Archived News and Events

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.

December 1, 2019 - "Round About Midnight" features Violoncelletude by David Froom as well as music by Evan Chambers, Helen Grime, George Crumb, Hilary Tann, Pete Seeger, and more.

Concert at St. Marks Episcopal Church on Capital Hill
301 A St SE, Washington, DC 20003

ATTENDANCE IS FREE. Seating begins at 3:30PM.
All concerts this season will be at 5pm, preceded by a 4pm discussion with composers and performers, and followed by a post-concert reception.

The North South Consonance Ensemble celebrates St. Patricks's Day with a concert at Christ & St. Stephen's Church in New York City. This orchestra is in the midst of an incredible number of performances this season, and we are happy to report that they will present the New York premiere of David Froom's beautiful work for flute and strings, Petali di Gelsomino, featuring Lisa Hansen, flutist. The concert will take place in the acoustically superior setting of Christ and St. Stephen's Church Location: 120 West 69th Street (between Broadway & Columbus), New York City, at 3pm on March 17. Free admission, no tickets required.

PROGRAM VI

Sunday, March 17, 2019 at 3 PM

Happy St Patricks Day!

FRANK CORCORAN
DAVID FROOM
JOHN DAVID LITTLE
HEATHER NIEMI-SAVAGE

Quasi un concerto
Petali di Gelsonimo
Sacred Prelude (Stile Antico)
Daughters of the Stars

Lisa Hansen, flute Sammy Lesnick, clarinet
Max Lifchitz, conductor
The North/South Chamber Orchestra

Da Capo Chamber Players - October 30th, concert at Merkin Hall:

FEATURING WORKS BY
Louis Karchin, Ancient Scenes (2014)
Jihyun Kim, Once Upon a Time(2018)
Winner of the League of Composers/ISCM
annual composers competition
Jonathan Dawe, On Again, Ockeghem(2018)

Cynthia Folio, Through Windows Lattices(1999)
Written in celebration of the 900th birthday
of Hildegard von Bingen
Bruce Adolphe, And All Is Always Now(1992)
Vasiliki Krimitza, Aeolis (2019)

DA CAPO CHAMBER PLAYERS
Patricia Spencer, flute
Marianne Gythfeldt, clarinet
Curtis Macomber, violin
Chris Gross, cello
Steven Beck, piano

GUEST ARTISTS
Marisa Karchin, soprano
John Ferrari, percussion
Louis Karchin, conductor

Richard Cameron-Wolfe's Telesthesia for cello quartet will be premiered on Sunday, October 27 at 3:00PM in Tilburg, Netherlands at Stichting Het Cenakel, a former monastery chapel, performed by the Belgian ensemble Assai Cellokwartet (Shuya Tanaka, Koen Berger, Helena Fuertes Plata, and Johanna Peiler). Telesthesia was composed for Assai and is dedicated to the memory of violinist Harold Geller. The program also includes the premiere of Dutch composer Jo Sporck's "Switch" and two works of J.S. Bach: the Cello Suite #2 and Laszlo Vargas quartet transcription of the Chaconne. Tickets: 10 & 5 Euros.

See the incredible Wavefield Ensemble, conducted by Nicholas DeMaison, on Saturday November 16 at University Settlement, Speyer Hall, for the the US premiere of Lewis Nielson's 35-minute work Cilice (musica disciplina), together with a newly commissioned work by Victoria Cheah, and works by Sarah Nemtsov and Nicholas Gombert. Tickets are $20/$10 students. The concert is being supported by funds from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and other contributors.

Nielson's Cilice was composed for Oerknal! and Damask Vocal Quartet in 2016, co-commissioned by the two ensembles. The premiere performance was in Amsterdam and The Hague, in May 2017. Cilice is for for four solo voices (SATB), flute (doubling alto flute), clarinet in Bb (doubling bass clarinet), piano, percussion, violin, viola, and cello. Texts are drawn from the Psalms, Une Saison en Enfer by Artur Rimbaud, selections from Friederich Hlderlin's poetry, and Inferno by Dante Alighieri, and reflect or address themes of sin and atonement.

