Pittsburgh New Music Net

Beulah Presbyterian Church
2550 McCrady Road
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Free, Donations for the relief effort can be made at the door.

Anna Singer will join IonSound as featured guest artist for a special event to help raise money for the disaster victims in Alabama. The concert is free. Donations for the relief effort can be made at the door.

The program will include:

ZAHAB entelchronicity between six persons
CORIGLIANO Three Irish Folksongs
BRAHMS Clarinet Trio
KOLM Clarinet Trio
BRAHMS Wie melodien
DVORAK Song to the Moon

Your new music weekend starts tonight (Thursday) when avant jazz improvisors Eugene Chadborune and Tatsuya Nakatani play Garfield Artworks at 8 p.m. That show also includes local luminaries Daryl Fleming and Michael Johnsen.

Saturday night offers IonSound Project performing at Bellefield Hall in a concert that includes Currier, Kriegeskotte, and Sutherland. Can you not go to hear a piece called Overture to a Zombie Apocalypse? I bet you can’t.

Here are the details.

Bellefield Hall Auditorium
ProArts Tickets

IonSound Project performs Nathan Currier’s A Kafka Cantata, Christian Kriegeskotte’s Triangulum, and Gracie Sutherland’s  Overture to a Zombie Apocalypse.

Bellefield Hall Auditorium
Free

IonSound Project, Pitt’s Ensemble-in-Residence, will perform new music by Pitt graduate composers Aaron Brooks, Charles Corey, Charles Lwanga, Sookyung Sul, and Jeremy Woodruff.

Here’s your chance to take in one more new music concert before the first big snow of the year. IonSounders play Mother Goose Suite, Piazzola, and more at the Carnegie Library (Main) today at 2 p.m. They’ll be sharing the program with Alison Babusci. Seriously, this is so cool. Take your kids to this concert and before you know it, they will want to take Suzuki violin, they’ll learn Bach and Mozart, their math scores will improve, then sometime around age 13, they’ll say, “Mom, Dad, I want to spend the rest of my life realizing the indeterminate music of John Cage. Where’s the credit card?” And you will think to yourself, “It all started at an IonSound Project concert.”

L-R: Rob Frankenberry, Eliseo Rael, Elisa Kohanski, Kathleen Costello, Stephanie Kluter-Rael, Peggy Yoo, and Laura Motchalov

Thankful for lots of good new music so far this year, and lot’s more to come. In the spirit of the holiday, here’s a behind-the-scenes photo of IonSound Project fueling up before their November 14 concert. Can’t play Tower on an empty stomach can you? Mmmm… those sandwiches look good…

Carnegie Library Main, Oakland
Quiet Reading Room (first floor)
Free

This concert features playful arrangements of Maurice Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, and Astor Piazzola’s Oblivion. Special guest Alison Babusci assists IonSound in bringing classic and original tales to life with her expert storytelling.

IonSound’s November 14 concert will feature music by Joan Tower in combination with art by kids from the Waldorf School, Falk School, and the Environmental Charter School. The always innovative ensemble is serious about reaching out to children and families, and though we found out last April that giant puppets dancing to Petroushkates is not as family friendly as you might think, the group continues to seek unique ways to involve youngsters. Via the press release,

“Rather than have their interpretations influenced by the literary content behind the music, they will be guided to associate colors and shapes with particular sonorities and will be encouraged to create designs or landscapes based upon their emotional reactions to the music. Musicians of the IonSound Project will present workshops in advance to discuss the music and to play excerpts from the pieces live in the classroom.  The resulting artwork will be projected during the performance of the corresponding compositions.”

Sounds cool to me. Check here for more details.

That’s right, I just coined a phrase. Eclectroacoustic. You’re welcome! Why? Because there ain’t no good way to describe the show on Sunday night at Gooski’s unless you use many more words. Suffice to say it features Canadian acts Not the Wind, Not the Flag and Fossils along with local talent Edgar Um and Ryan Emmett/Dan Miller (H/T Ryan Emmett).

But that’s Sunday night. On Sunday afternoon, Music in a Great Space presents IonSound Project playing Takemitsu and on one of my favorite pieces for the end of all time, Messiaen’s Quartet for the End Time and Shadyside Pres will be a great place to hear it.

The details are are here.

Bellefield Hall Auditorium

Joan Tower: Petroushskates, For Daniel, Clocks (arr. for marimba solo)

Igor Stravinsky: L’Histoire du Soldat (trio version)

IonSound Project will present the second installment of their current season, “Once there, NOW HEAR” on Sunday November 14, 2010 at 7:00 pm in Bellefield Hall Auditorium. “HEAR: Tower” celebrates the chamber music of this year’s Pittsburgh Symphony composer-in-residence, Joan Tower, by featuring her piano trio, For Daniel, Clocks for solo marimba, Pastorale for flute and piano, and the shimmering and energetic Petroushskates.  The program pays homage to Igor Stravinsky (Tower’s muse for Petroushskates) with a performance of the trio version of L’Histoire du Soldat.

IonSound’s collaboration for this concert is a departure from working with Pittsburgh’s established artists. This time around, IonSound will work with the Art departments from three Pittsburgh City Schools.  The Waldorf School of Pittsburgh, the Falk School, and the Environmental Charter School will participate in this unique format whereby the children of these three institutions will create art in various mediums guided by the idea of synesthesia. Rather than have their interpretations influenced by the literary content behind the music, they will be guided to associate colors and shapes with particular sonorities and will be encouraged to create designs or landscapes based upon their emotional reactions to the music.  Musicians of the IonSound Project will present workshops in advance to discuss the music and to play excerpts from the pieces live in the classroom.  The resulting artwork will be projected during the performance of the corresponding compositions.

IonSound hopes that this collaboration will not only present an alternative listening experience for the audience at large but for the children who learn that listening can be experienced in creative and unusual ways. They will have a chance to experiment with colors and emotions while gaining a familiarity with these iconic works of the classical modern music repertoire.

Tickets in Advance through ProArtsTickets: general admission $10, students and seniors $5. Visit www.proartstickets.org or call 412-394-3353. At the door: general admission $15, students and seniors $10.