Pittsburgh New Music Net

Gia Cacalano presents
THE SPACE UPSTAIRS

This Friday and Saturday, Gia Cacalano will premiere new pieces that combine choreography and improvisation in dance with music by vibraphonist Jeff Berman and (ahem) myself, David Bernabo.  The four dancers will do a few group pieces, some solos, and a very great duo.  We’ll be performing five pieces each night, and (if I can say so) it is turning out very nicely.  There is a nice article in this week’s Pittsburgh City Paper that discusses the motivations for the dance, so I’ll mention a few things about the music.  The first piece, which lasts roughly 30 minutes, combines electronic soundscapes, text, and freely improvised sections for vibraphone and amplified objects.  The electronic score was assembled from closed-circuit electronics that I recorded in 2004.  The text piece is a newer piece where each word is slowed down by 1% until the ending text is deep bass rumbling.  And of course, there is much more…

Hope to see you there.  Details below:

Friday, August 20 and Saturday, August 21, 2010
8PM, $12 students, $15 general admission
@ THE SPACE UPSTAIRS
214 N. Lexington St (above Construction Junction)
Point Breeze, Pittsburgh, PA
$15, $12 Students
More info: 4120758-3265

Gia Cacalano / Movement / Choreography / Concepts
Allie Greene / Movement
Jasmine Hearn / Movement
Beth Ratas / Movement
Jeff Berman / Vibraphone
David Bernabo / Electronics, Percussion

Hello PMNM Readers,

Tomorrow, Tuesday March 30th, Antithesis, CAPA High School’s new music ensemble, will be performing with well-known local saxophonist Ben Opie as well as with Lukas Ligeti, an experimental percussionist/composer from New York City.  Rumor is (well, the concert flyers say) that Lukas Ligeti will be performing on the Marimba Lumina.

The concert is at Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Avenue, and is at 7:30 PM.  Tickets are $10 general admission/$5 student, and the concert is open to all ages.

Hope to see you there!

This Saturday, March 13, marks the last occasion to see the very unique HiTEC, an ensemble of Pittsburgh musicians and performers utilizing instruction pieces, chance, improvisation, theatrics, and a giant spinning Wheel-of-Fortune. Intrigued? Well, you should be and you probably come to this event, because it is literally your last chance to see the act. Extensive detail below…

HiTEC (Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative),
the experimental orchestra founded by
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
will present its last ‘UNCERT’ (Uncertainty Concert), Saturday, March 13, 2010,
8PM (doors open 7:30PM), at the Kresge Recital Hall
in the CFA (Center for Fine Arts) at CMU (Carnegie Mellon University)
- $6.00 suggested donation, free to CMU students. (more…)

Featuring all Carnegie Mellon School of Music ensembles and select student and faculty soloists, the 2010 Collage Concert will be a feast for the senses! This 90-minute non-stop concert will keep audience members at the edge of their seats as performers appear and disappear from various positions within the concert hall. In one concert, experience the dazzling array of music produced at Carnegie Mellon, including Baroque, Classical, Contemporary, Vocal, Jazz and more in a single performance. Faculty soloists include violinist Cyrus Forough, soprano Laura Knoop Very, pianist Enrique Graf and PSO principal clarinet Michael Rusinek. You won’t want to miss this one-night-only extravaganza of sound produced by Carnegie Mellon’s School of Music and staged by acclaimed director and professor of drama, Gregory Lehane.

When:
8 p.m. Friday, February 12, 2010

Where:
Soldiers & Sailors Auditorium
4141 Fifth Avenue (in Oakland)
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

Cost:
$15 general admission
$12 senior citizens
$10 students
Tickets can be purchased in advance via Web

Phone: 412.268.2383 (School of Music’s Concert Line)

Web: Buy tickets online with your credit card at http://music.cmu.edu. Click on ‘Box Office’ to start your order!

On-Site: Tickets will also be available (cash only) at Soldiers & Sailors one hour prior to the performance – at 7:00 p.m., February 12.

Questions? Contact Kristi Ries at kristi@cmu.edu.

Online, free

Pittsburgh Symphony Insider will present a live chat with Composer of the Year Richard Danielpour on Friday, October 16 at 3 p.m. The chat will be hosted by yours truly on behalf of Pittsburgh New Music Net, so be sure to log in and ask questions. There will also be opportunities to submit your questions via a related thread on this blog, so check back soon for more details.

