September 26, 2010 - Composer's Voice Concert


	Composer's Voice concert
	September 26, 2010
	Jan Hus Church 351 East 74th Street New York, New York 10021

The Composer’s Voice Concert Series is an opportunity for contemporary composers to express their musical aesthetic and personal “voice” created in their compositions. Vox Novus collaborating with the Remarkable Theater Brigade and Jan Hus Church to produce a monthly concert series promoting the chamber works of contemporary composers.

Program:

Punto y Linea (Point and Line)

Jorge Sosa

Rebecca Ashe, flutes

David Morneau

Behind Corneal Gates

Texts by
Patricia Carragon
and
William Shakespeare

Mary Hubbell, voice

David Morneau, electronics
The March of the Squirrels

Christian McLeer

Christian McLeer, electronics
Canotilla: Stretching toward the sky

Mike McFerron

Paul Pinto, claves
Modified #2

Gene Pritsker

Gene Pritsker, guitar, samplestra

Performers
	Dr. Ashe is currently on the faculty of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, as Adjunct Instructor of Flute at the Community Music and Dance Academy. She is also a freelance musician and appears across the country as a performer, lecturer, and masterclass clinician. A new music performer and collaborator, she has partnered with several composers and has performed at several festivals, including SPARK, SEAMUS and the Electroacoustic Juke Joint. Dr. Ashe earned her Bachelor degree in Applied Music (flute) at the Eastman School of Music, where her principal teacher was Bonita Boyd. She earned both Master of Musical Arts and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Missouri -Kansas City, studying with Dr. Mary Posses. In 1998, she was the only American and one of four flutists worldwide to be chosen for Trevor Wye's prestigious one-year course in Kent, England. Other major teachers have included William Bennett and Karl Kraber. In 2007, Dr. Ashe collaborated with three composers, Christopher Biggs, Ryan Oldham, and Jorge Sosa to premiere three new pieces for flute. A recording project for the pieces is underway, with a release expected in 2010. Dr. Ashe has performed recitals throughout the United States, Canada, England, and Latvia. In 2003, Dr. Ashe and pianist, Inara Zandmane, gave a recital at the Academy of Music in Riga, Latvia. Ms. Ashe was the first American flutist to perform a recital at the Academy, which was broadcast on national radio. She also gave a master class at the E. Darzins Academy of Music, the most prestigious preparatory music school in Latvia. Along with her recent collaborations, Dr. Ashe has premiered several pieces, including the Kansas City premier of Chen Yi's The Golden Flute, for flute and orchestra, in 2003, and Hsueh-Yung Shen's ...And Then Things Changed, for flute and piano. She has won several local and national grants and awards.
	Mary Hubbell began her career as a soprano vocalist with interest in musical theater at age 10. Since then, she has studied at Boston College and the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, where she pushed through the challenge of a technical voice problem and discovered she is a very high soprano. Now on staff at the Charleston Academy of Music, she says, "Singing physically feels good because you use your whole body. And, of course, I love the music and that somebody will hear it and enjoy it as much as I do."

