William Basinski at Issue Project Room (more by Lori Baily)

William Basinski's "The Disintegration Loops" will illuminate the Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday, as part of a FREE show "for the people of New York City on September 11". Basinski will not be in attendance but Maxim Moston's live orchestration of his piece, as well as works by Ingram Marshall, Osvaldo Golijov and Alfred Schnittke, will be highlighted by the Wordless Music Orchestra (as previously mentioned). If you can't make it to the 3:30PM showing, then catch the webcast.

After the webcast slide on over to VH1 (on the web or on your telly) to catch a rebroadcast of the 9/11 tribute concert that originally aired on TV 10 years ago.

Also slated in rememberance of 9/11 is Music After, a marathon of music that kicks off at 9:18AM and lasts until midnight at Joyce SoHo (155 Mercer Street). The show is FREE, and will feature a plaethora of performances from names like Laurie Anderson and Nicole Atkins performing works by David Bowie, David Byrne, Lou Reed, and many many others. Full list of performers and the composers are below.

And finally, opera singer Jessye Norman will not sing but speak spoken word at "A Concert of Commemoration, Honoring the 10th Anniversary of 9/11" at 2PM on 9/11 at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center. More than 600 musicians will join the not-singing vocalist including England's Really Big Chorus, with the concert highlighting "iconic music of war and peace". Tickets are on sale.

Patti Smith played a concert to remember 9/11 last night. How was that?

More details on the Music After marathon, and its considerable list of contributors, below...

Continue reading "musicians remembering 9/11 on 9/11 (shows at the Met, Linoln Center, in SoHo, on your computer...)"

The long wait is finally over! Roulette re-opens - bigger and better than ever - in Downtown Brooklyn. With a newly renovated Art Deco concert hall, seating for up to 400 people (600 standing!), expanded multi-channel sound system, massive projection screen for film and multi-media events, state-of-the-art lighting system, modular stage, and a specially designed floor to accommodate dance - the new Roulette promises to be one of the most exciting places in New York City to experience adventurous music and art. Join us as we kick off our inaugural season with a huge four day Grand Opening Celebration!

The re-opening will be celebrated with four events from September 15 to September 18. On 9/15, Kaija Saariaho, Margaret Leng Tan, Henry Threadgill & Zooid, and Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier will play the venue (tickets). The 9/16 show will feature ETHEL, Marc Ribot: Film Noir Project, and Shelley Hirsch w/ Fred Frith (tickets). On 9/17, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, and John Zorn will play (tickets) and on 9/18 Cosa Brava (featuring Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, Zeena Parkins, Matthias Bossi, and the Norman Conquest) will play (tickets).

by Andrew Frisicano

ACME...outdoors in warmer times

Tonight (12/17) at the Tank, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) perform music from Phil Kline and John Cage (two earlier works, String Quartet in Four Parts and Credo In Us). Kline's annual Unsilent Night event just happened in NYC on December 12th (and is still to come in other cities). His piece Exquisite Corpses, on the program for ACME, also prominently features boomboxes. He's also put together a new acoustic arrangement of his string quartet The Blue Room and Other Stories (originally written for Ethel whose version is below), which ACME will be debuting. Tickets are on sale.

Kicking off tonight and running through this weekend, the Tank heads to Brooklyn to present the Blip Festival at the Bell House. If you can't be there, you can listen on WFMU.

Across town and also tonight (12/17), the New York Philharmonic will be launching its Contact! new music series at Symphony Space (95th and Broadway). Four composers - Arlene Sierra, Lei Liang, Marc-André Dalbavie & Arthur Kampela - will be debuting very different compositions with the group. Video and audio previews of those are below. Tickets are on sale. An encore performance (to borrow a phrase) takes place Saturday, December 19th at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The second Contact! program - with new music from Sean Shepherd, Nico Muhly and Matthias Pintscher - comes April 16th at Symphony Space and April 17th at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Videos and more info are below...

Continue reading "NY Philharmonic launches Contact! series tonight & ACME performs @ The Tank ++ other dates & videos"

Bon Iver @ Sasquatch Fest (more by Chris Graham)

Tickets are now on sale for all of Merkin Hall's upcoming 2009/10 concerts. Those shows include the NY Guitar Festival's Silent Films/Live Guitars series (previously mentioned here), which features David Bromberg and Marc Ribot playing alongside Charlie Chaplin films on January 14th, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon (Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush) with Steve Kimock (Buster Keaton's Cops) on January 21st, and more. The full lineup, with details, is below.

The venue is also hosting the New Sounds series, which includes performances by ETHEL and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Details on those are below. Check out a video of the BoaC All-Stars rehearsing a Steve Reich piece from a few years back below too. You'll notice Bryce Dessner of the National is in the ensemble in that video. He's currently working on his own new piece with brother Aaron and Matthew Ritchie to debut at BAM this fall.

Also, as part of their trio of "Contemporary Contexts" concerts, Merkin Hall will be bringing Signal, who will premiere a new work from Nico Muhly and UK composer Harrison Birtwistle, in May.