A quick reminder about tonight’s concert by Lukas Ligeti with his spastic art-jazz-rock trio HYPERCOLOR on Wednesday, September 23 at Garfield Artworks, 4931 Penn Ave. Doors are at 8 pm and admission is $7. For all the details, see Manny’s post below.

And though it’s a secondary part of the festivities, a short documentary I scored will premiere during Pittsburgh Center for the Arts’ opening for Tim Kaulen, their new Artist of the Year. The film is Virgil Cantini: the Artist in Public by Will Zavala of Pittsburgh Filmmakers. It examines the work of Virgil Cantini, founder of Pitt’s Department of Studio Arts and prolific creator of public art. You’ve seen Canitini’s sculptures if you’ve spent any time in Pittsburgh, even though you might not have known whose they were. The film will loop, along with three other documentaries, in the video room at PCA. The opening takes place at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts on Friday, September 25 from 5:30–8 p.m. There’s a suggested donation of $5 and PCA members get in free. So come to the PCA opening and check out the documentaries as well.

Bellefield Hall Auditorium

ProArts Tickets

IonSound Project launches its Reduce-Renew-Recycle season with chamber versions of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, Philip Thompson’s Percussion Concerto–Remixed, and Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite. The program will feature contralto Daphne Alderson and video artist Chris Ivey.

As part of The End of Television (http://theendoftelevision.blogspot.com), The Nerve will host a majestic night of jazz and improvised music from the following groups:

HiTEC (Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative)
the 22 member experimental orchestra – founded by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

Fred Lonberg-Holm’s Valentine Trio
The Chicago master anti-cellist brings his jazz trio to Pittsburgh to run through original tunes, Fred Katz material, and possibly the odd Sun Ra, Wilco, or Syd Barret tune. Jason Roebke on bass, Frank Rosaly on drums.

Ben Opie’s Sound/Unsound Trio
One of Ben’s newer projects, surely to fall somewhere inbetween the Sun Ra-inspired big band strut of OPEK and the modal jams of Thoth Trio.

at The Nerve: an art and performance venue
500 Dargan Street (at Minerva St. next to the Bloomfield Bridge)
Friday, June 12, 2009
Doors at 7PM, $6

Current HiTEC Lineup:
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE: piano, electronics, percussion
Tony Balko: camcorder
Ben Opie: reeds, electronics
Kenny Haney: clarinets
Spat Cannon: upright acoustic bass
Dani Simmonds: banjo-uke
Roger Dannenberg: trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet, software design
Missi St Pierre: toy piano w/ effects
Julian Krishnamurti: electric bass
Johan Nystrom [auxiliary member in Philly]: extended percussion
Ben Harris: violin
Jonathan Borofsky: monome with mabalhabla software
Mike Tamburo: hammered dulcimer
Unfinished Symphonies: electronic keyboard
Joy: electric guitar w/ nylon strings
William Wedler: Experiment 1
James Gyre: drums
Hyla Willis: erhu
David Bernabo: acoustic guitar
Josh Beyer: cello
Mike Kasunic: digital synth, electronics
Bob Jungkunz: drums

Below are some links to movies of HiTEC:

For Tony Balko’s 16mm footage of HiTEC
(Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative) ‘s beginning
of our 21st rehearsal on September 14, 2008EV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0thj_1lWlA

For the beginning of my documentary of HiTEC’s premier gig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMpa9VMyWmU

A soft focus high-definition wide-angle shot of a short excerpt
from the 1/9/9 premier of HiTEC at the New Hazlett Theater:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo2apKl_CCY

Fred Lonberg-Holm:

Flyer:

David Bernabo – Improvisation 01 for solo acoustic guitar

If an effort to provide more audio and video media to this blog, here is an artifact from the first edition of the WHY ARE Music Series that was held every Saturday in March 2009. This happens to be me since I’ve been on a recent documenting kick. I’ll be soliciting records from other folks who played and post them if given. Hope you enjoy.

Don’t miss Andy Druckenbrod’s shout out to Pittsburgh New Music Net in Classical Musings and note our proud new place in his blogroll. And stop by Andy’s blog to let him know that you appreciate his tenacity in covering the contemporary music scene in Pittsburgh. 

This week PNMNet passed 1,000 unique visitors for 2009. That includes nearly 5,000 visits, and over 10,000 pages views from some 30 countries. Thanks for reading!