Wavefield Ensemble is a collectively organized group of musicians dedicated to performing music and creating new artistic work at the highest level, and to actively engaging in educational activities geared toward inspiring the next generation of artists and performers. We aim to collaborate with like minded artists, performers, and thinkers of all stripes, and to offer a platform for all whose work demands it. Our goal is to share this work as broadly as possible and in so doing to inspire those we contact to a more deeply creative engagement with the world.

Speyer Hall at University Settlement 184 Eldridge Street New York, NY, 10002

PREformances hosted by soprano Allison Charney, is a series at Merkin Hall where celebrated classical musicians preview their upcoming performances on the worlds most prestigious stages. Acclaimed opera singer Allison Charney guides the audience through a behind-the-scenes glimpse at these top-level artists' practices and performances. On Oct. 24, the program includes the premiere of Steven Christopher Sacco's AIR, with guest artists Eriko Sato, violin, and David Oei, piano. Additional works on this program include music by Amy Beach, Lili Boulanger, Florence Price, Alfred Schnittke and Richard Strauss.

Allison Charney, soprano
With Craig Ketter, piano

Guest Artists

Eriko Sato, violin
Kelly Hall-Tompkins, violin
Donna Weng Friedman, piano
David Oei, piano
and
Her/Music; Her/Story, a media partner of WQXR

CONSTELLATIONS:

Cosmic music for piano
David Liptak

with Eunmi Ko, piano, and
McCormick Percussion Group

Composer Adam Roberts writes about Liptaks music referencing Greek mythology in this way.

This network of meanings can be found in the music in a variety of ways. In ... Canis Major and Canis Minor, which is unique in its referencing two constellations, the starry formations have a direct impact on the musical materials. Taking a cue from the constellations names, Liptak uses major and minor triads in playful and unconventional combinations to create nervous, spiky textures as well as contrasting legato, arpeggio lines, ... and perhaps also serving as a depiction of both dogs barking in unison before tumbling over each other in active play....

Three Biblical Masks for solo organ by Miriam Gideon, to be performed by Elizabeth Berghout, at College View Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, on, 20 October 2019.

New York Composers Circle presents a concert of saxophone music on October 30th in New York City.
On the program is Three Madrigals for Saxophone Quartet by Raoul Pleskow, Inharmonic Fantasy No. 11 by Hubert Howe, and Four Play by Richard Brooks.

Location:
"Little Church Around the Corner," Church of the Transfiguration
1 East 29th Street, New York, New York (map)

Concert program as planned:

DescriptionGrand Quartet in E-flat Major for saxophone quartet David Mecionis
Three Madrigals for Saxophone Quartet Raoul Pleskow
Amsterdam, 1983 for solo soprano saxophone Christopher Sahar
The Source of the Beat for saxophone quartet Eric Heilner

INTERMISSION

Four Play for saxophone quartet Richard Brooks
Inharmonic Fantasy No. 11 for alto sax and electronics Hubert Howe
Dappled light 'mid mountains gleams for saxophone quartet Timothy Lee Miller
Fantasy for Saxophones for quartet Bunny Beck

There is a $20 suggested donation at the door, students are free. All NYCC concerts and events are wheelchair accessible. All Concerts will be LIVE Streamed on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/NYComposersCircle/.

World Premiere - Crossing Brooklyn Ferry for baritone and string quartet by Matthew Greenbaum - on texts of Walt Whitman.

October 15-19, 2019: Momenta Quartet presents the Momenta Festival V at Americas Society and Tenri Cultural Institute. This year features five world premieres to celebrate the 5th edition of the Momenta Festival. Admission to all concerts is free. The festival features four diverse chamber music programs each curated by a different member of the quartet. With programs that blend the old and new, the intriguing programming (The New York Times) and striking originality (I Care If You Listen) of the Momenta Festival have been acclaimed by critics and fans alike.

