Archived News and Events

David MecionisannouncestheCarnegie Hallpremiere of his new piece for solo violin, to take place Monday, March 25, 2024. The piece was specially selected for a series calledThe Bow and The Brush, conceived by violinist Dan Flanagan. The concert features 20 pieces, each inspired by paintings and drawings in Dan's personal collection. Each artwork will be presented. This event has been rescheduled from 2022.

Mecionis's work is based on one of the lesser-knownpaintings of French Impressionist Jean-Louis Forain,Couple au lit. Two figures emerging from a wan, nearly monochromatic palette, one as if in troubled sleepand the other inexplicably upright. The impression is uncanny, weird, enigmatic, charged with a tension vacillating between tranquility and danger, normality and nightmare. The composer aimed to express this element of ambiguity andeldritchatmosphere,to borrow a signature Lovecraftian term. (See the painting here).

Flanagan is concertmaster of the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera, West Edge Opera, and Instructor of Violin at University of California, Berkeley. Flanagan performs on an ex-Spalding Vuillaume instrument.

Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
8pm
Monday, March 25, 2024

Tickets start at $44 ($35+$9fee)
Student and Senior Discount Tickets Available at the Box Office, or contact the composer.

Program listings include works byWorks by Libby Larsen, Nathaniel Stookey, James Stephenson, Trevor Weston (NY Premiere), Shinji Eshima, Jose Gonzalez Granero, Cindy Cox, Edmund Campion, Linda Marcel, David Mecionis, Catherine Neville (NY Premiere), Peter Josheff, Maija Hynninen, Evan Price, Jacques Desjardins, Jessica Mays (NY Premiere), Michael Panther (NY Premiere), and Dan Flanagan (World Premiere).

On March 11, the work will be performed in San Francisco as well.

Philip Carlsen'sFar Psalteriesfor Piano Trio will receive its first performance Sunday, March 3rd at 3:00pm in the Nordica Auditorium at the University of Maine in Farmington. Philip Carlsen, cello, Mary Hunter, violin and James Parakilas, piano. Music by Joaqun Turina, Philip Carlsen, and Dmitri Shostakovich.

By popular demand, Arts Farmington is bringing the Buttonwood Trio back to the stage in Farmington on Sunday, March 3rd, at 3:00pm. The performance will be in the Nordica Auditorium, Merrill Hall, at the University of Maine in Farmington. The trio consists of Philip Carlsen, cello, Mary Hunter, violin, and James Parakilas, piano. They will be performing Joaqun Turinas Piano Trio No. 2 from 1933, Dmitri Shostakovichs Piano Trio No. 2 from 1944, and the world premiere of the piano trio version of Carlsens Far Psalteries. Adult tickets are $20, more if you can, less if you cant. Nobody turned away.

Philip Carlsen taught at the University of Maine at Farmington from 1982 to 2015, conducting the UMF Community Orchestra and offering courses in theory, composition, history of jazz, non-Western music and music in film. His compositions have been performed at the Kennedy Center, New Yorks Town Hall and Museum of Modern Art, at national conferences of the Society of Composers, and throughout Maine. Now a resident of South Portland, Phil plays with the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra and on baroque cello with the professional early music group St. Mary Schola.

TJ Andersons Introduction and Allegro will be performed by the Hastings Symphony Orchestra, at the Masonic Center Auditorium in Hastings NE, conducted byTyler Goodrich White. Students - free admission.

The 2023-24 Hastings Symphony Orchestras Young Artist Competition winner joins the orchestra, and the ensemble celebrates cultural legacies in works by African American composers TJ Anderson and George Walker and by Robert Schumann (Symphony No. 3, Rhenish).

