Archived News and Events

Alice Shields has been commissioned by SAVVY-Contemporary in Berlin to create a new piece for voice and electronic music for performance, exhibition and radio presentation in Berlin, Germany in Spring 2021 and participate during the events. Shields work will be premiered as part of the celebration of Egyptian-American composer Halim El-Dabh and the composers he inspired. El-Dabh was one of the first composers at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York. Shields, who later became Associate Director at the Center, was influenced by El-Dabhs electronic experimentations with voice. The events are funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, MaerzMusik and the Goethe Institute.

Sunday, Feb 2nd - Selections from A Collection of Songs byWallace McClain Cheatham. Performance to begin after the morning Mass, with Soprano Cecilia Davis and the composer at the organ. Donovan Hall at St. Monica Church, 5681 N Santa Monica Blvd., Whitefish Bay, WI 53217. This performance is featured as part of the St. Monica and St. Eugene parishes "Family Sunday" religious education program. Soprano Cecilia Davis is a local Milwaukee artist, and has performed regularly at Skylight Music Theatre, most recently, in the Skylight Music Theatre's production of CARMINA BURANA.

A Doll's House- an original opera byRay Luedekefor 6 singers, piano and synthesizer - is based on Henrik Ibsen's shocking 19th Century drama. Presented in concert, this 3 act opera tells the story of Nora, a seemingly typical housewife, who becomes disillusioned and dissatisfied with the rules of marriage and society. The sound of a slamming door, associated with Ibsen's 1879 play, has become an iconic symbol of human liberty.

With April Martin, John DesMarais, Abigail Wright, and more. Produced by Voice Afire.

Friday, March 13, 7:00 at The National Opera Center, New York City

Sunday, March 15, 2:00 at Symphony Space, New York City

Join us on Sunday, February 23 for a concert of contemporary music for organ, with ACA composer-organist Brian Schober, at Church of the Heavenly Rest, in New York City. The organ at Heavenly Rest is one of the largest in NYC. It contains five manuals, 137-ranks and over 8,000 pipes and was built by Austin Organs. Concert will take place Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020 at 4pm, at The Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City - E. 90th and 5th Ave. Concert will be free, no tickets required.

Here is the concert program - PDF

Miriam Gideon - Three Biblical Masks
Andrew Ardizzoia - Chorale Variations
John Anthony Lennon - Misericordia
Richard Brooks - Aaron's Jubilee
Steven Sacco - Elegy
Thomas L. Read - Variations on St. Elizabeth
Nancy Van De Vate - Prelude
Joseph Dangerfield - Micro Suite
Jody Rockmaker - The Wide Night Sky
Brian Schober - Toccatas and Fantasias

The Mirror Visions Ensemble has recently performed THIS LAND IS OURS in Hartford CT at the Wadsworth Atheneum (1.19.20) and in Baltimore MD at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (1.29.20). Commissioned pieces include Heart of a Woman by H. Leslie Adams and Fawn by Francine Trester. Additional performances are currently scheduled for July 2 in Chicago and October 9 in San Francisco.

This Land is Ours is a sung celebration of urban, suburban, and rural life - its moods, landscapes and sounds -- This Land is Ours features music by immigrants (Kurt Weill, Paul Hindemith, Hanns Eisler, and Erich Korngold), women (Ruth Crawford Seeger, Francine Trester), and African Americans (Adolphus Hailstork, Brittney Boykin, Florence Price and H. Leslie Adams), as well as by classic American composers (Charles Ives, Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, and Pete Seeger). This Land is Ours also includes Mirror Visions commissions from Mohammed Fairouz, Braxton Blake, and Harold Meltzer.

Muhlenberg College presents the Contemporary Music Festival 2020 with two events, March 13 and April 3. On March 13, new music for solo piano with Holly Roadfeldt, piano, at 730pm at Baker Center for the Arts Recital Hall. On Friday, April 3, the music of Andrew Ardizzoia including percussion, choral, and vocal music will be performed in Egner Memorial Chapel at 7:30pm.

