Archived News and Events

The International Ekmelic Music Society, in co-operation with the Mozarteum University Salzburg, presents a five-day Virtual Symposium "Small is Beautiful" focusing on microtonal music. The finalpresentation on Day 1 features Richard Cameron-Wolfe's 48-tone microtonal guitar quartet Mirage d'esprit, in a video performance by the Kharkov Guitar Quartet-Sergey Gorkusha, Maxim Trianov, Irina Polovinka, and Andrey Bragin- pictured here with symposium organizer Agustin Castilla-Avila. The presentation also includes a conversation about the inception of the work and the close collaboration between Cameron-Wolfe and the Quartet.

Wednesday, Oct 28 (new date!) | 7 PM Soprano Katrina Galka andPianist Nicholas Fox will perform Five Millay Songs by H. Leslie Adams, as part of this season'sLive from the Hampton Opera Center series featuring opera artists who call Portland and the Pacific Northwesthome. Performances will spotlight artists from the Portland Opera stage.

The broadcast will be Wednesdayat 7:00 PM, and isavailable for free on the Portland Opera Vimeo and YouTube channels.It is only available online, and there is no need to RSVP or register.

On Friday, October 30 WQXR will webcast selections from"To America",an event with music and poetry taking place at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery this week. As part of the event, H. Leslie Adams' "Sence You Went Away" will be performed by baritone Kenneth Overton.

To America is a collaboration between Green-Wood and Death of Classical, curated by Andrew Ousley and Harry Weil, with Artistic Partner Liz Player and The Harlem Chamber Players.

Performances will feature music by Carlos Simon, H. Leslie Adams, Caroline Shaw, Leonard Bernstein, George Walker, and others, as well as poetry by James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and Terrance Hayes.

Brooklyns historic Green-Wood Cemetery is the background for a night of performance inspired by the poetry of James Weldon Johnson, who is buried at Green-Wood and best known for his anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing. Curated by Death of Classical and Green-Wood, it will blend music, history, literature, and dance.

Photo of Kenneth Overton by S. Vinnik

At 4pm EDT,Friday October 30, 2020, Max Lifchitz will perform arresting piano music by three generations of women composers hailing from Europe and the Americas.

This event was scheduled to take place March 16 marking Women History Month. Regrettably, the COVID19 pandemic forced it to be re-scheduled.

The following works and composers will be featured:

BETH ANDERSON Belgian Tango
ELIZABETH BELL Piano Sonata No. 2
ANNE H. GOLDBERG Damla
DEBRA KAYE Visions
ALISON YUN-FEI JIANG As Birds Bring Forth the Sun
ZIBUOKLE MARTINAITYTE Flashes of Illumination
NAILAH NOMBEKO Alacrity
NILOUFAR NOURBAKHSH Fixed
MAUREEN REYES Clave Cubana
MARGA RICHTER Toccata
CAMILLE VAN LUNEN Boca do inferno
RAIN WORTHINGTON Always Almost

The event will be streamed live from the intimate Scorca Hall of the National Opera Center (330 7th Ave at 29th St) in Manhattan. It will start at 4 PM and will end at approximately 5:30 PM. It will be livestreamed through the National Opera Center YouTube Channel.

Active as pianist and composer, Max Lifchitz has appeared as soloist with among others, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Sheboygan Symphony, Mxicos National Symphony Orchestra and the Neuchatel Orchestra in Switzerland. The San Francisco Chronicle described him as "a composer of brilliant imagination and a stunning, ultra-sensitive pianist" while the New York praised commented on his "clean, measured and sensitive performances." He is the director of the New York City based North/South Chamber Orchestra now celebrating its 40th consecutive season. His numerous recordings are widely available through iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube and most other music streaming services.

The event is made possible in part with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts; a grant from the Women's Philharmonic Advocacy; and a Seed Money Grant from New York Women Composers, Inc.

Sam Wells premieres Alice Shields' "Mioritza - Requiem for Rachel Corrie" in a new version for trumpet and fixed audio, in a LIVE online performance along with three other works for trumpet and electronics by Valerie Langfield, Patrick McGraw and David Snow. Join online to see/hear the Turn Up Multimedia Festival Concert 1 on Saturday.

Each composer will be interviewed and a panel discussion led by Paula Mathusen. Shields' Mioritza - Requiem for Rachel Corrie was originally created for trombonist Monique Buzzart.

New World Symphony consists of 77 young musicians who are granted fellowships lasting up to three years. Conductor/curator Michael Linville selected Song for Sister Hokkaido for Brass Quintet and Latin Percussion by Frederick C. Tillis for this week's chamber music concert event.

