Composers Concordance presents
6th Annual CompCord Festival
March 3-12, 2017
Tickets $15 general admission; $10 seniors and students
Venues: The Cutting Room, Spectrum NYC, Goddard Riverside, Cornelia St. Café, Rockwood Music Hall, and Gallery MC
Festival Site | Facebook | Season Site
Composers Concordance’s 6th annual festival, entitled ‘New York // New Music’, will be held from March 3-12, 2017, and will feature new music about NYC by more than 85 composers. The six-concert festival will launch at The Cutting Room, with theCompCord Big Band premiering 10 compositions. Composers will include Kinan Azmeh (“intensely soulful” – The New York Times. “spellbinding” – The New Yorker), as well as Dan Cooper, John Clark, Anthony Branker, Joseph Martin Waters, and others. Composer-vocalist Melanie Mitrano will bring her “swinging, clean, cool and refined” vocals. Violinist Vesselin Gellev, Sub-Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, will premiere Gene Pritsker’s violin concerto with big band. This new composition is about three paintings by New York artist Mark Kostabi, whose canvases are permanently featured at The Cutting Room.
The second concert, at Spectrum NYC, will be the 8th annual ‘Composers-Play-Composers Marathon’. No fewer than 25 composers will perform original compositions inspired by New York. Featured composer-performers will include Adam Holzman (musical director for Miles Davis, also named by Keyboard magazine as one of the top 10 players in the world), award-winning bassist Mark Egan (Pat Metheny Group, Gil Evans Orchestra), and recent Fulbright recipient Paula Matthusen (“entrancing” – The New Yorker). Comedian and Chelsea gallerist Jim Kempner will perform a piece about the NY art world with Gene Pritsker – guitar and Peter Jarvis – drumset.
The third concert, ‘Sonic Divide New York’, at Goddard Riverside – Bernie Wohl Center, will be a performance-screening of percussionist-vocalist Payton MacDonald’s recent project, which combines newly commissioned music, ultra-distance mountain biking, and documentary film. The ‘Sonic Divide’ film tells a unique story of creativity, persistence, and ingenuity. MacDonald pedaled as much as 130 miles a day, from dawn to dusk, stopping only to perform music. He camped in grizzly country and struggled with extreme heat, cold, and storms. The film includesinterviews with the composers, other riders, locals, and a geographer. His performance will feature NY composers including Michael Gordon, Eve Beglarian, Elliott Sharp, Jerome Kitzke, Dan Cooper, Gene Pritsker, and Milica Paranosic.
The fourth concert, at Cornelia Street Café, will showcase cellist Craig Hultgren in’NYCello’. Hultgren, a longtime advocate of new and daring music, will perform compositions created specifically for him. The program will feature Baroque dance-suite forms redressed with interactive computer signal processing, along with pieces using drum tracks, and one of Hultgren’s own unique improvisations. NYC composers include: Joe Deninzon, David Morneau, Gene Pritsker, Ann Warren, and Mark Zanter.
The fifth concert, ‘NEC in NYC’, at Rockwood Music Hall – Stage 3, will focus on graduates of the New England Conservatory who live in New York. Performers and composers including Lynn Bechtold, Rubens Salles, Eleanor Cory, Dan Cooper, John Clark, Jessica Bowers, Jennifer DeVore, Russell Holzman, Karen Bogardus, Alon Nechushtan, and Maria Tegzes will unite to celebrate their alma mater and the city where they currently reside.
The festival will wrap up at Gallery MC with the sixth concert, ‘CompCord Meets AFMM’. Composers Concordance and American Festival of Microtonal Music, two long-standing organizations, will join together to co-produce a concert focusing on NYC composers writing microtonal compositions. Composers include Svjetlana Bukvich, Monroe Golden, Johnny Reinhard, Zach Seely, and others. An ensemble of woodwinds, fretless guitars, double bass, and trombone will be conducted by Charles Coleman. Composer and bass trombone luminary David Taylor will also be performing.
6th Annual Festival: ‘New York // New Music’
- ‘CompCord Big Band NY, NY’
March 3rd @ 7:30pm
Cutting Room
44 E 32nd St, NYC
- ‘8th Annual Comp-Play-Comp Marathon: NYC Theme’
March 4th @ 7pm
Spectrum NYC
121 Ludlow St #2, NYC
- ‘Sonic Divide New York’
Payton MacDonald – percussion / voice
March 5th @ 7:30pm
Goddard Riverside – Bernie Wohl Center
647 Columbus Ave, NYC
- ‘NYCello’
Craig Hultgren – solo cello
March 8th @ 6pm
Cornelia Street Café
29 Cornelia St, NYC
- ‘NEC in NYC’
New England Conservatory
March 11th @ 7pm
Rockwood Music Hall
Stage 3
185 Orchard St, NYC
- ‘CompCord Meets AFMM’
American Festival of Microtonal Music
March 12th @ 7pm
Gallery MC
549 W 52nd St, NYC
Staying in rotation for 32 years in NYC is a rare feat. In the case of a new music presenting organization, it requires not only diligence and cognizance of achievements of the past, but also an ethic of keeping one’s ear to the ground for emerging stylistic and technological developments, as well as talented new composers on the scene. Composers Concordance strives to present contemporary music in innovative ways, with an emphasis on thematic programming. It has also created a record label, Composers Concordance Records, with distribution by Naxos. Directors Gene Pritsker and Dan Cooper co-curate the programs, and lead the CompCord Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, String Orchestra, and Big Band. Associate Directors are Milica Paranosic, Peter Jarvis, Svjetlana Bukvich, and Melissa Grey. Composers Concordance’s overriding vision is to promote contemporary music, composers, and new works as a rightful and respected part of society. Good music, performed and recorded well, pushing the boundaries of sound and composition.
“For the past 30 years, Composers Concordance has been a booster for local composers, through both its concerts across the city and a record label.” -The Wall Street Journal. “Enterprising new music organization” -The New York Times. “The Composers Concordance folks are unpredictable and at times refreshingly irreverent in a reverent sort of way….ingenious fun” -Classical-Modern Music Review. “Edgy…boisterous…demanding our attention” -San Diego Story. “These men and women are creating exciting music with elements of jazz, world music and many experimental techniques blended with equal parts classical tradition and playing techniques.” -Asbury Park Press. “There is considerable evidence to show that Composers Concordance may be one of the most exciting labels in American contemporary music.” -JazzdaGama.
