New Music New College Presents The JACK Quartet, January 16
New Music New College continues its 2009-2010 season of contemporary music on January 16, 2010, when The JACK Quartet plays the music of “Modern and Medieval Masters.” The concert will take place at 8:00 pm in the Mildred Sainer Pavilion, 5313 Bay Shore Road. The ensemble will also give a free demo/discussion on Friday, January 15, at 3:30 pm in Sainer Pavilion.
The high-octane string quartet consists of Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violins; John Pickford Richards, viola; and Kevin McFarland, cello. The program includes Streisfeld’s arrangements of secular songs by Guillaume de Machaut, one of the giants of medieval music and an aesthetic ancestor of today’s architecturally oriented composers. Iannis Xenakis, trained as both composer and architect, provides the second work on the program, Tetora. The JACK Quartet is known for its mastery of Xenakis’s complex music, having recently recorded the composer’s complete string quartets for Mode Records.
The second half of the program is devoted to two very different contemporary composers, Elliott Sharp and Zack Browning. Composer Browning will be in town to give a free lecture called “Music and Numbers” on Saturday, January 16, at 3:30 pm in the Caples Fine Arts Music Pavilion, Room 212.
“Sharp’s composition, The Boreal, explores the string quartet as a timbral and textural resource in a manner both strange and utterly dramatic,” says NMNC Director and Professor of Music Steve Miles. “Browning, on the other hand, takes the melodic and harmonic gestures of pop, rap and jazz and transmutes them through elaborate structural procedures and the use of computer-generated sounds.” Miles is thrilled that Browning will be available to talk with students from New College and invited guests from Florida Gulf Coast University, as well as the community, about the genesis of his music and his new String Quartet that The JACK Quartet will perform on its program.
Born in 1953, Zack Browning writes music that The Atlanta Journal-Constitution describes as “way-cool in attitude” and “speed-demon music.” The Irish Times proclaims he is “bringing together the procedures of high musical art with the taste of popular culture.” Browning’s CD on Capstone Records, Banjaxed, contains eight of his original compositions for voice, instruments and computer-generated sounds and has been called “dramatic, exciting, rhythmic, high-energy music.” His composition awards include an Illinois Arts Council Composer Fellowship, two Arnold O. Beckman Research Awards and a Chamber Music America Commission. Browning is an associate professor of music composition and theory at the University of Illinois, where he has taught since 1983. Since 1996, he has also served as director of the Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award, an international competition held each year.
The January 16 concert is sponsored by Ina Schnell, with media sponsors The Herald- Tribune Media Group, WUSF Public Broadcasting and WWSB, ABC-7. Now in its 11th season, the innovative series is an integral part of the music program at New College of Florida, the state’s honors college for the liberal arts and sciences.
Tickets are $12 and can be purchased in advance by calling 941-487-4888. No reservations are needed for the two free events. More information is available at newmusicnewcollege.org or on Facebook at facebook.com/newmusicnewcollege.
New Music New College: The JACK Quartet
Saturday, January 16 at 8 pm
Mildred Sainer Pavilion
5313 Bay Shore Road
Tickets $12
(941) 487-4888
Concert weekend includes two free demo/ discussions
Friday, January 15 at 3:30 pm
Mildred Sainer Pavilion
The JACK Quartet Demo/Discussion
Saturday, January 16 at 3:30 pm
Composer Zack Browning, “Music and Numbers”
Caples Fine Arts Music Pavilion, Room 212
New Music New College Upcoming Events
Friday, February 26 at 8 pm
Caples Fine Arts Complex
Crossroads 2: Musicians from New College and the Sarasota Orchestra team up for a rock happening under the stars.
Saturday, April 24 at 8 pm
Mildred Sainer Pavilion
Victoria Bass, “The Singing Cellist” will perform the Florida premiere of Berio’s Sequenza XIV and other contemporary works.
Sunday, May 2 at 4 pm
Mildred Sainer Pavilion
The Composer’s Concert – The Sarasota Wind Quintet performs works by New College student composers as part of an ongoing collaboration with the Sarasota Orchestra.