PSNY Composers at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music

by Ted Gordon on July 11, 2014, 10:21 a.m.

The Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood is one of the highlights of the national concert season, regularly featuring stunning performances and premieres of the most exciting and provoking new music from contemporary composers. This year the festival comes a bit early, though we can't complain! PSNY composers can be found on nearly every program throughout the 5-day festival, which features chamber music, theatrical works, and orchestral works. 

Starting things off on Thursday is Fred Lerdahl's  Wake, for soprano and chamber ensemble; on Saturday, Keeril Makan's  2, Hannah Lash's  Friction, Pressure, Impact, and Anthony Cheung's  Roundabouts will be performed on the same program. Sunday morning sees the world premiere of Bernard Rands' Folk Songs, and later in the evening Kate Soper's  Helen Enfettered, a theatrical work. 

And for those in the Northeast this weekend, don't miss the latest production of Tobias Picker's  An American Tragedy at Glimmerglass, running from July 20th to August 24th. The vocal score for this work is available from PSNY, in case you want to follow along from the house. 

Kate Soper's "Cipher" Now Available on PSNY

by Ted Gordon on Jan. 28, 2014, 2:28 p.m.

Kate Soper's Cipher, for soprano and violin, is now available on PSNY. Composed for violinist Joshua Modney, Cipher is a meditation on language, timbre, text, and intelligibility, melding texts by Jenny Holzer, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Guido d'Arezzo; the work "[exposes the inherent ambiguity of musical temperament, ensemble hierarchy, and lyric comprehension." Presented in four movements (with each movement's name reminiscent attribution on hip hop albums), Cipher is an "exotic score" [NYTimes], a feast for the eyes (and mind) as well as the ears. Check out Soper and Modney performing it at ISSUE Project Room in 2012: 

Soper has been developing her interrogation of language, embodiment, and the seduction of song with her new opera project, "Here Be Sirens," which is currently running at Dixon Place, presented by Dixon Place and Morningside Opera. With a great review in the New York Times, and an in-depth feature on I Care if You Listen, this work is not to be missed. Check out this video of Soper discussing the work during her 2013 MacDowell Colony residency:

Christopher Cerrone in New York and Los Angeles, New Work from Kate Soper, and More!

by Ted Gordon on April 19, 2013, 2:15 p.m.

Christopher Cerrone's music has quickly become a staple of New Music ensembles' repertoire across the country. From electro-acoustic works commissioned and premiered by NYC's Red Light New Music, to chamber operas performed in Virginia, Connecticut, and Oklahoma, Cerrone has gained a huge presence in the past few years. Little wonder, then, that pianist Vicky Chow and percussionist Owen Weaver will be performing his piece for piano and electronics, Hoyt-Schermerhorn, and percussion and electronics, Memory Palace, alongside the New York premiere of John Luther Adams' 2010 work, Four Thousand Holes, on April 22nd at Le Poisson Rouge. Chow and Weaver have been performing Cerrone's works together since 2012's Fast Forward Austin festival; Weaver commissioned and premiered Memory Palace in that same year.

Weaver comments: “We think John Luther Adams’ and Chris Cerrone’s works both compliment and contrast each other. Chris's music focuses on color and simple, elegant forms that allow time and space for ideas to shift and grow. John's music often provides stasis through complex layers of rhythm--so much happening that things blur together to give a slow moving picture with a long-minded trajectory. In different ways, they both draw the listener into their world with a patient, yet focused approach.”

Listeners on the West coast also have an opportunity to hear Cerrone's works this weekend during the Los Angeles Philharmonic's "Brooklyn Festival." On April 18th, 20th, and 21st, Cerrone's Invisible Overture will be performed alongside Hannah Lash's Hush, a world premeire by Ted Hearne, and Aaron Copland's Symphony for Organ and Orchestra. Originally concieved as an overture for his opera, Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino's novel of the same name, Invisible Overture is a standalone piece, recalling the drama and interrogation of sonic experience which Cerrone explores in the opera. 

Cerrone writes, "My ideas for the overture began by listening to the resonance of decaying sounds on the piano. By holding down certain notes in the low register while playing, sympathetic vibrations create an unearthly halo of sound. The resonance is both beautiful and unstable, hovering just above silence." 

Check out recordings of these two works here:

 We at PSNY are also pleased to announce the availablity of Kate Soper's powerful work, Only The Words Themselves Mean What They Say. Soper's work, which often revolves around questions of expression, semiotics, vocality, and communication, sees its full manifestation in this work, for flute and voice, with a text by Lydia Davis. This is the first time that Soper's work is available to the public, and we don't doubt that it will hold an invaluable place in any contemporary singer's repertoire. 

And, last but not least, Katharina Rosenberger's Viva Voce project is finally completed! An interactive sound and video installation, Viva Voce involves compositions by Rosenberger for some of the most vital experimental vocal performers in the field, including Juliana Snapper, Shelley Hirsch, and Pamela Z. Keep your eyes out for more videos and documentation of this project at www.vivavoce.ch.