Tours

On November 24, in the theater house "Jūras vārti" in Ventspils, the first and only concert in Latvia will be presented by the outstanding and one of the world's most well-known percussion ensembles - the quartet "Sō Percussion" from the United States.

With its innovative and originally designed genres of concert programs, amazing interpretations of modern classics and, as the New Yorker wrote, "A mixture of exhilarating anarchy and precision, with rigor and clutter," Sō Percussion has rewrote the percussion ensemble rules and role in contemporary music. . It will not be exaggerated, saying that the quartet is one of the most striking phenomena in 21st century music in general.

Steve Reich Music for Pieces of Wood
Caroline Shaw Taxidermy
Bryce Dessner Music for Wood and Strings
Jason Treuting Amid the Noise

Sō Percussion’s manifesto: ‘to create a new model of egalitarian artistic collaboration that respects history, champions innovation and curiosity, and creates an essential social bond through service to our audiences and our communities.’

This American quartet is all about innovation and re-invention. Performing pieces by Steve Reich, the National’s Bryce Dessner and Caroline Shaw – watch out for some very strange instruments indeed – they also present to the world the chord stick (*a brand new instrument that’s a cross between a dulcimer and an electric guitar.) And to finish the show, RNCM percussion students join the group on stage to perform a hypnotic suite of pieces by the quartet’s very own Jason Treuting, blending Reich, Brian Eno and Aphex Twin.

Grand Band is a new piano sextet from New York City, featuring what the New York Times called “the Traveling Wilburys of NY’s new-music piano scene.”  The pianists are Vicky Chow, David Friend, Paul Karekes, Blair McMillen, Lisa Moore, and Isabelle O’Connell. The band will perform music Ben Wallace, Julius Eastman and Missy Mazzoli along with new compositions by Paul Kerekes and Detroit composer Harriet Steinke.

In the tradition of Philip Glass @80 and John Corigliano @80 concerts, National Sawdust will celebrate Joan Tower in honor of her 80th Birthday. “One of the most successful women composers of all time” (The New Yorker) and one of the most important American composers alive today, Joan Tower has made lasting contributions to musical life for the past half century. With her iconic Silver Ladders, she was the first woman to win the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, and the recording of her Made In America won three different Grammy awards. In honor of her 80th birthday, National Sawdust is hosting an exclusive celebration, featuring an afternoon of music curated by Tower herself and featuring music written by Tower and friends Jennifer Higdon, Tania León, and Julia Wolfe.

Program:
Joan Tower: String Quartet
Jennifer Higdon: Piano Trio
Tania León: Ethos
Julia Wolfe: Cha

Performers:
PRISM Quartet
Jasper Quartet
Lysander Trio

The BBC Orchestras and Choirs learning programme is committed to adventurous and innovative education work with three core strands of focus: introducing new audiences, creative projects and nurturing talent.

Rutgers Kirkpatrick Choir: American Scenes: From East to West

Charles Ives’s “General William Booth Enters Into Heaven” accompanied by the Rutgers Saxophone Ensemble, directed by Paul Cohen, Janice Giteck’s “Far North Beast Ghosts the Clearing,” and “Night Peace” for percussion, harp, and double chorus by John Luther Adams.

Made in Belgium is a journey to the heart of contemporary Belgian creation. It is the meeting of a violin-piano duet known for its complicity and energy with the composers of our time. An invitation to discover multiple scripts, decompartmentalizing styles, reconciling genres. Works by Claude Ledoux, Marcel Cominotto (Tetra), Jean-Paul Dessy (The call of the scale), Michel Lysight (Interiora Terrae) and David Lang (Illumination Rounds), performed in the presence of composers.

Time Out / New York called him the "hardest-working saxophonist in new-music show business". Not without reason: KEN THOMSON , co-founder of the successful band Gutbucket - which has existed for almost 20 years - and musicians in several other bands, also writes numerous compositions, including for Bang On A Can, the American Composers Orchestra, the Asphalt Orchestra, the Jack Quartet.

He was also successful with his own band Slow / Fast. Well then (s) a KEN THOMSON SEXTET .

"21st Century Third Stream" Ken Thomson calls his concept that actually often sounds like a classical chamber ensemble, but also includes sounds and melodies that fit into our century. Thomson, known for being able to switch from one genre to another within fractions of a second, can quickly bring the energy level from 0 to 100, knows how to blend stop-and-go passages into his pieces in the most astonishing ways for music full of high tension, intensity and exquisite goodness.

Now in its fifth year, Brooklyn Boundis a popular series of concerts at Sō’s working studio in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn. Casual and intimate, the concerts feature us and emerging ensembles from our local scene. The groups are encouraged to try out new material, premiere new commissions, completely experiment, or just get another performance under their belt.

When Sō Percussion first started performing in New York City, there were many venues – Galapagos, The Stone, 285 Kent, The Tank – where artists could play for small groups and experiment. We’d try new music and get feedback from other artists and avid fans of our scene. In recent years these venues moved away or closed as rents skyrocketed. We want to keep some of that spirit alive in our own studio, both for ourselves and for younger artists who need to play those gigs as well.

Doors at 7:45pm
First come first served
$10 suggested donation

November 6, 2018 – Empyrean Atlas, Charmaine Lee, and Kaoru Watanabe
November 7, 2018 – Anna Meadors, Evan Chapman, and Go Placidly with Haste

KLAIPĖDA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
JUHO LAITINEN (cello, Finland)
VYTAUTAS GIEDRAITIS (clarinet)
CHOIR „VILNIUS“ 
Conductor ARTŪRAS DAMBRAUSKAS

Phill Niblock. #9.7 (Number Nine point Seven) 
Magnus Lindberg. Away 
Julia Wolfe. Thirst

'People come and go, and the earth keeps on spinning... This is the theme of Again and again, in which the old master Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450/55-1521) and contemporary American composer David Lang (et al.) celebrate the cycle of life then and now: from beginning to end, from sorrow and punishment to love, reconciliation and resignation.An a capella programme full of reflection.

Obviously, there are huge differences between the music by Josquin des Prez and David Lang, but there is also a significant similarity that effortlessly bridges the gap of five centuries of history. In the works of either composer time, or rather the abolishment of time, is crucial. The awareness of being a whirling leaf in eternity blows throughout the works of either composer.

In the rich field of tension between improvisation and composition, the American saxophonist, clarinettist and composer Ken Thomson moves. With his own sextet, the New York race musician explores the cross-pollination between well-considered contemporary music and the spontaneity of jazz. Someone who fits perfectly in the November Music philosophy. As a regular saxophonist / clarinettist of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Thomson knows the modern, post-minimalist repertoire inside and out. In addition, he will not let an opportunity pass by to showcase his love for the jazz classics. In the past Thomson played in bands like Gutbucket and Slow / Fast. In his varied, harmoniously daring jazz music you can hear influences that vary from Thelonious Monk to György Ligeti. Virtuoso jazz with a great emotional tension. This fall the debut CD of the sextet was released on New Focus Recordings.

Zenon Dance Company takes the stage this November in their Fall Season Performance to celebrate 36 years of groundbreaking dance performance.

Zenon will feature exciting new works by emerging New York choreographers Alex Springer & Xan Burley and Sam Kim, as well as a work by prominent Minnesota choreographer Wynn Fricke. In addition to the premieres, Zenon will perform signature repertory works by New York Choreographer Greg Dolbashian’s “Eternal Reveal” that showcases fierce intimacy and physicality, and Mariusz Olszewski’s “Pink Martini” – a scintillating tribute to the mambo, cha-cha, and salsa.

Please join us for this evening of innovative modern and jazz dance as we celebrate our accomplishments over 36 years.

Experience the self-destruction of an ancient civilisation and our planet engulfed by the vastness of the ocean in two massive audio-visual portrayals of a dark past – and still-avoidable future.

These two modern masterpieces share a single unignorable message. John Luther Adam’s Become Ocean imagines our planet succumbing to the rising sea in music of startling, bottomless beauty in what Alex Ross declared ‘may be the loveliest apocalypse in musical history’. And Giacinto Scelsi’s Uaxuctum is equally ravishing in its own way; a vast orchestra creating a fierce, haunting atmosphere through sounds as strange as they are prophetic, building to a point of no return as the ancient Mayan city implodes.

