metropolisensemble-blog

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SHOUT OUT: TIMO ANDRES 2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist

The Metropolis Ensemble community is delighted to congratulate our good friend Timo Andres on being named Pulitzer Prize finalist in the music category for "The Blind Banister", a piano quintet written for Jonathan Bliss. This three-movement piece inspired by Beethoven takes listeners on a beautiful quest in which they rise and fall with the music's ascending and descending scales. (Pulitzer.org)

Andres has been a close collaborator with Metropolis Ensemble since 2009. In 2013, Metropolis Ensemble’s studio album Home Stretch, released on Nonesuch Records, paired the title work with two Metropolis-commissioned works from Andres: a recomposition of Mozart's "Coronation" Piano Concerto and "Paraphrase on Themes by Brian Eno". 

The album was recorded at Tanglewood's Seiji Ozawa Hall with producer David Frost, Metropolis Ensemble artists, and conductor Andrew Cyr. 

Stay tuned for exciting news about future plans for next season with Timo Andres and Metropolis...

About The Blind Banister

Like when the light goes out on the stairs and the hand follows—with confidence—the blind banister that finds its way in the darkness.

Andres' concerto, which debuted in Saint Paul, Minnesota in November 2015, is the first concerto of pianist Jonathan Biss' latest Beethoven project, Beethoven/5, for which the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has commissioned five composers to write new piano concertos, each inspired by one of Beethoven's five piano concertos.



Andres describes his piece saying, " Beethoven gave his early second piano concerto ('not one of my best', in his own estimation) a kind of renovation in the form of a new cadenza, 20 years down the line (around the time he was working on the Emperor concerto). It’s wonderfully jarring in that he makes no concessions to his earlier style; for a couple of minutes, we’re plucked from a world of conventional gestures into a future-world of obsessive fugues and spiraling modulations. Like any good cadenza, it’s made from those same simple gestures—an arpeggiated triad, a sequence of downward scales—but uses them as the basis for a miniature fantasia.



"My third piano concerto, 'The Blind Banister,' is a whole piece built over this fault line in Beethoven’s second, trying to peer into the gap. I tried as much as possible to start with those same extremely simple elements Beethoven uses; however, my piece is not a pastiche or an exercise in palimpsest. It doesn’t even directly quote Beethoven. There are some surface similarities to his concerto (a three-movement structure, a B-flat tonal center) but these are mostly red herrings. The best way I can describe my approach to writing the piece is: I started writing my own cadenza to Beethoven’s concerto, and ended up devouring it from the inside out."

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Metropolis Ensemble travels to The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.), as part of their 75th Anniversary Season

Metropolis Ensemble travels to D.C. on May 8 to one of America's most venerable and long-standing concert series, Phillips Music, as part of their 75th Anniversary Season.

The concert takes place on Sunday, May 8 at 4pm at 1600 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20009. Tickets here.

Grammy-nominated chamber orchestra Metropolis Ensemble, led by conductor Andrew Cyr, "a prominent influence in the world of newly emerging music" (The Washington Post), presents another iteration of its ongoing, site-specific project Brownstone. This ground-breaking "concert-installation" will feature three electro-acoustic works where audience members leave their chairs behind to experience The Phillips Collection from new perspectives, including the World Premiere of a work by composer Paula Matthusen (2014 Elliot Carter Rome Prize winner).

Commissioned in honor of the 75th Anniversary Season of Phillips Music, between the smell of dust and moonlight will engage with the idea of the gradual evolution of space and the multiple roles it may serve. Written specifically for museum, the piece draws on its present incarnation as renowned art museum as well as the traces of its domestic past, as evidenced by its unique doorways and fireplaces.

This concert will also feature music by Polish-American composer Jakub Ciupinski (Brownstone, (2010) with violin soloist and Metropolis concertmaster Kristin Lee) and music by Pulitzer-Prize finalist Christopher Cerrone (Memory Palace (2012) featuring solo percussionist Ian Rosenbaum), transporting audience members throughout many of the museum's galleries and spaces.

About Paula Matthusen

Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. In addition to writing for a variety of different ensembles, she also collaborates with choreographers and theater companies. She has written for diverse instrumentations, such as “run-on sentence of the pavement” for piano, ping-pong balls, and electronics, which Alex Ross of The New Yorker noted as being “entrancing.” Her work often considers discrepancies in musical space—real, imagined, and remembered.!!Her music has been performed by Dither, Mantra Percussion, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Brooklyn Rider, the Scharoun Ensemble, orchest de ereprijs, The Glass Farm Ensemble, the Estonian National Ballet, James Moore, Kathryn Woodard, Todd Reynolds, Kathleen Supové, Margaret Lancaster, Nina de Heney and Jody Redhage. 

Her work has been performed at numerous venues and festivals in America and Europe, including the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the MusicNOW Series of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Ecstatic Music Festival, the ACO SONiC Festival, Other Minds, the MATA Festival, Merkin Concert Hall, the Aspen Music Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Institute of Music at MassMoCA, the Gaudeamus New Music Week, SEAMUS, International Computer Music Conference and Dither’s Invisible Dog Extravaganza. She performs live-electronics frequently with Object Collection, OZET, and through the theater company Kinderdeutsch Projekts.!!Awards include the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Fulbright Grant, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers’ Awards, First Prize in the Young Composers’ Meeting Composition Competition, the MacCracken and Langley Ryan Fellowship, the “New Genre Prize” from the IAWM Search for New Music, and recently the 2014 Elliott Carter Rome Prize. Matthusen has also held residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, create@iEar at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, STEIM, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. 

Her album "Pieces for People" (Innova) was recently listed by Alex Ross as one of the best classical albums of 2015. Her work is also available through New Amsterdam, Quiet Design, and C.F. Peters.!!Matthusen completed her Ph.D. at New York University – GSAS. She was Director of Music Technology at Florida International University for four years, where she founded the FLEA Laptop Ensemble. Matthusen is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Wesleyan University, where she teaches experimental music, composition, and music technology.

About Music at The Phillips Collection

Audiences and artists have been coming together at The Phillips Collection well before 1941, when Phillips Music became a series of 30+ concerts per year. Throughout 2015/2016, Phillips Music Series commemorates its 75th season of presenting enthralling performances in the Music Room’s idyllic chamber music environment. Highlights include, notwithstanding a reenactment of the iconic 1955 US debut of Glenn Gould and several World Premieres, Phillips Music pays special tribute to the outstanding musicians of the US military for their role in keeping Phillips Music continually running during World War II. 

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Metropolis Ensemble’s newest Resident Artist project, featuring Ashley Bathgate and Sleeping Giant

On Tuesday January 12th Metropolis Ensemble will present Bach Unwound with Ashley Bathgate and Brooklyn-based composer collective Sleeping Giant (Timo Andres, Andrew Norman, Jacob Cooper, Christopher Cerrone, Robert Honstein, and Ted Hearne).

Bathgate, an innovative and tasteful cellist who brings classical and contemporary music to a new level, will perform "re-imagined" versions of Bach's cello suites, a 21st century version of this staple in classical cello repertoire.

Recent press has acclaimed cellist Ashley Bathgate as an "eloquent new music intrepreter" (New York Times) and "a rising star of her instrument" (Albany Tmes Union) who combines "bittersweet lyricism along with ferocious chops" (New York Magazine). Bathgate describes working with Metropolis Ensemble as a "chance to stand out and to curate a show of your own, which is not something a lot of ensembles will encourage or support."  

