Perform Contemporary Art Songs”

Frick Fine Arts Auditorium

Alia Musica members Kerrith Livengood (flute, composition) and Amy Galbraith (oboe) will give a recital this Friday, May 22nd. It’s at 7:30 at the  Frick Fine Arts Auditorium (across from the Carnegie Library). The concert features music by Ravel, Muczynski, and Ginastera plus works by Federico Garcia and Livengood.

Alia Musica members Kerrith Livengood (flute, composition) and Amy Galbraith (oboe) will give a recital this Friday, May 22nd. It’s at 7:30 at the Frick Fine Arts Building auditorium (across from the Carnegie Library) and will feature some

Admission is free, but all donations go to Alia Musica Pittsburgh.

It’s my pleasure to post on the vibrant PNMN again! This time to tell new music fans that Alia Musica’s show is ready for this Tuesday at 8pm in Synod Hall.

We are playing Phil’s Trouble (that is, Phil Thompson, PNMN’s mastermind emeritus) and a selection of some of our best work from the past two years.

Music by Mark Fromm, Ivan Jimenez, Kerrith Livengood, Matthew Heap, and Ayo Oluranti—with varied inspirations from the Beatles to African folk to the Bible… it’s a promising program and I’d like to invite everybody!

For details see the ‘Alia Musica’ category, or check out our website (where you can buy tickets in advance at a discount).

Hopefully we’ll kick off a nice Spring 2009!

Alia Musica’s Spring 2009 concert is supported in part by the Heinz Endowments.

Synod Hall (St. Paul Cathedral), Oakland
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

ALIA MUSICA Pittsburgh announces its Spring 2009 production for Tuesday March 31st, 2009, at 8pm, in Synod Hall. The concert celebrates the second anniversary of the ALIA MUSICA’s existence, featuring a performance of Trouble, by Guest Composer Philip Thompson, alongside some of the most successful compositions of the group’s first two years. For ensembles between five and eight performers (including harp, percussion, and piano in addition to woodwinds and strings), the program spans, as is usual in ALIA MUSICA’s programs, a wide variety of style and influences. The program includes:

Ivan Jimenez: lunar park and green
Kerrith Livengood: Song of the 144,000
Ayo Oluranti: African Rhythm
Mark Fromm: Aqua Regia
Philip Thompson: Trouble
Matthew Heap: And I felt the Sun, Rising

Tickets and information
Tickets are $12 at the door; $10 for students, seniors; $10 in advance at www.alia-musica.org/tickets.html.
For full details visit www.alia-musica.org.
For reservations, group rates, and/or questions, email contact@alia-musica.org
or call (412) 361- 0194.

Remember in the opening scene of Cars when Chick Hicks creates a major pileup on the racetrack to prevent Lightning McQueen from winning the Piston Cup, but Lighting McQueen just sails on through with near miraculous driving? No? Then you probably don’t have young kids.

Anyway, after an amazing explosion of new music in the first few weeks of 2009, Alia Musica is sailing through to occupy the new music spotlight on their own this weekend. City Paper has a very nice preview of the concert which you can read here.

On another note, if you enjoyed composer/percussionist Lukas Ligeti when he performed here in November for Radical Riffs, check out the special concert on Counterstream Radio tonight at 9 p.m. Counterstream Radio is a service of the American Music Center to which I’ve become completely addicted.

The next five people who register for Pittsburgh New Music Net will receive free tickets to Alia Musica’s Winter Concert  this Sunday night. The concert takes place at Frick Fine Arts Auditorium at 7 p.m. and features music by Kerrith Livengood, Christopher Ruth, Matt Gillespie, Alia director Federico Garcia, and includes works by guest composers Alec Summers and Christian Kriegeskotte.

Registering is free and simple. Scroll down the right-hand column to “Meta” and click “Register.” Once you’re a registered member you can add your own 2¢ to any of the posts on PNMNet. (You know you’ve been dying to do that.)