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Posts tagged 'marimba'

Upcoming Performances of Wollschleger, Cerrone

Schumann's Dichterliebe famously begins: "Im wunderschönen Monat Mai"—in the wonderful month of May. What follows is a masterful collection of discrete, yet interrelated compositions: a chain linked by its proximity to rebirth and spring. Schumann's song cycle is nice metaphor for what's happening with two of our PSNY composers this month: over the next few weeks, Scott Wollschleger and Christopher Cerrone will see a blooming and bountiful group of performances, all up and down the East coast. A wonderful month of May, indeed! 

Kicking things off in a lower register, Scott Wollschleger's trio for marimba, bass clarinet, and bassoon, Density is a Kind of Love, will see its New York Premiere at ShapeShifter Lab on May 9th, performed by Transient Canvas and Chris Watford. Keep an eye out for Density is a Kind of Love, which will soon be published on PSNY. 

Watford will also be performing Timothy McCormack's monumental BODY MATTER, which Watford commissioned in 2015—a nearly thirty-minute long exploration of the bassoon that pushes the instrument and its player to their limits. 

The very next day, Wollschleger's second string quartet, "White Wall", will be performed by the MIVOS Quartet alongside Helmut Lachenmann's String Quartet No. 3 ("Grido") at Roulette, as a part of the Darmstadt Institute New York's 70 Year Anniversary Celebration. Performing on a packed program that also includes the International Contemporary Ensemble performing works by Ashley Fure, Chaya Czernowin ,and Luigi Nono, MIVOS's performance of "White Wall"—a piece they commissioned from Wollschleger—will offer a "brontal" meditation on the process of becoming-sound, with quiet but intense energies circulating among the quartet members, sounding their own time. Check out MIVOS performing the first half of this quartet: 

If Wollschleger's "White Wall" plunges us into the sound-world of the instruments themselves, Christopher Cerrone's "Memory Palace", which sees two performances in the same week, brings us to the sound-world of the composer firmly rooted in space. Or, more properly, as the movement titles suggest, spaces: Harriman, the Long Island Expressway, Foxhurst. On May 8th, the Metropolis Ensemble, featuring percussionist Ian Rosenbaum, performs the Washington, DC premiere of "Memory Palace" at the Phillips Collection. Moving up the coastline, Rosenbaum will also perform the work in Baltimore at An Die Musik on May 10th, with Cerrone giving engaging in an intimate pre-concert conversation. The following week, on May 16th, Rosenbaum will again perform "Memory Palace" at the American Irish Historical Society—an innovative concert program that asks, "what would a house sound like if it could sing?". Check out Rosenbaum performing "Memory Palace" below. 

The British Are Coming! To PSNY!

Steve Martland (1954-2013) and Gavin Bryars (1943-) are two of the most interesting British composers of the 20th and 21st century, bringing unique compositional voices to the concert hall and beyond. Both innovators, they bent the rules of what concert music could be to introduce a plurality of musical aesthetics into their work, and into the lives of their listeners. And now, for the first time, select pieces of chamber music by both of these composers are available for immediate digital download from PSNY. 

Steve Martland, whose voracious appetite for musical influence knew no boundaries, and whose work involved groups as diverse as Manchester's Factory Records and the King's Singers, brings us two works: Kick, for flute, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello; and Starry Night, for string quartet and marimba. 

Bryars' works on PSNY include It Never Rains, for electric guitar, viola, cello, and double bass; and The South Downs, for cello and piano. Listen to a recording of The South Downs here. 

New Works from Pierre Jalbert, Bruce MacCombie, and Kamran Ince

For some composers, summer is a time to relax in preparation for the oncoming concert season--but for our PSNY composers and staff, the summer season has been extremely busy! We're pleased to announce that Pierre Jalbert'sSonata for Marimba, commissioned in 2001 by percussionist Makoto Nakura, is now available through PSNY. Jalbert's writing for marimba can also be heard in his Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra. NewMusicBox did an interview with Jalbert on his expansive writing style for different instruments, viewable here: 

We're also happy to announce the availablity of two works for guitar by Bruce MacCombie: Lyric Variations and Tango Ambrosium. Both works pay homage to Latin American composers, particularly Astor Piazzola. We're happy to add more works for guitar to our repertoire, and we hope you add these works to yours!

Since its premiere in 2010, Kamran Ince's Far Variations has been performed across the country-- and, newly available on PSNY, we hope to see it performed around the world! This Piano Quartet was written with trans-national longing in mind: the state of being far from home. Ince's signature melding of Western and Turkish traditions shines in this piece. And for violinists and pianists interested in Ince's work, be sure to check out Ince's newly-published Koçekçe, for violin and piano, now available through Hal Leonard. 

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