ARCTIC EXPLORATIONS byMichael Dellaira (2022)
Directed by Kira Simring

with The Harlem Chamber Players
Conducted by Clara Longstreth
featuring Nuka Alice, Erin Brittain, David Gordon, Nicole Haslett and Colin Levin

Theater at St. Jean
150 E. 76th St. New York City

Tickets

Arctic Explorations is a folk opera, is a story about the human desire to explore the unknown. Based on American explorer Elisha Kent Kane's 1856 bestseller and on period documents, including the love letters between Kane and the medium Maggie Fox, the opera is inspired by 19th-century popular song, hymns, sea shanties and Inuit drum-dances, and scored for full chorus, five soloists and an ensemble of clarinet, guitar, banjo, violin, viola, double bass and percussion.

New York City's New Amsterdam Singers and Nancy Manocherian's The Cell Theater have together commissioned Michael Dellaira to create Arctic Explorations, the story of 19th century explorer, Elisha Kent Kane, and his curious romance with Maggie Fox, the noted spiritualist and medium. Complete opposites in almost every respect he, a navy surgeon and scientist from a prominent family; she, an uneducated farm-girl who many considered a huckster they were each American celebrities who entertained crowds with tales of mysterious places and phenomena: glaciers, polar bears and the Inuit communities, or the world of the hereafter, and how to communicate with the dead.

Arctic Explorations, then, is about our never-ending desire to discover what lies beyond, to know where we came from and where we are going. Explorers, all of us, our success often comes at a cost, and nowhere can this cost be measured more than in the Arctic: over 300 billion tons of ice from the Humboldt glacier melted on a single day this past June.

The Inuit, who have lived there for centuries, are seeing their land disappear. But it was their ancestors who came to Kanes aid when his ship was trapped in the ice for two years; he and his crew survived, not because they brought with them the technology of the modern world, although they had done that, but because of the ingeniousness and generosity of the Inuit, whose own beliefs and practices were shaped by the most hostile place on earth.

Based on Kane's 1856 huge bestseller, Arctic Explorations, as well as period documents, private letters, and with assistance from the Greenland Cultural Center and the Inuit Circumpolar Council, this is a folk-opera in one act, for four soloists and chorus, and instrumental sextet of clarinet, guitar, banjo, accordion, violin and double bass.

The Fidelio Trio (London) is playingIvesiana (1988) by T.J. Andersonon their current US tour. They played it at Tufts University on Feb. 23, 2024 and will play it at Ithaca College on Feb. 26th, and later in the season at Deal Center for the Arts in Kent, England.

Celebrating Israeli composer Marc Lavrys 120th anniversary, Seven Hills Symphony(Cincinnati) performed an orchestral concert featuring Lavry, along with Aaron Avshalomov and Ernest Bloch. Violin professor from Northern Kentucky University, Dr. William Herzog performed the Baal Shem Suite. Directed by Dr. Aik Khai Pung, Conductor and Matthew Lee, Assistant Conductor.

• Aaron Avshalomov: Four Biblical Tableaux (1928)
  • Queen Esthers Prayer
  • Rebecca by the well
  • Ruth and Naomi
  • Processional
• Ernest Bloch: Baal Shem, Three Pictures of Chassidic Life Dr. William Herzog, violin
  • Vidui (Contrition)
  • Nigun (Improvisation)
  • Simchas Torah (Rejoicing in the Law)
• Marc Lavry: Emek, Symphonic Poem, op. 45
• Marc Lavry: Negev, Symphonic Poem, op. 251

Formerly named Seven Hills Sinfonietta, the Seven Hills Symphony was founded in 1974 and is now recognized as a leading community orchestra in Cincinnati, Ohio. Under the baton of Dr. Aik Khai Pung, the orchestra holds concerts that energize, entertain, and educate the public. The orchestra is composed of well-trained, non-professional musicians that perform a variety of music everything from classical masterpieces to jazz, rock, and world music.

Darleen Mitchell's O Vos Angeli was performed Saturday, September 23rd at 3pm as part of Alma Ensemble's "Alma del Core Community Concert Series" at Community High School of Arts and Academics in Roanoke, Virginia. Performers included Ariana Wyatt, soprano, Michelle Smith Johnson, clarinet, and Erica Sipes, piano.

Bruce Reiprich's Where Gentleness Resides for oboe and piano was performed at the International Double Reed Society IDRS Conference in Bangkok,Thailand, 2023. The 52nd IDRS Conference event featured world-class double reed artists and pedagogues from around the world to present five-days of performances, masterclasses, and lectures.

New Gallery Concert Series, a coming together of new music and new visual art will present To Remember, To Be Inspired, at Pickman Hall, Longy School of Music, in Cambridge, MA, at their 24th season opening event on Saturday, October 21, 2023.

Program features the BORROMEO STRING QUARTET, soprano MORGAN BECKFORD, pianist SARAH BOB, and saxophonist DR. MATTHEW EVAN TAYLOR. Composers include VIJAY IYER, DANIEL BERNARD ROUMAIN, ELEANOR ALBERGA, H. LESLIE ADAMS, JESSIE MONTGOMERY, and ADOLPUS HAILSTORK, celebrating themes of memory, muses, tributes, and nostalgia and how it impacts who we are and aspire to be.

Image: From L'Merchie Fraziers Barricade Series - "Stand With Her: Raise Her Voice" - dedicated to the work of Malala.
Medium: nylon fiber, plastic tape, machine quilting.

Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, Canadas self-described Disruptor Conductor and musical activist, leads visionary new orchestral works composed in the last three tumultuous years. Zosha di Castri, our 2002 Young Composer Project creator, explores how we experience the passage of time in her latest work. Derrick Skyes tone poem integrates musical practices from different cultures. Esa-Pekka Salonens ravishing fantasy evokes a surreal ballroom scene and is full of virtuosity, ecstasy, and good humor.

Program to Include

DERRICK SKYE Flames Nurtured the Rose (2021) (ESO Premiere)
BEN GARTLY Redemption Sought (2023) (World Premiere of an ESO Young Composer Project commission)
ZOSHA DI CASTRI Time-Time-Time (2022) (ESO Premiere)
ESA-PEKKA SALONEN Saltat sobrius: Fantasy upon Sederunt Principes (2020) (ESO Premiere)

Program subject to change. This concert will not include an intermission.

Featured Artists

Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, Conductor
Wakefield Brewster aka Da Lyrical Pitbull, Poet & Spoken Word Artist

Location: Francis Winspear Centre Nov. 30th 7:30pm

The Creation of Flames Nurtured the Rose (2021) by Derrick Skye was commissioned by The National Orchestral Institute + Festivals K-12 New Music Project at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD, in partnership with the American Composers Alliance.

Saturday, Sept. 23, 7:30 PM Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano at The Village Trip Arts Festival, Tenri Cultural Institute, New York City. The Horszowski Trio joins the The Village Trip Arts Festival for a program of works including the New York premiere of Karchin's 25-minute Trio, and works by Paul Chihara, Wang Jie, Elliott Carter and Shostakovichs landmark Second Trio.

Saturday, Sept. 23, 7:30 PM Pastorale/Galop Baker Hall, Zoellner Center for the Performing Arts, Bethlehem, PA.Violinist Domenic Salerni presents the first live performance of this solo violin work, written in 2021 for a celebration of the life and work of composer Earl Kim. Other works on the program are by Paul Salerni, Steven Sametz, Domenic Salerni, and will be performed by Antonello DiMatteo, Marisa Karchin, Steven Beck, Susan Grace, and others.

Sunday, October 15 Incantations and Dances at Tenri Cultural Institute, New York City. The Da Capo Chamber Players present the world premiere of Incantation and Dances (2023), written for Pierrot ensemble with percussion. James Baker conducts, and the evening shines a spotlight on the music of Elliott Carter, with a performance of his Triple Duo among other works. Composers Karchin withTyson Davis will participate in a panel discussion on Carters influence, hosted by composer and Carter scholar, John Link.

