Alan Ferber Nonet CD launch party/show

April 30th, 2010 by Peter McDowell No comments »
May 13, 2010
9:00 pmto11:59 pm

IMG_4704_mTrombonist Alan Ferber‘s new CD “Alan Ferber Nonet with Strings: Chamber Songs” is being released on Sunnyside Records next week. He is having a CD launch party/show on Thursday May 13th at 9pm and 10:30pm at the Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street (West Village). The show features the tunes from the new album for his nonet plus string octet.

Soprano Michelle Areyzaga appears at New York City Opera’s VOX

April 19th, 2010 by Peter McDowell No comments »
April 30, 2010toMay 1, 2010

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Catch soprano Michelle Areyzaga in performances of excerpts from new operas With blood, With Ink and Revolution of Forms as part of New York City Opera’s VOX 2010 on April 30-May 1. Performances take place at The Skirball Center for the Performing Arts at New York University, 556 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square South).

New York City Opera’s VOX is an exciting opera lab of new works that offers American composers and librettists the opportunity to hear their works with a full orchestra and excellent artists. Every year, VOX presents up to twelve new, previously un-produced works from both emerging and established composers in orchestra readings that are free and open to the public. For the last half century, New York City Opera has been a leader in the development of American opera. City Opera has an unmatched repertory of American works including those of over 50 American composers and shaped an American aesthetic for opera through the world premieres of more than 25 American operas. To date, the festival has presented excerpts from 70 new operas with more than 30 going on to full productions — four at City Opera and the remainder at other opera companies, including Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, Michigan Opera Theater and the Sante Fe Opera.

Music for Farms Benefit Concert in Chestnut Ridge, NY

April 19th, 2010 by Peter McDowell No comments »
May 7, 2010
8:00 pm

Music For Farms will perform a concert entitled “An Agricultural Rite of Spring” at the Threefold Auditorium at 260 Hungry Hollow Road, Chestnut Ridge, NY on Friday, May 7, 2010 at 8pm. Tickets may be purchased at the door and are $20 ($15 for students, $10 for children). For more information, call 845-362-0207 or email events@rocklandfarm.org.

John McDowell and Emmanuel Vukovich, who practice music and farming side by side (McDowell at Camp Hill Farm in Pomona, NY; and Vukovich in Quebec, Canada), have formed an international initiative, Music for Farms, which works to revive and sustain local organic agriculture and farming communities through the arts. Julia MacLaine joins them for this special concert. The program, described below, includes the music of Bach and several original works in contemporary and classical idioms, such as their own composition based on the Parcifal legend. The trio’s creative arrangements reflect a weaving of eastern and western traditions, incorporating African drum rhythms. This concert will be a benefit for the Rockland Farm Alliance (RFA). The mission of the RFA is to facilitate local sustainable agriculture in Rockland County, New York.

The program for “An Agricultural Rite of Spring” will be drawn from the following selections:

Parcifal and Zazamanc, by John McDowell and Emmanuel Vukovich

F major, by John McDowell

Pachamama’s Catharsis, by Pedro Malpica

Swara Kakali (transcription of a work by Yehudi Menuhin and Ravi Shankar)

Solo violin works by Bach

John King’s 10 Mysteries CD Release at Roulette

April 19th, 2010 by Peter McDowell No comments »
May 15, 2010
8:30 pm

8071kingString quartet Crucible (Cornelius Dufallo and Chris Otto, violins; John King, viola; and Alex Waterman, cello) will perform music from composer John King’s new CD “10 Mysteries” at NYC’s Roulette on Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 8:30 pm.

Roulette is located at 20 Greene Street, NYC, between Canal and Grand. Tickets are $15/$10 and can be reserved at 212.219.8242. Admission is free to Roulette members.

Earlier this year, John King released his second CD, “10 Mysteries” on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. King has 2 previous CD releases of music for string quartet; AllSteel (Tzadik) and Ethel (Cantaloupe). Featuring passionate and inspiring performances by the remarkable quartet Crucible with King himself on viola, the music on 10 Mysteries jumps from moment to moment with lightening speed and an organic sense of form. In his second CD on Tzadik he again embraces rock, jazz, blues and other popular styles in an energetic and colorful program for string quartet.

