Village Voice: Questlove Puts The World On Shuffle At BAM
“On one level, the premise was anticipatory, predicting a future where concertgoers won’t have the time or patience for a low-concept, single-band show. On the other, one could see the evening’s roots: in the mixtape, the DJ set, the all-star benefit concert, the R&B revue. And it was this marriage of old and new—analog and digital—that permeated the night, a constant reminder that, as Q-Tip famously told his daddy, things go in cycles.”

Brooklyn Vegan: Questlove brought ‘Shuffle Culture’ to BAM
“For all of the pre-show talk about iPods, much of the vibe seemed to echo the beginning of the previous century. Metropolis Ensemble and Jeremy Ellis, the two acts that did most of the heavy lifting, focused on material that captured the pop of a record needle, the static of the AM radio band and the warbly tempos of an antique turntable.”

Capital: Questlove’s Post-iPod Humanism Brings Brilliant Cross-Genre Shuffling to the Concert Hall
“Meantime, a double string quartet pulled from the ranks of the Metropolis Ensemble – whose contributions had been mostly marooned from the other musicians during the night, truly shuffled off to the side—draped some gorgeous pizzicato playing of few simple arpeggios over the top. The arrangement wasn’t overcrowded; everything felt magically in balance – and yet there was a sense of group improvisation at work.”

NY Daily News: Brooklyn Shuffle
“We wanted to take some of the old and some of the new music and create a unique experience. It’s always interesting to take musicians with different backgrounds and have them play music none of them are really familiar with.”

Wall Street Journal: Questlove Shuffles to Brooklyn
“Questlove will join a genre-busting assortment of his favorite performers to offer a kaleidoscopic peek at his own aesthetic shuffle mode: from Rahzel (“the human beatbox”) to indie-rock wild card Deerhoof, to actress/industrial rocker/former porn star Sasha Grey—all tied together by the strings of the Metropolis Ensemble.”

Village Voice: Questlove’s Quest
“To Questlove, the concept of Shuffle Culture is something to be both celebrated and critiqued. It’s an approach to life that allows us to consume more information than ever before but at a rate that doesn’t always provide us the time to appreciate that knowledge.”

Additional mentions:
New York Times
The New Yorker
WNBC New York
Paper

Reciprocity Foundation students and Youth Works fellow Brad Balliett

Since 2006, Metropolis has encouraged creativity and self-expression through teaching composition to New York City public school children via our education program called Youth Works. Metropolis first worked in PS 11, a Title One school in Chelsea, providing a unique after-school program that culminated in a end-of-year concert featuring Metropolis artists for the entire school. And year after year, the performances have been a hit with the students.

On May 19, Metropolis Ensemble and its education partners will bring this experience to everyone with its inaugural Youth Works public concert at (le) Poisson Rouge, featuring student compositions as performed by Metropolis artists. This year’s Youth Works fellow, Brad Balliett, has worked with three organizations to provide music composition classes, and each will have selections presented at the concert.

The Reciprocity Foundation is a resource center for homeless or runaway teens or young people, especially LGBT youth of color. With the help of Alexis Neophytides and the organization’s founders, Adam Bucko and Taz Tagore, invited Metropolis artists, including percussionist Luke Rinderknecht and bassoonist Brad Balliett to work with the students over two intensive days. Together they crafted musical accompaniment for a series of poems the students were writing called “Where I’m From.” The resulting project playfully weaves the poetry together with arrangements for small orchestra that evokes the sounds and emotions from the neighborhoods where each student grew up.

Alexis shared her experience from working with the program:

“The best part of the whole process is to see the students faces light up with pride after they perform their final pieces. Also, one student turned to me after Brad introduced himself and his instrument and said, ‘Who knew a bassoon could do that? Cool!!!’”

Watch performances by the Reciprocity students with Brad and Luke:

TEAK student Kyler and Youth Works fellow Brad Balliett working on her "Where I'm From" project

The TEAK Foundation is a nonprofit that offers classes and workshops to talented and ambitious students from underprivileged families and neighborhoods. Metropolis artists, including Luke Rinderknecht, Doug Balliett, and Carlos Cordeiro, are creating a similar “Where I’m From” project that combines poetry and music into short etudes. According to Brad, the students are “bright, energetic, and incredibly specific about what sort of music should accompany their poems.”