Saturday, Oct. 28, 7:30 PM That mirthless laugh. Aria from Jane Eyre The Cell Theater, New York City. The inaugural concert of the Marshall Opera (named for the founder of the Center for Contemporary Opera, Robert Marshall) will present arias from a host of operas that CCO curated under the leadership of its recent director, James Schaeffer. A selection from Louis Karchin's opera, Jane Eyre, will be performed by soprano Monica Niemi. Composers Victoria Bond, Daron Hagen, Tobias Picker, Judith Shatin, Scott Wheeler and many more, will be represented as well.

Bridge Records has released the latest compilation of new works by Louis Karchin, September 15, 2023.

Opus Zoo Woodwind Quintet will give the American Premiere performances of Edward Smaldone's "What no one else sees..." at the Port Washington Library (October 15 at 3 PM) and LeFrak Concert Hall at Queens College, (October 16, at 12:15 PM). The work was commissioned by the Opus Zoo quintet, a group of young professionals in Copenhagen, Denmark. The ensemble gave the world premiere in Copenhagen in September 2023.

about the piece the composer writes:

"What no one else sees..." is in three movements (Fast, slow, fast) and is entirely abstract in nature. There is no story, only notes, rhythms, harmonies and colors derived from the endless possibilities of the ensemble.

The title is derived from an idea found in a recent book by Rick Rubin titled "The Creative Act: A Way of Being." In the book, Rubin talks about the creative process and how it is manifested. The idea that a creative person "sees" something before it is there, and then "sees" things in ways that no one else does seemed to fit well with the idea of this piece. The energy and spirit of the music is what the music is about."

KeyedUpMusicProject

Friday November 3 at 7:00 p.m.

TENRI CULTURAL INSTITUTE, New York City
43A W. 13th St.

Poets Dance

Roberto Hidalgo and Marc Peloquin, piano(s)

Music by Chester Biscardi (world premiere), Alison Nowak (world premiere),
Robert Schumann, Manuel de Falla, William Bolcom, and Leo Smit

KeyedUp's first concert of the season will be onFriday, November 3rdat 7:00 p.m. at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City. Pianists Roberto Hidalgo and Marc Peloquin will present world premieres by two special composer friends, Chester Biscardi and Alison Nowak. They will also be performing works by Robert Schumann, Manuel de Falla, William Bolcom and Leo Smit. A "not-to-miss" evening. The subsequent concerts are onSaturday, February 24, 2024 and Saturday, May 11, 2024.

Curated works from fourteen composers will be presented in the Marshall Opera's inaugural opera history program - and by the young artists who interviewed the composers for this project.

The distinguished composers represented at our first concert will include Victoria Bond, Michael Dellaira, Kenneth Fuchs, Charles Fussell, Daron Hagen, Adolphus Hailstork, Louis Karchin, Douglas Knehans, Jo Kondo, Tobias Picker, Judith Shatin, Alice Shields, Faye-Ellen Silverman, and Scott Wheeler.

The young artists for the evening include Aline Boyd, Christina Esser, Francesca Federico, Eugenia Forteza, Alize Francheska, Shelen Hughes, Jeanai La Vita, Andrea Moore, Matt Mueller, Monica Niemi, Mary Rice, Alexa Rosenberg, Caroline Spaeth, and Tislam Swift. The pianist is Amir Farid and the emcee is Renee Heitman.

Oct 28, 7:30 p.m.
The Cell Theater
338 West 23rd St
New York, NY

Richard Cameron-Wolfes microtonal guitar sextet Arcturus, composed in collaboration with the Danish ensemble CRAS [Peter Oldrup, Henrik Bay Hansen, Mikkel Egelund, Jake Nrrelund, Sren Eriksen and Uffe Carl Hansen], will be premiered in Copenhagen on Sunday, November 26, 2023 at 7:00PM during Musikhuset Kbenhavns festival VKST.

From the festivals publicity: [Cameron-Wolfes Arcturus] is named after the brightest star in the northern hemisphere, and is almost labyrinthine in its construction, but the expression is extroverted and clear just like the phenomenon after which the work is named.

The concert also includes Danish composer Pernille Louise Sejlunds 2023 Stringing the Beads and the premiere of CRAS ensembles 2023 collective composition Vkst #1, 2 & 3.

