With the Stillers safely tucked into preparations for next season and rumors swirling around whether Mike Tomlin will tap Noah Bendix-Balgley to be his next Offensive Coordinator, Pittsburghers have already forgotten that this Sunday there will be a festival of advertising with some sort of football game interspersed. And that’s just as well, since there are some fine concerts to attend this weekend. Mezzo-soprano and composer Eva Rainforth is going to give a recital of original art songs on Saturday, violinist Monique Mead’s Sunday afternoon recital will include Lutoslawski’s Subito, and Alia Musica Pittsburgh will present a program of new percussion works on Sunday evening. Don’t forget to bring the guacamole!
Cellist extraordinaire Elisa Kohanski will be one of two soloists in Wheeling Symphony Orchestra’s premiere of Richard Danielpour’s Come Up from the Fields, Father. It’s a one night only Veteran’s Day celebration which you can find out more about here.
I’m also grateful to Michael Ceurvorst for sending me information about the CMU student composers concert this Saturday, Nov. 12 , 6 p.m. at Alumni Hall. It’s a free concert and open to the public and features all new works. Here’s more info about that event on FB. Check it out, if you can.
So confusing to see tiny Elisa standing next to the life-size picture of Elisa.
Elisa Kohanski, well-known to Pittsburgh new music fans as the cellist in IonSound Project, has a few other gigs keeping her busy. Like opera and ballet orchestra at the Benedum and being principal cello in Wheeling Symphony. For instance. This week part of her work at Wheeling includes premiering a work by Richard Danielpour for solo cello and baritone voice and orchestra called Come Up from the Fields, Father. Her performance is part of a Veteran’s Day celebration concert by the WSO that will include Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from Westside Story and Copland’s Third Symphony. Cruise on down to Wheeling this Friday and give Elisa and the rest of the orchestra a listen.
Maybe it’s ’cause I’m a retired trombone player who wishes I could have played like Will Lang. Ever. Maybe it’s that and how the combination of trumpet, trombone, voice, and bass clarinet is such a refreshing sound for new music in a “Pierrot (or subset thereof) + percussion” world. Maybe it’s because Andy Kozar is a native of the Burgh. Maybe it’s because loadbang is just really, really good. Probably that.
loadbang is in Pittsburgh, this Thursday night at CMU. Here are the details of their show. Have I crossed the line into hype? Yes. Yes I have.
Trumpeter and Pittsburgh native Andy Kozar returns with loadbang for a concert at CMU’s Kresge Theatre. The New York City-based new music ensemble (comprising trumpet, trombone, bass clarinet, and baritone voice) showcases the breadth and variety of their repertoire with a program of recent commissions and avant-garde classics.
Reiko Füting’s Land of Silence and Alexandre Lunsqui’s Guttural both exploit the air-based sound production employed by the ensemble as a whole, calling on the baritone to act as an instrument, and the instrumentalists to act as vocalists, blurring and blending the sounds. As a complement to these commissions, John Cage’s classic Living Room Music also calls on the players to speak and play household items as instruments. Paul Pinto’s Goodbye Dido is a kind of foggy remembrance of a small portion of the lament of Dido from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, stretching and exploring the spaces between the original notes. With How to breathe underwater, Chris Cerrone has written a kind of wordless ambient pop song for loadbang; Nick Didkovksy’s Firm, soapy hothead on the other hand is a wild and jittery computer-composed setting of faux aphorisms. To round out the program, loadbang splits into its component parts as an instrumental trio and vocal solo. Timothy McCormack’s Disfix explores the limits of notation and its link to the physical activity of loadbang’s instrumentalists; Aaron Cassidy’s I, purples, spat blood, laugh of beautiful lips pushes the voice similarly, battling with an ever-changing computer counterpart.
Tickets: $20 general admission, $15 seniors, $10 students
In 16th century Prague, a rabbi animates a clay giant to protect his people, but has he created a hero or a monster? In a unique collaboration with JFilm: The Pittsburgh Jewish Film Forum, the Jewish Music Festival will screen the classic silent film “The Golem: How He Came Into the World” (Germany, 1920, 86 minutes). Betty Olivero’s haunting score will be performed live as backdrop to director Paul Wegener’s expressionist images and epic set pieces, screened in gorgeous color-tinted black and white with English intertitles. Lucy Fischer, Distinguished Professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Film Studies Department will introduce the film.
Performing Olivero’s music are Marissa Byers, clarinet; Nurit Pacht and Rachel Stegeman, violins; Tatjana Mead Chamis, viola Aron Zelkowicz, cello; and Stephen Burns,who directs Fulcrum Point Music New Music Project in Chicago.
Hot on the heels of a well-received performance at the Warhol Museum last June, Tarana, returns to Pittsburgh! Formed in 2003, the band is led by percussionist/composer Ravish Momin, born in India, while currently residing in New York City. The trio features the unique instrumentation of violin, cello and percussion, and primarily utilizes East-Asian rhythms (including Indian, Japanese, Afghani), Middle-Eastern and North African rhythms as the foundation for a new creative musical experience. Ravish Momin cut his jazz teeth performing/recording with members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). The AACM was co-founded in the 1960s by tenor-saxophonist legend Kalaparush Maurice McIntrye and pianist Muhal Richard Abrams. The AACM initial membership also included Roscoe Mitchell, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Leroy Jenkins, Lester Bowie and other influential performers who clung to the adage “Ancient to the Future” and still continue to explore the boundaries of jazz. Inspired by their music, Ravish has kept on developing Trio Tarana, continuing to search across various world music genres. Lately, he has managed to re-invent the band with a brand-new line up, as well as introducing the element of electronics to create lush ambient soundscapes and other-worldly textures.
Must see TeeVee! Jess Hohman videotaped an extensive interview with Roger Zahab at Pitt’s Music building, in anticipation of entelechron’s all-Cage concert at The Andy Warhol Museum on March 5. The interview happened over two days, and on the first, the fire alarms went off and everyone had to clear out of the building. But it was an unusually nice day, so Jess and Roger continued the interview outside while the rest of us milled around wondering what to do next. Jess worked some of the outdoor sounds in throughout the video, and I suspect Cage would have enjoyed this very much.
Alia Musica Pittsburgh returns January 30th with their annual Winter Chamber Concert; featuring the best of this summer’s recital series, including pieces by composers near and far, such as Burkhardt Reiter, Steven Stucky, Francis Poulenc, and many others. Come join us at James Laughlin Hall on the Chatham University campus (music building) at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $12 at the door, $10 in advance (through the website www.alia-musica.org, or from an Alia Musica Pittsburgh member).
Pianist Donna Amato, new music champion on the faculty of both CMU and Pitt, performed Geir Tveitt’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Northern Lights, with Musica Nova in Scottsdale on October 17. Musica Nova produced a very nice video of the performance as well. Check it aht.
