Alarm Will Sound performs works of John Adams, Wolfgang Rihm, John Orfe, Aphex Twin at Bremen Musikfest 2010.

The three-week Vermont Mozart Festival now draws upwards of 16,000 visitors annually to concerts throughout Vermont. Since its first year, the Mozart Festival has performed 3,000 pieces in fifty-six different venues. It has consistently been named by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce as one of Vermont’s Top Ten Summer Events, and is regarded by its attendees as one of their favorite summer rituals.

The Festival has presented many of the premier soloists and ensembles of our time: the Grammy Award-winning Emerson and Angeles String Quartets, pianists Claude Frank and Menahem Pressler, the Tokyo Quartet, the Beaux Arts Trio, guitarist Sharon Isbin, flutist Julius Baker, clarinetist Benny Goodman, and many others.

In recognition of the enormous impact he has had on the cultural life of Vermont, founder and Artistic Director Mel Kaplan has received both the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to the State of Vermont, and the Vermont Arts Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ensemble-In-Residence: Alarm Will Sound
Guest Artists: Composers Martin Bresnick and Derek Bermel, Pianist Lisa Moore

The Mizzou New Music Initiative is excited to announce the on the campus of the University of Missouri. Eight composers from around the world will be selected through a portfolio application process to compose a work to be performed by the internationally acclaimed new music ensemble, Alarm Will Sound. Composers will receive private composition lessons with Martin Bresnick recipient of the first Charles Ives Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Derek Bermel, Composer-in-Residence of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; take part in workshops with Alarm Will Sound; participate in masterclasses; receive a professional live recording and the premiere performance of their work.

The programs of the Mizzou New Music Initiative have been made possible through the generous support of the Sinquefield Charitable Foundation. The City of Columbia Office of Cultural Affairs provided financial assistance for the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival.

Gordon, Yo Shakespeare (12’)
Aphex/MacDonald Meltphace 6 (6’)
Orfe, Chamber Symphony (20′)

INTERMISSION

The Beatles, Revolution 9 arr. Matt Marks (8′)
Rihm, Will Sound (5’)
Aphex/Hause, Omgyjya Switch (5′)
Autechre/Desantis, Cfern (6′)
Aphex/Burhans, Blue Calx (7′)
Aphex Twin arr. Freund, Cock ver 10 (5′)

Friday, May 21, 2010
8:00pm
Galapagos Art Space
16 Main Street, Brooklyn

New Amsterdam Records presents ACME with Craig Wedren and ICE with Corey Dargel and Kathleen Supové as part of the Archipelago concert series.

Tickets: 718.222.8500 or www.galapagosartspace.com

Archipelago concludes with a closing event featuring a mix of stellar ensembles and performers. Known for its definitive takes on the masterpieces of the 20th & 21st century, ACME seeks to redefine chamber music’s roll in a new century. Joining them on stage will be Craig Wedren, composer/vocalist known for his work with the legendary math rock outfit Shudder to Think, and his impressive body of film music work (High Art, Velvet Goldmine). Corey Dargel will use the evening to explore themes of loss & love in a New Amsterdam dual record release event. For the semi-staged Removable Parts, Corey tells the twisted story of voluntary amputees with pianist Kathleen Supové. The International Contemporary Ensemble will join Corey for selections from Thirteen Near-Death Experiences.

Home Grown: Alexandra Gardner

Wednesday, February 3, 2010, 8 p.m. @ Metro Gallery

She may look like the sweet and innocent girl next door, but Washington D.C.-based composer Alexandra Gardner pens music that definitely makes the boys shake in their boots. In a language distinctly her own, Alexandra seamlessly melds the often disparate worlds of acoustic and electronic music. Tonight Mobtown Modern presents a retrospective of Alexandra’s compositions since 2004.

Tickets are $10, general admission and $5 for Contemporary Museum members and students with a valid ID.

ACME has a great program prepared with pianist Simone Dinnerstein; it airs live tomorrow night on WQXR (and WQXR.org) and we will perform it again Saturday night, 8 PM, at Miller Theater. As a percussionist I never assume I’ll get opportunities to play Bach (except the occasional orchestral suite timpani part), so I’m hyped. The string quartet portion of ACME has already been touring this program with Simone and this version will be slightly larger ensemble: Flute, Bass Clarinet, Vibraphone, Harmonium, 2 Violins, Viola, and Cello.

The program:
Bach: Keyboard Concerto in D Minor, first movement
Cage: String Quartet, excerpt
Bach: Selected Prelude & Fugue
Bach: Selections from Art of the Fugue
Bach: Keyboard Concerto in F Minor

Throughout the performance, Ms. Dinnerstein and ACME will join in conversation with WQXR host David Garland. The entire evening will air live on 105.9 FM and stream at WQXR.org on Friday at 7PM.

Dual Portrait of John Cage & Phil Kline
ACME: American Contemporary Music Ensemble

ACME presents a dual portrait of composers John Cage (1912-1992) and Phil Kline (b. 1953), exploring the similarities of their sonic worlds. The concert will include Cage’s minimalist precursor 'Credo in Us' (1942) as well as one of the last pieces he wrote not entirely based on chance, 'String Quartet in Four Parts'. Composed in 1950, the string quartet is based partly on the Indian view of the seasons of the year in which each is associated with a particular force – creation, preservation, destruction and quiescense. 

From New York composer Phil Kline, ACME will present his string quartet entitled 'The Blue Room and Other Stories', which premiered at The Kitchen in 2002, as well as his 'Exquisite Corpses', a sextet written for the Bang on a Can All-Stars in 1997.  Famous for his annual holiday cult tradition, 'Unsilent Night' (which features many individual parts, recorded on cassette tapes, CDs and Mp3s, and played through a roving swarm of boomboxes carried through city streets), Kline’s recent projects include the full-length choral Mass 'John the Revelator', commissioned by WNYC and premiered at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, as well as scores for two evening-length dances by Wally Cardona.

ACME has been described as a collective of “contemporary-classical renegades” by Time Out New York, and “vital,” “brilliant,” and “electrifying” by The New York Times. The ensemble performs frequently at (Le) Poisson Rouge in the West Village as a regular guest of the Wordless Music Series, has appeared at Carnegie Hall, BAM, Miller Theatre, the Whitney Museum, and this year opened the TriBeCa New Music Festival at the Flea Theater. In addition to performing contemporary classical music, ACME has also collaborated with Craig Wedren (former frontman of the avant-rock band Shudder To Think), Hauschka, and Jóhann Jóhannsson, Grizzly Bear (appearing on their latest album, Veckatimest), and the electronica duo Matmos, among other indie artists.

$12/$10 Student tickets available at the door