I gotta say, I’m very excited about hearing Hila Plitmann sing David Del Tredici’s Final Alice tonight. It’s hard for me to believe that it was 2002 when Plitmann and Del Tredici were here for Pitt’s Lehar Residency, but the performance and the music both stick out in my mind as outstanding.
The PSO also deserves a shoutout for some creative programming with Peter Leo’s revamped Peter and the Wolf, narrated by David Conrad, providing the other side of this program. It’s risky for a major orchestra to put a contemporary piece on a program without a warhorse or a top tier star to move tickets, but this is the kind of program that is really designed to expand the orchestra’s audience beyond the subscriber base and the programming and marketing teams deserve kudos for the effort. And don’t forget that PNMNet fans get a 20% discount! To order your discounted tickets, visit culturaldistrict.org and use promo codes “Twisted” or call 412.392.4819.
Another shout-out goes to Patrick Burke and the composer/performer collective NOW Ensemble. NOW releases their new CD Awake tonight at Le Poisson Rouge, so if you are in New York, check out this outstanding group.
I recently sat down with Pittsburgh music power couple Patrick Burke and Emily Pinkerton. Patrick teaches composition and theory at Duquesne and is a member of the New York-based NOW Ensemble and Emily is well known as a singer-songwriter for her unique blend of American and Chilean folk music (she also has great operatic chops, but that’s a story for another time). Emily and Patrick are collaborating on a new piece for NOW called Red Rocking Chair, based on an Appalachian folk song by the same name (also known as “Sugar Babe”), and the new work will be premiered by now at NYC’s North River Music series on February 25. Red Rocking Chair combines Emily’s crystal-clear voice and nimble banjo picking with the existing NOW instrumentation. The video below includes Patrick and Emily talking about the process of composing the work as well as a preview of the piece. I think you’ll really enjoy it, and if you’re an ex pat Burgher in New York, be sure to catch NOW on February 25.
Patrick Burke will lead Duquesne’s Contemporary Ensemble in a concert including
Aria by Kevin Puts for violin and piano Canzon by Judd Greenstein for euphonium and delay pedal Sonnets/Unrealities, a text setting of e.e. cummings by Bjork Mariel by Osvaldo Golijov for cello and marimba Les Moutons de Panurge by Frederic Rzewski