Avant Music News

Either/Or (Friday) This poised, proficient new-music ensemble recently released its first two CDs: one devoted to appealing works by Keeril Makan, issued on the Starkland label; and another featuring “The Flow Cycle,” a moody sequence of string pieces by Richard Carrick, a founder of Either/Or. You’ll hear selections from each during what will no doubt be a festive occasion. At 8 p.m., Issue Project Room, 232 Third Street, at Third Avenue, third floor, Gowanus, Brooklyn, (718) 330-0313, issueprojectroom.org; $10. (Smith)

Music After (Sunday) On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the composer Daniel Felsenfeld was housesitting for another composer, Eleanor Sandresky, only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center when the unthinkable occurred. Marking the anniversary in a spirit of affirmation and perseverance, the two have gathered an astonishing cross section of composers and performers who lived and worked in New York that day — Elliott Carter, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, David Bowie, David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and more — for this marathon performance, free of speechmaking and scheduled to run past midnight. Starting at 8:46 a.m., Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, (212) 242-0800, musicafter.com; free. (Smith)

‘Nine Rivers’ (Wednesday) In a tremendous undertaking jointly produced by the Miller Theater and Works & Process at the Guggenheim, this nine-part magnum opus by the Scottish composer James Dillon receives its American debut. Steven Schick leads members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, the percussion ensemble Red Fish Blue Fish and the chamber choir the Crossing in the first of three installments; further programs will be held here on Sept. 16 and 17. At 8 p.m., Miller Theater, Broadway at 116th Street, Morningside Heights, (212) 854-7799, millertheatre.com; $40, or $100 for a three-evening pass. (Smith)

Roulette Grand Opening (Thursday) The avant-garde music and performance presenter Roulette is celebrating the opening of the inaugural season in its new, much larger home in Brooklyn with a three-day festival. The first concert has an impressive lineup featuring the eminent composer Kaija Saariaho; the pianist Margaret Leng Tan; the composer and musician Henry Threadgill and his current band, Zooid; the composer and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier; and the violinist Mark Feldman. At 8 p.m., Roulette, 509 Atlantic Avenue, at Third Avenue, Boerum Hill, (917) 267-0363, roulette.org; $35; front rows of the house and balcony, $100. (Woolfe)

Wordless Music Orchestra (Sunday) Ryan McAdams leads this orchestra of young musicians who specialize in new music in “Remembering September 11,” a 10th anniversary tribute. The program includes Maxim Moston’s orchestration of William Basinski’s ambient score “The Disintegration Loops,” as well as Ingram Marshall’s “Fog Tropes II,” Osvaldo Golijov’s “Tenebrae” and Alfred Schnittke’s “Collected Songs Where Every Verse Is Filled with Grief,” in an arrangement by the Kronos Quartet. At 3:30 p.m., the Temple of Dendur, Metropolitan Museum of Art, (212) 570-3949, wordlessmusic.org; free. (Kozinn)

Kris Davis Trio (Friday) An inquisitive pianist with a willful but methodical approach to experimentation, Kris Davis has made herself indispensable on New York’s left-of-center jazz scene in recent years. She works here with the saxophonist Tony Malaby, in whose bands she has played, and the drummer Paul Motian, whose cast-iron example she seems to want to follow. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Cornelia Street Café, 29 Cornelia Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 989-9319, corneliastreetcafe.com; $15 cover, with a $10 minimum. (Chinen)

Paul Motian Trio (Tuesday through Sept. 18) A handful of years ago, on a weeklong engagement that later yielded the Winter & Winter album “Live at the Village Vanguard Vol. 1,” the drummer Paul Motian assembled an ensemble with the pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, an old partner, and the alto saxophonist Greg Osby, a flinty but compatible newer one. But the album also features another saxophone player, and a bassist; here it’s just the three musicians plowing through the depths together. At 9 and 11 p.m., Village Vanguard, 178 Seventh Avenue South, at 11th Street, West Village, (212) 255-4037, villagevanguard.com; $25 cover, with a one-drink minimum. (Chinen)

Angelica Sanchez Quintet (Saturday) As she does on her album “Life Between,” released on the Clean Feed label a few years ago, the pianist Angelica Sanchez presents a program of original music for a quintet composed of fellow searchers: the saxophonist Tony Malaby, the guitarist Marc Ducret, the bassist Drew Gress and the drummer Tom Rainey. At 9 and 10:30 p.m., Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson Street, at Spring Street, South Village, (212) 242-1063, jazzgallery.org; $20, or $10 for members. (Chinen)