1. What’s it like to collaborate with the Brooklyn-based composer collective Sleeping Giant and Metropolis Ensemble?

I have been a member of Metropolis Ensemble since 2009, and I love working with them. Andrew Cyr always has really great programming ideas, and the musicians involved are some of the best in the city. The Resident Artist Series, started a couple years ago as a platform for the ensemble's individual members to showcase their solo projects, also includes collaborations with today's composers. It offers a unique chance to stand out and curate a show of your own, an opportunity few ensembles encourage or support. You ou can do things like this on your own, but in my opinion it's not always as effective or easy to execute without the guidance and resources of an organization, like Metropolis, behind you.  

The composers of Sleeping Giant have a long history together and also happen to be some of the leading composers out there right now. They're killin' it. When I thought up this idea, they were the first people who came to mind. I have played so much of their music in the past and even commissioned some of them individually, so we get to skip the whole "getting to know you" part and just dive right into music making. I appreciate how different each of them are in their compositional styles and also how well they work together as this collective to produce lengthier, collaborative compositions. I wanted to commission a multi-dimensional, multi-movement work for solo cello, and I knew they were the dream team for this project. Working with them has been incredible so far. It's really exciting to have music written specifically for you and by people you know so well. Most of the pieces are finished now (I couldn't ask for better Christmas presents!), and I am at the stage of working them up for the January premiere. We'll meet and Skype to go over things in the next couple weeks. I have some of the electronic components left to assemble, but the piece has really begun to take shape, and I have a pretty clear idea of how the evening will go.

2. How did you get involved with these two ensembles and collectives?

I met most of what would become the Sleeping Giant composer collective during my time at the Yale School of Music. Andrew Norman, Ted Hearne, Timo Andres and Jacob Cooper were my classmates and I met Chris Cerrone and Robert Honstein a few years later when I returned for alumni concerts and other collaborations in New Haven. From there we all ended up in NYC doing various things. Because the new music community is quite small and tight-knit, we ended up seeing one another and working together quite often.  We're growing up together, in a way, and there's just this sense that it will continue for many decades to come. I cannot wait to see where we all end up and how our lives will continue to intersect.

My first show with Metropolis Ensemble was as a sub for another cellist who couldn't do the gig  shortly after I had moved to the city.  I remember feeling so lucky to have come onto their radar. It's hard to be a free lancer, it's hard to get started here, and I was surprised and elated that I was already satisfying my need for chamber music and orchestral playing, with some of the best musicians in the city, no less. On top of that, they were commissioning and programming interesting new music, about which I was becoming increasingly curious and passionate. Some of that music included works by members of the Sleeping Giant collective. It seemed only natural to make Metropolis a part of Bach Unwound's beginnings.

3. The Bach cello suites are such a staple in the classical repertoire. Can you talk about the creative process of creating new cello works based off of the Unaccompanied Cello Suites of J.S. Bach.

This project began with my desire to rediscover Bach's Cello Suites. The last time I worked on them was during my days as a student. This was long before I became so heavily immersed in new music. I've grown in so many ways since then ,and it just felt like the right time to come back to this repertoire. I wanted to also find a way to link my love of contemporary music to this "re-discovery" process. There is plenty of new music for solo cello out there but not a lot that incorporates amplification/electronics and not a lot on the same scale as Bach's Six Suites. I wanted something epic, and I wanted it to find some tether to a body of work that has been so loved and respected over the years, these compositional masterpieces that allowed the cello to step out as a solo voice beyond its traditional role as a continuo or basso accompaniment. I wanted the past to meet the present in order to show contrast but also to highlight the evolution of music and of this instrument in particular. Like, "Hey, here's how far we have come because of works like Bach's Suites. Thank you Bach, thank you Britten, Crumb, Xenakis, Golijov, Saariaho, thank you Casals, Rostropovich, Fred Sherry, Carter Brey, Frances Marie Uitti, Ernst Reijseger ... thank you Sleeping Giant"  ... the list is endless and will continue to grow.

I gave the composers freedom to choose their inspiration from the suites based on what moved them most as individuals and as a group, be it a movement, a concept, a phrase, or just one chord. There were very few parameters because I wanted this to be more of a creative experiment than a prescription. As the performer of the work I also wanted to have the freedom to discover their pieces and then decide which movements of Bach would fit best. I don't see the premiere in January as the one way it will always be performed. I wanted a certain amount of flexibility so that this project can continue to grow as I grow and live with the music.

I can't speak to creating these new works (the Sleeping Giants would have more to say about that), but I can tell you about working on a program like this. I have found that being a performer of contemporary music requires different skill sets than performing more traditional repertoire. As a result, when I return to older music I approach it in a different way than I used to. One experience informs the other and I find that relationship intriguing. So the goal here is to dig deeper into my own being and to ask questions, like, do I separate Bach from the newer work or do I intermix the two? What movements of Bach would I pair with the new pieces and WHY? How will I order them? Will it work to interpret old like new or new like old or a mesh of both? Can I make this a seamless concert experience or will it need to breathe in sections? That's where I am at with it right now. I am asking a lot of questions and I am trying a lot of different things that will lead to some (hopefully good) musical decisions.

4. What or who is your biggest influence as an artist?

The people around me are my biggest influence. I am so fortunate to have amazing colleagues and a back yard that is overflowing with new and exciting art. Everywhere I turn people are creating; music, art, dance, film, etc. It's impossible to run out of inspiration in this city and in a genre that excels at pushing limits and breaking down walls. The Bang on a Can All-Stars, our artistic directors Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, as well as our "extended family" (which includes so many wonderful colleagues from the summer festival and various other collaborations), are who I spend most of my time with musically. Each one of them has had a tremendous impact on my approach to music and to my instrument. Since joining this band (almost 7 years ago now), I've become a better musician, I have found music to play that I am really passionate about and I have learned to embrace challenges and new ways of playing. I am enjoying a feeling of musical freedom that I never imagined I would have, and I owe that feeling to the people who surround me.

post by: Sequoia Sellinger

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Jakub Ciupinski & Kristin Lee

Theremin and violin, an uncommon duo, will take the stage at the new Williamsburg music venue National Sawdust on Thursday, November 5th! Composer and “hacked” theremin performer Jakub Ciupinski has collaborated with Metropolis concertmaster, violinist Kristin Lee (and recent winner of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career grant!), to bring a dynamic live collaboration and fresh approach to electronic music. Both Ciupinski and Lee first started getting involved with Metropolis about seven years ago when the two were featured in a Metropolis concert at (le) Poisson Rouge. After the concert, Ciupinski spoke to her about his new violin piece with theremin/electronics, and the rest is history!

Ciupinski’s use of the theremin, an analogue electronic instrument that has been around for about a century, is completely reinvented from its original purpose. Jakub, also a computer software writer and inventor, “hacked” his theremins to function as a proper controller and “a device capable of capturing musical intention of a human performer, expressed with wide variety of gestures.” The real challenge, however, was to build an effective musical engine to respond to these captured gestures and finding a natural connection between gesture and sound. “This technology and developing a technique around it is something I’ve been working on for the past eight years.”

For this concert at The National Sawdust, the violin and theremin will have very organic interplay -- Kristin mentions, “We are going to break preconceived notions about electronic music and bring human warmth and vulnerability to the sounds of the theremin.”

In 2014, Kristin Lee was featured in Resident Artist Series concert presented by Metropolis Ensemble, featuring a new work for violin and theremin:

“The reactions to Jakub's piece at my concert with Metropolis were so overwhelmingly positive that when I got a call from National Sawdust, I knew I wanted to explore in doing a full show with him!”

