News and Events

March 29: Doug Harbin's new work at OME Festival

Jennifer Waleczek will premiere a new work by Doug Harbin at the OME Festival in Phoenix. The new work for piano, electronics, and video will be on the 7pm concert on Saturday, March 29th. 

April 5: Thomas Read's Concerto for Oboe and Strings

Gianna Scire, oboist, and the EMPAC orchestra, conducted by Robert Whalen, will perform Thomas Read's Concerto for Oboe and Strings on April 5 at 2 pm at RPI in Troy, NY. 

March 16: Gwen Krosnick plays music of Dorothy Rudd Moore, Ralph Shapey, and more, at Oberlin

March 7: Violinist Claudia Schaer and pianist Marc Péloquin play American violin-piano duos

March 7 at 7pm - Bloomingdale School of Music
323 W 108th Street New York, NY 10025

 

Program

Philip Wharton ~ Tombeau de Ravel (2003)
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich ~ Partita (2000)
I. Introduction and Allegro
II. Serenade
III. Tango
IV. Meditation
V. Finale
Jessie Montgomery ~ Peace (2020)
Christopher James ~ Labyrinths, 2nd mvt (2024)
Max Lifchitz ~ Raoul's Tango-Waltz, from Four Tango Sketches (2022)
Ernesto Lecuona (arr. Ed Cionek) ~ La Comparsa (1912/2024)
Andrew Thomas ~ Premonitions (2017)

About the featured works:
Philip Wharton's Tombeau de Ravel harkens back not just to the impressionist composer Ravel, but also even earlier, to baroque composer François Couperin, two older legacies doubly inspiring vivid fresh imagination.

Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Partita is a light-hearted and fun take on many genres, including fiddle music, tango, and a serenade.

Jessie Montgomery composed Peace in 2020; it is a deeply pensive yet also hopeful meditation on sadness as part of the fabric of life.

 Christopher James wrote Labyrinths for Claudia Schaer and Marc Péloquin, who premiered and recorded it in spring 2024; it is a very expressive 12-tone work with many-faceted phrases and characters.

Max Lifchitz' Raoul's Tango-Waltz, from Four Tango Sketches (which Claudia Schaer and the North/South Consonance Ensemble premiered in the original chamber orchestra version in 2022), is a tongue-in-cheek fusion of tango and waltz styles.

Ed Cionek's arrangement of Ernesto Lecuona's La Comparsa pays homage to the incomparable Cuban composer and the carnival tradition.

The program ends with Andrew Thomas' colourful Premonitions, written for and premiered by Claudia Schaer and the North/South Consonance Ensemble in a ten-instrument version in 2017, later transcribed by the composer for violin and piano. The inscription reads, “...with affection and joy...” - and the singing and dancing work communicates that although premonitions are often worrisome, potentially, things just might turn out well in the end!

 

March 6: Music of Vally Weigl at Austrian Cultural Forum, New York City

“The Zero Hour” – Austrian Literature and Music at the End of World War II -- An evening of literature and music with Elysium that reflects on the past while asking the urgent question: What do we do with the freedom we have gained? 

Austrian Cultural Forum New York 11 East 52nd Street New York, NY 10022; 6:30pm March 6, 2025

Artists Jeannie Im, Peter Kendall Clark, and more will bring to life the music and songs of Paul Dessau, Hanns Eisler, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Ernst Krenek, Frederick Schreiber, Vally Weigl, and Kurt Weill—composers whose music embodies both the sorrow and resilience of the time. 

Image: WStLA, Presse- und Informationsdienst, FC1, 45011 | Young people clearing rubble in Vienna, October 1945

March 28, 30, and April 6: Music of Edward Smaldone in concert - and retirement celebrations

The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College presents a concert and appreciation of Prof. Edward Smaldone on the occasion of his retirement from ACSM after 35 years. In addition to his many years in the classroom, Prof. Smaldone was the Director of the School of Music from 2002 to 2016.

Sunday April 6, 2025 @ 2:00PM - LeFrak Concert Hall. Free Admission by RSVP, with Reception to follow. Come celebrate memories as well as performances by ACSM students, alumni, and faculty including: Marcy Rosen, cello; Sahun Sam Hong, piano; Donald Pirone, piano; Chlöe Dickens, violin; Sara Juneau, cello; Ricky Moreira, piano; Michael Lipsey, Alphonso Valentin, Dylan Ofrias, Nicholas Gleeson, percussion; Annalisa Emmet and Willow Macol, voice; Karen Smaldone, piano; Edward Smaldone, guitar; Michael Mossman, trumpet; David Berkman, piano; Sean Lo, drums; and Teresa Sanchez, bass.

