NE(X)TWORKS PERFORMS AT GREENWICH HOUSE MUSIC SCHOOL ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 8 PM
Release Concert for NxW Live, Vol. 1 – At the Stone, June 2007 (2010)
Works by Edgard Varèse, Jon Gibson, Leroy Jenkins, Christopher McIntyre, and Arthur Russell
New York, NY — Greenwich House Music School (GHMS) is pleased to present the acclaimed collaborative of musicians Ne(x)tworks on Thursday, November 18 at 8 pm, as part of the 25th anniversary season of North River Music. Since its inception in 2002, Ne(x)tworks has made a significant mark on the new music scene with performances of works that reassert the old synergy between composition, improvisation and interpretation, and a repertoire encompassing the open scores of the New York School composers of the ’50s, the experiments of the AACM, and the SoHo scene and Downtown composers of the ’70s and ’80s. For their first appearance at GHMS, the ensemble will celebrate the release of their latest CD, NxW Live, Vol. 1 – At the Stone, June 2007 (2010). The concert will also launch Ne(x)tworks’ year-long residency at this historical venue, which will result in a series of classes, workshops and public performances presented in 2011. Founded by Frank Wigglesworth in 1985, GHMS’s North River Music is one of New York City’s first concert series devoted to new and experimental music. The concert will be followed by a reception.
Highlights include Edgard Varèse’s little known Untitled Graphic Score (ca. 1957). A frequent visitor to Greenwich House Music School, Varèse created the score while attending Earl Brown’s workshop on graphic notation, and the piece written for an ensemble of jazz and classical musicians reflects the kind of scores the composer was writing in real time on a chalkboard during that period.
The program will feature two works from Ne(x)tworks’ latest CD. Creating a form that moves beyond the “jazz” and “classical” labels, Leroy Jenkins’ Space MInds: New Worlds, Survival of America (1979) offers a platform for an active dialog between the performers and the composition itself, with extensive improvised passages. Arthur Russell’s Singing Tractors (pages 1 & 2) (ca. 1987) is an open-ended work that merges influences from Post-Cagean randomness to free jazz to rock and pop music to classical elements to African beat and dance music.
The program will also include a sneak preview of ensemble member Christopher McIntyre’s Smithson Project (2010), scored for mixed ensemble and computers and drawing its inspiration from the work of renowned earthwork artist Robert Smithson (1939-73) — as well as Jon Gibson’s Multiples (1972) for open instrumentation, a classic example of early minimalism from this stalwart member of New York’s experimental music community.
Ne(x)tworks is composed of Joan La Barbara (voice), Kenji Bunch (viola), Shelley Burgon (harp & electronics), Yves Dharamraj (cello), Cornelius Dufallo (violin), Miguel Frasconi (glass instruments & electronics, Director), Stephen Gosling (piano), Ariana Kim (violin), and Christopher McIntyre (trombone). http://www.nextworksmusic.net/
WHEN: Thursday, November 18 at 8PM
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://greenwichhouse.org/programs/arts/music