The concert is November 5 @ 7PM
National Sawdust (80 North 6th St, Brooklyn at National Sawdust.  www.nationalsawdust.org

 Check out this video of Glitch (2014) performed at Le Poisson Rouge from Metropolis Ensemble’s concert: Double Helix. https://vimeo.com/97962011

Describe your process and collaboration in preparation for this concert. 

Jakub: We worked together before on numerous occasions, incorporating various types of collaboration as we developed new work together. Some compositions are precisely notated, other rely more on improvisation. We brainstormed a lot about structure of the musical narrative but when it came to rehearsing, we are allowed ourselves to depart from these initial ideas and continue developing the material in a more organic way and almost improvisatory way.

Kristin: Having been long time collaborators, Jakub were very aware of each others' stylistic languages and strengths so first and foremost, we spent a lot of time putting our brains together to find the concept and explore new ground. Creating something that would be out of our comfort zone and different from what we have done and bringing something new to our audience was first and foremost in our minds. 

 Talk about the growth and evolution of your work with both theremins and electronics.

Jakub: Incorporating electronic sounds into my music and composing in a controlled studio environment was always something I was deeply enthusiastic about. However, I am keenly aware of the potential problems with performing this same music on stage with live musicians. While exploring possibilities of so called ‘live electronics’, I knew that the key would be to find a proper controller, a device capable of capturing musical intention of a human performer, expressed with wide variety of gestures. Initially I experimented with different types of sensors until I realized that almost a century old instrument called Theremin could be ‘hacked’ and used as a wonderful controller. The real challenge, however, was to build an effective musical engine to respond to these captured gestures. Finding a natural connection between gesture and sound is something I’ve been working on for the past eight years.

Theremin and violin isn't a typical duo, Kristin how did you get involved with this project, Metropolis, and working with Jakub? 

Kristin: I first met Jakub through leading one of the Metropolis concerts where we played Jakub's music. We got to talking after the performance and I found out that Jakub was working on a piece for a violinist in which he was manipulating the sound of the violin into electronics.  I found this concept to be fascinating, decided to help him out with the process, and the rest is history! Discovering his "hacked" theremin was like the cherry on top. I have heard him play this instrument at his solo show and dreamt of doing something together. Years later, when Andrew Cyr and Metropolis offered me a "Resident Artist Series" platform to curate and commission new works for a solo recital of my, I immediately reached out to Jakub to do a collaboration. The reaction to Jakub's piece and his theremin was so positive and successful that when I got a call from National Sawdust, I knew I wanted to explore doing a full show with him! I find Jakub to be the quintessential composer and the true visionary to the 21st century. The "hacked" theremin, which he designed and created, is the perfect example of his vision and execution. 

 How does the theremin and violin interact?

 Jakub: Initially I approached this collaboration with a mentality of a classical composer. I tried to compose another piece for two instruments but when we stared rehearsing, Kristin deeply inspired me with her amazing improvisatory skills, adding so much to the music that we decided to completely revise our process. Now it’s a hybrid between composition and improvisation. It’s fluid, organic and interactive without losing a sense of structure. This was a truly refreshing approach and I believe that through this very specific way of working together we found something musically meaningful.

Kristin: We will explore in how these two instruments would interact. The obvious way to think is for the theremin to be two-dimensional and the violin to be more flexible, since the theremin is an electronic instrument. We are going to break this preconceived notion and bring the human vulnerability to the sound of the theremin. There will be dialogues, harmonized duets, and highlighted solos like any other piece that we would think of as chamber music.

 How did you both get involved with Metropolis? How has this body of work taken life outside of Metropolis? 

Jakub: I started working with Metropolis Ensemble about seven years ago. From the very beginning of this collaboration I was incorporating electronics into live acoustic concerts. Metropolis Ensemble, known for its out-of-the-box approach, became an ideal incubator for developing ideas related to blending acoustic and electronic music. It was also during that time that I demonstrated the first prototypes of my ‘Hacked Theremin’ to the Andrew Cyr, who helped me develop this innovation into artistic tool and created wonderful opportunities to share it with others. Also, our collaboration with Kristin Lee stems directly from Metropolis Ensemble so I can honestly say that without Metropolis I wouldn’t have the privilege to work with such a brilliant performer and  in all likelihood, my instrument would still be in early stages of prototyping.  I think our upcoming show is a good example of how much this unique and remarkable institution is contributing to our artistic community and contemporary music in general, allowing us to take risks, grow, and deepen relationships with inspiring collaborators.

 Kristin: I first met Andrew about 6 years ago when he had attended one of my recitals. I've been taking the role as a concertmaster for Metropolis ever since then, and Andrew has really changed my perspective on music dramatically. Jakub and I really owe it to Andrew for bringing us together as well!  This is officially Jakub and my first time taking our collaboration outside of Metropolis (by popular demand!) and we are really excited to see where this journey will take us! 

post by: Sequoia Sellinger

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Nina Young

Nina Young, prolific New York based sound artist and composer has written a new Bassoon Pocket Concerto for the Multiphonics Resident Artist Series concert at (Le) Poisson Rouge this Sunday! Her music has been heard around the world, through performances by the American Composers Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orkest de ereprijs, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Either/Or, Ensemble de Musique Interactive, the JACK Quartet, mise-en, the Nouveau Classical Project, Sixtrum, Yarn/Wire, and the New Fromm Players of the Tanglewood Music Center. In addition to the 2015 Rome Prize in Musical Composition, Young has received a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Award, Aspen Music Festival's Jacob Druckman Prize, and honors from BMI, The International Alliance for Women in Music, and ASCAP/SEAMUS.

Young's Pocket Concerto features Brad Balliett on bassoon, backed by a very interesting instrumentation of flute, harp, piano, viola, and contrabass. The inspiration for this pocket concerto idea came from Miller Theater and their three-year pocket concerto series from 2006-2009. Balliett approached Nina and Metropolis with this “miniature" concerto idea for his Resident Artist project featuring the bassoon and everyone was into it — this 21st century idea of the concerto (typically for solo instrument and large or chamber orchestra) is both quite innovative and economical in the sense that its smaller footprint will be easier to program and arrange future performances.

Young spent her undergrad at MIT where she studied Engineering, which naturally has had a strong influence on her music. When Nina first starting composing this piece, she began by improvising with electronics and synths and then orchestrated the electronics line. According to Young, orchestration is one of the most important parts of her compositional process, and indeed there is a distinct set of wide-ranging colors between the flute, viola, bassoon, harp, and double bass. Young mentions, “Every instrument has its own natural resonant and filtering characteristics – when you begin to combine these different effects, an infinite world of sound possibilities are at your disposal – that’s where the real fun begins.” This is going to be such an exciting piece!

Could you go into more detail about how your work in electronics plays a roll in a purely acoustic work like this?

I think my working methods for writing acoustic, electronic, and mixed music are very similar. The process is always concerned with the sculpting of sound and the creation of an auditory experience that is constantly leading the listener into new sonic areas. When I am writing for purely acoustic combinations of instruments, like in this Bassoon Pocket Concerto, I try to employ methods of working that are influenced by electronic studio production techniques. I’ll often start pieces by improvising on my laptop with recordings and different synths which I’ll then process until I find that particular sonic “seed”. This will get woven with sound experiments using my voice, the piano, or violin (my instrument). Eventually I’ll start to write things down, in full score. For me, orchestration is an integral and often primary element of the compositional process. I find the art of orchestration to be akin to working in an electronic production environment in which I am always aware of balancing the horizontal frequency spectrum. Every instrument has its own natural resonant and filtering characteristics – when you begin to combine these different effects, an infinite world of sound possibilities are at your disposal – that’s where the real fun begins.

