Supporting Arts, Culture & Philanthropy

The Nono Muchmore Warped festival

by annasinger on 24 August 2011

in Uncategorized

The New Spectrum Foundation is pleased to present the Nono Muchmore Warped festival.  This will feature the music of Italian composer Luigi Nono, NYC composer/cellist Pat Muchmore, and San Francisco composer/sound designer Richard Warp.

Time: 7 to 11 PM on Saturday 17 September2011.

Place: James Chapel, Union Theological Seminary.  Enter via door on Broadway at 121^st Street.

Program (order and approximate times to be announced shortly):

Luigi Nono

La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica Futura for violin and eight-track electronics.  Miranda Cuckson, violin; Christopher Burns, electronics.

Pat Muchmore

Pat Muchmore will be premiering pieces he has written for cello (Pat) and reeds (Ken Thomson).

Richard Warp

Selected works from “Illustrations” – an album currently in progress which is loosely based on themes found in Ray Bradbury’s 1951 book of short stories “The Illustrated Man”.  Instrumentation: Piano (Taka Kigawa), violin (Caroline Shaw), bass clarinet (Jonathan Russell) and live electronics (Richard Warp, Glenn Cornett).

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Bang on a can 2011 (liveblog)

by jdpf on 19 June 2011

in Bang On A Can,New Spectrum Radio

1100: Resident tech geek here, hanging out with Glenn at the Bang On A Can festival. Coming to you live from the World Financial Center, Wintergarden in NYC!

1110: As usual, BAOC started off with a bang. Well, OK, perhaps not a bang, but the Asphalt Orchestra marched through the Wintergarden, playing Carlton by STEW and Heidi Rodewald followed closely by Yoko Ono’s Opus 81. What raucous fun!

1115-1125 This was followed by Matthew Welch’s gamylan and bagpipe piece, The Self and The Other with many haunting melodies. Performed by Queens College Percussion Ensemble with Matthew Welch on bagpipes, Amanda Accardi, piano, Michael Lipsey, conducting.

1125-1140 Rocking out with Alejandro Escuer, “the mad flute player,” absolutely rocking out the stage with Códigos secretos (Secret Codes) written by Mexican Composer Gabriela Ortiz

1140 Everyone stands up to turn around for … big drums! Anthony Gatto’s A portrait of Eva Hesse (palindrome), for percussionists in unison contours Queens College Percussion Ensemble with Iktus Percussion.

1205 And JACK Quartet is BACK! With the US premier of Richard Ayres’ Three Small Pieces for String Quartet

1225 The Prism Saxophone Quartet took advantage of the epic echo space of the Wintergarden to launch a wonderful saxophone Hymn by Kati Agócs.

1245 HOLY FREAKIN CRAP! This is awesome! As Herbie Hacock said at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival this June 2011, when mixing live music with recorded material, “They might not be here, but I have it on my hard drive…” Todd Reynolds performs the World Premiere of Transamerica mixing violin, kick-basedrum, and some other interesting percussion elements of playing violin… Was that a bic pen, Todd?!

1255 And we’re back with the Prism Saxophone Quartet laying down Iannis Xenakis’ Xas. The effort is to explore difference tones and the edges of the saxophones, as instruments. Get ready for the stochastic-o-matic with these tones! I didn’t even know that saxophones could… Make Those Noises!

1305 US Premiere of Michael Nyman’s Love Always Counts performed by Sentieri Selvaggi

1320 Michael Daugherty’s Sinatra Shag performed by Sentieri Selvaggi

1330 Roshanne Etezady’s Keen performed by Prism Saxophone Quartet (third time on stage so far!) Whoo! Much honkin’ goin’ on!

1345 US Premiere of Fillipo Del Corno’s Risvegliatevi! (Wake up!) performed by Sentieri Selvaggi. Just in case you missed your alarm clock this morning. Play this on your mobile to wake you, and you’ll be up in no time. The neighbors too!

