Archived News and Events

21st CENTURY CONSORT

presents "Color Wheel" live in Washington DC

December 4, 2021 at 5:00PM
St. Marks Episcopal Church
301 A Street, SE, Washington, DC

Program:

Eric Moe

Grand Prismatic

Tansy Davies

Small Black Stone

David Froom

Shades of Red

Alexandra Gardner

Electric Blue Pantsuit

Luke Carlson

Spectra

Elena Ruehr

Red

Jeffrey Mumford

amid fleeting pockets of billowing radiance

Jennifer Higdon

Pale Yellow, Fiery Red (Piano Trio)

Witness: Spirituals and the Classical Music Tradition | Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

This program will be available Friday, May 21.This episode will focus on the spiritual song Wade in Water, with a blues-inflected performance by The Blind Boys of Alabama as well as a jazz-influenced fantasia by composer Frederick Tillis.

The overall series is free, digital programming that explores the ways some Black American composers have found inspiration in the rich tradition of spirituals. The Gardner Museum builds on its ongoing partnership with the Boston-based ensembleCastle of our Skinsled by Ashleigh Gordon, to create four short videos exploring this repertoire.

The Museums collection includes Isabellas personal copy ofAfro-American Folksongs(1914), which features arrangements of spirituals by the eminent Harry T. Burleigh. As a composer, arranger, and performer, Burleigh was at the epicenter of an early group of composers who championed spirituals as pure gold.

Robert Carl: White Heron has been released byBoston Modern Orchestra Project; Gil Rose, conductor (BMOP/sound). Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times comments on this as one of 5 Classical Albums of Note this week (March 2, 2021).

"The concept of space is conveyed during extended stretches of these scores that unfold in spacious, quivering, tart sonorities, often built from what Carl describes as a personalized harmony that creates ladders (a term I like) of all 12 chromatic pitches. This technique comes through especially in Whats Underfoot. Yet even in seemingly tranquil episodes, below the surface Carls music is restless with riffs that stir up internal intensity and thrust.

Its gripping, almost a relief, when a piece really takes off, as in sections of the Symphony No. 5, Land, that teem with hurtling energy, streams of notes and slashing bursts. The performances under Gil Rose capture both the sonic allure and multilayered intricacy of the music." -- ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Hear it on Spotify and other services.

The ACA Bulletin Magazine is a bi-annual publication for affiliated members of American Composers Alliance, friends and associates.

In addition to lists of news and events, including concerts, online presentations, and recordings, there is a list of new or recently revised works added to the ACA score catalog since the previous magazine issue (April 2021), including music that has been digitized and made newly available from the ACA archives.

Article contributions include an essay by Dr. Christina Taylor Gibson, project archivist of the ACA Collections at Special Collections in Performing Arts at the University of Maryland; and an article on interactive telematic music-making by composer, electronic instrumentalist Scott L. Miller; as well as notes from ACA staff and board members related to new series in publication, and a new collaboration with the National Orchestral Institute + Festival.

Available online, Bulletin Vol. 2 offers an engaging perspective on the activity at American Composers Alliance this year, with an emphasis onACA's diverse catalog and its historical continuity, and ACA's mission dedicated to keeping the full collection available in perpetuity.

Open and download the October 2021 ACA Bulletin here

Dianna Gould and Brenda Pontracz will be performing two Arias from "Blake" the opera by H. Leslie Adams, on Sunday, Oct. 10th (no longer on Oct. 3 due to weather forecast)at thehistoric Cozad Bates House, now housing an Underground Railroad museumin Cleveland. Musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra will perform from the porch are. The concert is outside and guests should bring chairs or blankets. The program features nearly 200 years of American compositions, mostly from Ohio. The oldest work was written by the once-famous guitar virtuoso and Cleveland abolitionist Justin Holland. Exceptional works by four living composers, two of them Clevelanders, demonstrate that Classical music has both a rich history and an exciting future. Free to the public, notickets required.

Works from the following composers will be featured in the program:

H. Leslie Adams
Justin Holland
Allison Loggins-Hull
Brian R. Nabors
Coleridge Taylor Perkinson
William Grant Still
George Walker
Dolores White

Earlier this year Ensemble Connect engaged in a creative collaboration with Syrian visual artist Kevork Mourad as part of Up Close: American Mosaic. Watch the full performance, and explore the ever-expanding boundaries of what it means to be an artist and musician in the diverse cultural mosaic that is the United States.