Composers
	" Mike McFerron's "Perspectives" had. . .rhythmic variety and energy. . .with drum and percussion ostinatos driving the music jazzily." - John von Rhein Chicago Tribune mcferron by tree Mike McFerron is Professor of music and Composer-in-Residence at Lewis University in the Chicago area. At Lewis University, McFerron teaches music composition and directs the music technology program. He received a DMA in composition from the Conservatory of Music--University of Missouri at Kansas City where his primary teachers were James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Gerald Kemner. A native of Oklahoma, McFerron also studied composition with Ray E. Luke. He has been on the faculty of UMKC and the Kansas City Kansas Community College, and he has served as resident composer at the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers' Forum in Bennington, Vt. McFerron is founder and co-director of Electronic Music Midwest. McFerron's music has received critical acclaim and recognition. Perspectives for orchestra was awarded first prize in the Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition (2002), was a recipient of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's "First Hearing" Program (2001), was awarded an honorable distinction in the Masterprize International Composition Competition (2003), and an honorable mention in the Rudolf Nissim Prize (2001). McFerron was chosen the winner of the Cantus Commissioning/Residency Program (2003), and he was a recipient of the 2005 CCF Abelson Art Song Commission. His music was a finalist in the 1st International Electroacoustic Music Contest - CEMJKO (2006), the 2004 Confluencias Electronic Miniatures II International Competition, the 2005 Truman State/MACRO Composition Competition, The 2005 American Modern Ensemble Composition Competition, the 2002 Swan Composition Competition, the 1999 Salvatore Martirano Composition Contest, and the 1997 South Bay Master Chorale Choral Composition Contest. McFerron has been a composers fellow at the MacDowell Colony(2001), Ucross (2010), June in Buffalo (1997), and the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers' Forum in Bennington, Vt (1999). His music has been featured on SCI National Conferences, SEAMUS National Conferences, the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), University of Richmond's 3rd Practice Festival, Spark Conference, Annual Florida Electroacoustic Music Festivals, Spring in Havanna, the MAVerick Festival, several SCI regional conferences, and concerts and radio broadcasts across the U.S. and throughout Europe. He has received commissions from Cantus, SUNY-Oswego, GeNIA, the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers' Forum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Lewis University, Sumner Academy of Arts and Science, and four times by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra.
	Christian McLeer is artistic director and founder of Remarkable Theater Brigade (RTB), a company that creates and produces new musical works. Originally founded to produce his work, RTB has grown, and in its 6th season, will begin presenting the music of other living composers as well. His musical success began as a youth, winning piano competitions and commissions while still in high school. He received his first commission at the age of 14 for the American Cancer Society for which he wrote and performed HOPE, later included on the CD Encores 2 by the renowned pianist Anna Marie Bottazzi. He attended Julliard Pre-College and worked his way through Manhattan School of Music where he acquired his Bachelor’s degree, composing and performing professionally for classical, jazz and rock ensembles. He has performed at many respected venues including Alice Tully Hall, Weill-Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and the New Orleans Astro Dome among others. Performing his own compositions has won him special acclaim from publications such as The New York Times, Newsday and OCS. Christian’s compositions have been commissioned for numerous groups and artists, including the Long Island Singers, the Harmonia Opera Company, The New Millennium Orchestra, concert pianist Phillip Dieckow, director Vincent Scott, OnTrac Productions, jazz pianist Mickey Laverine, conductor Ted Puffer, RTB, and numerous others. Musing has seen many performances and was recorded by flautist, Sophia Anastasia on her debut CD, Musing. His song cycle Longing Eternal Bliss, originally written for Monica Harte and Ken Merrill, will be recorded by McLeer and Harte on Harte’s upcoming CD of American art songs featuring Christian McLeer, Tom Cipullo George Brunner and Anne Phillips. As film composer/Sound Designer, Christian has worked with Nova Rock, FFK, Joey Piscopo, and Joachim Wiese. As Conductor, Mr. McLeer has performed with Claire Heidrick and the New Music Consort and RTB. He is an artist-in-residence for the National Choral and the musical director for Jan Hus Church. He also conducts and plays for RTB’s outreach program that tours to special-needs and at-risk children.
	David Morneau is a composer of an entirely undecided genre. In his work he endeavors to explore ideas about our culture, issues concerning creativity, and even the very nature of music itself. Morneau's work is characterized by his eclectic interests and collaborative spirit. Described by Molly Sheridan as a "flashing beacon" of inspiration, Morneau's eclectic output is best exemplified by 60x365, his "ambitious yearlong musical project" for which he composed a new one-minute composition every day. These "miniature compositions include ambient tracks, found sound, instrumental performances, and plenty of loop and sample-based pieces." [The Year of Musical Thinking, A Minute At A Time, NPR's All Things Considered, 6/30/08] Selections from 60x365 have been featured on the Sonoscop festival in Barcelona, Spark Festival at the University of Minnesota, Electronic Music Midwest at Lewis University, in a collaborative dance performance with choreographer Kristin Hapke at Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, Washington, and on Jon Nelson's Some Assembly Required. Morneau's current ambitious composition, Love Songs Project, is a collaboration with eleven poets that combines Shakespeare's sonnets with contemporary poetry in genre-crossing songs. Each song is composed in a manner that allows for easy adaptation, allowing him to create multiple arrangements for a wider range of performance options. He has been selected as this season's composer-in-residence with Alphabet Soup Productions, which will feature selections from Love Songs Project on each concert. Morneau's first solo album, a/break machinations, fractures, re-sequences, and otherwise manipulates a single drum break, touching on several of electronic music's finest traditions, such as drum'n'bass, breakcore, trip-hop and jungle. a/break machinations grew out of a collaboration with choreographer Amiti Perry, which was presented in performance at The Ohio Sate University, and in New York City at both the Merce Cunningham Studio and Teatro La Tea. For these dance performances Morneau created video animations with the support of Harvestworks. One of these videos was also featured on SoundImageSound V at the University of the Pacific. a/break machinations was released in 2009 on Immigrant Breast Nest records, where Morneau is composer-in-residence.
	Composer/guitarist/rapper/Di.J. Gene Pritsker has written over four hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. All of his compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles and are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation; an eclectic hiphop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble who have released cd's on Col-legno and Innova Records. Gene's music has been performed all over the world at various festivals and by many ensembles and performers, including the Adelaide Symphony, The Athens Camarata, Brooklyn and Berlin Philharmonic. He has worked closely with Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies. The New York Times described him as "...audacious...multitalented." Joseph Pehrson, writing in The Music Connoisseur, described Pritsker as "dissolv[ing] the artificial boundaries between high brow, low brow, classical, popular musics and elevates the idea that if it's done well it is great music, regardless of the style or genre". Raul d'Gama Rose writes in All About Jazz: "Barring the obvious exceptions, much of 21st century composition appears to be thinning in significance, but this might be about to change. Gene Pritsker is one of a very spare handful of composers effecting this change."
	“With few opportunities and much competition,...composers show creativity in just getting heard.” And in Chris Pasles’s article in the Los Angeles Times, Robert Voisey is highlighted as one of those composers. Composing electroacoustic and chamber music, his aesthetic oscillates from the Romantic to the Post Modern Mash-Up. His work has been performed in venues throughout the world including: Carnegie Hall, World Financial Center Winter Garden Atrium, and Stratford Circus in London. Voisey has been profiled and music broadcasted on HEC-TV public television in St Louis, Elektramusik in France, as well as radio stations all around the world including: Cityscape NPR St. Louis Public Radio; Arts & Answers & Art Waves on WKCR, Upbeat with Eva Radich on Radio New Zealand; and Kol Yisrael Israeli Radio. Rob Voisey’s neo-romantic chamber works are routinely performed in New York City on the Composer’s Voice concert series and his 10 minute opera was featured on “Opera Shorts” produced by the Remarkable Theater Brigade. Voisey’s electronic work ranges wildly in style and aesthetic but has the common feature of being collaborative and community orientated. Some of his current projects include: one minute electronic works for 60x60; 50 second miniatures named for each State in the Union; Constellations, a project of miniature ambient pieces put together in a mobile form. On the less short more romantic side, Voisey’s 10 minute opera, “Poppetjie” premiered at Carnegie Hall presented by the Remarkable Theater Brigade’s Opera Shorts. “Poppetjie” is a story about a little girl who projects her notions of marriage and relationships onto her doll and teddy bear. Rob Voisey’s romantic art songs “Dos Palabras” which are based on the work of Argentinean poet Alfonsina Storni. It is a duet commissioned by Agueda Pages and has been premiered by her in New York City, Bremen, Germany and Valencia, Spain. This song cycle has had several performances in New York City at Jan Hus Church at the Composer’s Voice Concert series; the Argentinean Consulate, and at Christ & St Stevens Church for the XL performance. “Dos Palabras” has also been performed in Barcelona, Spain. Before taking up the role of Director of Public Relations at Electronic Music Midwest, Voisey’s works was regularly chosen for the festival and personally brought 60x60 there since 2005. Works performed at EMM include: “Flute Lust” performed by Rebecca Ashe on Electronic Music Midwest was performed in 2010 as well as “Mandala: Soft Fire” a video collaboration with Patrick Liddell; “Monkey Lab,” a collaboration with David Morneau, was performed in 2009; “Shades of Forte” an electronic collage piece was performed in 2008; “Constellations EMM Mix” electronics and voice was performed in 2007; “We are all 60x60” included in the 60x60 Midwest Mix performed in 2006. Robert Voisey and his 60x60 Midwest Mix was featured on the 2005 Electronic Music Midwest Festival. Since then he brought 60x60 Midwest to the festival in 2006; presented a live video collaboration of the 60x60 Midwest Mix with Zlatko Cosic in 2007; in 2008 he presented an installation of 60x60 containing works from all the Midwest Mixes; in 2009 he debuted 60x60 Dance; and in 2010 Robert Voisey in collaboration with Patrick Liddell presented a video installation of all six hours of the 60x60 ICMC “RED” mixes (Burgundy, Crimson, Magenta, Sanguine, Scarlet, and Vermillion.)

