Ensemble Dal Niente Premieres New Work by Anthony Cheung

by Ted Gordon on Jan. 23, 2017, 3:33 p.m.

Anthony Cheung is a composer with deep roots in both New York and Chicago. In one city he studied and still co-directs the Talea Ensemble, and in the other has been composing and teaching at the University of Chicago. Three members of Ensemble Dal Niente, one of Chicago's most dynamic new music ensembles, brings Cheung's music back to New York for an evening of works that bridge these two cities, featuring works for solo instruments and ensemble that travel between simplicity and virtuosity, meditation and play. 

On January 23rd at Spectrum NYC, flutist Emma Hospelhorn, oboist Andrew Nogal, and clarinetist Katie Schoepflin perform works by Cheung and several other composers based in Chicago and elsewhere. The instrumentalists will begin with solo works, including Cheung's Après une lecture for solo oboe, Toshio Hosokawa's Vertical Song I for solo flute, and Pierce Gradone'sAutomaton for solo bass, before moving on to ensemble works by Alex Temple, Carola Bauckholt, and Joël-François Durand. Check out Bauckholt's Zopf below. 

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: 

New Works and Performances by Ann Cleare

by Ted Gordon on Oct. 22, 2015, 10:44 a.m.

The music of Ann Cleare speaks to the heart of the problem with "new music": what counts as "new"? Really, truly new? And why must it be that way? Cleare's compositions rethink the possibilities created by instruments: both the sounds that they produce and their configuration within performing ensembles. And even more than this re-tooling, her works also organize these sounds in ways that create spatial, narrative, and timbral tension while keeping the sound-worlds of each composition unified and organic.

For example, take luna (the eye that opens the other eye). This composition for solo saxophone reimagines the instrument as "a dragonfly with eyes so big they cover almost its entire head, giving it a helmeted appearance and a full 360-degree field of vision." Or, take her mire |...| veins for brass quintet: 

Three works by Cleare, including the world premiere of eyam iii for bass flute (with Richard Craig, flute), will be featured in a dual portrait concert on October 25th at Spectrum, shared with composer Timothy McCormack. McCormack's amplified bassoon solo BODY MATTER will be performed by bassoonist Chris Watford, and William Lang performs works for trombone by both composers, alongside trios for trombone, trumpet and clarinet. 

In addition to these performances of her chamber works, Cleare's opera, rinn, recently premiered at Salzburg's Pocket Opera Festival. rinn takes the first two pages of Episode 11 from Joyce's Ulysses, and was performed alongside four other "pocket operas" that take inspiration from Joyce. Check out a clip below: