[Trombone-l] Buffalo, NY premiere on Sat

[Monique Buzzarté]

Any trombonists here in the Buffalo area interested in new
music?  If so, read on (NYC trombonists, too)...

Meet the Composer's "New Music for Soloist Champions"
program premieres at Hallwalls on Saturday;   I'll be doing a
new piece for trombone and tape by Alice Shields (which
as of now is set to open the concert)...and can get you a
comp or pair of comps if let me  know by 12 noon tomorrow,
Thursday March 13th.   More info at
http://www.hallwalls.org/music_03.html
Sorry for this late notice, I just got an email today that
comps would be made available to the performers, so
I wanted to spread the word.

FYI, the NYC premiere of this concert is next week, on
Wednesday, March 19th at  Symphony Space - info at
http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/2248
(tickets $15-$27)  I can get comps for that, too, so
let me know if you'd be interested in attending.

The concert is repeated a third time at SUNY-Purchase on
Monday  March 24th
http://www.purchase.edu/calendar/ViewEventPopup.aspx?eventId=3681
(free admission)

Alice's new piece "The River of Memory" (2008)  is more a tape
and trombone piece than a  trombone and tape piece, if you get
my drift - quiet and  mediative, a contrast to the stunningly dramatic
"Mioritza: Requiem for Rachel Corrie"  I commissioned from her in
2004.  Both are good additions to the repertoire.

Here's the press release from Meet the Composer:

This March, America's preeminent commissioning 
organization Meet The Composer (MTC) steps out 
from behind the scenes to present three concerts 
across New York state.  Entitled New Music for 
Soloist Champions, this is the culmination of a 
year-long project in which eight soloists - all 
major figures in the new music world - 
collaborated with eight diverse contemporary 
composers to create a wide-ranging body of new 
solo works.

Funded by a grant from the New York State Music 
Fund, Soloist Champions was initiated by Meet The 
Composer in an attempt to recognize and support 
performers who have long been at the forefront of 
championing new music. "Individual performers are 
the engines of innovation in the new music 
field," says MTC President Ed Harsh.  "With the 
Soloist Champions project, Meet The Composer 
wanted to give eight artists in this key group 
the resources to amplify their own initiative, to 
commission composers whose work they believe is 
rich and powerful."

Meet The Composer chose eight soloists who are 
proven leaders in the world of new music and 
offered each the chance to commission a new work, 
approximately 12 minutes in duration, from the 
composer of his or her choice.  The resulting 
pieces will be performed in three marathon-style 
concerts: March 15 in Asbury Hall in the 
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center in Buffalo, 
NY; March 19 at the Peter Sharp Theater at 
Symphony Space on New York's Upper West Side; and 
March 24 at the Recital Hall at SUNY/Purchase 
College in Purchase, NY.

The performer-composer pairs are as follows:
o	Monique Buzzarté (trombone), champion of 
women composers, with composer Alice F. Shields, 
whose wide-ranging music is informed by classical 
Indian music and dance.
o	Dominic Donato (percussion), member of 
Talujon Percussion Quartet and performer with 
numerous new music ensembles, with composer Ushio 
Torikai, whose widely-commissioned works reflect 
her Asian heritage and Western training.
o	Margaret Lancaster (flute), known for 
inter-disciplinary works that incorporate dance, 
drama, and electronics, with composer Joan La 
Barbara, who has created a unique vocabulary of 
experimental vocal techniques.
o	Lisa Moore, the founding pianist of the 
Bang on a Can All-Stars, with composer Don Byron, 
whose singular voice explores the divergent 
traditions of Latin, Afro-Cuban, hip-hop, and 
klezmer music.
o	Min Xiao-Fen (pipa, a traditional Chinese 
instrument similar to the lute), celebrated for 
extending the pipa's range into jazz and new 
music, with composer Huang Ruo, a bright young 
presence on the contemporary music scene who has 
written a piece that kinetically incorporates the 
art of Norman Perryman while integrating Min 
Xiao-Fen's voice with Chinese folk music, the 
avant-garde, and Chinese folk-rock.
o	Mary Nessinger (mezzo-soprano), who lends 
her first-rate classical technique to new music, 
with composer Steven Burke, whose work is 
becoming known for its distinctive combination of 
beauty and compositional rigor.  (Also featured 
will be Ted Mook, cello.)
o	Todd Reynolds, pan-genre 
violinist/electronic musician, with composer 
Michael Lowenstern, producer and composer of 
electronic music.
o	Taimur Sullivan (saxophone), who has 
given world premieres of over 100 compositions, 
with composer Jason Eckardt, whose work explores 
perceptual complexity and performance virtuosity.

The eight resultant pieces reflect the diversity 
of our times by exploring a broad spectrum of 
musical genres.  By assembling such a rich 
variety of performers and composers and 
presenting their work to three distinct audiences 
across New York state, Meet The Composer hopes to 
foster appreciation for such musical innovation 
while empowering soloists to continue their 
passionate advocacy for new music.

-- 
***************************
Monique Buzzarté
monique at buzzarte.org
http://www.buzzarte.org