What challenges exist (or what's interesting) about writing a work that features the bassoon in a chamber setting?

The trickiest part of this piece was to make sure that the bassoon retained its concerto role as a solo instrument, despite the fact that it is essentially a piece of chamber music. With such a limited number of musicians (and as a fan of textural heterophony), I was inclined to give the other instruments soloistic parts that wove in and out of the bassoon’s lines. I constantly had to keep myself in check to never to overshadow the bassoon. My solution was to give the bassoon many flourishing lines that would begin as an integrated part of the chamber music and then blossom into a solo force.

You chose such an interesting instrumentation - solo bassoon, flute, harp, piano, viola, contrabass - what drove you to this decision?

Brad Balliett approached me with this Pocket Concerto project back in the summer of 2014. He was looking for ways to expand the concerto repertoire for the bassoon and to make the possibilities for future performances more logistically economical. I think he was intrigued by the Debussy Sonata for flute, viola, and harp (1915), and probably wanted to figure out a way to get himself involved in that sound world. I wanted to balance the instrumentation out a bit in the lower register, so I asked him if I could include his brother Doug (who plays the bass) in the project. Luckily, he agreed!

Could you talk about the extended techniques you used for bassoon and all the instruments in this pocket work?

This piece is a little more conservative in my utilization of extended techniques than some of the rest of my catalog. I am a string player, and despite having a few sessions with Brad, I still don’t feel completely at ease with the bassoon. Brad and I had a couple of sessions where he showed me different, unconventional possibilities that the instrument has to offer. However, I wrote most of the piece while traveling in Aspen and in Rome, so without Brad by my side to repeatedly ask, “Does this work? How does this sound?, etc.”, I felt the need to come up with a different solution to create a unique sound world. One of the things that Brad pointed out during our sessions is the distinct character of the instrument in different registers. He told me about several really successful pieces that involved a lot of leaps to expand the timbre. This is certainly something that I employed in the pocket concerto. I also wrote a lot of fast repeated notes and runs: these give the impression of more complex sounds emanating from the bassoon. While there are hardly any multiphonics in the piece (the exception is one in the flute), my vertical combination of the instruments and conception of harmony in the piece tries to orchestrate a type of “tutti” multiphonic, at times. The other players use extended techniques that are pretty common in my music: harmonics and glissandi to bend into a more microtonal sound world, as well as different string bow placement techniques (sul ponticello, sul tasto).

What inspired you to write this piece? What/Who inspires you to compose?

A lot of my pieces are inspired by extra-musical concepts: memories, text, scientific ideas, processes, narratives, etc. This work, however, was totally inspired by Brad. I met him in Paris in 2008 and was enamored by his musical abilities, unique speech, and his general mannerisms. Maybe he was my extra-musical concept? ☺☺▪This piece is a concerto, for Brad, so when I was writing it, I had him at the forefront of my mind the whole time. I kept creating mental images of him performing the musical lines (focusing not only the sound, but also on the visual persona he would embody when playing a concerto). While I do write projects for groups that I don’t know in a personal way, I think it’s a great deal of fun to write music for your friends, especially when they are extremely talented. You have a better awareness of who they are, what they like, and how they react – this definitely seeps into the creative process.

You have a very unique voice/style, how would you define it?

Well, that’s a tough and loaded question, one that I may prefer to leave to the listeners, critics, and musicologists! I definitely have a set of sonic and artistic guidelines that I am drawn to, but I’m also aware that these elements are constantly in flux, and I embrace that. I have a varied musical heritage that draws equally from elements of the classical canon, modernism, spectralism, American experimentalism, minimalism, rock, and electronic music. You can probably find hints of all of these in my work. At the end of the day, I am enraptured by the combination of sound, texture, and harmony as one entity. I also really focus on the art of listening – I can only hope that comes across in my music.

post by: Sequoia Sellinger

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ComposerCraft at Multiphonics!

ComposerCraft, an organization that gives young composers and opportunity to work with professional musicians has collaborated with Metropolis for the Multiphonics Concert! Six fresh and young composers have created a new piece of music inspired by Vivaldi for bassoon! Robin McClellan is the director of ComposerCraft, an intensive for young composers at the Kaufman Music Center in NYC. I’ve had the opportunity to talk to him as well as the six young artists.

 Robin McClellan

Could you talk about the past history of collaboration with Metropolis?

One feature of ComposerCraft is our series of guest composers, conductors and performers who visit class each year. We've had some great people including Aaron Jay Kernis, Melissa Hughes, Kenji Bunch, Laura Kaminsky, Derek Bermel, and many others. I invited Andrew Cyr as one of our very first guests during ComposerCraft's inaugural year, in the fall of 2011. Andrew invited us to be part of Metropolis' Youth Works program, and we were thrilled. Each spring we have been part of Metropolis' Youth Works concert. The first one in spring 2012 was at LPR, and we also appeared with Metropolis at Symphony Space as part of their Music of Now Marathon. As part of each collaboration, Brad Balliett visits our class (ComposerCraft meets, seminar-style, for two hours each Wednesday evening) to discuss the project with the composers, to bring other guests from Metropolis, and generally to prepare the composers for their work with the ensemble. The value of these visits can't be overstated. 

Why is this special?

It is very unusual for middle-school-aged composers to write for professional musicians for public concerts, and to receive wonderful support throughout the process as they go. I started composing around their age, and if I had had something like this, I can only imagine how it might have influenced where I went as a composer. That said, what's most special about it to me is that they are still "just kids" in the sense that they are not trying to make careers as composers. Perhaps some of them will later, but others will become doctors, or professional jugglers, or who knows what. Yes, they are composing with total seriousness and dedication, making the music the best it can be. But for now, they are composing without the distractions of ambition or the kinds of pressures that face older composers who are trying to 'make a career of it.' And yet here they are, involved in professional music-making. I find that combination incredibly refreshing and exciting. 

About The Composers

Yusei Hata:

How old are you?

I am 13 years and 10 months old

What inspires you to compose?

The possible sounds, silence, and tones that can exist.

Who are you listening to the most these days?

John Cage. 4:33 is my favorite these days.

In up to three sentences, describe your compositional and creative process, and what is it was like to compose based on Vivaldi?

I had to find out what was "Vivaldily" about Vivaldi's work. After that, I incorporated the Vivaldiness and my originality in the piece I wrote. It was like a cat finding out how to be a true iguana.

 Misha Swersey:

How old are you?

I am 13 years old 

What inspires you to compose?

I just think about music all the time, whether it's classical or rock 'n' roll. Usually a melody comes into my mind, which then turns into an idea that I write down. 

Who are you listening to the most these days?

Сlassical music and classic rock. 

In up to three sentences, describe your compositional and creative process, and what is it was like to compose based on Vivaldi?

I had to study a lot about Vivaldi's composing style--the rhythms, dynamics and timbre - whatever makes a certain composer unique. Phantoms, which is my movement, is typically slower and has triplet rhythms. I also added in a few extra things--There is a big climax in the middle of a piece where the bassoon does a big powerful solo, and then the piece transitions into a famous rock song, which should be easily recognizable to many listeners.

 Graydon Hanson

How old are you?

I am 12 years old

What inspires you to compose?