Additionally, 

March 14, 16 Ray Luedeke's new opera, The Lady from the Sea

American Soprano Julie Liston Johnson will sing the role of Ellida Wangel in Ray Luedeke's new opera, The Lady from the Sea. Performances on Friday March 14 at 7:00pm at The National Opera Center and on Sunday March 16 at 3:00pm at Symphony Space here in New York City. Tickets can be obtained at Event brite and at The Symphony Space Box office.

“One soloist after another sang beautifully, but the standouts were soprano Julie Liston Johnson  ...” Dallas Morning News

March 18-19 Floes Music by Judith Shatin premieres on New@Graham

Floes, a multimedia collaboration of artist SoHyun Bae, choreographer Virginie Mécène and composer Judith Shatin, will premiere on the NEW@Graham: Graham and Tech at the Martha Graham Studio on March 18th and 19th at 7:00 p.m., 55 Bethune St. in New York City. Floes is the result of an interactive process, with each of the collaborators sharing their work and using it as a cross-media springboard that led to cross-media responses and discussion. Inspired by our concern for the havoc wrought by climate change and named for the large ice sheets that form ever more frequently on bodies of water around melting glaciers, our sonic/visual/ kinetic collaboration embodies formation, collision, breaking, flowing. This piece would not have been possible without technological mediation for the collaboration, including the flow of the video, dance and digital music, the latter created by processing underwater recordings of glaciers, Tickets available here. (photo credit SoHyun Bae)

California concerts with composer - guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan, 2/26 to 3/6

Upcoming programs: Southern California events feature works from recent recordings, new arrangements, standards, and a special guest.

The Northern California concert includes three premieres: Clould Lacrymae for guitar and electronics by Douglas Knehans, the California premiere of Heretic, a micro-opera by Richard Cameron-Wolfe, and a new work by Aaron Larget-Caplan.

Honorary Doctorate for Marilyn Shrude, Nov. 2024

Marilyn Shrude received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West, Romania, November 2024.  The Romanian university honors BGSU’s Marilyn Shrude as composer, pianist, educator, & role model.

In her remarks, she addressed the importance of the arts in the contemporary world. Art helps people “make sense out of the confusion, to sort things out, to prioritize,” she said. “Those of us who make our living as artists must secure its place in the future.  We should embrace the responsibility of protecting and nurturing the artistic soul of our society. It would be wrong to watch to idly watch the arts dwindle to a state of non-existence.

(photo) Marilyn Shrude (center) with educators at the West University of Timisoara, Romania.

Feb 23: Earl Louis Stewart's Adagio Alla Spiritual for chorus and orchestra, Toledo Symphony with Antoine Clark.

Earl Louis Stewart’s Adagio alla Spiritual from Symphony No. 4, Juneteenth will be performed in a ‘Neighborhood’ concert in Toledo, Ohio on February 23, 2025. The conductor will be Antoine Clark. The performance will be in St. Martin de Porres Church, in Toledo.

Feb 13 Gilbert Galindo's Sonata for Viola and Piano - CMW Center Rhode Island

Sonata for Viola and Piano by Gilbert Galindo will be performed in Rhode Island by  Ivan Tan, guest pianist and violist Walter Muelling on the 13th of February.  The Sonata is an eclectic and harmonically modern piece that combines tasteful lyricism with jazz, in ultimately what the composer writes is “a heartfelt song for viola.”  

More info here.

Pianist Dale Tsang performs Judith Shatin's Scirocco

Pianist Dale Tsang will perform Scirocco twice under the auspices of Ensemble 4 These Times (E4TT), first on February 22 at 7:30 pm at the Berkeley Piano Club in Berkley, CA, and then on March 2 at 4:00 p.m. at the SF Music Center. Named for the hot wind that sweeps up from the Sahara to the Mediterranean, it is a short whirl of a piece that is newly published by ACA. 

