Kate Soper Profiled on NewMusicBox

by Ted Gordon on Jan. 27, 2016, 4:03 p.m.

PSNY Composer Kate Soper has recently been profiled by Molly Sheridan in NewMusicBox, the online publication of New Music USA. Soper talks about her recent projects, including Ipsa Dixit ("she, herself, said it"). Sheridan writes,

The six-movement piece, of which Metaphysics will eventually be a part, plays explicitly with ideas about language. While the use of words in a piece of music adds a layer of meaning, that may not necessarily translate into clarity of communication and Soper is fascinated by that ambiguity—”the complexities of language and meaning and vocalizing and speech and how we can connect those, the interesting ways we can play with those intersections.”

Timo Andres at the Phillips Collection

by Ted Gordon on Jan. 25, 2016, 3:47 p.m.

The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC is one of the most intimate places to view modern art in America, housed in a small, but vibrant museum in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of our nation's capitol. And alongside modern art, the collection has featured performances of modern music, as well.

PSNY composer and pianist Timo Andresrecently returned to the Phillips Collection on January 17th, alongside violinist Yevgeny Kutik, to perform works by Stravinsky, Nico Muhly, and the World Premiere of his own Words Fail. Check out Andres performing works by Philip Glass last year at the Phillips. 

Sleeping Giant at Carnegie Hall and Le Poisson Rouge

by Ted Gordon on Jan. 18, 2016, 9:50 a.m.

On January 18th, the members of the composer collective Sleeping Giant premiered a new work, Hand Eye, commissioned for the Grammy-award winning sextet eighth blackbird, at Carnegie Hall. Each composer—including PSNY composers Timo Andres, Andrew Norman, Ted Hearne, Christopher Cerrone, in addition to Robert Honstein and Jacob Cooper—composed a piece inspired by a work of art in the collection of the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation. The works they chose ranged from painting to sculpture, resulting in compositions ranging from Hearne's By-By Huey, which meditates on the murder of Huey P. Lewis, to Andres' Checkered Shade, which draws inspiration from Astrid Bowlby's pen and ink drawings. 

Earler in the month, Sleeping Giant also premiered six new works for cellist Ashley Bathgate, inspired by Bach's suites for solo cello. Perhaps the most paradigmatic set of compositions for solo cello, Bach's suites have become canonical repertoire in the 20th century, and have served as models for many contemporary composers. Sleeping Giant continues this tradition by composing six new movements that form Ashgate's evening-length performance, Bach Unwound. Check out Bathgate performing Jacob Cooper's Arches with the Bang on a Can All-Stars in 2015 for a taste of her playing.