Address: Musikhuset Kbenhavn. Vesterbrogade 59, 1620 Kbenhavn V Tickets: DKK 50,00 (ca. USD $7.25).

https://www.musikhusetkoebenhavn.dk/event/vaekst-festival-cras-ensemble/

Alaria Chamber Ensemble

Sunday, December 3, 20232 PMWeill Recital Hall

STEVEN CHRISTOPHER SACCO Selection from Trio for Violin, Cello, and Piano (World Premiere)
BRUCH Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, Op. 83
SCHUBERT String Quintet in C Major, D. 956
GIOVANNI KOLLRose 1for Two Cellos and Piano (World Premiere)
FELIX MENDELSSOHN Allegro moderato ma con fuoco Octet in E-flat Major

Alaria Chamber Ensemble:
Yuri Vodovoz, Violin
Tzu-En Lee, Violin and Viola
Julian Schwarz, Cello
David Oei, Piano

The Washington Square Contemporary Music Societyis pleased to present its first concert of the season onWednesday, Dec. 6, 2023 at8:30 PM at theTenri Cultural Institute

An Evening of Vocal Premieres

Laura Strickling, soprano
Azalea Twining, soprano
Daniel Schlosberg, piano
Irene Han, cello

May Flowrs are Opening Azalea Twining
bring me change (World premiere) Elizabeth Hoffman

Brief Intermission

Two Nabokov Songs (New York Premiere) Shawn Chang
Migare, Mutare (New York Premiere) Reinaldo Moya
Hyacinth (New York Premiere) Cecilia Livingston
Burning in the Rain (World premiere) James Matheson
How to Explain Death to Your Daughter (World Premiere) Jessica Rudman
keeping (World Premiere) Joseph Jones
Wind, Carry Me (New York Premiere) James Primosch

Admission: $20/$10 free w/NYU ID

ThisFriday, April 28, 7:30pm, a new 5-minute string quartet,"La esperanza de la gente"written by Gilbert Galindo in honor of the overlooked Tejana civil rights pioneer Jovita Idr (pictured) will be premiered by the Overlook Quartetfor the Relevant Tones podcast at Symphony Space in Manhattan.Four other new works by fellow composersNailah Nombeko, Milica Paranosic, Shanan Estreicher, and Lynn Bechtold will be presented, along with discussions about the works and the individuals who were overlooked in their time.

Relevant Tones live features music and conversation on a trending or otherwise important topic and, as the name implies, is taped live in front of an audience. The first of three live shows this year will feature conversation and music inspired by the Overlooked No More obituaries in the NY Times.

The Times is writing obituaries for significant people whose lives were not originally memorialized often because they were women or people of color. ACM is commissioning five composers to write a short musical homage to the person of their choice. Gilbert Galindo is one of them, writing a string quartet honoring Jovia Idr, a Texas Mexican-American journalist, activist, and suffragist who often faced dangerous situations in the first half of the 20th century.

ACM will also talk with filmmaker Vanessa Gould (Obit) and Baltimore Sun obituary writer Jacques Kelly. This event is produced in collaboration with the Esopus Foundation.

Friday, April 28, 2023, 7:30pm
Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space
250 95th Street
New York, NY 10025

Tickets
$20 (Advance, Members, & Seniors)
$15 (Students)
https://www.symphonyspace.org/events/vp-relevant-tones-live-overlooked-no-more

May 25, 2023 8:00PM
Miller Theatre at Columbia University
2960 Broadway
New York, NY 10027

The Orchestra of the League of Composers
Louis Karchin, Music Director and conductor
David Fulmer, conductor (Smaldone)
Jessica Meyer, viola
Niklas Sivelv, piano

Program

Eleanor Cory - Canyons (1991)

Edward Smaldone - Prendendo Fuoco for Piano and Orchestra
(2022, World Premiere, OLC Commission)

Jessica Meyer - GAEA: Concerto for Amplified Viola and Chamber Orchestra
(2022, World Premiere, OLC commission)