I like the idea of taking all the stuff in my head and making it accessible to other people.

Who are you listening to the most these days?

I'm listening to a lot of film music these days. I really like Hans Zimmer's work along with Alexandre Desplat and Danny Elfman. 

In up to three sentences, describe your compositional and creative process, and what is it was like to compose based on Vivaldi?

It is very interesting to take something that Vivaldi did and turn it into something that is new, but also based off of something. Usually, I either come up with a theme in my head or on the piano and I put it into Noteflight. I then put in countermelodies or build in other instruments and I make what I think would sound interesting. I then flesh it out and add other instruments to include flourishes. I don't really compose on the computer, I just make my ideas readable.

Austin Celestin:

How old are you?

I am 13 years old.

What inspires you to compose?

Just listening to other people perform, and seeing other people's pieces being played inspires me to compose.

Who are you listening to the most these days?

I mostly listen to electronic music: Dubstep, Trance, Techno, that kind of stuff.

In up to three sentences, describe your compositional and creative process, and what is it was like to compose based on Vivaldi?

Usually when I start a piece, I would usually be inspired by reading books, writing reports, doing research, or even listneing to other people's music. The I would have a general idea of what I want to do, and I would start sketching a piece. After several attempts, I would start a draft, and first I would edit for dynamics, articulatios, markings, and parts. Since most of my music is kind of based off of some classical composer's structure (BACH) writing for Vivaldi wasn't all that hard. All I really had to do was change the form of my piece, but that was it. I generally enjoyed it, and though it wasn't that new of an experience for me, it was fun.

Sara Stebbins

How old are you?

I'm 13 years old.

What inspires you to compose?

I'm usually inspired by stories or characters. 

Who are you listening to the most these days?

I listen to a lot of Japanese pop music, specifically a girl group called μ's (pronounced like "Muse"). 

Daniel Ma

How old are you?

I am 14.

What inspires you to compose? I am inspired by my current mood and the current melody that goes through my brain.

Who are you listening to most these days? I am mostly listening to a lot of Bach fugues.

In up to three sentences, describe your compositional and creative process, and what is it was like to compose based on Vivaldi? Composing based on Vivaldi gave me a form to compose by instead of composing randomly. I just did my usual things besides that. That basically means I write the melody and write each line below that in some order, depending on what I want to do.

post by: Sequoia Sellinger

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Majel Connery

Majel Connery, one of today’s most innovative and stimulating singers, defies traditional operatic norms. Her new collaborative work with Doug Balliett will be performed at the Multiphonics concert!  This Cantata tells the story of Cleopatra’s death, through voice and bassoon. Balliett is calling it a “Cleopatra Cantata”, with Connery delighting us as Cleopatra, and Brad on the bassoon.  According to Connery, Balliett’s Cantata is “half Hollywood pop and half Baroque,” She adds, "Balliett's music is playful and catchy, but it's also incredibly complex. I don't know how he does it. And I don't know anyone else who is writing like this." This extraordinary vocalist first met the Balliett brother team when Opera Cabal, Connery’s company, commissioned the brothers and Eliote Cole to write HECUBA.  

She has a classical opera background, though she threw away most of the traditional technique. Connery expresses “you have to hold yourself in a certain way to keep the apparatus working.” For Connery, opera is point of departure, as she finds her niche from her traditional roots. With influences like Judy Garland and Carole King no wonder she’s got such a cool style!

 She is very excited to have her debut performance with the Metropolis ensemble. The pair is sure to delight the listeners.  

Check out Majel Connery’s  performance of There is No One here:

You have a very unique style, while breaking traditional operatic norms. Could you describe your style, process, and artistic vision?

I’m still figuring out my identity as a singer. I found opera very constraining. You have to hold yourself in a certain way to keep the apparatus working. You're not supposed to bob around or make weird hand or chin or hand gestures. Some singers completely avoid milk. I just didn't know how to be myself doing opera. I had stopped singing entirely when I met Doug & Brad Balliett. We were in the studio one day – my company, Opera Cabal, had commissioned the Ballietts and Elliot Cole to write HECUBA – and they were like, “Go take a crack at the mic!” and I went over and started improvising in this weird Thom Yorke voice, and that became  “Helen,” the first track on our first album together. I never really knew that singing like that was okay; it violates every rule I know. But it's so much more fun.

Could you talk to me more about your collaboration with Doug. What was your approach to this work and text, and how this kind of project fits in with your vision of voice, song, and contemporary music?

Doug likes to write for the high part of my voice, which isn’t my easiest or favorite register, so it means when I first get his music, I have to figure out how to really own those vocal lines, make them mine, without defaulting to a basic opera voice. Doug’s first piece for me was “Where Did You Go?” which ended up on the HECUBA album too. I think he called me up on a muggy summer day and we went over to an apartment in Park Slope with a kind of home studio and banged out a couple takes with sweat dripping off our faces. It was super fun. Doug’s “Beauty Is” for another album with Oracle Hysterical and New Vintage Baroque is one of my all-time favorites. Doug uses all possible styles interchangeably, which makes singing his music pretty exciting: you never know what he's going to ask for. "Cleopatra" with Metropolis is half Hollywood pop, half Baroque, and I’m excited to dust off my Monteverdi voice for that. What I like about Doug's writing is that it combines the learned with the playful. You have to be a master of all idioms to compose the way he does, and he's very good. Balliett's music is playful and catchy, but it's also incredibly complex. I don't know how he does it. And I don't know anyone else who is writing like this.

What inspires you to sing, and how did you find your voice? Who are your influences?

Some strong influences of mine are probably Judy Garland & Carol King, both of whom I listened to obsessively as a kid. I had a record player in the bathroom that my mom would set up to listen to while I was taking baths. My background is in opera, and though I’ve largely thrown my operatic training out the window, it survives in bits and pieces. I get really excited when I bump into success stories like Shara Worden with a similar vibe: she has the classical training, but it's just one tool among many. I feel like this is similar to the path I'm forging. It’s about using opera as a point of departure, and then exploring where you can go from there.

Why is your art/style important to you? What message do you strive to send out to others?

I just think that the word 'opera' could connote something more fun and unpredictable than it does today. If I say "painter" that could mean Matisse or it could mean a performance artist covering her body with mud or it could mean Banksy. But we don't really have that same diversity in opera, probably because opera is almost never an independent activity. It's a group activity, and group activities take organization and money to pull off. I want to make sure that opera acquires more range, and stops being so risk-averse.

How did you get involved with Metropolis?

I've followed Metropolis's work for many years, and I love their work, but I've never collaborated with them before. I'm pumped for this concert!

Can you talk about your awesome dinosaur keyboard that you perform with, it's a very cool addition to your music!

Thanks! It’s actually a crocodile :) I’m sorry to say it got water logged in hurricane Sandy and no longer works. I bought it to accompany myself at an audition, and then kept it around. I’ve looked high and low for a replacement but Toys R Us no longer makes them. I’m working on learning the electric autoharp in the meantime, but it's not nearly so cute & green in a plastic kind of way.

post by: Sequoia Sellinger

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Bora Yoon

Have you ever wondered what Mozart’s bassoon concerto would sound like composed with electronics? Bora Yoon, one of the featured composers performing at the Multiphonics Concert is doing just that - a 21st century re-imaginging of the bassoon classic, Mozart K191 -- for bassoon and electronics. Inspired by found sounds and field recordings, Yoon transports the listener through music/sound.

