New Music New College Concert Series Announces 2017–2018 Season
The New Music New College 2017-18 season – the 19th year of the series – features one “monster” of a concert and a slate of performances that, as always, push the boundaries of contemporary music.
The five-concert series opens Saturday, Oct. 7, and again will include Artist Conversations and Pre-Concert Talks. Subscriptions for the entire series are $60 and tickets for individual performances are $15; Artist Conversations are free and open to the public. All performances are on the New College of Florida campus.
The “monster” is perhaps the most famous one in literature: “It’s Alive – A Monstrous Circus on Frankenstein” is based on American avant-garde composer John Cage’s “Circus On,” which is a template for turning any text into a musical performance.
The season also features two string quartets – one with the traditional instruments, and one with electric guitars – as well as a trio of piano, violin and bass, and a performance that uses the human body as instrument.
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. The concert series is funded in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development tax revenues.
For reservations, visit https://donate.ncf.edu/newmusictix or call 941-487-4888.
New Music New College 2017-18 Season
Amernet String Quartet with Rachel Calloway:
Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 2
Concert: Saturday, Oct. 7, 8:00 p.m., Mildred Sainer Pavilion
Pre-concert talk: 7:30 p.m.
Artist Conversation: Thursday, Oct. 5, 5:00 p.m., Mildred Sainer Pavilion
Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet is a landmark of 20th century music, encompassing the extended tonality of late Romanticism and early modern atonality. The final two movements of this transporting work include a soprano, who sings “I feel air of another planet.” Come hear how vibrant and exciting this work is, performed by the Amernet String Quartet with soprano Rachel Calloway.
The Amernet String Quartet has garnered recognition as one of today’s exceptional string quartets and is Ensemble-in-Residence at Florida International University in Miami. The group’s sound has been called “complex” but with an “old world flavor.” Strad Magazine described the Amernet as “. . . a group of exceptional technical ability.” The New York Times praised the quartet as “immensely satisfying—most notable for the quality of unjaded discovery that came through so vividly.”
Special Free Event: Duo Cortona, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 5:30 p.m., College Hall Music Room
On the Tuesday before the concert, Calloway (who was here as part of Ekmeles in 2015) and violinist Ari Streisfeld (a longtime friend of NMNC as a founder of the JACK Quartet) will give a free concert in the College Hall Music Room as Duo Cortona, their new project dedicated to the creation of works for mezzo-soprano and violin.
Dis/Embodied
Concerts: Friday, Nov. 17, 8:00 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 18, 8:00 p.m.; Sunday, Nov. 19, 3:00 p.m.; all in the Black Box Theater in New College’s Hamilton Student Center.
Pre-concert talk: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday
Artist Conversation: Thursday, November 16, 5:00 p.m., Black Box Theater
We explore making music with the body—and without the body—in this concert, performed three times (because of space limitations) in New College’s intimate Black Box Theater. Vinko Globokar’s unsettling ?Corporel, performed by NMNC Director Stephen Miles, is played by the performer on his own body. Luciano Berio’s Thema (Omaggio a Joyce) is a recorded piece based on the Sirens episode of Ulysses, and dancer Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancigers will offer a physical interpretation. NMNC Producer R. L. Silver will then perform Roger Marsh’s Dum, which fragments and reconfigures texts and also involves hurling pieces of metal into a bucket. In between these solo works, New College students will dance to electronic music pieces composed by fellow students.
Lerner/Filiano/Grassi (Marilyn Lerner, Ken Filiano, and Lou Grassi)
Concert: Saturday, Jan. 20, 8:00 p.m., Club Sudakoff (in the Sudakoff Conference Center)
Pre-concert talk: 7:30 p.m.
Artist Conversation: Thursday, Jan. 18, 5:00 p.m., Club Sudakoff
Jazz pianist Marilyn Lerner has been to NMNC twice before, and she returns to thrill us with her mastery of extended techniques and her gift for improvisation, this time with bassist Ken Filiano and drummer Lou Grassi. Come to Club Sudakoff and experience music of the moment performed by the best!
Lerner has performed to international acclaim, from her native Montreal to Havana, from Jerusalem to Amsterdam and the Ukraine. Her work spans the worlds of jazz, creative improvisation, klezmer and 20th century classical music. She composes for film, theatre, radio and television. Coda Magazine says, “With a breathtaking command of the piano, Lerner effortlessly ran through the instrument’s expansive palette of colours. It was delicate and probing, hard driving, witty and funny.”
Bassist Ken Filiano has played and recorded with leading artists in jazz, spontaneous improvisation, classical, world/ethnic, and interdisciplinary performance. His solo bass CD, subvenir (NineWinds), received widespread critical praise. Drummer Lou Grassi is internationally known for his work in both the traditional and the avant-garde jazz worlds. He has literally played from Ragtime to No-Time.
It’s Alive! A Monstrous Circus On Frankenstein
Concert: Sunday, March 4, 8:00 p.m., Koski Plaza/ACE Building
Pre-concert talk: 7:30 p.m.
Artist Conversation: Thursday, March 1, 5:00 p.m., ACE Building lounge
2018 is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein, and we celebrate by using Mary Shelley’s enormously influential work as the basis of John Cage’s Circus On, a template for turning text into a performance. “It’s Alive! a Monstrous Circus On Frankenstein” will be our live, multimedia presentation, sprawling across the outdoor Koski Plaza and all three levels of New College’s ACE building. New College students, faculty, and staff, abetted by ensemblenewSRQ, will sing, declaim, emote, dance, perform, and wreak general havoc. Come see the monster if you dare! Note: This concert will be on a Sunday.
Dither
Concert: Saturday, April 21, 8:00 p.m. Mildred Sainer Pavilion
Pre-concert talk: 7:30 p.m.
Artist Conversation: Thursday, April 19, 5:00 p.m., Mildred Sainer Pavilion
When is a string quartet not like a string quartet? When it’s a quartet of electric guitarists! To end our season, NMNC welcomes Dither, a New York-based electric guitar quartet dedicated to an eclectic mix of experimental repertoire which spans composed music, improvisation, and electronic manipulation. From quiet and intense to raucous and driving, Dither’s performance is sure to expand your musical horizons.
Formed in 2007, Dither’s members are Taylor Levine, Joshua Lopes, James Moore and Gyan Riley. The group has performed across the United States and abroad, presenting new commissions, original compositions, improvisations, multimedia works, and large guitar ensemble pieces. Dither has performed and collaborated with a wide range of artists including Eve Beglarian, Fred Frith, Mary Halvorson, David Lang, Ikue Mori, Phill Niblock, Lee Ranaldo, Lois V. Vierk, Yo La Tengo, and John Zorn.
Their latest release, Dither plays Zorn, featuring the premiere recordings of several of John Zorn’s improvisational game pieces, was named one of Rolling Stone’s “top avant albums of 2015.” The New York Times calls Dither “sophisticated, hard-driving and stylistically omnivorous music making.”