Sot there is a lot going on this weekend, and by this weekend I mean starting with two concerts Thursday night: The PSO, IonSound Project, and the Warhol have teamed up to present a concert of music curated by Mason Bates, including two of his own pieces. Meanwhile, back at Duquesne (and how often do you get to write that phrase?), NOW Ensemble is going to perform music by student composers from Duquesne and Pitt at PNC Recital Hall (8 pm and free). Friday through Sunday the PSO will perform Bates’ B-Sides. Saturday Night, MOTE present NOW at the Warhol and the program will include a the premiere of Rounder Songs by our own Patrick Burke and Emily Pinkerton. Soooooo… It’s going to be good! Oh yeah, and if you mention that you’re an IonSound supporter at the Warhol, the tickets are only $10 bucks for the Thursday night show. Check out the Events Calendar thusly ———>
I couldn’t put it better than Jeffery Edlestein of the International Concert Review when he writes “The vibrant sound of NOW Ensemble… does something more than offer composers an alternative to the ubiquitous ‘Pierrot ensembles plus singer or percussion.’ It breathes the air of this planet: the musical air of indie rock, rap, jazz, pop, and minimalism variously synthesized by classically-trained composers and instrumentalists. Three of NOW’s founding members are composers, and a community of 35 like-minded others have responded to the opportunities NOW embodies: to defy specialization, reject alienation, and inspire deft musicians to convey a sense of private amusement that enlivens the music they perform.”
NOW takes a unique instrumentation of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, double bass, and piano and adds resident composers to produce a musical paradigm in which continuous collaboration between composers and the performers is taken as a given. NOW has worked with over 60 of today’s most exciting composers, including Nico Muhly, Timothy Andres, Missy Mazzoli, Judd Greenstein, Kathryn Alexander, Jason Treuting, Sean Friar, and Kirsten Volness. The ensemble brings a fresh sound and a new perspective to the classical tradition, infused with the musical influences that reflect the diverse backgrounds of its members. In addition to performances as such venues as Miller Theater, the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Festival International Chihuahua, and The Music Gallery Toronto among many others, NOW have been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and on WNYC. The Ensemble’s sophomore album Awake charted at #2 in Amazon’s Classical Music Charts. NOW’s collaboration with film maker Joshua Frankel Plan of the City was praised in the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and New Yorker critic Alex Ross’s blog, where it was hailed as “gorgeous”, and viewed over 80,000 times on Vimeo.
Tickets are available through the Pitt Repertory Theatre Box Office by calling 412-624-play or visiting music.pitt.edu/tickets.
Tickets in advance: general admission is $15; students and seniors are $10. At the door: general admission is $20; students and seniors are $15.
Music on the Edge is excited to begin 2013 with a duo recital starring two musicians of extreme talent. Soprano Haleh Abghari and percussionist Lisa Pegher will share a program at The Andy Warhol Museum on Saturday February 16th. Haleh Abghari will perform solo vocal works by John Cage, György Kurtág’s József Attila-Töredékek (Attila József Fragments) for solo soprano, and selections from Récitations pour voix seule (Recitations for Solo Voice) by Georges Aperghis. Lisa Pegher will premiere Patrick Burke’s Saturn Girls, Mathew Rosenblum’s Northern Flicker, and her own composition titled Liquefaction. Pegher’s portion of the program will also include works by Paul Lansky, Joe Sheehan, and Andrew Knox.
Haleh Abghari is a native of Iran who now makes her home in New York City. She has performed as a singer, actress, and voice-over artist in the U.S., Canada and Europe to critical acclaim. Among her many operatic and solo appearances in recent years, Abghari has earned critical acclaim as the only woman to perform the title role in Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King. Music Web International has described her performance, “Ms. Abghari…combines confident technique with unfettered inhibitions….One could only watch in amazement at her vocal colors: low, guttural growls leading to the occasional shriek, before colliding with genuine singing, occasionally plummeting to the timbre of a small girl. Sexual desire collided with fear, anxiety with sarcasm, and allure with indifference. It was one of those riveting evenings that fans will recall for years to come, and the immediate standing ovation told the rest of the story.” In addition to working with numerous living composers, Abghari has collaborated on a number of projects and site-specific installation-performances with visual and performance artists such as The Voice of the Soul by Remo Spado. Abghari is a firm believer in making a difference through her art and spends her off time practicing political activism. She is proud to be an original member of Mouths Wide Open (MWO), an ad hoc group of volunteers dedicated to promoting active citizenship, civic dialogue, and finding new forms of political expression through the arts.
Pittsburgh native Lisa Pegher has been featured in Symphony Magazine as one of the top six performers of her generation. Described by critic Marty Lash of the Door County Advocate as “a gifted passionate artist, with a rock-star aura,” Pegher has performed with many fine orchestras across the globe and has also recently performed with the Grand Junction Orchestra in Colorado playing Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto for Percussion. She gave the Wisconsin premiere of Tobias Brotrøm’s Arena Percussion Concerto with the Peninsula Festival Orchestra in August 2010 and recently premiered and recorded Mathew Rosenblum’s Double Concerto for Saxophone and Percussion with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Gil Rose and Kenneth Koon. Pegher is a great advocate of new music, and commissions and premieres many new works, carving a new path for percussion as a solo instrument. In the words of Symphony Magazine, she is “blazing a particularly rough, un-trodden trail.” Currently, Pegher is performing her own multi-media project called Minimal Art, which incorporates digital animation design, computer electronics and improvisation.
Don’t miss your chance to see this extremely talented duo perform this February at the Warhol. Tickets are available online or by calling 412-624-7529, or at the Pitt Repertory Theatre Box Office Monday through Friday. Remember, tickets in advance are $5 less than tickets at the door, so don’t wait!
Are you loving all the new original content showing up on PNMNet? I know I am and there’s plenty of great music to be hear this weekend from the PSO, to Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, to Music on the Edge (on Monday—it’s an extra long weekend. Your welcome!). Did I mention that Helena Bugallo and Amy Williams are going to give the WORLD FREAKIN’ PREMIERE of recently discovered piece by Conlon Nancarrow on Monday night? Right here in the Burgh. And in the midst of that I want to remind everyone that on Saturday morning, the Pittsburgh Symphony is going to read works by student composers. This is a great feature of the PSO’s Composer of the Year Program, and every one of the composers I’ve ever talked about it with gush about the experience. Here’s more information about the Student Reading Sessions. Feast your Ears!
If you didn’t notice the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo concert in the Pittsburgh New Music Net events list, then here’s a little reminder. The Duo will perform the final Music on the Edge concert this season at Bellefield Hall Auditorium next Monday, April 2nd at 8 p.m. The program features the works of György Kurtág, Conlon Nancarrow, György Ligeti, and Pittsburgh composer Amy Williams. Here’s an interview on the upcoming program and the Bugallo-Williams Piano Duo’s history with Amy herself!
Interested?
Get your tickets in advance through ProArtsTickets at www.proartstickets.org or by calling 412-394-3353
General admission is $15; students and seniors are $10.
At the door: general admission is $20; students and seniors are $15.
Excellent opportunities to hear new music every night this weekend. First off, Inhabit Host Skull continues at 707 Gallery on Friday night with a line-up that includes:
Le Rex (jazz from the other side of the ocean)
Chris McGlumphy (solo viola da gamba, exec. dir. of Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble)
Host Skull (performing MODULES for movement and sound)
On Saturday night at Pitt’s Bellefield Hall Auditorium, Firebird Ensemble performs music by Lee Hyla, Chris Hughes, and Pittsburgh’s own Eric Moe, and since they’re from Boston we are counting this as a St. Patrick’s-themed show against all other visible evidence.
On Sunday afternoon, Lenny Young (oboe), Tracy Mortimore (bass), and Mike Purdue (percussion) give a concert that includes improvisation, poetry, and composed works old and new. The show takes place at Future Tenant at 3 p.m.
Looking for an alternative to getting tanked in your local pub this St. Patrick’s Day? Look no further! Music on the Edge is bringing Boston’s Firebird Ensemble to Bellefield Hall Auditorium on March 17th at 8 p.m. This concert is part of Firebird’s Wild West on Tour project, which will bring the works of Lee Hyla and Pittsburgh-based composer Eric Moe to Boston, Pennsylvania, and California as well as the recording studio. The works featured on the Pittsburgh program include Curtis Hughe’sDanger Garden (2006), Lee Hyla’s My Life on the Plains (2010), and two works by Eric Moe: Frozen Hours Melt Melodiously into the Past (2009) and Meanwhile Back at the Ranch (2011). While on tour, Firebird Ensemble will also undertake educational residencies at the University of Pittsburgh and Chapman University (California) presenting master-classes and readings of student works. The project will culminate in a commercial recording of works by Eric Moe that will be released by New World Records.
Currently celebrating its tenth season, Firebird is becoming recognized as one of the nation’s leading new music ensembles. As early as 2005, the Boston Globe praised Firebird saying, “In the free spirited Firebird Ensemble, Boston has its equivalent to such prominent, genre busting new-music ensembles as Eighth Blackbird and Alarm Will Sound.” Comprised of adventurous young musicians who have the chops to match their enthusiasm and the boldness to take creative risks, Firebird is musically defined by eclectic programming with interdisciplinary influences. They have made it their mission to break down preconceptions about new music, to build enthusiasm for new compositions, and to create a unique concert atmosphere. In their efforts to bring contemporary music to new audiences, Firebird has held concerts in bars and jazz clubs as well as auditoriums. Champions of promising young composers, Firebird has even started a series called “Meat the Composer” that premieres new works and allows audience members to meet new composers while enjoying ribs and beer at popular Boston restaurants.
