Piano concert using cutting-edge music technology to highlight works by composers Jaroslaw Kapuscinski and Robert Schumann.

On Sunday, January 10th, 2016 at 3:30pm, Shanghai/Paris-based pianist Jenny Q Chai (www.jennychai.com) will be performing Where is Chopin? at New York City’s Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY.

Seated tickets are $20 advance, $25 day of show. Standing tickets are $15 advance, $20 day of show, and are available for purchase at lpr.com or by calling 212.505.FISH.

In her exploratory new program Where is Chopin?, the second in her Piano Steampunk series, Jenny Q Chai explores the relationship between piano and electronics. The program will create a vivid musical story, making use of storytelling techniques common to novels and films, along with cutting edge music technology, such as the artificial intelligence program Antescofo, which is used in Jaroslaw Kapuscinski’s music. Mr. Kapuscinski, who will be present at the performance, is known for his unique compositions, where visuals/audio are equally important, reacting almost note by note, transforming the piano into a new instrument that combines the auditory and the visual. The audience will be invited to join these notable musicians for a journey to redefine classical music by simultaneously looking to the past, as well as ahead towards the future of composition.

Works to be performed during the “Where is Chopin?” program include:

Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Oli’s Dream
Jaroslaw Kapuscinski, Where is Chopin?
Robert Schumann, selections from Carnaval:
Eusebius
Valse Noble
Chiarina
Reconnaissance
Valse Allemande
Paganini
Robert Schumann, Chopin

“I believe we should talk about all classical music-especially the connection between new music and old music- and not keep it caged in an ivory tower anymore” – Jenny Q Chai

About Jenny Q Chai

An artist of singular vision, pianist Jenny Q Chai is widely renowned for her ability to illuminate musical connections throughout the centuries. With razor-sharp intention, Chai integrates her prodigy’s training with personal fascinations in the latest in live electronics, artificial intelligence, and environmental research, creating layered multimedia programs and events which explore and unite elements of science, nature, and art. Also of note, Ms. Chai designs all her performance gowns and some jewelry, in order to present a more united performance aesthetic, akin to the idea of Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk. Ms. Chai has performed across the globe, headlining the most impressive venues from Carnegie Hall in New York City to the National Performing Arts Center in Beijing, China.

 “Jenny Q Chai, who has studied with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, is following the more eclectic path…” The New York Times.

Website: www.JennyChai.com

Choreographer Henning Rübsam presents a tribute to his late mentor BEVERLY BLOSSOM at THE KAYE PLAYHOUSE at Hunter College, 68th Street & Lexington Avenue, NYC on Sunday, November 1, 2015, 7pm.

Tickets for this event are $15 (students), $29 (general seating), and $49 (prime seating) and are available at www.sensedance.org, by calling (917) 720-4697, or at the box office.

The BEVERLY BLOSSOM MEMORIAL GALA on November 1 is a tribute with guest stars from around the country to the late “doyenne of robust eccentricity” on the very anniversary of her passing. A kaleidoscope of Blossom’s best work is shown on this exciting program. Renowned solo artists Douglas Nielsen and Betsy Fisher will perform Losing You and Blossom’s signature solo Dad’s Ties respectively. A group of dancers from the University of Illinois will perform her group work Brides. Ella & Mark Magruder, former company members of Beverly Blossom, dance her earliest work Black Traveler as well as the gender-bending Besame Mucho and the poignant Last Bow. Henning Rübsam recreates Shards, a poetic solo Blossom first performed in homage to her late mentor Alwin Nikolais. Former fellow Nikolais dancer Christine Reisner will join Rübsam in Fan Dance which they both danced when members of Blossom’s company.

For your information, please find Blossom’s obituary by Jennifer Dunning for the NYTimes.

“Beverly Blossom was “a modern-dance choreographer and teacher and a daring, vividly imaginative solo performer … a “solo dancer with a ‘voice’.”
– Jennifer Dunning, NY Times

 
Also at The Kaye Playhouse: Rübsam shows new work with his company SENSEDANCE in the program AND THERE WAS MORNING. His ensemble will perform three world premieres to new music by contemporary composers, Monday – Wednesday, November 2 – 4, 2015. All curtain times are at 7:00pm.

The BEVERLY BLOSSOM MEMORIAL GALA & AND THERE WAS MORNING are sponsored by the Hunter College School of Education.

SENSEDANCE is represented by Jessica Marino of River City Artists Management in the U.S. and Canada: http://www.rivercityartists.com/sensedance/

www.sensedance.org
MICHAEL CORDA • [email protected]
VARIAN HUDDLESTON • [email protected]
PETER MCDOWELL • [email protected]

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Composer Gerald Cohen has been receiving quite a lot of attention lately, and there’s good reason why: His compositions are passionate, dramatic and lyrical. The International Clarinet Association‘s F. Gerrard Erante calls his work “rhythmically vital, virtuosic, and haunting” and Gramophone notes his “linguistic fluidity and melodic gift”.

Upcoming Events

Sunday, May 17th: Members of the Grneta Ensemble (Vasko Dukovski, clarinet; Alexandra Joan, piano) will be joined by pianist Jennifer Choi to perform Variously Blue (from Gerald Cohen’s Navona Records release Sea of Reeds). This performance is part of the program “Fireflies” at the Tribeca New Music Festival.

The Cell, New York, 4pm matinee
$25 Adults ($20 Online);
$15 Students & Seniors ($10 Online)

Sunday, May 31st: Excerpts of Cohen’s Opera Steal a Pencil for Me will be performed as part of the concert “Music in Our Time“, a presentation of the American Society for Jewish Music.

Steal a Pencil for Me is based on the wartime lovestory of Holocaust survivors Jaap and Ina Polak, and has received praise from The Jewish Week, Lucid Culture, and WQXR’s Operavore.

Center for Jewish History, New York, 3pm
$18 General Admission; $12 ASJM Members;
$9 Students & Seniors

Sunday, June 14th: L’dor Vador will be performed as part of ChoralFest USA, an celebration of American choral music.

Recently, the International Jewish High School Choir HaZamir premiered Cohen’s L’dor Vador (From Generation to Generation) at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall (Lincoln Center), which can be seen on YouTube.

Symphony Space, New York, 3pm
Free Admission

Recent News

One of Cohen’s best-known pieces was featured on the BBC series Songs of Praise with a performance of his “Adonai Ro’i” (Psalm 23), lovingly interpreted by acclaimed British tenor Matthew Sandy and
the Blue Coat School Choir.

 
 
 
Cohen’s latest recording Sea of Reeds (Navona Records) has also been getting celebrated. Second Inversion (KING-FM Seattle) featured the CD as “Album of the Week” and interviewed him.

Sea of Reeds has also been given “three cheers” by both Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review and critic James Wegg, and applauded by Sequenza 21, babysue, WRUV, Touching Extremes, and Yale Alumni Magazine. (Listen to a sampler Sea of Reeds on Soundcloud, available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes.)

 
American Public Media’s nationally syndicated Performance Today recently closed their programming block with a stream of Cohen’s Le Poisson Rouge performance, alongside Prokofiev, Brahms, and Chopin.