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TILT Brass

Crucible will also be joined by the TILT Brass project’s quartet (Rachel Drehmann, horn; Joe Exley, tuba; Russ Johnson, trumpet; Chris McIntyre, trombone) and Charlotte Dobbs, soprano, for the world premiere of SAPPHO presto chango. These 12 short arias are based on the poem fragments of Sappho which are to be performed as an independent layer to the instrumental ensemble. To end the evening, pianist Jenny Lin will perform King’s petite ouverture en forme de mErCE CunninGHAm, a piece written for Merce in honor of his 90th birthday.

Crucible features New York string luminaries Cornelius Dufallo, Chris Otto and Alex Waterman, who perform with such groups as Ethel, the JACK Quartet and the Either/Or Ensemble.

Led by trombonist and composer Chris McIntyre, Brooklyn-based TILT Brass is a versatile collective of brass and percussion artists that present works ranging from the historical avant garde to commissioned works by composers such as James Tenney, Anthony Coleman, and Lois V. Vierk.

Soprano Charlotte Dobbs maintains an active opera performance and concert career. In 2008, she appeared in recital with Mitsuko Uchida at the Marlboro Music Festival, performing Schoenberg’s Book of the Hanging Gardens. Miss Dobbs made her Kimmel Center and Carnegie Hall debuts in Nielsen’s Third Symphony with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and Alan Gilbert in 2008.

jennylinJenny Lin is one of the most respected young pianists today, admired for her adventurous programming and charismatic stage presence. Her ability to combine classical and contemporary literature has brought her to the attention of international critics and audiences alike.

johnkingphotoComposer, guitarist and violist John King has received commissions from the Kronos Quartet, Red {an orchestra}, Ethel, the Albany Symphony, Bang On A Can All-Stars, Mannheim Ballet, New York City Ballet, Stuttgart Ballet, the Ballets de Monte Carlo and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, with whom he worked closely for more than 20 years. He has written three operas (his most recent opera Dice Thrown was recently performed at CalArts in Los Angeles) and has composed for orchestra, chamber ensembles, rock bands, dance, film and theater. He was Music Curator at The Kitchen from 1999-2003. King won the Alpert Award in the Arts for Music in 2009. This award, initiated and funded by the Herb Alpert Foundation, provides unrestricted, annual prizes of $75,000 to five artists.

Rob Mosher’s Storytime at Tea Lounge

April 3rd, 2010 by Peter McDowell No comments »
April 16, 2010
9:00 pmto11:30 pm

cd-storytime-tortoise-200x200jazzquartet-2Rob Mosher’s Storytime will appear at Tea Lounge in Park Slope, Brooklyn, on Friday, April 16 from 9-11:30p. Tea Lounge is located at 837 Union St, Brooklyn NY. $5

Storytime is a lushly scored musical odyssey that contains echoes of Wayne Shorter, Gil Evans, Kurt Weill, Darius Milhaud, Debussy and Bach, reflecting Mosher’s embrace of a wide range of influences which have coalesced to create his singularly independent compositional voice. This big band traverses many musical landscapes — all held together by Mosher’s multi-faceted orchestration and ingenious use of instrumentation (saxophones, oboe, English horn, clarinets, flute, trumpet, French horn, trombone, electric and acoustic guitar, plus bass and drums).

A melodic, lyrical composer and performer, Rob Mosher is a musician well versed in the jazz and classical worlds, committed to furthering the growth and combination of the two. Specializing on oboe, English horn and soprano sax, Mosher is a proven creator with a uniqueness of voice and an interest in exploring genre fluidity. Recipient of the 2009 ASCAP Young Composer Award, Rob recently released his critically lauded debut CD Storytime – The Tortoise which has been called “heartbreakingly beautiful, with melodies that stop the listener in [their] tracks” by the Hartford Courant (2008).