Firebird also provides educational programs to bring the music of our time to our nation’s youngest audiences. Joel Gordon of Art of the States commends their educational efforts saying, “Since its inception in 2001, I have watched this vibrant ensemble develop into the kind of group truly needed to reach the next generation of serious music audiences. It takes an unusual blend of serious musical technique, creative repertoire selection and a sense of style and fun to reach new audiences and wake them up to the possibilities of our country’s composers.”
Come out to see them live up to all the good reviews on March 17th!
Advance tickets are available through ProArtsTickets at proartsticket.org or by calling 412-394-3353.
Advance: General admission is $15; non-Pitt students and seniors are $10.
At the door : General admission is $20; non-Pitt students and seniors are $15 (cash only)
So in case this slipped past you in the holiday rush, new music events made an impressive showing in Andy Druckenbrod’s top 10 classical concerts of the year list: Music on the Edge (Newband), Opera Theater of Pittsburgh (Ricky Ian Gordon’s Orpheus and Euridice), Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit), and the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival (music of Solomon Rosowsky). Check out the full article for Andy’s explanations.
So it was a great year for New Music in Pittsburgh, and as those of you who follow this blog regularly know, that was only the tip of the iceberg. And 2012? Staritn’ off with a bang. check out the repopulated events calendar and you’ll see what I mean.
And speaking of starting off with a bang, don’t miss Dave Bernabo’s very thorough interview with League of the Unsound Sound co-founders David Smooke and Ken Ueno. LotUS comes to the Warhol next Saturday night.
Update: and I almost forgot this profile of new music performer extraordinaire Rob Frankenberry. Let’s have a virtual show of hands for how many of us have had our music played beautifully by Rob! Yeah!
No, they aren’t super heroes. The League of the Unsound Sound (LotUS for short) is actually a newly formed contemporary ensemble dedicated to exploring experimental music in all its variations. LotUS core members include musicians, composers, and improvisers; many of whom are also founding members of well-known contemporary groups such as Alarm Will Sound, ICE, and So Percussion. Having come together to form LotUS under the musical direction of co-curators David Smooke and Ken Ueno, this small but talented ensemble splashed onto the new music scene last year in D.C. and Baltimore earning such reviews as “absolutely riveting” and “spectacular performance” from the Washington Post.
LotUS isn’t afraid to take chances, preferring to challenge their audience to open their ears to new sounds. In addition to premiering many new compositions, LotUS also specializes in free improvisation. These improvisations are created without previously conceived parameters and involve explorations of the remote possibilities for performance on each instrument represented. Tim Feeney makes a single drum sing and speak, while David Smooke creates sustained harmonies and slides on a toy piano, and Ken Ueno uses vocal techniques from around the world to create an impossibly inhuman range of sound. When asked what the audience could expect of their debut concert in October 2010, co-director David Smooke replied, “ 1) the music would be experimental; 2) I guaranteed that audience members would hear something they had never heard before; and 3) that to me as an individual audience member the two previous characteristics are selling points.”
In addition to free improvisation, the League’s Pittsburgh concert will feature Two Hands for viola and percussion by LotUS co-director Ken Ueno, Sofia Gubaidulina’s masterful trio Quasi Hoquetus, and two world premieres: Pittsburgh composer Mathew Rosenblum’s Two Harmonies for viola, percussion and piano, and LotUS co-director David Smooke’s Topographies: transit/dis(solve) for bassoon and piano.
Music on the Edge and the Andy Warhol Museum are proud to co-present such an exciting ensemble, and hope that you will join us for the show at 8 p.m. on Saturday, January 14 in the Warhol Museum Theater. Tickets may be purchased in advance from ProArtsTickets. Tickets in advance are $15 for general admission and $10 for non-Pitt students and seniors. Call 412-394-3353 or visit www.proartstickets.org. At the door, general admission is $20 and admission for students and seniors is $15.
The Music on the Edge Morton Feldman Symposium and Mini-Festival kicks off at Wood Street Galleries tonight at 8 p.m. with a concert featuring cellist Jonathan Golove and and pianist Amy Williams performing Patterns in a Chromatic Field. The two-part symposium takes place at Pitt’s Music Building tomorrow starting at 10 and , and the final event is a performance of Crippled Symmetry at 8 p.m. back at Wood Street Galleries with Amy Williams and Jan Williams, Amy’ father and the percussionist who premiered many of Feldman’s works, and the irrepressible Lindsey Goodman on flute.
It’s gonna be a great two days of music and insight into one of the true masters of the late 20th century. And don’t miss the fantastic preview by Mike Shanley in the City Paper that gives us a window into Jan and Amy Williams’ personal interactions with Feldman.
