Avant Music News

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From the Creative Music Guild:

Tuesday, March 15, 2011: John Butcher (London; saxophones) and Gino Robair (San Francisco; percussion) at WorkSound (sliding scale – $5-15)

The Creative Music Guild is proud to present an evening of new music by world-class improvising musicians John Butcher (London; saxophones) and Gino Robair (San Francisco; percussion).

For this Portland performance, the audience will be treated to a stunning duo set by Butcher and Robair followed by a second set in which Butcher and Robair will lead an ensemble of notable Portland musicians including Matt Carlson & Jonathan Sielaff (Golden Retriever), Brian Mumford (Dragging an Ox Through Water), Dr. John C. Savage, John Niekrasz (Why I Must Be Careful), Ben Kates (Thicket), and more.

The Butcher/Robair duo is an established partnership of master musicians. These veteran improvisors play wildly creative music that runs the gamut from ecstatic to deadly serious, from contemplative to caustic. Butcher and Robair are visionaries in the innovative techniques and sheer musicality they bring to their instruments.

From New York’s Greenwich House:

PIANIST JENNY LIN IN AN ALL-LIGETI PROGRAM

Featuring ten of György Ligeti’s Études pour Piano, Musica ricercata, and Continuum for Harpsichord

Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 8 p.m.
Greenwich House Music School, NYC

Greenwich House Music School (GHMS) is pleased to present a not to be missed all-Ligeti program by one of today’s most respected young pianists, Jenny Lin, on Thursday, March 31 at 8 p.m. Hailed as “brilliant” and “beautifully attentive” (Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times), Lin will perform ten of György Ligeti’s Études pour piano (1985-2001), as well as his Continuum for Harpsichord (1968), and Musica ricercata (1951-3).

The concert is presented as part of the 25th anniversary season of North River Music – one of New York City’s first concert series devoted to new and experimental music and founded by Frank Wigglesworth in 1985. The concert will be followed by a reception.

WHEN: Thursday, March 31 at 8 p.m.

VENUE: Renee Weiler Concert Hall, Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow Street (between Bedford St. & 7th Ave. S), NYC

TICKETS: $15 General Admission/$10 Students/Seniors
All tickets are payable at the door from 7:30pm

INFO: (212) 242-4770, http://www.greenwichhouse.org/programs/arts/music

Written between 1985 and 2001, Ligeti’s Études pour piano (Book I, 1985; Book II, 1988–94; Book III, 1995–2001) are considered by many as the best piano works of the last 50 years. Combining virtuoso technical problems with new ideas, they draw from such diverse sources as gamelan, one of his favorite jazz pianists, Thelonious Monk, African polyrhythms, Bartók, Conlon Nancarrow, and Bill Evans. Jenny Lin will perform Etudes No. 1,3,4,7,8,11,13,16,17, and 18.

Continuum for harpsichord (1968) was dedicated to the contemporary harpsichordist, Antoinette Vischer. Around the time of writing Continuum, Ligeti turned away from total chromaticism and began to concentrate on rhythm, and the work is described by the composer as “a series of sound impulses in rapid succession which create the impression of continuous sound.”

Musica ricercata (1951-1953) is a set of eleven pieces. Although the ricercata (or ricercar) is an established contrapuntal style (and the final movement of the work is in that form), Ligeti’s title can be interpreted literally as “researched music” or “sought music.” This work captures the essence of Ligeti’s search to construct his own compositional style, and as such foreshadows many of the more radical directions Ligeti would take in the future. Another important feature of the piece is that the composer confines himself to certain pitch classes in each movement, with each subsequent movement having exactly one more pitch class than the last.

Related articles

• Music Review: Straying From the Canon With Unfamiliar Fare (nytimes.com)
• Standing Room Only for ‘Crescendos” (netnewmusic.net)

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From New York’s Wordless Music:

Friday, March 4, 2011
Tyondai Braxton with the Wordless Music Orchestra (Caleb Burhans, conductor):
New compositions and music from Braxton’s Central Market
John Adams: Road Movies, for violin and piano (1995)
Louis Andriessen: Workers’ Union, for chamber orchestra (1975)
Caleb Burhans: In a Distant Place, for chamber orchestra (2008
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis / 8pm show / $25 / all ages
Presented by the Walker Art Center in association with Wordless Music

Monday, March 7, 2011
Tyondai Braxton with the Wordless Music Orchestra (Caleb Burhans, conductor):
New compositions and music from Braxton’s Central Market
John Adams: Road Movies, for violin and piano (1995)
Louis Andriessen: Workers’ Union, for chamber orchestra (1975)
Caleb Burhans: In a Distant Place, for chamber orchestra (2008)
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center / 7:30pm show / $20-50 tickets / all ages
Co-presented by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Wordless Music as part of the 2011 Tully Scope festival

Thursday, March 10, 2011
Tyondai Braxton with the Wordless Music Orchestra (Caleb Burhans, conductor):
New compositions and music from Braxton’s Central Market
John Adams: Road Movies, for violin and piano (1995)
Louis Andriessen: Workers’ Union, for chamber orchestra (1975)
Caleb Burhans: In a Distant Place, for chamber orchestra (2008)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. / 8pm / (FREE concert!)
Free tickets available starting 10am, January 26, 2011
Co-presented by The Library of Congress and Wordless Music

Monday, March 14, 2011
Deerhoof & Friends:
A musical event within Carnegie Hall’s 2011 Japan NYC Festival
with Ichi and If By Yes (Yuka Honda + Petra Haden)
Co-presented by Carnegie Hall and Wordless Music
Le Poisson Rouge / 7pm doors / 8pm show / $20

Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Brooklyn Masonic Temple
317 Clermont Avenue at Lafayette, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
8pm doors / 9pm show / all ages / ***SOLD OUT***
Co-presented by Wordless Music and The Blackened Music Series

Thursday, March 17, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
The Church of St. Paul the Apostle
Columbus Avenue at West 60th Street
7pm doors / 8pm show / all ages
Tickets on sale 12pm Friday, Feb. 25: (March 17 show) (March 18 show)
Co-presented by Wordless Music and The Blackened Music Series

Thursday, April 14, 2011
T. 1912: Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking of the Titanic (1969)
A performance installation with artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
“Boardings” close at 8:40pm and 10:40pm
The Guggenheim Museum
1071 5th Avenue (at East 88th Street)
Co-presented by Wordless Music and the Guggenheim Museum

Friday, May 20, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Ensemble Signal with the Wordless Music Orchestra (Brad Lubman, conductor)
Jonny Greenwood: Doghouse, for large orchestra and string trio (2010) (U.S. premiere)
György Ligeti: Chamber Concerto, for thirteen instrumentalists (1969-70)
Philip Glass / David Bowie / Brian Eno: Symphony No. 4 (“‘Heroes,’” based on music of Eno and Bowie) (1996) (New York premiere)
Courtney Orlando, violin
John Richards, viola
Lauren Radnofsky, cello
Tickets on sale now: (May 20 show) (May 21 show)
New York Society for Ethical Culture
7pm doors / 8pm show / all ages / $25-35 tickets with $5 service charge (sorry)

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Friday, September 9, 2011
Jeff Mangum
of Neutral Milk Hotel
Sanders Theatre at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
Tickets on sale 12pm Thursday, March 3
7:30pm doors / 8pm show / $35 / all ages

Saturday, September 10, 2011
Jeff Mangum
of Neutral Milk Hotel
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory (Boston, MA)
Tickets on sale 10am Friday, Friday 25
7pm doors / 8pm show / $35 / all ages

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