The 2019 festival opens at Americas Society on October 15 with a retrospective on 15 years of the Momenta Quartet, featuring guest vocalist Brad Walker and curated by violist Stephanie Griffin.

Momenta Festival V opens with a celebration of Momentas 15th anniversary with selected milestones from their unique and eclectic personal repertoire along with world premieres by Matthew Greenbaum and the Chamber Music America commission of Alvin Singleton. The Momenta Quartet is joined by baritone Brad Walker.

Program:
Mario Davidovsky: String Trio
Julian Carrillo: String Quartet no. 10
Alvin Singleton: Hallelujah Anyhow CMA Commission WORLD PREMIERE
Matthew Greenbaum: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry for baritone and string quartet WORLD PREMIERE, text by Walt Whitman

Tuesday, October 15 at 7:00 pm
Americas Society 680 Park Ave., NYC
Free admission

The music continues on October 16 with the program Night Dances curated by violinist Emilie-Anne Gendron and featuring works by Roberto Sierra and Gyorgy Ligeti. The festival moves downtown to the Tenri Cultural Institute for the final two concerts. On October 18, cellist Michael Haas program American Voices features a world premiere by Christopher Stark. The festival concludes on October 19 with the program Toy Stories curated by violinist Alex Shiozaki. Momenta is joined by toy pianist Phyllis Chen in a program inspired by the recent birth of Shiozakis first child.

Ninth Wave, a new work by Robert Scott Thompson for cello and electronic sound will be performed by Craig Hultgren at Kopleff Recial Hall in Atlanta this week, and then also on Wednesday, November 6th at 7:30 P.M. on the La Crosse New Music Festival in the Annett Recital Hall at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse.

40th Annual Bowling Green New Music Festival
October 16-19, 2019

Featuring guest composer EVAN ZIPORYN
and guest ensemble NEW MUSIC DETROIT

Saturday, October 19

2:30pm, Bryan Recital Hall
Concert 7: Chamber works by Marilyn Shrude, Georgi Dimitrov, Christine Southworth, Kenneth Young, Ivan Moody, and Ana Paola Santillan Alcocer.

8pm, Kobacker Hall
Concert 8: Orchestral and choral works by Mikel Kuehn, Louis Karchin, John Corigliano, Paul Frucht, and Evan Ziporyn.

Conductor Emily Freeman Brown will lead a performance of Four Songs on Poems of Seamus Heaney for Soprano and Orchestra, by Louis Karchin.

THE SLEEPERS for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra, by DAVID LIPTAK - upcoming performances:

November 9 at the Hochstein School of Music and November 10 at the Memorial Art Gallery, both in Rochester NY.
Performers: Cordancia Chamber Orchestra with soprano soloist Tyler Cassidy-Heacock, and conductor Rachel Lauber.
This setting of the Walt Whitman poem "The Sleepers" uses the eighth and final part of this poem. Written for soprano and chamber orchestra, the work was commissioned by Kathleen Kenny Suher, in memory of her mother Patricia Kenney Bertz.

The program also features composer anniversaries and includes "Dreams" byGeorge Antheil, and "Champagne Galop" byH. C. Lumbye.

Nov. 9 at Hochstein School of Music at 7pm
50 N Plymouth Ave
Rochester, NY 14614

Nov. 10 at Memorial Art Gallery at 2:30 pm
500 University Ave
Rochester, NY 14607

Celebrating 10 years, Cordancia revisits some of itsfavorite repertoire. A decade ago, Milhaud's "La Cration du Monde" brought a group ofmusicians together for a performance in 2009. This event becamethe creation of Cordancia.For this year's celebrations, Cordancia will performLa Cration with dancers from BIODANCE andRachel Lauber on the podium. Artistic Directors: Pia Liptak (concertmaster) / Kathleen Suher (principal oboist).

Four Songs on Poems of Seamus Heaney for Soprano and Orchestra by Louis Karchin is scheduled for performance on October 19, 2019, as part of the 40th Annual Bowling Green New Music Festival, Bowling Green State University, MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music. Soloist will be Soprano Heather Buck, with Emily Freeman Brown, conductor. Location: Kobacker Hall, Bowling Green State University.

Praised by Opera News as the kind of performer who makes it all look easy, Heather Buck is best described by opera critic David Shengold as a lithe and impactful actress with an uncommonly beautiful soprano for the high-lying and testing repertory she serves." Among her engagements in the 2019-20 season are Lela in Les pcheurs de perles with Opera in Williamsburg, and Herodias in Stradellas San Giovanni Battista with Opera Omaha. In the 2018-19 season, Ms. Buck sang Susanna in Laura Elise Schwendingers Artemisia at the Times Arrow Festival of Trinity Church Wall Street, a reprise of the title role of Charles Wuorinens Haroun and the Sea of Stories with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the world premiere of Louis Karchins Four Songs on Poems by Seamus Heaney with Orchestra of the League of Composers.

The upcoming Klimt Villa Festival in Vienna will feature Five Songs for Soprano and String Quartet, by Karl Weigl, with the Aron Quartet and Anna Maria Pammer, Soprano. Also on the program Adagietto for Strings (To Emily) and Andante for Strings by Vally Weigl. The festival, from August 26 through September 1, also features music by Arnold Schoenberg, Erich Zeisl, Ruth Schnthal, Lili Boulanger, Sofia Gubaidalina, Fanny Mendelssohn, Bruno Walter, Schubert, and more.

The Klimt Villa is located at Feldmhlgasse Number 11 in Vienna.

This year's annual Piano Festival by the River in St. Mary's City, Maryland, will feature faculty artists from St. Mary's College, pianist Eliza Garth with guest artist Betsy Bates, Soprano. The theme of "Songs in the Night" will include music by Brahms-Busoni, Bach-Petri, Copland, Primosch, Hogan, and the world premiere of David Frooms Variations on an Early American Tune. Froom's new work is a set of variations on the tune Holy Manna by William Moore from his The Columbian Harmony of 1825.

Friday, August 30, 8pm
Auerbach Auditorium
St. Marys College of Maryland
St. Marys City, MD

More information here -

CICTeM 2019 - Computer Music Festival - September 19, 20 and 21 (4th annual)
IV Congreso Internacional de Ciencia y Tecnologa Musical, CABA, Argentina.

Selection: Nullius in Verba by Robert Scott Thompson

Research activities related to Computer Music at Damus are centralized in the Centro de Investigaciones y Desarrollos Computacionales en Msica 'Francisco Krpfl' (CIDCOM), an institution created in 2009 that belongs to Damus. Damus is part of the Universidad Nacional de las Artes (UNA).

The New York Composers Circle exchange event with Russian composers will include a concert of pieces by Peter Kelsh, Christopher Sahar, David Picton, Eric Heilner, Dana Dimitri Richardson, Timothy Lee Miller, and Hubert Howe, as part of the "Musical Bridges" series. The location of the concert will be the Nikolai Myaskovsky Concert Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The performing ensemble is the 20th Century Ensemble, which includes Maria Khodina, violin, Vyacheslav Grebennikov, viola, Nadezhda Grebennikova, cello, Elizaveta Danilina, piano,and Sayaka Takahashi, piano. Congratulations to the New York Composers Circle and selected composers for this collaborative event.

The New York Composers Circle is an organization of composers and performers, dedicated to new music, whose mission is to promote public awareness and appreciation of contemporary music through concerts, salons, and other events in the New York metropolitan area.

Trio Namaste (as a duo with Guido Arbnelli and Natalia Benedetti, clarinets) performed a work originally written for them - Dialogues for E-flat clarinet and B-flat clarinet - by Richard Brooks, on July 9 this year, in Algheri, Sardinia, Italy. The work had been performed in the US last November, 2018, by this ensemble at a New York Composers Circle Event in New York City.