This week: concerts in New York (October 2, 2017 – October 8, 2017)

Tyrants and Liberators | Momenta Festival

Curated by Stephanie Griffin, this concert is inspired by her reexamination of the topicality of Arnold Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte, but is more about the fight for freedom than about the despots who encumber it. Along with the Schoenberg piece, the program will include Sin Tiempo, a string quartet by the Bolivian composer, Agustín Fernández, a work by Alvin Singleton, and an improvised duo by Griffin with bassist Hilliard Greene on the spiritual Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.
Monday, October 2 at 7:00 PM
Free
Americas Society, 680 Park Avenue, New York, NY
..:: Website

A Room with a View | Momenta Festival

This concert explores ideas of Italy through the eyes of foreigners – the composers Benjamin Britten, Claude Baker, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – none of the three Italian, but each seduced by the country’s beauty, romance, and mystery. In addition to the world premiere by American composer Claude Baker, the evening includes Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No. 3 in G Major, Op. 94, and Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence Op. 70 for string sextet with Samuel Rhodes (viola) and Marcy Rosen (cello).
Tuesday, October 3 at 7:00 PM
Free
The Italian Academy at Columbia University, 1161 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY
..:: Website

Forces of Creation | Momenta Festival

 

Curated by violinist Alex Shiozaki, this concert explores various creation myths. In addition to the world premiere of the revised version of Hiroya Miura’s physics-inspired quartet Singularity, the program includes Per Nørgård’s String Quartet No. 8 Night Descending Like Smoke, João Pedro Oliveira’s Magma, for violin and electronics, and Darius Milhaud’s La création du monde, op. 81b, in its version for piano quintet with guest pianist Nana Shi.
Wednesday, October 4 at 7:00 PM
Free
The Center at West Park, 165 West 86th Street, New York, NY
..:: Website

Stray Bird

Stray Bird is a danced tribute to composer Ursula Mamlok, who as a teenager fled from the Nazis, arrived in New York after traveling across three continents, and became one of her generation’s visionary composers. Seven of Mamlok’s chamber music compositions are presented with new choreography ranging from ballet to contemporary dance, highlighting Mamlok’s life, artistry, and her triumph over society’s conventions and political adversity.
Thursday, October 5 at 7:00 PM & 8:30 PM & Friday, October 6 at 6:30 PM & 8:30 PM
Free
German Academy New York, 1014 5th Avenue, New York,NY
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PLETAI

Together with composer Abraham Brody, the ensemble PLETAI explore both the ancient and modern connection between Slavic and Baltic folklore, as well as seek to demonstrate the unity of different backgrounds and cultures through their powerful artistic partnership.
Thursday, October 5 at 7:00 PM
Tickets $20
National Sawdust, 80 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY
..:: Website

Anna Magdalena Kokits

Pianist Anna Magdalena Kokits performs a free solo recital featuring works by Beethoven, Gershwin, Zemlinsky, new music by Manuela Kerer and Vivian Fung, plus selections from her new Ernst Toch CD.
Thursday, October 5 at 7:30 PM
Free
Austrian Cultural Forum New York, 11 East 52nd Street, New York, NY
..:: Website

BAC Salon: Telemann, Farrin, Wolfe + Prokofiev

An intimate evening of music ranging from baroque to post-minimalism features the New York Premiere of a work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe, commissioned through BAC’s inaugural Cage Cunningham Fellowship. The program also includes solo works by Telemann and Suzanne Farrin, and Prokofiev’s playful score inspired by circus life, a masterwork of modernism.
Thursday, October 5 & Friday, October 6 at 7:30 PM
Tickets $20
Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 West 37th Street #501, New York, NY
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Threefifty

Threefifty celebrates the release of their 4th album at ShapeShifter Lab.
Friday, October 6 at 7:00 PM
Tickets $12
ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Place, Brooklyn, NY
..:: Website

the strange library (of Babel)