Described by the New York Times as “mesmerizing” and by KoreAm Journal as “totally unique”, Korean-American experimental composer, vocalist, and sound artist Bora Yoon performs immersive audiovisual soundscapes using digital devices, voice, found objects and instruments from a variety of cultures and historical centuries – evoking memory and association, to formulate a cinematic storytelling through music and sound.

Brad Balliett asked her to write this piece for the two of them to perform at the concert at Le Poisson Rouge on October 11th with Balliett on bassoon and Yoon on electronics. When commissioned to write this piece Brad approached her with ideas of “re-imagining a classic, but also re-invigorating it. Featuring its beauty, and tapping into it to make a bit more universal beyond the lens of Mozart, opening new audiences to the work, while also making it economical for contemporary performance by being portable, and easy to perform anywhere.” Yoon’s interpretation of Mozart is bound to change the way you think about classic repertoire, you don’t want to miss out on this exciting night!

   Mozart's Bassoon Concerto is such a staple in the Bassoon repertoire, and re-imagining and re-invigorating it is very exciting! What was the inspiration for this project? 

Brad Balliett approached me, upon hearing what I did with the Hildegard von Bingen chant 'O viridissima virga' and 'O Pastor Animarum' in Sunken Cathedral, which John Schaeffer featured on his program   Medieval + Electronics = ?  http://www.wnyc.org/story/medieval-electronic-bora-yoon/

He wanted a more portable, relevant, and modernized version of the classic Mozart bassoon concerto -- and asked me to take a listen, put it under my pillow, and see what I could come up with akin to what I had done on 'Cathedral'.  

 Could you go into more detail about how you will perform with Brad and how that fits into your other works as an electronic artist/composer/vocalist?

Live at LPR, I will be performing live electronics, synthesizer, with a few sound toys and turntable.  We met up in Princeton NJ, and recorded Brad's remarkable ability to play an enormous range of multi phonics, broken chords, harmonics, tones, and textures -- which became the elemental language upon which to build the electronics arrangement that would set the new backdrop for Mozart K191.

I wanted to create a work that featured and highlighted the fragile, delicate, earnest beauty of the bassoon, which to me intuits the vision of a strange endangered bird, that is equal parts beautiful, as it is unique.  As a result, I explored and utilized a series of synthesizers, ring modulators, field recordings, and rhythm patterns, to break up the classic K191, and also bring out the tones and harmonics in new ways.

  You said that transport is a major aim of yours, could you elaborate more on your techniques, and why creating this atmosphere is important to you?

I use found sounds, and field recordings, to incite the associations of memory, weather, wind, and use the scale of sound, to either create a feeling of distance, or close proximity.  How the brain processes these techniques, is what separates it from straight reality, or a sense of magical realism.   Music is an incredible medium, to create this type of sense of compound textures, and simultaneous aesthetics, to create one where different people find different things to pick up on, within it.  

post by: Sequoia Sellinger 

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Doug Balliett & “Multiphonics”

Prolific New York City composer and performer Doug Balliett is premiering a thrilling new piece at “Multiphonics” at Le Poisson Rouge. This exciting concert on October 11th will feature Doug’s new cantata inspired by the texts of Cleopatra’s death performed by his twin brother Brad on bassoon, as well as the brilliant and accomplished mezzo-soprano Majel Connery. Doug is attracted to cantatas for their condensed story telling ability like a “bite-sized” opera. When asked to compose a work with a solo bassoon, a Cleopatra Cantata came naturally to him.

 His musical influences come from a large range of styles from early music, rap to rock. Balliett attracts diverse audiences with performances of his solo works at Lincoln center to his full-scale hip-hopera in Lucerne! His compositions have been critiqued as "brilliant and witty" (New York Times) and "weird in the best possible way" (I Care if You Listen). As a double bassist, he has performed as solo or principal bass with Ensemble Modern, the San Antonio Symphony, the Metropolis Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Talea Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Ensemble ACJW, NOVUS, Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Arcadian Players, Pink Martini and many more.

In preparation for the “Multiphonics” contemporary bassoon concert at Le Poisson Rouge, Doug Balliett, talks to us about his new cantata that will be performed at Multiphonics. He offers rare insight in to what it’s like to compose for his twin brother Brad, and his experience with working with Metropolis Ensemble. Doug Balliett’s cantata has been described as, “blowing up the idea of a concerto to include a mezzo-soprano, turning it into a song cycle at the same time” (Brad Balliett)

Some general thoughts:

“There's something about a cantata that really appeals to me; the drama, the length, the infinite ways to arrange the pieces. Cantatas are like bite-sized operas, condensing what humor and pathos are in a story into a work about the length of one side of a pop LP. Brief, varied, dramatic. I've been playing Bach sacred cantatas on a weekly basis for a couple of years, and absorbing what I can of his limitless formal and textural invention. Long wanting to set the story of Cleopatra's death as cantata, it was the first thing that came to mind when Metropolis asked me about writing a work with a solo bassoon part. Cleopatra cantata with obbligato bassoon? Sounds awesome to me. “ (Doug Baillett). 

Tell us about the texts and what drew you to them? How are you going about setting them, working with Majel, and also weaving in the bassoon?

Probably my favorite primary document from Roman history is Suetonius, whose 12 Ceasars reads like a comic book. He presents a very three-dimensional picture of Cleopatra, which can be broadened further by reading contemporary research. She is not the way we imagine her today, except maybe that she usually gets what she wants. I wrote the texts for these songs after spending some time imagining the events of her life, but focusing on the much romanticized last few hours. I think Majel, our singer, will be perfect for the role. Majel brings an expressive quality to a line that absolutely animates it, and I try to imagine her voice when I'm writing. It's a great opportunity to write straightforward music, knowing it'll be interpreted beautifully. 

 What is it like to write a piece for your twin brother?

It's a bit of a two-edged sword, really: on the one hand, I know his playing well. I know the kind of things he does easily and expressively and I've learned a few very bassoon-y facts about what works and what doesn't on the instrument. Sometimes bassoonists tell me they like my writing for the instrument, and I figure that's why. On the other hand, he's my favorite bassoonist and capable of quite a bit more than I'm even aware, and I sometimes worry I'm not exploiting his full potential. I wish I could download all bassoon technique into my brain so I could really make him work.  

 How does being a bass player and a student of baroque techniques influence your compositional style?

 I learned so much from studying baroque music, and I feel like it's constantly seeping into my style. It isn't that I'm writing in a baroque style, at all, but what I really love about baroque music is that it is driven by a continuo group, playing creatively and rhetorically. I love playing continuo, to me it's as satisfying as a well honed rhythm section, and lately I've been writing more and more with a continuo group in mind. The best is recitative, when the continuo really gets to unleash. Why is there so little recit being written today?

 How long have you been involved with Metropolis and is your first composition with them? What other projects keep you busy or that you're currently working on?

 Andrew Cyr was very kind to me when I was considering moving to New York. I talked with him on the phone and he encouraged me to follow my heart and let the pieces fall where they would. Metropolis was among the very first gigs I took in New York, and it's amazing a few years later to be joining their incredible roster of composers. I don't think I've ever had a full piece on a Metropolis program, though I did orchestrate part of Brad's hip-hopera (The Rake) that we performed on the MATA festival a few years ago. I've played bass on many programs with Metropolis, which is always a treat for me. I can't wait to hear my piece played by this amazing group, along with all the other new bassoon music!

 post by: Sequoia Sellinger

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Brad Balliett & “Multiphonics”

Get prepared to experience the bassoon like never before. Have you ever taken in the bassoon beyond the intro to the Rite of Spring or “The Grandfather” in Prokofiev’s Peter and The Wolf? New York City bassoonist and composer Brad Balliett has curated (in collaboration with Metropolis Ensemble) “Multiphonics,” at (Le) Poisson Rouge. His eclectic incorporation of the bassoon from electronics to chamber music is mind blowing. There will be five new works premiered, all featuring bassoon as the star instrument – a rare occurrence!