The full schedule is below...

Continue reading "Bon Iver, Marc Ribot & other NY Guitar Fest tickets on sale ++ full upcomng Merkin Hall schedule (New Sounds, etc)"

photos by Ryan Muir

"In a special Celebrate Brooklyn! commission, the nation's premier rock-infused, postclassical string quartet, the immensely acclaimed Ethel, teams up with the wild art-rock group Gutbucket to perform a new original score to the vintage Mexican science fiction classic La Nave De Los Monstruos (The Monsters' Ship, 1959). In the film, the last male on Venus has died, and two Venusian hotties embark on a quest to find men on other planets. The bands premiere the new work this evening after developing the project at a BRIClab residency this spring. Gutbucket will also perform an opening set."

Continue reading "Gutbucket & Ethel @ the Prospect Park Bandshell, NYC - pics "

by Andrew Frisicano

At the June 11th Bang on a Can benefit at (Le) Poisson Rouge, Gutbucket played a set of prog jazz tunes that drew on influences that included Charlie Parker, electronica, Ornette Coleman, '80s metal and more. The quartet's No Wave-inspired ecclectism was aided by a clear melodic voice and musical virtuosity. Those were all amped up by the unbridled stage presence of saxist Ken Thomson, whose swinging baritone sax was both a musical and literal weapon.

Gutbucket will be playing two sets at a free Celebrate Brooklyn show this Saturday, June 20th. The series, which kicked off with David Byrne on June 9th, has shows booked all summer. First, Gutbucket will play an opening set that'll include material from the band's newest record, A Modest Proposal, which came out on Cuneiform Records at the beginning of this year. Then the group supports the string quartet ETHEL as they perform a live score to the sci-fi film La Nave de los Monstruos. The piece was demoed as a work-in-progress at BAM's BRIClab earlier this year -- this show will be the completed work's debut...

ETHEL, the nation's premier rock-infused, postclassical string quartet, teams up with the avant-squonk art-rock wild men of Gutbucket to tackle the vintage Mexican science fiction classic La Nave De Los Monstruos (The Monsters' Ship, 1959). In the film, the last male on Venus has died and the planet's regent sends Gamma and Beta, two gorgeous aliens, on a quest to find men on other planets. ETHEL and Gutbucket dig into this fertile ground and create a new original score which will be performed live to the film. [BAM]

Continue reading "Gutbucket - free Brooklyn show Saturday + LPR benefit pics "

A performing arts program of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, Celebrate Brooklyn! is one of New York City's longest running, free, outdoor performing arts festivals. Launched in 1979, as a catalyst for a Brooklyn performing arts scene and to bring people back into Prospect Park after years of neglect, Celebrate Brooklyn has been an anchor in the park's revitalization and has become one of the city's foremost summer cultural attractions. Over the course of its history Celebrate Brooklyn has presented over 1,700 artists and ensembles reflective of the borough's diversity, ranging from internationally acclaimed performers to emerging, cutting-edge artists. All Celebrate Brooklyn performances are free. The festival attracts upwards of 250,000 attendees from across New York City to the Prospect Park Bandshell each summer.

Continue reading "Celebrate Brooklyn! 2009 Prospect Park concert schedule "

by Andrew Frisicano

On Tuesday, April 28th, NYC public radio station WNYC will open the Greene Space, a new street-level venue on the corner of Varick and Charlton Streets in lower Manhattan. The space's inaugural 10-day festival kicks off the same day."Information about ticketing is forthcoming."

As Variety points out, the ground-floor venue will be "something of a downtown version of Rockefeller Center's "Today" show setup (minus the Al Roker groupies)."

"The Greene Space perfectly expresses WNYC's impulse to continue to innovate public radio and inspire people in new ways," said Laura Walker, WNYC President and CEO. "As we produce live events and audio and video programming streetside on Varick Street, we love the fact New Yorkers will be able to see our hosts in action, participate in political dialogues, and enjoy cultural performances. We become a part of the New York City and Hudson Square community in a tangible, visible way. WNYC has tremendous assets: its people, its ethos, its technology, its listeners and the city itself. Finally we have a way to combine them all."

The same day, WNYC will host an "audio theater" presentation of H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man from 7-9pm. In the production, "Michael Riesman, Director of the Philip Glass Ensemble, will give a rare live musical performance on piano, blending music from multiple Philip Glass compositions and live improvisation into a never-before-heard piece."

One regular program to be held in the space will be "Evening Music LIVE with Terrance McKnight and David Garland," whose scheduled guests include "Simone Dinnerstein, Renè Pape, Gabriella Montero, John Zorn, Nico Muhly, Elliott Sharp, Jason Moran, Don Byron and Ute Lemper, among others."

For the space's "First 'First Friday'" on Friday, May 1st, WNYC is partnering with neighbor Sounds of Brazil (SOBs) for a "Cinco de Mayo on El Primero de Mayo" fest with food, music and dancing.

More info on the Greene Space's plans below...

Continue reading "WNYC opening the Greene Space in NYC with a 10-day festival "