Dale Tsang's full program:

Alexa Canales: "(un)ravel"
Michael Coleman: "Eastern Shore Rag"
Albert de la Fuente : Sonata, Movement 1
Lilyanne Dorilas: "Black Amber"
George N. Gianopoulos: "Fughetta on Monk's 'Well You Needn't'" ("Five Pieces," #4)
Jon Grier:"Quantum Entanglement"
Dorothy Hindman: "Wanting - Night Music" ("Forward Looking Back," #5)
Ye-Chong Jeon: "Drum of Creation" (Shiva Nataraja, #2)
Evans Kocja: "Prelude No. 1 for Piano"
Kian Ravaei: "The Sea Serpent" ("Marvels of Creatures and Strange Things Existed," #5)
Judith Shatin: "Scirocco"

Consuela Lee's "The Sun Is Rising" at WSMR Classical

Pianist Clare Longendyke performed Consuela's Lee's piano solo "The Sun is Rising" on Classical WSMR's live broadcast series, October 22, alongside Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30 and Debussy's Claire de Lune. 

Longendyke also performed "The Sun is Rising" alongside Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 30 and Amy Beach's "Variations on Balkan Themes" on Dec. 4, 2024, at the University of Northern Iowa School of Music.

Feb. 8: Wanchi Huang performs Judith Shatin's "For the Fallen"

For the Fallen, in the version for violin and electronics commissioned by Wanchi Huang, will be performed at Garth Newel Music Center on February 8, at 6 p.m., when she will reprise selections from her recent album Imagining Worlds (including music by Adolphus Hailstork, Judith Shatin, Meira M. Warshauer, Jeffrey Mumford, and John Corigliano).

Jan. 29: Jackie Biggs performs Citiscape Piano Concerto 1st mvmt (by H. Leslie Adams) at BYU

BYU PHILHARMONIC: EVENING OF CONCERTOS
Nathan Haines, conductor

One of the most anticipated concerts each year, the Evening of Concertos features the top instrumentalists and singers in the School of Music in this annual showcase. Pianist Jackie Biggs will perform the first movement of the lush concerto Citiscape by H. Leslie Adams. Jackie has been a champion for the music of Adams and other composers, along with her husband and duo partner trombonist Curtis Biggs.  

January 29 Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.

CONCERT HALL (MB)
$10–16, ON SALE NOVEMBER 20

The concert will live-stream at 9:30pm eastern time

New Recordings by Matthew Davidson, Contemporary Piano Rags

The Graceful Ghost: Contemporary Piano Rags 1960 – 2021
Matthew de Lacey Davidson
Rivermont Records BSW-3138

Davidson's recent releases include two CD sets totaling five discs. Both albums merit a “deep dive” and are recommended for listening. The Graceful Ghost album is a broad survey of contemporary piano rags composed between 1960 and 2021, some originally recorded and released by Davidson in 1994, others brand new. Thirty-seven works by eighteen composers are packed onto two discs, making this collection a welcome addition to a contemporary Ragtime connoisseur’s listening library.

Stolen Music, released this month, features two previously released discs of Davidson’s original compositions (sixteen works in all). Stolen Music is quite eclectic; the works contained are influenced by musics originating from all around the globe, coming to life here via the transcription of folk music by Davidson and others.

I Had Five Long Years for string quartet (performed by the Solaris String Quartet) is based on a Louisiana prison song, with individual sections sounding more akin to the string music of Shostakovich and Webern. Magyar Rondo for solo viola (played by Rudolf Haken) is Hungarian. The album’s titular piece is a three-movement suite for solo flute of melodies from Appalachia, Africa, and Afghanistan, played by Lisa Goethe-McGinn.

Feb 2: Lisa Williamson performs Nightsongs by H. Leslie Adams with Connecticut Symphony

Lisa Williamson performs Nightsongs by H. Leslie Adams with the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra,  Feb. 2nd, 2025 at 3pm at Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford.

Described by the Washington Post as “silvery of voice” and “a showstopper” for performances with Washington National Opera as The Rose in The Little Prince and The Flamingo in the world premiere of Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn and Me, Lisa Williamson is a versatile soprano who has forged a career that has taken her around the world

H & G, A Great and Terrible Story by Allen Shawn, Performances at Eastman School and William Paterson University

H & G, A Great and Terrible Story, set for voices and piano by Allen Shawn will be performed at the Black Box Theatre at Eastman School of Music Jan. 30, 21, Feb. 1, and 2 and also at William Paterson University on April 11-13. 

T.J. Anderson's orchestration of the Treemonisha Opera Overture by Scott Joplin, performances March 1,2; April 19.

T.J. Anderson's orchestration of the Treemonisha Overture by Scott Joplin is scheduled for performances by the Reno Chamber Orchestra, March 1 and 2, and also by Symphony New Hampshire, Roger Kalia, conductor, at Nashua Center for the Arts on April 19th.

Treemonisha Overture - 2 performances March 1 and 2