London Contemporary Orchestra & Choir
Robert Ames (conductor)

A unique concert with the prominent New York ensemble Bang On A Can All-Stars, together with the seven members of FC Jongbloed and the musicians of TEMKO. In a program in which they enter the stage both together and individually.

First of all FC Jongbloed and TEMKO, they bring music from Kraftwerk, the group that inspired their electronic pop music, the techno and house scene. You will hear numbers from the first Kraftwerk 1 album . Then the three ensembles play together, with 16 musicians, the piece Slow Birthday by Louis Andriessen. The music of Andriessen has been strongly influenced by the minimalist music of composers such as Terry Riley and Steve Reich. The third part of the evening is only for Bang On A Can All-Stars. They play David Lang: sunray, Brian Eno: Music for Airports and Julia Wolfe: Big Beautiful Dark & ​​Scary.

Bang On A Can All-Stars is a New York collective of 6 musicians. They are known for their dynamic live performances, of new, innovative music. Among their successful projects include recordings of Brian Eno's' ambient classic " Music for Airports and Terry Riley's In C . They also play a lot of work by Steve Reich and Philip Glass. 

Iannis Xenakis. Okho 
Tristan Perich. Observations 
Sam Pluta. Four Sixes 
Steve Reich. Music for Pieces of Wood 
Michael Gordon. Tree-oh 
Julia Wolfe. Dark Full Ride 

With great honour, Liepāja Concert Hall 'Great Amber' invites you to the 3-year anniversary concert together with the New York ensemble “Bang on a Can All-Stars”!
The Bang on a Can All-Stars, with their unparalleled musicality, their international touring, award-winning CDs and far ranging commissioning programs, have become one of the most powerful ambassadors for contemporary music in the world.
Formed in 1992, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music. Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal and Nonesuch.
Together, the All-Stars have worked in unprecedented close collaboration with some of the most important and inspiring musicians of our time, including Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Brian Eno and others. Recent project highlights include Field Recordings, a major new multi media project featuring up to 18 commissioned works by composers from all over the world. With great ovations this project has been recieved all over the world and this year it will be presented at the 3-year Anniversary Concert of Liepaja Concert Hall Great Amber.

String Theory in the Parks
A day of outdoor performances in Coolidge and Miller Parks

Hailed by the Washington Post as a group that is “revitalizing the world of contemporary music”, Sandbox Percussion will join String Theory for a week of outreach and performances. Following their mainstage performance at the Hunter Museum on Tuesday, October 23, Sandbox Percussion’s residency will culminate in a performance of the groundbreaking work Inuksuit by the Pulitzer-winning composer John Luther Adams. Described by the New York Times as “the ultimate environmental piece,” this outdoor concert experience will take place on Saturday, October 27 at Coolidge Park with musicians performing throughout the park. Listeners are invited to wander, each creating their own unique experience during this hour-long monumental work.

This event will be preceded by a special 10:00 a.m. children’s concert at the newly renovated Miller Park featuring the Trash Can Band from the Arnold Elementary School (Cleveland, TN), groups from Hamilton County Schools, and the String Theory Youth Internship. Come and celebrate this family-friendly day of music, food trucks, and more!

From his roots in Irish step dance to a four-year run as an original member of STOMP, Seán Curran comes alive to the beat of a drum. In celebration of their 20th anniversary, the choreographer and his company collaborate with Grammy Award-winning, Chicago-based ensemble Third Coast Percussion for a landmark evening of new and classic work inspired by the primordial nature of percussion.

First, Curran reimagines his hallmark 2000 piece Abstract Concrete, a spirited study of pairing and partnership set to a loose, kinetic rhythm. Then, the company presents the New York premiere of Everywhere All the Time, set to celebrated composer Donnacha Dennehy’s Surface Tension, a “magnificently energetic” (The New York Times) percussion piece inspired by the Irish bodhran drum, with set design by the late landscape architect Diana Balmori.