The April 3rd program will include the premiere of Ardizzoia's "The Garden of Eros" for baritone and piano, "Suitcase Music" for reciting percussionist, "Rocking Song" for solo voice, and the "Two Ceremonial Choruses". Performers includeBrian Ming Chu, Ellie Escher, Chris Jackson, Jim Thoma, Holly Roadfeldt, Drew Lutz-Long, Bill Sallak, and student performers.

Events are sponsored by the music department, and the Charles A. and Leona K. Gruber Arts Lectureship.

This past year ACA has licensed music from its catalog for a number of film and media projects. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am uses a piano etude by H. Leslie Adams, as played by Maria Thompson on Albany Records. Sara Fishko's The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith uses Sonata for Viola and Piano by Hall Overton, as played by the Zaslav Duo Bernard Zaslav, viola and Naomi Zaslav, piano. Filmmaker Maiko Endo releases her 6th film with Tokyo Telepath (2020) currently screening at film festivals. And McGraw-Hill renewed its license to continue using Vladimir Ussachevsky's Wireless Fantasy in its educational series Music! Its Role and Importance in Our Lives (Grades 9-12).

Pipedreams is American Public Medias weekly program dedicated to the artistry of the pipe organ. Host Michael Barones celebration of the king of instruments is heard on stations nationwide and worldwide via pipedreams.org. Go online to locate a broadcast station near you. Streaming is available hereon yourclassical.org

Programming for the week of June 29 includes The American Muse . . . featuring American composers duringAmerican holiday week. Works to be broadcast include Aaron's Jubilee by Richard Brooks, played by Brian Schober. Other works include music of Jonathan Cziner, Robert Ward, William Grant Still, Pamela Decker, Gardner Read, and more.

ELECTRONIC HERITAGE

A Concert of Electronic Music presented by APNM in honor of Mario Davidovsky, 1934 2019

Music for live interactive electronics & fixed audio,
with live and recorded voices & live instruments

Thursday, December 19, 2019 at 7:30 PM
National Opera Center
330 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY (at West 29thStreet)

Mario Davidovsky Synchronisms No.9 for violin and tape(1988)
Rolf Schulte, violin

Joel Gressel Inside Job

Arthur Kreiger Companion Stars
JoshThomas, soprano saxophone

Maurice Wright Electronic Composition

Louis Goldford* Giffen Good
Live interactive electronics with David Whitwell, trombone

Alice Shields Scenes from the opera Apocalypse
Electronically manipulated voices

Stephen Dydo Flowing Streams

Krists Auznieks * Avots
Richard Fisher, glockenspiel, with live interactive electronics

Alex Dowling * Reality Rounds
Emma OHalloran, Annika Socolofsky, ChrisDouthitt,AlexDowling,voicesand live interactive electronics
Aine Nakamura * Circle hasu
Fixed media, voice and body movement

* Competitionwinners
Tickets: General Admission-$20& $15 Seniors & Students.

A memorial concert in honor of the late Rosalie Calabrese (1938 - 2019) will take place on April 20 , 2020 (7:30pm) at Christ & St Stephens Church (120 W. 69th St, in New York City).

The distinguished performers include concert pianist Margaret Mills, cellist Chris Finckel, and mezzo soprano Jessica Bowers.

Composers Larry Thomas Bell, Joel Feigin and Raphael Mostel will perform their own works, and concert pianist Steven Mayer will perform works by his father William Mayer. Composers whose works feature in the program include: Bruce Adolphe, George Boziwick, Michael Dellaira, Irving Fine, Miriam Gideon, Otto Luening, Francis Thorne, Joelle Wallach, and Beth Wiemann.

Contributions towards the concert fees are needed and will be gratefully accepted at the Go Fund Me link here.

Rosalie Calabrese worked as a management consultant for the arts. For over thirty years she served as Executive Director for the American Composers Alliance, representing three hundred composers of concert music, a roster including Francis Thorne and Richard Danielpour. She then moved on to running her own business and her private clients have included the pianist Margaret Mills, photographer Margaret McCarthy, singer-songwriter Peggy Seeger, and the composers Arthur Berger and Irving Fine, among others.

Later in life, she became passionate about writing poetry. Her poems have been published in Cosmopolitan, Poetry New Zealand, Poetica, Jewish Currents, Mom Egg Review, and The New York Times. She also published six books of her own poetry including one in honor of her son who passed away in 2007, entitled Remembering Chris.

