Two Weeks, Four Concerts

by Ted Gordon on May 18, 2012, 3:04 p.m.

As the '11-12 season comes to a close, late May sees four terrific events in New York, featuring PSNY composers from around the country. 

First up: Red Light New Music presents their season-closing concert on May 21st at Symphony Space in New York. Music in Layers features both new and newly arranged chamber music works, written by John Cage and Red Light New Music composers Christopher Cerrone, Adrian Knight, Vincent Raikhel, Liam Robertson and Scott Wollschleger, performed by the core Red Light New Music Ensemble. The program includes the NYC Premeire of Adrian Knight's Trio, available on PSNY:

On the heels of that Monday night concert is a Wednesday night with Wet Ink with the Peter Evans Quintet at Roulette, performing Alex Mincek's "Pendulum VII," forthcoming from PSNY. (We're working as fast as we can to get everything ready for publication!)

The next day, May 24th, sees the premiere of Histories, by the composer collective Sleeping Giant, which includes our composers Andrew Norman, Christopher Cerrone and Timo Andres, along with Ted Hearne, Jacob Cooper, and Robert Honstein. Premiering the work will be the Deviant Septet, formed around the core instrumentation of Stravinsky's L'HIstoire du Soldat, here performing a work described as a "companion piece" to that great masterwork of the early 20th century. The performance will take place at Brooklyn's Issue Project Room.

And, finishing out the month of May, Bang on a Can pianist Vicky Chow performs Christopher Cerrone's Hoyt-Schemerhorn at The Stone on May 29th. (If you haven't been to The Stone yet, now's your chance!)   

Wet Ink and Talea Ensemble Provide New Music for Autumn

by Ted Gordon on Nov. 23, 2011, 11:56 a.m.

Though the weather is increasingly dark and gray, and the holiday season will soon tempt us to forgo exploring new music in favor of familiar holiday music, there still exist shining beacons of new music in this wintry sea.

One such beacon - Wet Ink, which includes PSNY composers Kate Soper and Alex Mincek - has just come back from a Californian tour, where they made a deep impression on the local press. The tour ended up back in Brooklyn, at Roulette, with a program featuring Teresa McCollough performing the World Premiere of "In My Own Skin " by Alvin Singleton, and Alex Mincek and Ian Antonio (also of Yarn/Wire and Zs) performing Alex's "Nucleus."

If you haven't heard "Nucleus", here's a taste from the awesome recording on Carrier Records: 

Next up for Wet Ink: a residency at Duke University in December. And for Kate Soper, the premiere of a new work for soprano and violin, "cipher," by the SEM Ensemble at the Paula Cooper Gallery on December 13th. 

The Talea Ensemble has just held two recording sessions at the American Academy of Arts and Letters of two works by Anthony Cheung: "Windswept Cypresses" and "Centripedalocity."

Cheung, who is their pianist, will also be performing on their awesome program on Sunday the 27th at the Roger Smith Hotel, which includes works by Berio, Bartok, Nono, and Larry Polansky. It's a rare treat to hear these works, especially Nono's "'Hay que Caminar' Soñando", live: 

Hats off to these ensembles for keeping autumn vibrant with new music!