Inspired by multiphonics, and extended techniques, Brad Balliett curates a collaborative event to “create a program that gives composers and an audience the chance to reconsider the bassoon more generally.” Balliett has said he envies pianists and how they can play harmony and a melody, the use of multiphonics and creating chords on a typically one-note melody instrument thrills him.

This exciting and innovative concert features Bora Yoon, Nina Young, and Brad’s twin brother Doug Balliett, who is a double bass player and composer. Bora Yoon has constructed a piece to recreate Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto, by using live electronics as the accompaniment. Doug Balliett is including a mezzo-soprano to create a contemporary song cycle as well as a bassoon concerto. The audience can look forward to a debut performance by six middle school aged composers inspired by Vivaldi’s La Notte Concerto. Balliett is confident that these pieces will become an important part of 21st century bassoon repertoire - you don’t want to miss out!

What is the motivation behind this project? Why the bassoon?

I love the bassoon, and I almost never regret choosing it as the cornerstone of my musical life. Yet there are times that I have really envied pianists, harp players, and violinists because they could accompany themselves with harmony while they played a melody. Of course the bassoon only plays one note at a time, so that always seemed impossible.  When I discovered Multiphonics, special fingerings on the bassoon that let me play chords instead of single notes; I wanted to explore how close I could get to turning the bassoon INTO a piano (or at least some kind of wooden, wind-driven squeezebox).

When Andrew asked me about ideas for a potential concert on Metropolis Ensemble’s Resident Artist Series, I immediately thought about this versatile sound, and how it might sound in combination with the amazing musicians that make up Metropolis. Beyond my fascination with this newfound set of colors on my instrument, I’ve always wanted to create a program that gives composers and an audience the chance to reconsider the bassoon more generally. The bassoon is by nature expressive, and its capabilities tend to surpass most listeners’ expectations, maybe because it is more visible than audible in most orchestral concerts, being relegated to the task of filling out the inner voices more often than not.

I wanted to share more sides of the bassoon, particularly the characterful way the instrument sings. Having such wonderful players available, we created a program of ‘Concertos’, pieces that pit the bassoon against the ensemble.

There are a great variety of styles among the composers on this program. How do their approaches differ, and what sort of experience will that create?

Each composer takes a personal and idiosyncratic approach to the idea of a 'concerto’, though, so the results a wide reaching: they range from a 'pocket’ chamber concerto to a song cycle for mezzo-soprano with bassoon accompaniment.

There are two pieces that unpack the traditional idea of a 'concerto’ in especially fascinating ways. Bora Yoon’s work creates a brand-new live electronics accompaniment for Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto using the sound of the bassoon itself (an idea inspired in part by Timo Andres’s Coronation Concerto, premiered by Metropolis in 2012). It’s the most familiar of all bassoon concertos, so it will be interesting to hear the familiar solo line in a completely new context.

The other piece that tackles an older concerto is by the young composers of ComposerCraft, a program for middle-school aged composers at the Kaufmann Center. These six composers worked together to create a new concerto for bassoon and strings inspired by Vivaldi’s La Notte Concerto. Nina Young is taking a new view of the concerto as something more streamlined and pared-down in her Pocket Concerto for chamber ensemble. My twin brother, Doug, is doing the opposite – he’s blowing up the idea of a concerto to include a mezzo-soprano, turning it into a song cycle at the same time. He’s working off of texts about Cleopatra, and I’m excited that Majel Connery is singing with Metropolis. She has a beautiful, almost unearthly voice.

My own concerto takes the idea of 'Multiphonics’ to the hilt, exploring as many different colors as I can, using almost exclusively this technique. I hope that both the varieties of treatment of the bassoon and treatment of the idea of a 'concerto’ will create an experience that makes an audience member say 'I didn’t think of it that way before’.

Why is this project important to you in the bassoon community, the classical music community, and beyond, say, the general public?

It’s exciting to premiere five new works that feature the bassoon on a single evening – it’s a rare occurrence. I believe in the composers on this program, and I think that these pieces will become an important part of the new repertoire for bassoon from the early 21st century. I think bassoonists around the world will want to play these pieces.

I’m glad to share this project with classical music community, especially composers: my hope would be that they consider the bassoon for their own music more often. Laboring under the impression that the bassoon is unwieldy, limited, pale, and gangly, composers frequently omit the bassoon from their works when it might make a beautiful addition. If even one composer thought more about the bassoon after this program, I’d consider it a success.

Hopefully the general public also gains something from a thorough introduction to the state of the bassoon concerto today – even if it is only to get the instrument itself on the public’s radar just a little bit more.

post by: Sequoia Sellinger - composer & performer, student at SUNY Purchase.

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Metropolis Ensemble's Debut in Central Park with Creative Time -- The Round-Up 

According to T Magazine, Creative Time's Drifting in Daylight was "the most geographically expansive arts project in Central Park since the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s 2005 installation The Gates was placed along 23 miles of paths in 2005.”

From May 15th through June 20th Central Park was transformed into a multimedia installation piece. Drifting in Daylight: Art in Central Park, celebrated Central Park Conservancy’s 35th anniversary.  

For the 12 days the exhibition was open to the public, it was estimated that over 100,000 people encountered the exhibition. Doug Blonsky, the conservancy’s president and C.E.O. said it is intended to celebrate “the quiet of the park and the surprises one can find wandering its paths.”  

In Drifting in Daylight, Metropolis Ensemble collaborated with the Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson to reprise his balletic sculpture and endurance art-piece, S.S. Hangover, originally commissioned for the 2013 Venice Biennale. The piece was inspired by a photo still from the 1935 film, Remember Last Night which Kjartansson found in a vintage cocktail recipe book.

Metropolis Ensemble musicians performed on a refurbished 1930’s fishing vessel, in full tux and concert gown regalia. It was not all smooth sailing -- the boat arrived last February from Venice frozen solid with ice and snow. Members of The Northern Brooklyn Boating Club worked tirelessly to patch the holes, replace the flooded one-of-a-kind engine, and repaint the infamous fat Pegasus sail. The piece was performed (with music from Sigur Ros composer Kjartan Sveinsson) about 30 times a day from memory and over 375 times over the course of the exhibition.  

Here’s a quick catch up of some of the artists featured at this exciting event: Lauri Stallings and her dance activist collaborators known as glo, performed a dance and spoken word piece inspired by the musical legacy of Harlem and the Great Migration of African Americans northward. Spence Finch gave out delicious solar powered sunset soft served ice cream, to match the sky near the parks conservatory garden. And finally, performance, video, and photo artist David Levine reenacted famous films that took place in Central Park.

 See below the complete social and press roundup!

 The Social Media Buzz...

#DriftingInDaylight was used on Instagram over 2400 times, and hundreds more photos were certainly taken without the hashtag.

The Drifting in Daylight post on @instagram got over 1 million likes and 7,800 comments!

 The Press...

