Josh Modney Performs at Spectrum NYC

by Ted Gordon on Jan. 14, 2016, 11:10 a.m.

Josh Modney is one of the leading interpreters of contemporary music for the violin, and there is certainly not a lack of music for him to play. As the executive director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, a member of the Mivos Quartet, and a frequent performer with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Modney's calendar is packed with premieres and performances. So it's a rare treat to see him perform a solo recital, with some help from fellow Wet Ink instrumentalists, at Spectrum NYC, on New York's Lower East Side. 

On Saturday, January 16th, Modney will perform six works featuring the violin, including pieces by PSNY Composers Mario Diaz de Leon, Kate Soper, and Scott Wollschleger. Diaz de Leon's piece, ii.23, is scored for viola and electronics, and the score calls for extra subwoofers to make the bass felt in the space. Check out a clip: 

Modney will also be performing Kate Soper's Cipher, a work Soper commissioned for him, along with the composer herself. One of Soper's signature works, Cipher explores the limits of language, sound, and performance in the intimate connection between instrument and voice. Check out a video of the pair performing Cipher below. 

Again picking up the viola, Modney will also perform Scott Wollschleger's Soft Aberration No. 2, for viola and piano, alongside pianist and fellow composer and Wet Ink member Eric Wubbels. Wollschleger's work evokes what he calls a "broken echo" between instruments—a fine pairing with Soper's work—exploring the shared sensibilities of sight and sound experience between two performers. Check out an excerpt below: 

Lei Liang Performed by the Mivos Quartet

by Ted Gordon on Jan. 11, 2016, 1 p.m.

The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA), which lies at the center of New York City's Chinatown (on Centre Street, no less), presents an evening of string quartets on January 14 by composers of Chinese descent, including Lei Liang's Serashi Fragments. The concert, performed by the Mivos Quartet, will also showcase the winner of their second annual Mivos Quartet Prize for Chinese Composers, which seeks to give voice to young emerging composers of Chinese descent worldwide. 

Serashi Fragments takes its name from the Mongolian instrumentalist named Serashi (1887-1968), who played the morin khuur, otherwise known as the horsehead fiddle. Premiered by the Arditti Quartet in 2006, this piece is a living document of how Chinese identity travels, interacts with, and relates to the many ethnic, geographical, and cultural identities of East Asia. Check out a clip below.  

Gregory Oakes Performs Ken Ueno at the 2016 New Music Gathering

Jan. 8, 2016, 5:29 p.m.

The New Music Gathering, an annual conference that brings together composers, performers, scholars, presenter, and administrators, is happening this weekend at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Founded and organized by four musicians, the New Music Gathering this year is focusing on communities—local, sustainable, networks of musicians and supporters that form the backbone of New Music in America. 

This year's program features a diverse cross-section of differnt communitis involved with New Music, from notable figures such as conductor Marin Alsop, ensembles such as So Percussion and the Mobius Trio, scholars such as Will Robin, and musicians such as percussionist Douglas Perkins and pianist R. Andrew Lee. 

Kicking off the morning of Friday, January 8th, the conference opens up its "instrument room", where featured performers give lecture-performances that demonstrate the state of their particular instrument. Clarinetist Gregory Oakes will feature Ken Ueno's composition, I screamed at the sea until nodes swelled up, then my voice became the resonant noise of the sea. Commissioned and premiered by Oakes, this work enmeshes Ueno's bold experimentation with extended techniques with the Korean tradition of Pansori singing, where singers develop an intimate vocal relationship with the sea. In keeping with the conference theme of "community", Ueno's work shows how a work with a discrete connection with a specific time and place can become part of new communities of musicians through performance. Check out a recording of the work below, and a video of Oakes demonstrating his technique.