New Music New College Announces 2014-15 Season
The 2014-15 New Music New College concert series will feature new stars and innovators of instrumental and vocal music and the original interpretations of classic pieces that audiences have come to expect from the series.
Entering its 16th season, New Music New College is a program of New College of Florida that brings eminently talented musicians to the community for exciting, memorable performances that audiences are unlikely to hear elsewhere. In doing so, the concerts foster a conversation about music and meaning.
Launching the new season on Sept. 13 is pianist Blair McMillen, described in a New York Times review as “riveting” and “prodigiously accomplished and exciting.” McMillen, trained at Oberlin College, the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music, plays classical and modern compositions. “When played by the formidable Mr. McMillen, any piece sounds terrific,” said Times critic Anthony Tommasini.
The series continues on Nov. 15 with the New College Chorus and on Jan. 17 with the experimental vocalist and composer Pamela Z, who last performed at New Music New College five years ago. The season’s interactive event will be “Inside ‘In C’” on March 14, with musicians from New College and the community performing the 1964 Terry Riley composition.
New Music New College concludes the season April 25 with the vocal ensemble Ekmeles, which the New York Times said “inhabits its own neighborhood on the border between music and linguistics” and praised for its “extraordinary virtuosity.”
The season also includes two additional free concerts. NEWCLOrk: The New College Laptop Orchestra, a concert by students in Prof. Mark Danciger’s electronic music class, will be May 14. The Sarasota Brass Quintet will play music composed by New College students at a date to be announced. All Thursday night Artist Conversation talks also are free and open to the public.
The series continues to offer both the free artist conversations, on the Thursday before each performance, and the pre-concert talks, 20-minute conversations with the artists that will explore the themes and context of the work.
Performances are in either at the Mildred Sainer Music and Arts Pavilion/Caples Fine Arts Complex, 5313 Bay Shore Road or at the Sudakoff Center, 5845 General Dougher Place.
Subscriptions for the five-concert series are $60. Single tickets are $15 for the general public, $5 for non-New College students, and free to the New College community. Reservations are available online at donate.ncf.edu/events, or by calling 941-487-4888. More information is available at newmusicnewcollege.org, or facebook.com/newmusicnewcollege.
New Music New College is a program of New College of Florida, the state’s honors college and a national leader in the liberal arts and sciences. It is funded in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development tax revenues.
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Media Contact: David Gulliver, News Services Manager, 941-487-4154, [email protected]
NEW MUSIC NEW COLLEGE SEASON SCHEDULE/CALENDAR LISTINGS
FIVE CONCERT SUBSCRIPTION SERIES ($60)
Blair McMillen: No Holds Barred
Saturday, September 13, 2014, 8:00 p.m. (Pre-Concert Talk at 7:30 p.m.)
Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Tickets: $15, non-New College students $5; free to New College community
Reservations: 941-487-4888 or online at donate.ncf.edu/events
Information: newmusicnewcollege.org
A rising star of contemporary music, pianist Blair McMillen has won accolades for his performances with the New York Philharmonic, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and Le Poisson Rouge. “No Holds Barred” will feature (among other pieces) Book II of George Crumb’s Makrokosmos, one the great works for piano of the twentieth century. Composed in reference to Bartok’s Mikrokosmos, Crumb’s work explores the full range of the piano, using amplification and a wide range of techniques (including objects placed in the strings, à la Cage) to create a magical sound world, full of color and haunting harmony.
The New College Chorus: Darkness and Light
Saturday, November 15, 8:00 p.m. (Pre-Concert Talk at 7:30 p.m.)
Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Tickets: $15, non-New College students $5; free to New College community
Reservations: 941-487-4888 or online at donate.ncf.edu/events
Information: newmusicnewcollege.org
Founded in 2005 by Daniel Moe (often called the dean of American choral conductors), the New College Chorus has provided opportunities for students to sing classics of the vast choral repertoire, from Gregorian chant to music of today’s composers. Now under the direction of Virginia Bray, the Chorus has grown in size and regularly attracts large audiences for its campus concerts.
For this special program the Chorus will perform Dark Night of the Soul, a major work by the Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo. Composed for voices and a small instrumental ensemble, the music is rhythmically charged and texturally dynamic. At times the instruments accompany the choir, but the relationship can shift, with the voices providing a wordless harmonic backdrop for instrumental virtuosity. Also on the program: Meredith Monk’s dazzling Return to Earth and R. Murray Schafer’s Epitaph for Moonlight, a new music classic.
Pamela Z: Memoria
Saturday, January 17, 8:00 p.m. (Pre-Concert Talk at 7:30 p.m.)
Club Sudakoff, in the Sudakoff Center, 5845 General Dougher Place
Tickets: $15, non-New College students $5; free to New College community
Reservations: 941-487-4888 or online at donate.ncf.edu/events
Information: newmusicnewcollege.org
Returning to NMNC for the first time in five years, composer-vocalist Pamela Z will present a single, original work, Memoria, which will draw on multiple media to explore the place of recollection in the human experience. As a temporal medium, music is fundamentally concerned with time and memory: how we register events, and how those events take on meaning through repetition, variation, and contrast. In Memoria Pamela Z will combine text, both spoken and sung, with video and gesture to create a fluid space that blurs distinctions between past and present. As with all solo works of Pamela Z, the audience will experience the performer as a virtual ensemble.
New College and Community Musicians: Inside ‘In C’
Saturday, March 14, 8:00 p.m. (Pre-Concert Talk at 7:30 p.m.)
PepsiCo Arcade, at Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Tickets: $15, non-New College students $5; free to New College community
Reservations: 941-487-4888 or online at donate.ncf.edu/events
Information: newmusicnewcollege.org
Terry Riley’s minimalist masterpiece “In C” is one of the most influential compositions of the past fifty years. Composed for any number of musicians, the score consists of short melodic figures that the performers work through at their own pace while synchronized to a common rhythmic pulse. Every performance of “In C” is different, yet the melodic structure ensures the work’s identity and coherence. For this performance, the musicians (drawn from New College and the community) will surround the audience, inviting everyone to venture, wander, and explore Inside “In C.”
Ekmeles: The Sacred and the Profane
Saturday, April 25, 8:00 p.m. (Pre-Concert Talk at 7:30 p.m.)
Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Tickets: $15, non-New College students $5; free to New College community
Reservations: 941-487-4888 or online at donate.ncf.edu/events
Information: newmusicnewcollege.org
For our season finale NMNC proudly presents Ekmeles, one of the most accomplished vocal groups working today. All eight members of Ekmeles are virtuosi, possessing complete mastery of conventional and extended vocal techniques. Their range as individual vocalists and their coherence as ensemble allow Ekmeles to perform works of extraordinary difficulty and complexity. For this program Ekmeles will perform compositions by Aaron Cassidy and Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf that expand vocal music to include all manner of sounds—sung, spoken, cried, whispered—as well as the harmonically rapturous music of Ben Johnston and Giacinto Scelsi.
FREE COMMUNITY EVENTS
Artist Conversation: Blair McMillen
Thursday, Sept. 11, 5:00 p.m.
Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Information: 941-487-4888 or visit newmusicnewcollege.org
Artist Conversation: The New College Chorus
Saturday, Nov. 15, 5:00 p.m.
Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Information: 941-487-4888 or visit newmusicnewcollege.org
Artist Conversation with Pamela Z
Thursday, Jan. 15, 5:00 p.m.
Club Sudakoff, at Sudakoff Center, 5845 General Dougher Place
Information: 941-487-4888 or visit newmusicnewcollege.org
Artist Conversation: “Inside ‘In C’” Musicians
Thursday, March 12, 5:00 p.m.
Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Information: 941-487-4888 or visit newmusicnewcollege.org
Artist Conversation: Ekmeles
Thursday, April 23, 5:00 p.m.
Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Information: 941-487-4888 or visit newmusicnewcollege.org
Performance: Sarasota Brass Quintet
Date and Time To Be Announced
Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Information: 941-487-4888 or visit newmusicnewcollege.org
Performance: NEWCLOrk, the New College Laptop Orchestra
Thursday, May 14, 7:30 p.m.
Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road
Information: 941-487-4888 or visit newmusicnewcollege.org