 For Its Next Big Project, Creative Time Heads to Central Park in T Magazine

S.S. Hangover is Coming to Central Park This Year in Gothamist

America's Best Public Art for Summer 2015 in Bloomberg Business

Calvin Klein Collection and Creative Time Celebrate Drifting in Daylight in Vogue

 Fantastical Performance Art Drifts into Central Park in Time Out New York (Print)

Central Park Pop-Up Art in The New Yorker

Creative Time to Take Over Some of Central Park This May in Art Observed 

Marisa Tomei’s Perfect Proportions in The New York Times

The 10 Most Crazy/Beautiful Art Happenings This Most Wild Of Frieze Weekends in Huffington Post 

Review: 'Please Touch the Art' and 'Drifting in Daylight,' Outdoor Art at the Parks in the New York Times

Meet first female director of major NYC art institution on MSNBC 

post by: Sequoia Sellinger

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Du Yun: The Ocean Within

World premiere of Du Yun’s The Ocean Within, featuring harpist Bridget Kibbey, performed on January 11 & 15, 2012 at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City. This is Metropolis Ensemble’s inaugural concert for its new Resident Artists Series. Video by Aleksandr Sasha Popov. Audio by Ryan Streber.

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Wall Street Journal: Walk and Listen

Corinne Ramey of the Wall Street Journal was on-hand this past week for Brownstone rehearsals at the American Irish Historical Society.

"In the Upper East Side townhouse that the American Irish Historical Society calls home, a violinist ambled down the stairs while tuning her instrument and a harpist improvised with electronic sounds that came from the walls... During the rehearsal earlier this week, Mr. Romaneiro and Mr. Cyr debated how to show that the musicians were tuning to the house, which—Mr. Romaneiro asserted—is in the key of F-sharp minor."

Read the complete article...

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Washington Post: "Bold, Engaging, Powerful, and Forceful"

Cecelia Porter from The Washington Post reviewed Metropolis Ensemble's performance at The Phillips Collection with the Phillips Camerata, Bridget Kibbey, and Quartet Senza Misura. 

The Washington premiere Sunday of a bold new harp concerto capped an engaging and powerful performance of recent music by members of the Phillips Camerata, the resident ensemble of Washington’s Phillips Collection; the Quartet Senza Misura; and musicians from the New York-based Metropolis Ensemble.

Sunday’s combination of forces was a fortunate grouping of young musicians dedicated to contemporary music and sharing a truly visionary outlook. (We clearly need another way to distinguish between avant-garde compositions of the 1950s, still called “contemporary,” and today’s “contemporary” music hot off the press.)

The forceful collaboration was conducted by Grammy-nominee Andrew Cyr, a prominent influence in the world of newly emerging music. The afternoon opened with the Washington premiere of Christopher Cerrone’s “High Windows,” for solo string quartet and string ensemble. It is an imaginative work in a personal minimalist fashion calling for powerfully lunging bows, sighing harmonics and perky half-tone statements. Cyr led the players with tasteful panache, emphasizing the fluidity of the music. One of the lush moments in the ever-changing texture of the Cerrone echoed Samuel Barber’s elegiac temperament.

Cyr then led his players with driven, but elegant force in Steve Reich’s “Duet for Two Violins and Strings” and Elliott Carter’s Bariolage for solo harp. Both Reich and Carter’s music reflected an earlier version of Reich’s minimalist style of continually overlapping processes and Carter’s ever-fluctuating ideas. For the Reich, the players tackled insistent syncopations and interlocking motifs with seeming ease. In the Carter, harpist Bridget Kibbey, at once confident and delicate, displayed her instrument’s wide-ranging vocabulary for music, revealing ever-fluctuating tempos, lightning-fast leaps and the chordal richness of the piece.

Joined by a string quartet, Kibbey gave nuanced voice to the black atmosphere of Nathan Shields’ brooding “Tenebrae,” underlining its snatches of elusive luminance. In Vivian Fung’s Concerto for Harp, which was commissioned by the Phillips and other musical organizations, Kibbey’s bravura and sensitivity, especially in her cadenza, outlined the music’s intriguing mix of timbres, thorny sonorities, wailing glissandos and chirping pizzicatos echoed in the strings. In between, amusing parodies of a waltz and tango lightened up the texture. The drums and other percussion joined in, giving zest and a shade of violence to the composition.

Three of Sunday’s compositions were Washington premieres: Cerrone’s “High Windows,” Shields’ “Tenebrae” and Fung’s Concerto for Harp. Both Cerrone and Shields were on hand to explain their compositions. The concert’s end brought enthusiastic applause and cheering, concluding the Phillips’ Sunday musical 2013-2014 season.

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Live on The Tonight Show

Metropolis Ensemble joined The Roots on May 20, 2014 for a live performance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to celebrate the Philadelphia hip-hop group's newly released album "...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin," which also features Metropolis artists and conductor Andrew Cyr. The performance, bathed in all white, included the album's trip-hop "Never" with Canadian DJ A-Trak, Black Thought, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, and Raheem DeVaughn.

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New York Times: "Resolutely Optimistic"

Jon Pareles from The New York Times reviewed The Roots performance at The Public Theater on May 13, 2014, featuring Metropolis Ensemble conducted by Andrew Cyr, D.D. Jackson, Jeremy Ellis, Craig Harris, Rahzel, and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. Here are a few excerpts from the article:

"Conundrum, provocation, history lesson, ritual, chamber recital, jazz concert, elegy — the Roots’ performance at the Public Theater on Tuesday night was decidedly not a standard kickoff for a hip-hop album. That was clear when, near the beginning of the show, balloon animals were dropped onto the stage, covering it knee-deep; for the rest of the performance, each entrance and exit was accompanied by balloons popping underfoot like gunshots. Dozens of nooses also hung overhead.

The musicians weren’t the same Roots band seen regularly on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” They included the Metropolis Ensemble — the conductor Andrew Cyr, a string quartet and four singers — and the jazz pianist D. D. Jackson, who wrote dramatic, somberly dissonant arrangements for the ensemble. Mr. Jackson also hurled crashing free-jazz clusters and tremolos in a duet with Questlove on drums. Jeremy Ellis tapped out some two-handed workouts from a sampler, and near the beginning of the concert, there was a primordial drone from Craig Harris on didgeridoo, joined by the percussive vocals of Rahzel, a pioneering beatboxer. Two male dancers also appeared, break dancing amid the balloons.

It was a miscellany of grim tidings and stubborn determination, of sounds both earthy and avant-garde, of bitter realities and electronic hallucinations... This performance wasn’t the rollout of a consumer product; it was joining a cultural continuum." 

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Three Grammy Wins for the Metropolis Community!

The 56th Annual Grammy Awards on January 26, 2014 proved to be a stellar night for the artists and collaborators of Metropolis Ensemble in multiple winning categories! Congratulations to David Frost, 2014 Classical Producer of the Year Grammy Award for his work on Timo Andres' Home Stretch with Andrew Cyr and Metropolis Ensemble. This is David's 13th career Grammy, including another 2014 Grammy in collaboration with Tim Martyn on Maria Schneider's Winter Morning Walks, the 2014 Best Engineered Classical Album that features soprano Dawn Upshaw. Tim worked as engineer on all three Metropolis studio albums and produced Vivian Fung's Juno Award winning album, Dreamscapes. Congrats are also in order for Metropolis composer Caroline Shaw for her Grammy win on Roomful of Teeth, the 2014 Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance. Caroline was also honored with the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for her a cappella composition "Partita for 8 Voices" that appears on this album. We are delighted to include these excellent artists and collaborators in the Metropolis family and honored to be recognized by The Recording Academy! Show your support and celebrate by purchasing each Grammy-winning album! Explore the albums now...