Morgen Low, Aaron Ney, trumpet
Scott Leger, horn
Guangwei Fan, trombone; Noah Roper, bass trombone
Marcelina Suchocka, percussion

Other works on this concert included music by Caroline Shaw and Ian Dicke
- see the concert streamed here, Tillis begins around 12:00.

New chamber music from New Orleans composer Barbara Jazwinski: Designs in Blue Shadows. Performances by Esther Lamneck, clarinet; Martha Locker, piano;Steve Beck, piano; Marina Kifferstein, violin; Miranda Cuckson , violin, Aaron Wunsch, piano, and Robert Burkhart, cello. Available for preview here.

Baritone Kenneth Overton with violinists Ashley Horne and Claire Chan, violist Amadi Azikiwe, and cellist Wayne Smith. (Photo by Steven Pisano).Members of The Harlem Chamber Players joined in this sold-out production October 22-24. Read or hear what the following had to say about "To America": The New York Times, New York Magazine, New York News 1, TimeOut New York, The New Yorker, WQXR, Seen & Heard International, Classical Post, ViolinChannel, OperaWire.

If you missed the live performance, you can still experience it in the online recording here.

Inspired by the poetry of James Weldon Johnson, who is buried at Green-Wood Cemetery and best known for his anthem Lift Every Voice and Sing, this immersive, cemetery-wide performance event combines music, history, literature, and dance into a single sweeping, shuddering cry into the night. It is a lament, a love song, a prayer, and a plea to America in a time of deep uncertainty, in remembrance of all that this nation has been, and all that it can be.

Join Boston Lyric Opera artistsfor a live, outdoor performance with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on Thursday, November 19

Brianna J. Robinson and Brendon Shapiro will perform "Creole Girl" by H. Leslie Adams, among other songs.

15 minute performances start at 1:30 PM and 3:00 PM
Museum for Fine Arts, Boston
20 Museum Rd, Boston, MA 02115

FREE
Advanced registration required.

Recurring Event -

https://blo.org/event/street-stage-nov-19/2020-11-19/2/

Pianist and professor Xak Bjerken plays all 8 of the Inventions for Piano by Ulysses Kay - and interviews the composer's daughter, Virginia Kay.

See the Cornell Center for Historical Keyboards page featuring all this and more links to news about Ulysses Kay

Ulysses Kay (1917-1995) was one of Americans most sought-after composers in the quarter century following WWII. He was born to a musical family in Tucson, Arizona, encouraged by his uncle, the great jazz cornetist King Oliver (mentor to Louis Armstrong), and later by the composer William Grant Still. Following studies at Eastman, and then at Tanglewood and Yale with Paul Hindemith, Kay served in the Navy during WWII. Following the war, he was already, in his late 20s, fulfilling orchestral commissions, writing chamber music, for film and television, and soon, ballets and operas.

Nights Transfigured features new lullabies inspired by composers children, song and the intimacy of singing to another, the end of night, poetry, longing for sleep, our troubled times, gentle motion, and of course, the melding of stars and moonbeams. They are lullabies of passage and being, longing and loneliness, marking time, memory, and yet these sonorous landscapes are also inhabited by warmth, hope, and peace.

There is a variety of musical languages--tonal, 12-tone, contrapuntal, North Indian, minimalist, and quasi-improvisational, with many using a mix of them while requiring many extended instrumental techniques. American Composers Alliance ishonored to publish and distribute this collection of scores, in partnership with curator, guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan.

One of the leading classical guitarists of his generation; Aaron Larget-Caplan is an enthusiastic ambassador for new music.Following his groundbreaking 2015 release John. Cage. Guitar. (Stone Records), Aaron returned to his New Lullaby Project withpremire recordings, available on Bandcamp and iTunes, and the publication of the score collection.

The score volume includes the following pieces:

3 Francine Trester my darlings slumber
6 Agustn Castilla-vila Perseiden
10 Stephanie Ann Boyd Esperanza
15 Carson Cooman Unfolding the Gates of Dawn
18 Scott Wheeler Nachtlied
23 Alan Fletcher Lullaby in Three Voices
27 Thomas L. Read The Moon Through The Window Shines Down
31 Patricia Julien After Many Days Without Rain
34 Barnaby Oliver The Pillow That You Dream On
36 David Leisner Disturbed, A Lullaby
41 John McDonald You Are Alone To Sleep
45 David McMullin Sleeping Light, Spinning World
48 Vineet Shende Revas Lullaby
52 Eric Schwartz Song Softly Sung, in Trying Times
54 Demetrius Spaneas A Child Sings at Thanksgiving

For score purchase options, please visit the composition page, or contact American Composers Alliance.