Lei Liang: World Premiere, New Recordings

by Ted Gordon on Oct. 2, 2014, 11:04 a.m.

The World Premiere of Lei Liang's Inkscape, for percussion quartet and piano, commissioned by the Boston Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music and Third Coast Percussion, will be premiered on October 2, 2014 with Samuel Solomon leading pianist Yukiko Takagi and the Boston Conservatory Percussion Ensemble. Also on the program are two selections from Liang's Garden Eight (arranged for percussion quartet), as well as works by Toru Takemitsu and James Tenney. The concert is free—so if you're in the Boston area be sure to check it out! 

Liang has also seen a string of new recordings in the past year. Bridge Records has just released a solo CD of Liang's work, "Bamboo Lights", which features Listening for Blossoms, Lakescape, Serashi Fragments, Lakescape II, Gobi Gloria, Lake, and Bamboo Lights. These works are performed by some of the most talented ensembles working in the field today, including the JACK Quartet and the Callithumpian Consort. 

In addition to this album dedicated to Liang's work, several other groups have included his compositions in recent releases: the PRISM Saxophone Quartet has recorded his Messages of White on their new release, "The Singing Gobi Desert". Also, the Zentripetal Duo has recorded Liang's Gobi Canticle on their new self-titled album.

Check out a video of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble performing his Serashi Fragments:  

Ince By Ince

by Ted Gordon on Aug. 26, 2014, 10:45 a.m.

Milwaukee's Present Music, one of the leading new music ensembles in the Midwest and in the United States, presents a concert on August 30th with a composer who has become a perennial favorite: Kamran Ince. Dubbed "Ince by Ince", this concert — which is a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's critic's pick — features five works by Ince, three of which will be US Premieres. The concert will be recorded for Present Music's 10th CD release on Innova, and features a slew of other activities: a Turkish Bazaar-style celebration before the concert, and a free pre-concert workshop on Turkish instruments and music with Dr. Mehmet Sanlikol. 

The program features Ince's Dreamlines, Zamboturfidir, Partita, Asumani, and Two-Step Passion. 

In the Washington Post, Stephen Brookes writes: "'Ausmani,' a 2012 work for flute and cello by the gifted Turkish-American composer Kamran Ince [...] builds spare, questioning music gestures — flavored with microtones and other 'extended' techniques' —into a radiant climax, before dissolving again into silence."

Ince has been a long-time collaborator with Present Music, who have commissioned him to compose over a dozen works since the 1990's. In a recent feature in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ince says, "We're like family in a way [...] I can try various different things, change things, play with things and they are open to it all. They are such eager musicians [...] I really know them, and I can really be free."

Check out a performance of Ince's Dreamlines below, and be sure to catch Present Music on August 30th!