Tuesday, February 25 at 7:30 pm in Bezanson Recital Hall, FREE and open to the public: Music by composers influenced by Philip Bezanson: Frederick Tillis, Robert Stern, William Karlins, Jazer Giles & Stanley Charkey. Performers include Nadine Shank, piano; Jamie-Rose Guarrine, soprano, Fredric T. Cohen, oboe; Rmy Taghavi, bassoon; Jonathan Hulting-Cohen, saxophone and the UMass Saxophone Quartet. Honoring composer-performer-educator-poet Frederick Tillis, 90th birthday celebration.

Ensemble "But What About" from The Hague will present the world premiere of "Pieces in Pieces" - commissioned by them from Sunbin Kim, for bass clarinet, accordion, percussion, and double bass. Other works on the concert will be: Patrick David Clark Light Bending Forward; John Cage Radio Music; Jan-Peter de Graaff nieuw werk; and Terry Riley Tread on the trail.

Presented by TivoliVredenburg Vredenburgkade 11, 3511 WC Utrecht. Thursday, January 16, 2020 at 8:30 PM.

But What About is:
Julin Sarmiento contrabas
Vincent Martig (bas)klarinet
Wilco Oomkes accordeon
Lodewijk Bles slagwerk

Jannelieke Schmidt zang

The Fort Myers Symphonic Mastersingers upcoming performances in South Florida include Michael Dellaira's Campers At Kitty Hawk - one performance at the Edison Festival of Light Concert on February 9th at 2:00pm at St. Michael Lutheran Church 595 Broadway, Fort Myers, FL, 33901.

Three Showpieces for Viola by Frederick Tillis will be played by violist Jason Amos at the Detroit Institute of Arts on February 7. An encore performance will be take place at Palmer Woods Music-Creative Arts Collective on February 29th. ThePalmer Woods Association is the neighborhood association for the Palmer Woods historic neighborhood in Detroit.

Curated by Detroit Native and Grammy Nominated Violinist Jannina Norpoth, a collective of distinguishedSphinx Alumni fuse past, present and future through a dynamic collection of Contemporary works by Black Composers ranging from the music of saxophonist-composer Frederick C. Tillis, to Sphinx Alum Jessie Montgomery, to Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Sharing Sphinx Connect's 2020 Conference's theme "Vision" this program contemplates how we perceivethe world around us, how we see one another, and how music can both illuminate Black History and envision our future.

Featuring Distinguished Alumni from the Sphinx Organization

Jannina Norpoth - Violin, Host
Jessie Montgomery- Violin, Composer
Jason Amos -Viola
Gabe Cabezas - Cello

Jannina Norpoth made her debut as a soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at age 14. Since then she has built a career as an innovative collaborative artist with a passion for contemporary music, genre bending and improvisation, a sought after arranger and orchestrator, and an advocate for a more inclusive and versatile landscape in classical music. Her string quartet, PUBLIQuartet, is recognized for unique and genre inclusive programming, earning them the 2019 Visionary Artist Award from Chamber Music America.

Richard Cameron-Wolfe was honored by Cxid Opera (formerly Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, Ukraine) with a profile concert on November 11, for his work with young Ukrainian musicians, dancers, and composers - and for creating a dialogue between Ukrainian and American composers through lectures, interviews, and Cxid Opera concerts. The November 11 event brought together many of his Ukrainian friends: the Sed Contra ensemble from Kyiv, the Kharkiv Guitar Quartet, the Cxid Opera Ensemble (conducted by Sergii Gorkusha), dancer/performance artists, principal singers of the Opera House, and others.

The program included Cameron-Wolfes art-song Lethe, selections from his piano cycle An Inventory of Damaged Goods, his quintet Contra-dictions, his guitar quartet Mirage desprit, and his cantata A Measure of Love and Silence. Also featured on the program were David Frooms Ribbons, Frederic Rzewskis Les Moutons de Panurge, and Cameron-Wolfes own performance of Act II from Erik Saties esoteric ballet Uspud (with Butoh performance and narrator).