1355 US Premiere of Mauro Montalbetti’s Brightness performed by Sentieri Selvaggi

1400 Definitely does not need more cowbell! US Premiere of Carlo Boccadoro’s Zingiber performed by Sentieri Selvaggi and conducted by Carlo! We had to wait a minute for the “noise” to arrive. I think that the “noise” has arrived, and a good bit of “noise” it is too!

1405 And down the escalators… the Asphalt Orchestra! converges on the floor of the Wintergarden, playing Two Ships by David Byrne and Annie Clark. People are standing and craning their necks to see the troubadours at play! Whoooo!

1415 Still hitting the pavement with Asphalt Orchestra, as they play Thomas Mapfumo’s Ngoma Yekwedu smack bang in the center of the Wintergarden floor. Go horns! Go drums! Go feet! Go Euphonium!

1420 And everybody turns around… and… who is it? Raffle Results! Announcements about Mass MOCA. Next two pieces were commissioned by the “people’s commissioning fund.” Upcoming introduction by composer Christine Southworth… as the All Stars tune up… go to pooch.es/ watch the video on the phone.

1425 The Bang on a Can All-Stars! (With Ashley Bathgate, Hi Ashley!) playing Concerning the Doodle composed by Christine Southworth. This is freakin’ awesome! Did I say it was freakin’ awesome? Rawr!

1445 Bryce Dessner introduces his piece (10 years in the making) O Shut Your Eyes Against the Wind performed excellently by The Bang on a Can All-Stars! I was running around taking pictures. I hope they turn out This is awesome. Yeah!

1540 Michael Harrison’s Hijaz with an inversion of the percussion of tabla performed by the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (all female for this piece) and back and forth with Maya Beiser (original founding Cellist of the Bang on a can All Stars) Michael Harrison, just intonation piano/ keyboard Payton MacDonald, tabla and percussion. Quite powerful stuff here! I love the coordination of the chorus. I must point out that Maya is wearing a double-torus. Very cool.

1600 David Lang’s warmth Taylor Levine and James Moore, guitars… wait for it…wait for it… two parts of the Dither guitar quartet. As stated by David Lang, the exploration of this piece is the friction between two solos. David encouraged the audience to listen to how the solos are the same and how the solos differ.

1610 … stage change again! The JACK Quartet!

1615 Michael Gordon’s Exalted performed by the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (the full chorus for this piece (male and female)) and JACK Quartet! (In the JACK Quartet’s second appearance on stage today). Gordon dedicated the piece to his recently deceased Father. Very moving! The piece’s lyrics are drawn from the first four words of the Jewish mourning prayer Kaddish. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaddish

1630 Internet? What Internet? You had Internet?

1640 Michael Gordon introduces Poul Ruders’ US Premiere of Songs and Rhapsodies performed by the Athelas Wind Quintet with Frode Andersen on accordion.

1710 Eveybody stands up and turns around when the Asphalt Orchestra jumps into Frank Zappa’s Zomby Woof (as arranged by Peter Hess). A good jam to stand up and move the feet to! Classic Zappa!

1715 A brief pause, and the Asphalt Orchestra begins to orbit the crowd with Björk’s Hyper Ballad (arranged by Alan Ferber). The sun is well into the afternoon sky now, and the Wintergarden is warming up substantially. You guys and gals are freakin’ awesome! I love it!

1725 Another pause, and they’re away! Back to the middle of the floor belting out a very fast rendition of Goran Bregovic’s Champagne. Go Asphalt Orchestra! Rock it out! Yeah! Way. Too. Fun!

1730 Kenny Savelson, BOAC executive director tells some stories about the Asphalt Orchestra’s history, and that they’ll be out of doors on August 3rd, so search it out! Next up:
Alex Lepowski’s Talea Ensemble… (stage change time!)

