Workshop in Baroque Mexican Music with La Fontegara Another early music workshop has been added to our list of offerings coming up in October, in partnership with the New York Early Music Celebration. October 13, don’t miss the opportunity to learn more about early Colonial Mexican music with La Fontegara. 10 am to 1 pm, in Elebash Recital Hall. La Fontegara is a Mexican ensemble dedicated to Renaissance, Baroque, and Gallant music of Colonial Mexico. They have performed extensively both in Mexico and internationally, as staples of the early music festival circuit. Click the photo below to watch their delightful performance of Baroque composer Dario Castello’s second sonata:
Date and Program of Music in 21st Century Society Lecture As previously announced, the speaker at this fall’s Lloyd Old and Constance Old Lecture—an annual series in which we invite speakers to discuss the evolving place of music in contemporary society—is notable philosopher Roger Scruton. We now have a confirmed date and a tentative program for this lecture. “No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice” Ash Wednesday T. S. Eliot Walking Among Noise Tonality, Atonality, and Where We Go From Here Friday, October 16, 2015, 7:30pm Elebash Recital Hall The Graduate Center, CUNY 365 Fifth Ave, New York NY 10016 Taking a cue from Eliot’s famous line, Walking among Noise: Tonality, Atonality, and Where We Go from Here will discuss the exceptional role of beauty, art and music in our everyday experience. The talk will address what tonality is and why it was declared a dead language. It asks, what are the lessons learned from the avant-garde, how can composers of “serious” music reconnect to the concert-going audience, why are symphony audiences declining, and finally, how can composers today connect with popular culture and the music that appeals to the young? The program will feature a musical interlude with members of the Perspectives Ensemble, who will be performing selections from works by Rochberg, Webern, and Tippett. Admission is free, but reservations are required. We will send out a community notice when reservations are open, about a month before the lecture. Please be sure to check back with us for updates.
Tembembe with Viol Player Jordi Savall Mexican early and folk music ensemble Tembembe Ensamble Continuo will be appearing in the upcoming New York Early Music Celebration in October, with a performance workshop at the Graduate Center. We previously announced a workshop with Musica Temprana on October 16 and we are pleased to announce an additional workshop with Tembembe, sponsored by the Foundation for Iberian Music, on October 14 in room C197 at the Graduate Center (10 am – 1 pm). Readers in the New England area can catch Tembembe next week as a part of the Boston Early Music Festival. They will be performing in a concert featuring Grammy award-winning ensemble Hespérion XXI, under the direction of the renowned Jordi Savall, who will be playing viola da gamba. The concert is on June 8 at 8 pm, at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. Click here for tickets.
Early Music Workshop with Musica Temprana in October As organization partner and participant of Early Music Foundation’s citywide “New York Early Music Celebration 2015: El Nuevo Mundo,” the Foundation for Iberian Music is most pleased to host a lecture/workshop conducted by the Netherlands-based ensemble Musica Temprana. The workshop will be a great opportunity for CUNY’s graduate student body, scholars with particular interests in Hispanic culture, local early music aficionados, connoisseurs, and amateurs, as well as a diverse cross-section of Celebration (festival) attendees. The subject of Musica Temprana’s workshop will be background research and the application of historically informed performance practices, relating to Musica Temprana’s upcoming concert program, presented by Music Before 1800 as a part of the NY Early Music Celebration festival. The concert will be October 18, 2015. (Details below.) The workshop itself is October 16, 10 am -1 pm, at the Graduate Center’s Segal Theater. Musica Temprana’s concert program, “Bailes, Tonadas & Cachuas,” features 18th century songs and dances ‘from the streets’ from Trujillo, Peru. A recording of these works, from the Codex Trujillo, is available from Cobra Records. Workshop: October 16, 2015 10 am – 1 pm The Segal Theater The Graduate Center, CUNY 365 Fifth Ave New York, NY 10016 Concert: October 18, 2015 time TBA Corpus Christi Church 529 W. 121st Street New York, NY 10027
The Pronomos Flute and 2014 Composer’s Commission: Coming Soon to NY! We announced previously that the recipient of this year’s commission from the Foundation of Iberian Music is Javier Arias Bal, who will be writing a work for the special Pronomos flute. Julián Elvira, the flute’s inventor, spokesperson, and virtuoso performer, has issued a press statement about the upcoming concert. (Leer en español más abajo.) The Pronomos flute itself is a modified form of the modern flute, which dates back to the late 19th century design of Theobald Boehm. The Pronomos’ innovations allow a greater array of extended techniques, facilitating a fresh new body of work for flutists and a new concert experience for audiences. The 2014 Composer’s Commission concert, to be held June 22nd at the Graduate Center’s Segal Theater, will be the first time the Pronomos flute has been heard in New York. Elvira has assembled a program featuring works for the Pronomos by Spanish composers in New York—culminating, of course, in the premiere of Arias’ new work. This multi-media concert will feature the work of Julián Ávila, Eduardo Costa, Alexandra Gardner, Pedro Gómez, Alberto Posadas, Julián Elvira himself, and the Graduate Center’s own Ines Thiebaut, with specially created backing video projections. View the complete program here. (download PDF)
