X+N is a new c)i series coproduced with SpectrumNYC that combines the solo virtuosity of counter)induction players with seminal works from the history of electronic music. Each performer selects his or her own solo repertoire that best counterpoints the electronic works on the concert. This week features pianist Ning Yu, and the electronic music of Vladimir Ussachevsky.
Ning Yu + Ussachevsky program:
1960s - Ussachevsky at Colubmia-Princeton Electronic Music CenterUssachevsky: Piece for Tape Recorder (1956)
Ussachevsky: Wireless Fantasy (1960)
Ussachevsky: Sonic Contours (1952)
Solo piano works: Beethoven, Chin, Chopin, Crumb, Murail
Saturday, October 18 at 7:30 PM
Tickets $15, $10 students/seniors
Spectrum, 121 Ludlow Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY
Vladimir Ussachevsky (1911-1990) emigrated to the USA from Russia in 1930, and was one of the pioneers of "tape music", created the first electronic music in 1951 with his teacher Otto Luening. In october 1952, a live concert of electronic music by Luening and Ussachevsky at New York's Museum Of Modern Art was broadcasted live, and caused a sensation. It included Ussachevsky's Sonic Contours (1952), which electronically modifies the sound of a piano. Ussachevsky was one of the most significant pioneers in the compositon of electronic music, and one of its most potent forces. He produced the first works of “tape music,” a uniquely American synthesis of the French musique-concrète and the German pure electronic schools. He was one of the founding members of the American Composers Alliance, which still publishes many of his works. He also co-founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1959 and directed its course for the next twenty years as the leading electronic music studio in the United States.
The intrepid ensemble c)i (counter)induction) will deliver a record EIGHT concerts this season, stretching from NYC to Chapel Hill, plus the new X+N, a collaboration with Spectrum NYC.