Mivos String Quartet, Anna Weber, Matt Moran and Nate Wooley give the US premiere of Bojan Vuletić’s The strange library (of Babel).
Friday, October 6 at 7:00 PM
Tickets $15, $10 students/seniors
Spectrum, 70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Brooklyn, NY
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John Zorn: The Bagatelles

From March to May 2015 John Zorn wrote 300 new compositions collected in a book of music called The Bagatelles. NYU Skirball is presents a two-day marathon concert of 20 different ensembles performing over 100 different compositions from Zorn’s expansive new book of music.
Friday, October 6 & Saturday, October 7 at 7:30 PM
Tickets $50
NYU Skirball, 566 LaGuardia Place, New York, NY
..:: Website

Gulliver’s Travels | American Opera Projects

American Opera Projects presents a music reading of excerpts from the new opera Gulliver’s Travels by composer Victoria Bond and librettist Stephen Greco. Greco, Bond and Dramaturg Doug Fitch will discuss the work and their plans for the full production in 2019 with the Gulf Coast Symphony. Andrew Kurtz, Music Director of the symphony will conduct the one-hour workshop performance. A reception follows.
Friday, October 6 at 8:00 PM
Tickets $10
South Oxford Space, The Great Room, 138 South Oxford Street, Brooklyn, NY
..:: Website

Enno Poppe | Yarn/Wire

The Kitchen presents the world premiere of Yarn/Wire: Enno Poppe, where the acclaimed quartet will perform Feld, a new work by the Berlin-based composer. Combining the complex timbres of percussion instruments, all filtered through microtonal organs or paired with dense, perpetually moving piano complexity, and applied with the quartet’s skills, this concert give rise to the sonic universe of Enno Poppe. The evening will also feature a performance of 2009’s Tonbad, written in collaboration with the electronics guru Wolfgang Heiniger.
Friday, October 6 at 8:00 PM
Tickets $20, $15 members
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street, New York, NY
..:: Website

Hotel Elefant

Hotel Elefant launches its 2017-18 season at the cell with a split bill, led by two composer-performer members of the ensemble. The first half of the evening is the premiere of Hannis Brown’s Radio Free Music while the second half of the evening is the premiere of Shawn Lovato’s Microcosms.
Friday, October 6 at 8:00 PM
PWYW (pay what you want)
the cell, 338 West 23rd Street, New York, NY
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Lineage & Heritage II

Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra presents Lineage and Heritage II, featuring the NYC premiere of Jennifer Jolley’s Spielzeug Straßenbahn, Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s Nonet, and the world premiere of Evan Williams’s harpsichord concerto, Dead White Man Music.
Friday, October 6 at 8:00 PM
Tickets $20, $12 students/seniors/veterans
Christ and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 120 West 69th Street, New York, NY
..:: Website

Music of Longing | Ekmeles

Ekmeles performs the world premiere of James Weeks’s Primo Libro, the U.S. premiere of Cassandra Miller’s Guide, and other works on the theme of personal and spiritual longing.
Saturday, October 7 at 7:30 PM
Tickets $20
The Church of the Intercession Crypt, West 155th and Broadway, New York, NY
..:: Website

Kathleen Supové, piano; Keve Wilson, flute

This concert features New York premieres by Randall Woolf, Gene Pritsker, Milica Paranosic, plus some other surprises.
Sunday, October 8 at 5:00 PM
Tickets $15, $10 students/seniors
Spectrum, 70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Brooklyn, NY
..:: Website

Grief is the Thing with Feathers | Unbridled Ensemble

The center piece of the program is David Lang’s Death Speaks for soprano and chamber ensemble; other works included are by Icli Zitella, Ashkan Behzadi, and Meredith Monk. This performance is programmed around Max Porter’s novel Grief is the Thing With Feathers and will include readings from the novel between musical works.
Sunday, October 8 at 7:00 PM
Tickets $15, $10 students/seniors
Spectrum, 70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Brooklyn, NY
..:: Website