World Premiere from Anna Cazurra Upcoming in NYC Anna Cazurra, who was awarded the Foundation for Iberian Music’s Composer Commission in 2007 (click to hear the concert), will give the world premiere of her latest work, Gran Tango, in New York City in June. Saturday, June 6th, 2015 at 3:00 p.m Broadway Presbyterian Church 114th Street and Broadway The work, Gran Tango, is for string orchestra, and will be performed under the direction of Laurine Celeste Fox, who has also worked with the Foundation on a previous Composer’s Commission concert. She is currently the executive directory of the Symphony of the City of New York. The program will include a selection of canonical Spanish works, such as Turina’s Rapsodia Sinfónica, the Preludio of Villa Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4. and selections from de Falla’s Siete Canciones Populares Españolas (which will be sung by soprano Amaya Arberas, accompanied by Martin Söderberg). We hope you will join us to celebrate new work and support our esteemed colleagues!
Free Gran Fandango Performance Concluding the first night of the upcoming fandango conference, we have a special treat! At 7 pm, April 17, in the Graduate Center’s Segal Theater, Radio Jarocho will perform a Gran Fandango. This performance is free and open to the public, so even if you are unable to join us for the conference paper sessions, please drop in for music and dance! Radio Jarocho is an acclaimed NYC-based band that specializes in their own modern twist on son jarocho. Check out this fandango performance from September 2012 at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center! (Click photo to go to video.)
Partnership with the Early Music Morella Festival The Foundation for Iberian Music is pleased to announce a new partnership with the Early Music Morella Festival for medieval and Renaissance music. The festival, which will be held July 19-23 in the medieval town of Morella, Castellón (Spain), was founded by the early music group Capella de Ministrers. The Capella recently presented a concert series here in NYC, co-sponsored by the Foundation for Iberian Music, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibit, “El Greco in New York.” The Capella and the Foundation have previously collaborated on several occasions to present concerts and workshops in New York. (click the photo to view the full festival poster/schedule) The festival offers courses with a stellar faculty in early music vocal and instrumental performance, as well as dance, in addition to a full schedule of concerts, lectures and other activities (which are free to all attending students). The Foundation and the Capella would like to encourage students to apply to the festival. Admission fees range from 150-200 € and accommodations are as low as 5 € a day. It’s a great opportunity to take advantage of the newly improved Euro exchange rate!
New Work, Concerts, Awards from Our Commissions Roster This week, we are proud to have news for not one, not two, but three of our past Composer’s Commission recipients! Benet Casablancas (2012) has the New York premiere of his work Six Glosses on Texts by Cees Nooteboom upcoming March 24. The work will be performed by Ear Heart Music Ensemble at Brooklyn’s fabulous new music space, the Roulette Theater. (Tickets: $20 adult/$15 student.) While he is in town for this auspicious occasion, Casablancas will be giving talks at the Manhattan School of Music and at the CUNY Graduate Center. The lecture at the Manhattan School of Music will be held on March 23 (time and location TBD); he will speak at the Graduate Center as a guest of the school’s Composer’s Forum on March 25 at 10 am (room 3491). Second, we would like to congratulate Composers Now, which is founded and directed by 2011 Commission recipient Tania León, on receiving major grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. This “transformative” grant will allow Composers Now to expand its current programs, which include a NYC-based music festival and composer residencies, and allows for the possibility of creating new initiatives. You can read the full press release here. (The 2015 festival is already underway and has daily events through the end of February. so if you’re in the NYC area, don’t forget to check their calendar!) Finally, Miguel Ángel Roig-Francolí (2010) just premiered his newest symphony, Three Astral Poems, on January 15th. The work consists of three movements, each a symphonic poem that explores a constellation named for a figure in classical mythology. It was performed by the Symphony Orchestra of the Balearic Islands, with Sergio Alapont, at the Auditorium de Palma Mallorca (Spain). Watch the whole premiere on YouTube! Diaro de Mallorca reviewed the concert, giving it 3.5 stars. (Non-subscribers can read the review at Roig-Francolí’s Facebook page.)