Opening concert, Friday 29 November, and two concerts on Saturday 30th November, with closing concert on Sunday at 3pm. Music of Schumann, Mozart, Rebecca Clarke, Louis Karchin, Brian Irvine, Ernests Moeran, and more.

THE FIDELIO TRIO
DARRAGH MORGAN violin
ADI TAL cello
MARY DULLEA piano
WITH GUESTS
THE APPLE HILL STRING QUARTET
ELISE KUDER violin
JESSE MacDONALD violin
MIKE KELLEY viola
RUPERT THOMPSON cello

www.glasdrum.ie

Mirror Visions Ensemble will be performing H. LESLIE ADAMS (b. 1932) The Heart of a Woman (2019); for tenor, baritone and piano; text by Georgia Douglas Johnson, as part of its This Land Is Ours concert on January 19, 2020 at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT. The concert will accompany the museums Afrocosmologies exhibition.

Mirror Visions Ensemble (MVE) was founded from a desire to explore the relationship between music and text, initially through the creation of mirror visions settings of the same text to music by different composers. The group's passion for storytelling has produced thematic concerts on surprising subjects, based on scholarly research and laced with humor, leading to the revitalization of art song programming.

More information and tickets, here.

Round About Midnight the holiday concert of 21st Century Consort, will feature music by George Crumb, Hilary Tann, Evan Chambers, David Froom, Pete Seeger, and more. December 21st at 5pm: St. Marks Episcopal Church on Capital Hill - 301 A St SE, Washington, DC 20003 -

The 21st Century Consort, award-winning contemporary music ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution for over four decades, embarks on its first season at the beautiful St. Marks Episcopal Church on Capital Hill. Artistic Director Christopher Kendall presents a season of new music and high drama featuring artists Paul Cigan, Lisa Emenheiser, Dan Foster, Lee Hinkle, Alexandra Osborne, Sara Stern, and Rachel Young.

ATTENDANCE IS FREE. Seating begins at 3:30, and all who attend the 4:00 pre-concert discussion are guaranteed seats. All concerts are at 5:00, preceded by a 4:00 discussion with composers and performers, and followed by a post-concert reception.

Organized in Portland as a birthday tribute to the memory of composer Elliott Schwartz (1936-2016) and held just one day before what would have been Elliotts 84th birthday, this benefit concert is a tribute to the longtime professor at Bowdoin College, mentor and supporter of composers around the world, guiding spirit of the Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, and widely-performed composer of challenging, theatrical, witty, deeply expressive music.

On January 18, 2020, at 7 pm, the Elliott Schwartz Memorial Practice Rooms Project at the Portland Conservatory of Music will be presented with nine composers who have written new pieces for multiple pianos, to be performed in the practice rooms at the Portland Conservatory.

The concert also celebrates the Portland Conservatorys partnership with Steinway and the five pianos they have provided for the use of our teachers and students.

The nine composers from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Indiana have composed works to be performed by as many as nine pianists at the same time on the pianos in the conservatory 3rd floor practice rooms. Compositions by Philip Carlsen, Joshua DeScherer, Nancy Gunn, Josh Jandreau, Francis Kayali, Bill Matthews, Miho Sasaki, Michael Schelle, and Harold Stover will be performed.

Doors will be open and the audience will sit in the hallways, immersing themselves in a stereophony of sounds coming at them from many directions at once.

Admission is $20. All proceeds from the concert will benefit the Fall 2020 Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival, an important showcase for new concert music in Maine. The Festival was directed by Elliott Schwartz until 2016.

Tickets here

The award-winning UNC Symphony Orchestra will perform alongside the winners of theUNC Annual Concerto Competition Winners, on December 3rd at 7:30pm in the James and Susan Moeser Auditorium at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Singer Bradley Barefoot has won the vocal competition and will present, among other works, three pieces by H. Leslie Adams from "Nightsongs" (Prayer, Night Song, and Sence you went away) for medium voice and chamber orchestra, conducted by Tonu Kalam.

In addition to the winning concerto selections, the orchestra will present the premiere performance of Durham composer Maxwell Ramages atmospheric tone poem, Taiga. Tickets are $10 general admission, $5 students/UNC faculty and staff.