Valerie Coleman - Umoja
Karim Al-Zand - Attar of Rose
Paul Schoenfield - Cafe Music (excerpt)
Vally Weigl - New England Suite (excerpt - Connecticut Country Fair)
Derrick Spiva, Jr. - American Mirror part 1
Inti Figis-vizueta - Form the Fabric

What : Bowers Fader Duo Fifth Annual New American Art Song Concert - Encore
When : Saturday, June 12, 2021 at 8:00pm EST / 5:00pm PST
Where : Scholes Street Studio - 375 Lorimer Street, Brooklyn
Details : This will be the third performance of our Fifth Annual New American Art Song Concert, the first with a live audience. (20 persons limit)

Hear music written for the Bowers Fader DuobyRichard Derby, Rebekah Driscoll, Louis Karchin, Larry Nelson,Paul Salerni, Randy Woolf,Jeffrey Young, andPatrick Zimmerli. Admission: Donations accepted at the door.

This concert will also be live-streamed, so if you can't join us in person, please tune in online. Watch here on Youtube

Sonata for Violin and Piano (1st movement) will be performed at the holiday concert of the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra in Maryland, at 7:30pm on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020.ArtistsDuo MemDi Igor Kalnin (violin) and Rochelle Sennet (piano) will record with the orchestra in concert (no live audience) and will stream the event live on PACA 14 local cable TV network and also on showtix4u.com

Three Walt Whitman Songs by Darleen Mitchell will be performed January 26 at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, at the at All-Faiths Chapel. It is the third performance of this work by baritone Andrew White and pianist Nathan Buckner (both faculty members of the University of Nebraska-Kearney) for their "Recital of New Art Songs on Poetry of Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)" The program begins with comments by Dr. Kevin McMullen, Project Manager of the Walt Whitman Archive of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Mirror Visions Ensemble will be performing Leslie Adams' "Heart of a Woman" arranged for Tenor, Baritone, and Piano, as part of its This Land Is Ours concert on January 19th at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, and January 29 2020 in Baltimore at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, as part of the school's cultural programming.

"This land is ours. But what is this land, and who are we? Orin the words of Maxwell Andersonhowcan you tell an American? Theres more than one answer, but an art song has more than one voicewho, perhaps, were sent to eat in thekitchen when company came, those who arrived at our sea-washed, sunset gates from far away, and thosewho left them never to returnall these and more are represented on our program. From this kaleidoscopic range of topics and creators emerge four American tableaux, interwoven with nofewer than ten world premieres."

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Concert 2020
free and open to the public
When: Jan 19, 2020, 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Where: University Circle

The Cleveland Music Settlement students and faculty will present a special concert today in tribute to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The concert, which will feature spirituals, arts songs, music by African American composers, and audience participation, will be held in the Glick Recital Hall in Burke mansion. All are invited to attend this free concert.

Chris Jenkins and Dianna White Gould will be performing music by H. Leslie Adams including LExtase dAmour and selections from NightSongs.

The Presidents Own United States Marine Band will present "Concerti Aplenti" with David Froom's Three Fantasy Dances: A Concerto for Wind Ensemble (world premiere) on Sunday, April 5, 2pm, in the Rachel M. Schlesigner Concert Hall at Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria (also known as NOVA).

Each piece on this unique program presents a different take on the idea of the concerto, from the traditional to the eclectic. What binds these works together is the virtuosic display of the considerable capabilities of each of the many instruments of the symphonic band.

Two living composers will join the Marine Band for performances of their music during this concert: Steven Bryant, with his brilliant Concerto for Wind Ensemble that has quickly become one of the most innovative works in the contemporary wind repertoire, and composer David Froom, who has written a new concerto for wind ensemble entitled Three Fantasy Dances composed specifically for The Presidents Own, and this concert will be its world premire.

This concert will also feature a solo by 2020 Marine Band Concerto Competition winner clarinetist Aaron Lipsky of Arden, N.C.

"David Frooms Hidden Motives begins ferociously, but uncovers a very different path to an unsettled close." -- Collage New Music

Four upcoming performances:

Louis Moreau Institute - Contemporary Masters and Promising Voices - Thursday, March 12th, 2020 at 7:30 pm
Dixon Recital Hall, Tulane University, New Orleans.

Program:
Thomas Ades, Three Mazurkas
Mario Davidovsky, Synchronism 12
Anna-Louise Walton, Uttered
Jonathan Harvey, The Riot
Arnold Schoenberg, Phantasy for Violin
David Froom, Hidden Motives

New York New Music Ensemble (NYNME) - Hidden Motives - Wed. Mar 18, 2020 at 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM - two shows
The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation, 87 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002. Witih music by Georg Friedrich Haas, David Froom, Hannah Lash, and Max Grafe.

Collage New Music - From Inside to Out, Secreted and Revealed - Sunday, March 29, 2020 8:00 PM
Pickman Hall, Longy School of Music, Boston. Performances include a 7pm pre-concert talk with the composers and music director, as well as a post-concert reception.

Program:

Anne Callaway: Devachan (1992)
first Boston performance
Brian Sears: New Work
Thomas Ads: Catch (1991)
Marjorie Merryman: Four Images, for solo cello
first Boston performance
David Froom: Hidden Motives (2018)
first Boston performance

BRIDGE's second disc of music by Louis Karchin disc presents five recent works composed during the past decade 2009-2019, featuring the composer's "Chamber Symphony" (2009), Rochester Celebration (2017), Postlude (2019), Quest (2014), and Barcarole Variations (2015). Artists appearing on this recording include Margaret Kampmeier (piano),Rene Jolles (violin), and Alice Teyssier (flute). Louis Karchin: Five Compositions Release date Nov. 6, 2020.

A concert by the Oberlin Percussion Group directed by Michael Rosen on November 26, 2019, featured the world premiere of RETRO VARIATIONS by Christopher Shultis, as well as works by William Russell, Bob Becker, Reiko Fting, and more. The concert was live-streamed on the Oberlin website. And on November 19, music by Shultis was performed at the ASU Kerr Cultural Center in Scottsdale, in a program called "Lost In Sound." Soprano Stacey Mastrian and percussionist Simone Mancuso presented music for voice and percussion instruments, featuring the world premiere of "After Agnes Martin" (from the opera Lost in the Woods), based on texts by Henry David Thoreau and written for Stacey and Simone by American composer Chris Shultis.

Centaur Recordings has released a new album of electronic works by composer Hubert Howe. The disc includes Harmonic Fantasies 3 and 4, Inharmonic Fantasies 3, 4, 5 and 8. Centaur Records, CRC 3579. More information is found here.

How the system of diatonic modes (originally "church modes") evolved is an interesting study of its own.The composer has built each of the movements of this piece around a diatonic mode, together withinfluences of poetry texts, haiku, and events over the years of composition, beginning in 1958.

Hear the album Seven Descriptive Preludes on Youtube.

A native of Chicago, Donald M. Wilson studied composition with Karel Husa and Robert Palmer at Cornell University and with Gunther Schuller at the Berkshire Music Center (Tanglewood). In 1965 Wilson became the first music director of the educational FM station in Philadelphia now known as WHYY-FM. Now a professor emeritus at Bowling Green State University, Wilson joined the BGSU music faculty in 1967, taught music theory, analysis and composition for 31 years and chaired the Music Composition/History Department for two four-year terms (1973-77; 1994-98).

Clare Longendykeserves as Director of Chamber Music and Artist-in-Residence at the University of Chicago. Hailed a superlative pianist, (Journal of the IAWM), Clare Longendyke is a passionate soloist and chamber musician recognized for her colorful musicality, technical fluency, and ability to interpret repertoires across the musical spectrum. Clare has performed solo and chamber music recitals across Europe and North America and has won 1st place prizes in competitions across the United States. In 2018-19, Clare performed 50 concerts around the globe, including two performances of Joan Towers Piano Concerto and solo recital performances in Italy, Paris, Minnesota, Maine, San Francisco, and Boston. She made her orchestral debut in 2012 performing Bartks 3rd Piano Concerto with the Indiana University Concert Orchestra.

H. Leslie Adams' Sonata for Violin and Piano (in 3 movements) is being performed at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp Sunday, 8/0/2020 3 pm EST with Duo MemDi - Igor Kalnin violin and Rochelle Sennet, piano.

Award-winning Duo MemDi was founded by violinist Igor Kalnin and pianist Rochelle Sennet in the summer of 2010, when they served on the faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. The objective of Duo MemDi is to perform music that embraces the diversity of world cultures. Particularly, they focus on commissioning and performing music of composers from underrepresented groups. They believe that classical music should be an integral part of the diversity, inclusivity and equality movement, and serve as an indispensable tool in promoting social justice. All of the Duos live performances are from memory a rare feat in the world of chamber music. They feel that it allows for a connection to composers ideas in a more holistic, insightful way. These ideals inspired the name of the duo: Mem[ory] and Di[versity] = MemDi.

Since its inception, the Duo performed a broad variety of repertoire by memory, including sonatas of H. Leslie Adams, J.S. Bach, Bartk,Beethoven, Brahms, Franck, Prokofiev, and James Lee III, and a large number of violin and piano showpieces. Their live performances were praised by the press for the virtuoso-level of duo playing (John Frayne, The News-Gazette). The duo commissioned and premiered numerous works by composers from diverse backgrounds and performed in Europe, Asia, and across the United States.