Vox Novus collaborating with the Remarkable Theater Brigade and Jan Hus Church to produce a monthly concert series promoting the chamber works of contemporary composers. An opportunity for contemporary composers to express their musical aesthetic and personal “voice” created in their compositions.

Vox Novus promotes contemporary music and its creators through concerts, recordings, publications, broadcasts, and online publicity. Vox Novus believes strongly in the intrinsic value of contemporary music, recognizing it as a force in the advancement of culture and art. Our goal is to keep music alive by strengthening the connection between composer and audience, providing greater exposure to new music.

Vox Novus understands that without the creation of challenging, contemporary music there will be no future masterpieces to reflect our time. Exciting new music is being composed constantly and must be heard in order to complete the cycle of creativity. Vox Novus gets contemporary music heard: in concerts; over the radio; CD’s and on the Internet.

While artists have always struggled to create and promote their art, one may argue that the situation is now more precarious than ever. Today's economic climate is competitive , and emerging composers inevitably act as their own writer, producer, publicist, agent, and sometimes performer. This daunting array of tasks overwhelms many composers. Vox Novus helps emerging composers face this challenge helping them to promote their music, expand their audience, and advance their career.

Recognizing that a major obstacle for composers is finding performances, Vox Novus develops and produces concerts. These concerts expand the audience for new music beyond the established music community. Vox Novus concerts aim to build a new repertoire by creating friendly, approachable listening environments that integrate a growing body of contemporary composers.

Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children’s versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.

Remarkable Theater Brigade creates and produces new works including operas, orchestral pieces, ballets, musicals, and electro-acoustic works and co-produces the Composer’s Voice Concert Series concerts. Remarkable Theater Brigade was founded in 2002 by Christian McLeer, Monica Harte, and Dan Jeselsohn. This year we opened our 8th Season with Opera Shorts in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, October 1, 2009. Opera Shorts is Remarkable Theater Brigade’s set of 10 minute operas by composers Seymour Barab, Ben Bierman, George Brunner, Tom Cipullo, Anne Phillips, Patrick Soluri, Rob Voisey, and of course Christian McLeer.

Support from the Puffin Foundation “…continuing the dialogue between art and the lives of ordinary people.”

The Composer’s Voice Concert Series is an opportunity for contemporary composers to express their musical aesthetic and personal “voice” created in their compositions. Vox Novus collaborating with the Remarkable Theater Brigade and Jan Hus Church to produce a monthly concert series promoting the chamber works of contemporary composers.

Vox Novus is a collective of composers, musicians, and music enthusiasts collaborating together to create, produce, promote, and enjoy the new music of today. Our members are from a variety of composers committed to the creation and dissemination of new music. Their music is of a variety of styles, aesthetics, and ideologies. Vox Novus produces and promotes new music. They are dedicated to contemporary music, the musicians who perform, and the composers that write the music of today. Their mission is to cultivate a music community and make their work available to the greater public.

Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and musicals and takes children’s versions out to special-needs and at-risk children free of charge.

Brought to you by

Funding by

	Funding also provided by the Puffin Foundation, "...continuing the dialogue between art and lives of ordinary people."

Home

Calendar

History

Opportunities

Vox Novus

Site Map

Contact

Hosted by Malted/Media and Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar