VIDEOS FROM THIS SEASON’S PERFORMANCES

In time for Bloomsday, the “Sirens” episode from James Joyce’s “Ulysses” with music by Victoria Bond performed on Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival on May 1, 2017.
Cygnus Ensemble
Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, flute; Kemp Jernigan, oboe; Sunghae Anna Lim, violin; Jonathan Spitz, cello; William Anderson, mandolin; Oren Fader, guitar
Singers
Jessica Fishenfeld, Yoojin Lee, Scott Joiner, Jonathan Hare, Emanuel Chumaceiro.
Click on the image to watch video:

The brilliant Eroica Trio performs works by Paul Schoenfeld, Bruce Wolosoff and Kevin Puts. Watch their performance by clicking on the image.

Eroica Trio

Taka Kigawa performed piano works by Richard Carrick, Zosha Di Castri and Sean Shepherd and the String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC) played music by Lisa Bielawa and Victoria Bond. Watch the concert by clicking the image below.

Taka Kigawa

Taka Kigawa

The final concert of the season featured three “Off-Beat Operas” composed by William Anderson, Frank Brickle and Victoria Bond. Click the image to watch.

Cygnus Ensemble

Cygnus Ensemble

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival

1 week ago

5.1.17 ... See MoreSee Less

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival

2 months ago

Three operas by contemporary composers on textx by cutting edge authors: Victoria Bond/James Joyce; William Anderson/Djuna Barnes; Frank Brickle/Ezra Pound. ... See MoreSee Less

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival: Off-Beat Operas

May 1, 2017, 7:30pm - May 1, 2017, 9:00pm

Three operas by cont...

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival

3 months ago

In a surprising moment of heroism, Teddy Roosevelt led a daring charge to victory in the battle of San Juan Hill, which he later called "The Crowded Hour." In a similarly impressive feat, a new trumpet concerto by Victoria Bond, similarly called "The Crowded Hours" will be premiered on Monday, April 17 at 7:30 pm in Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University (430 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago).
This unique work for trumpet solo, brass ensemble and narrator features soloist Mark Ridenour of the Chicago Symphony with the CCPA Wind Ensemble, led by Stephen Squires. Acclaimed actor Ray Ferwen narrates Theodore Roosevelt's words in the libretto by Dr. Myles Lee. Bond's composition incorporates popular American music of the 1900's including "Take me out to the Ball Game" and "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight." The evening's program also includes music by Adolphus Hailstork and James Stephenson. ... See MoreSee Less

The Crowded Hours

April 17, 2017, 7:30pm - April 17, 2017, 10:30pm

In a surprising mome...

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival

3 months ago

The final concert of the 2017 Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival features the Cygnus Ensemble in a program of "Offbeat Operas" by composers William Anderson, Frank Brickle, and the world premiere of Victoria Bond's Sirens.

William Anderson's Eight Rhythms, Settings is based on a set of poems by Djuna Barnes from 1915. Anderson's utilizes many kinds of contemporary idioms-- indie rock, Simon & Garfunkel, and a bit of minimalism as well.

Le Testament de Villon by Frank Brickle begins with the opera by George Antheil and Ezra Pound and condenses it to an essential version dramatically and musically. This is the New York City premiere of Brickle's opera.

Victoria Bond's Sirens draws upon Episode 11 of James Joyce's Ulysses as inspiration. This episode, along with the overall theme of Joyce's Ulysses, is about being an outsider who is scorned and reviled. He is also everyman or everywoman who feels apart and alone in the midst of a world that has no use for him or her.

Program:

William Anderson/Djuna Barnes Eight Rhythms, Settings
Frank Brickle/Ezra Pound Le Testamente de Villon
Victoria Bond/James Joyce Sirens

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival (CEC), now in its 20th season, was founded by composer and conductor Victoria Bond featuring the music of living composers. CEC has been called "a full-throttle commitment to contemporary music" by Chamber Music America, and "a gift to New Yorkers thirsty for new sounds" by Time Out New York. Discussions with the composers are featured on each program prior to performances by outstanding ensembles and soloists. In 2017 the Festival's three concerts will take place in the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space. Highlights of this year's three-concert festival include the Eroica Trio (Monday, April 3) featuring works by Paul Schoenfield, Bruce Wolosoff and Kevin Puts; pianist Taka Kigawa and the String Orchestra of New York City (Monday, April 24) performing works by Richard Carrick, Sean Shepherd, Lisa Bielawa, and premieres by Victoria Bond and Zosha Di Castri; and the Cygnus Ensemble (Monday, May 1) presenting a program of "Offbeat Operas" written by William Anderson, Frank Brickle, and Victoria Bond. ... See MoreSee Less

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival

May 1, 2017, 7:30pm - May 1, 2017, 9:00pm

The final concert of...

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival

3 months ago

The second concert of the 2017 Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival features the renowned pianist Taka Kigawa performing works by Richard Carrick, Sean Sheppard, and Zosha Di Castri, along with the String Orchestra of New York City playing pieces by Lisa Bielawa and Victoria Bond.

Critically acclaimed pianist Taka Kigawa has earned outstanding international recognition as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician since winning First Prize in the prestigious 1990 Japan Music Foundation Piano Competition in Tokyo. He has been praised as a "Phenomenon" by The New York Times and "an artist of stature" by The New Yorker.

Richard Carrick's la touche sonore sous l'eau is a harmonic/melodic reduction and re-understanding of Debussy's Jeux, a study on Debussy's compositional lightness. Sean Shepherd's Preludes is another piece inspired by Debussy's solo piano works, and is the composers' only work for solo piano. Zosha Di Castri is a Canadian composer currently living in New York City and on faculty at Columbia University. Her work has been performed by diverse ensembles from the San Francisco Symphony to the JACK Quartet and Talea Ensemble.

Called a "Feisty String Orchestra" by Allan Kozin of The New York Times, The String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC) is a conductor-less chamber ensemble that was founded in 1999. SONYC's members rehearse in a collaborative effort that allows each musician to have an impact on the artistic process.

Lisa Bielawa's The Trojan Women identifies and conveys three different forms of grief, each one a consequence of one woman's particular suffering. Based on frescoes and mosaics in Pompeii, Victoria Bond's Frescoes and Ash confronts Pompeii's tragic doom, and expresses the Romans philosophical acceptance of death.

Richard Carrick la touche sonore sous l'eau
Zosha Di Castri Dux
Sean Shepherd Preludes
Taka Kigawa, piano
Lisa Bielawa The Trojan Women
Victoria Bond Frescoes and Ash
String Orchestra of New York City

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival (CEC), now in its 20th season, was founded by composer and conductor Victoria Bond featuring the music of living composers. CEC has been called "a full-throttle commitment to contemporary music" by Chamber Music America, and "a gift to New Yorkers thirsty for new sounds" by Time Out New York. Discussions with the composers are featured on each program prior to performances by outstanding ensembles and soloists. ... See MoreSee Less

Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival

April 24, 2017, 7:30pm - April 24, 2017, 9:00pm

The second concert o...

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