1745 Michael Gordon introduces Fausto Romitelli’s An Index of Metals in a New York Premiere, an hour long performance of the last piece Romitelli wrote. Romitelli died at the tender age of 41 shortly after completing this work. We have the good fortune to listen to the piece performed by the Talea Ensemble with Tony Arnold, soprano. The piece combines a number of recorded elements, as an EeePC netbook sits atop the conductor’s stand. Given how intensely angry this piece is, I wonder if it is the avant gard equivalent to deth metal. Standing ovation! Excellent! Whooo!

1830 Stage change, and intermission of sorts…

1845 Wait for it… wait for it… BOAC is ahead of schedule! Text your friends if they’re not here already to warn them that it is time to hop on the subway.

1845 Timo Andres on piano playing At the River Whoa! Timo does not have printed score! He’s using an iPad. Well hit me over the head with a Clue Bat, this is, according to Vicky Chow (who plays keyboard/piano with the Bang On A Can All Stars), not entirely uncommon. A moving and sensitive piece. A big contrast to Romitelli. You’ve gottal love the dynamic range of the music performed at the Bang On A Can festival.

1920 Julia Wolfe introduces the next piece. Commissioned by Munchener Kammerorchester with funds from the Musica Femina Munchen. She was thinking about Cruel Sister, an album from Penn and Tango. The old english ballad. A young woman came to college. Issues of Feminism were coming up. A tale of two sisters. Both wooed by the same suitor. He courts one with gloves and rings and loves the other beyond all things. The dark haired sister pushes her sister into the sea. She drowns. Two minstrels find the body, and make a harp with her breastbone, and string it with her yellow hair. The minstrels then play the harp at the sister’s wedding. It follows the narrative arc of ballad.

1925 Ensemble Signal, Directed by Brad Lubman, plays Julia Wolfe’s Cruel Sister. No accompanying video this year. Wow. Simply. Wow. That was totally freakin’ awesome! Julia you are my new hero!

1930 Set change again!

2000 Toby Twining Music performs Playing in the Waves E-U-R-Y-D-I-C-E Orpheus at the Gates Yes! Yes! Yes! by Toby Twining. This is acapella supported by cello and laptop (for something, I don’t know what). Very cool. I love the vocal harmonies and dissonance. It reminds me of a Gregorian chant, with the notable exception of a woman’s voice. Excellent! The culminating harmonizing is superb, of course, it helps that everyone is smiling.

2040 Solo performance of Philip Glass playing Metamorphosis #4.

2115 Bang On A Can All Stars and Philip Glass on keyboard, playing Philip Glass’ Music in Similar Motion; Closing. Hi Ashley and Vicky! Great hands four with Philip, Vicky! This is a most lovely piece. Thank you!

2150 Sun Ra Arkestra … Wait for it… It’s coming… They’re all on stage in shiny outfits.

2155 Oh yeah! We’re makin’ noise now! Crank it baby! Crank it! Go Sun Ra Arkestra! When your tenor sax player takes the bass sax player for a walk and then starts doing tumbles and rolls all over the floor of the Wintergarden, well, until you’ve seen that, you ain’t seen nuthin!

2230 Evan Ziporyn, one of the founding Bang On A Can participants, talking about moving beehives around. Hive. Trying to work with all of the clarinet players in the world. Playing Hive for clainet by Evan Ziporyn. Carol McGonnell, Joshua Rubin, clairinets; Michael Lowenstern, Evan Ziporyn, bass clarinets. I love how they’re dancing around, hopping and jumping (particularly McGonnell!) Yeah. Go!

2300 Glenn Branca Ensemble playing The Ascension: The Sequel as the Grand Finale. Glenn introduces his pieces with “Bang On A Can, an event the New York Times describes as ’13 hours of Avant Garde and Experimental noodling’ … What the Fuck? I mean, What the Fuck?” Wow. Astonishing. Literally. I am Astonished.

July 30′ mini marathon in North Mass. Watch for it at bangonacan!

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