Marathon Concert by Alarm Will Sound as the finale of John Adams’ In Your Ear Redux Festival at Zankel Hall.

As John Adams’ four year post as the Composer’s Chair of Carnegie Hall comes to an end, his final weekend of concerts includes the 20-member new music band known as Alarm Will Sound. This will be my second time joining the group as a guest performer, and I’m also looking forward to performing with them again in June on their European tour.

The fact that the group’s performances are full of virtuosic ensemble playing is almost a side-note to what captivated me the most when I first heard about them: their taste in projects and repertoire. Almost everyone in the band does something other than their primary instrument, be it composition, arrangement, or electronic music, and this concert (their third feature in Zankel in less than a year), showcases all three. Titled Out of Our Heads, it features works composed or arranged by the members of the group; and the fact that the three-hour marathon concert only begins to explore their output of original projects illustrates the depth of their inspiration and creativity.

Perhaps the most well known of these projects is their acoustic arrangements of the music of electronic composer Aphex Twin, and this concert features five; Prep Gawrlek 3B, Cock / Ver 10, Jynweythek Ylow, 4, and Avril 14th. You can hear all 13 of their arrangements as well as 2 remixes by following this link to the iTunes store: Acoustica.
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