Listen to selections from the TEAK project:

Youth Works - Where I'm From - Adrian
 
Youth Works - Where I'm From - JC
 
Youth Works - Where I'm From - Z
 
Youth Works - Where I'm From - Kyler
 

Special Music School students with instructor Robinson McClellan and Metropolis cellist Ashley Bathgate

Ashley shared her thoughts:

“I think the word I would use is awe-inspiring. These kids are brilliant beyond belief and they are so eager to fill their heads with knowledge. They are excited about music and they cannot wait to share that excitement with you. It’s contagious. It’s fun. I left the classroom with a feeling of exhilaration and a glimpse of how awesome the younger generations of this world are going to be when they grow up. I can’t wait to work with them again!”

Lance echoed Ashley’s delight:

“Meeting the young composers at Special Music School, I was immediately struck by their bright, inquisitive personalities, their thoughtful questions, and musical knowledge that would put many graduate students to shame. Even at such a young age, it is apparent that they are already beginning to develop their own individual musical voices, and I’m excited to see what they come up with.”

In addition to Metropolis’ partner programs, the ensemble is invited to showcase some of the young composers’ works next month at Little Red Schoolhouse, a progressive private school in Greenwich Village. It will bring a fine conclusion to this school year’s education programs, which Brad summed up:

“The variety of young people involved in this year’s Youth Works projects it wide and inspiring. From the brilliant intellects of the students at the Special Music School to the passionate poetry of the young people from Reciprocity, everyone has something utterly unique to offer. I leave every Youth Works work session with new inspiration for what is possible when open minds, good attitudes, and great ideas coincide.”

The program got off to a firm start on Wednesday at the VIP preview with an unusual composition by Icelandic artist Örn Alexander Ámundason, “Kreppa: A symphonic poem about the financial situation in Iceland,” superbly performed by the Metropolis Ensemble, a New York chamber orchestra that specializes in new music and contemporary composition.

The result strangely and rather convincingly resembled a piece of early 12-tone music of the Viennese variety, perhaps because the human voice is naturally serial, repeating tonal patterns within a restricted range.

Despite the method of its composition, the music held its own and seemed to tell a story, perhaps at least as intelligible as the verbal ones in circulation among most commentators. Ámundason chose his instruments with an ear for music and some humor. The double bass at the beginning, representing a controversial Icelandic politician, gave way to a succession of instruments, often playing at the same time though by no means the same notes.

The chronological sequence ended with a ukulele, standing in for the openly lesbian prime minister elected in 2009, after the fall of the laissez-faire conservative government that had presided over the spectacular collapse of Iceland’s banks and financial system. The protestors, who came out in Iceland in force well before the Occupiers, are heard as a marimba, intoning with the clarity of bells the voices of the people in the streets.

Artistic Director Andrew Cyr conducted the extremely able musicians of the Metropolis Ensemble.

Read the full review here…

June Wu, Metropolis board member and patron, at the Glimpses concert with Artistic Director Andrew Cyr.

Last year, the June K. M. Wu Artists Fund was established to honor Metropolis Ensemble board member, June Wu, and her vision and passionate dedication to our young performing artists. The Fund helped Metropolis launch a new Resident Artist Series, supported two studio recordings at Tanglewood with NAXOS and Nonesuch Records, and continued our mission to emerge the next generation of outstanding composers and musicians.

As Metropolis embarks on several exciting new projects supported by the Wu Artists Fund, including the creation of our own record label, launching new albums and concerts, and expanding the Resident Artist Series, we wanted to reflect on the past year through the eyes of some of the artists who benefited from these generous gifts.

Timothy Andres - pianist and composer

Timothy Andres: An Ambitious New Album

My work with Metropolis last year was a continuation of a scheme Andrew Cyr and I had been formulating since 2008. At first, it resulted in the concert Home Stretch in the spring of 2010; now it has evolved into the production of a CD. The album is centered around my piano concerto Home Stretch, bookended by my “re-composition” of Mozart’s Coronation concerto and my Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno, which were both Metropolis commissions.

A recording is not just a concrete item to be sold, or a promotional tool, but an artifact of our musical culture at a specific time. These artifacts can be much more powerful than a one-off concert, which by nature has limited reach and duration. A recording is a commitment, a way of saying ‘this is what we feel most strongly about, and we need to share it as widely as possible’.

The scope of this recording project is ambitious, especially for a group as young as Metropolis; recording an orchestra is simply a very time-consuming and expensive proposition. Such propositions are dependent on people like June Wu, who understands the importance of such projects, shares our ambitions, and helps both things come to fruition. I will always be grateful to June not just for helping me in my career, which is small in the scheme of things, but for helping my entire field.

Bridget Kibbey - harpist and composer

Bridget Kibbey: One Woman Tour-de-Force

Over the course of three years, I conceived a project entitled Music Box in which composers – all born abroad and recent immigrants to the United States and mostly living in New York City – wrote solo works for the harp based on folk music from their native country. Metropolis presented the project in January. It was a powerful personal journey, because it allowed me to showcase some of my own arrangements and explore multiple genres of harp-writing in a single evening.

What was most helpful was working alongside Metropolis to give this project the “kick-off” the composers deserved. Many in the audience at each sold-out concert had never heard a full solo harp program. It was incredibly satisfying to perform these new fun, eclectic works for such enthusiastic guests. I also walked away from the concerts with high-definition video and fabulous audio to show other interested presenters. I’m happy to say that I will be presenting the project next season in other venues in the United States as a result!

Kristin Lee - violinist

Kristin Lee: From Bali to the Studio and Beyond

In 2010, I joined composer Vivian Fung on a trip to Bali to understand where her ideas came from in her music. It was remarkable to visit these communities filled with gamelan music and a tangible artistic energy. It gave me an entirely new perspective on living and breathing art every day.

Vivian was inspired by our trip and wrote a new Violin Concerto that we premiered at Renderings last fall with Metropolis. From there, we recorded the work at Tanglewood with the extraordinary help of audio engineer Tim Martin and the whole Metropolis gang.

Professionally it really means everything to have my first recording on a major label, NAXOS, which wouldn’t be possible without June’s help and the Fund. Premiering a concerto takes money to support the commission, book the beautiful concert space at Angel Orensanz Center, and bring in the audience. As a result, I performed Vivian’s cadenza on WQXR Cafe Concerts and Metropolis received a lot of publicity. It was a huge leap in every way.

As a musician, this new work written specifically for me opened new doors for commission projects with other composers and the opportunity to build programs around innovative pieces. I’m looking forward to working with Andrew Cyr and Metropolis to produce new projects for the Resident Artist Series.

Conor Hanick - pianist

Conor Hanick: Teamwork and Remarkable Opportunity

In the past year, I premiered Ray Lustig’s beautiful vocal work Compose Thyself from Renderings, recorded works by Ryan Francis with the superlative Kristin Lee, and, perhaps most significantly, participated not only in Timothy Andres’ new recording on Nonesuch, but also recorded world premiere recordings of Vivian Fung’s Glimpses for prepared piano and her titanic piano concerto called Dreamscapes, both supported by the Wu Fund.

I’m indebted to June for her generous and unparalleled support of Metropolis. These remarkable projects simply wouldn’t happen without her, and it’s hard to adequately thank her for giving us such remarkable opportunities through the Fund.

Metropolis Ensemble afforded me some of the most extraordinary and artistically rewarding experiences of my career. It’s touching to be offered opportunities like this and hard to overstate what a privilege its been to be associated with the ensemble. Vivian’s recording is a great example: it’s a professional boon to having a widely-released commercial recording of such high quality. I am humbled to be listed alongside Andrew, Vivian, Kristin, and others. These were experiences that for me will continue to inform my musical activities and serve as benchmarks for artistic quality.

Örn Alexander Ámundason

Ámundason was born in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1984, and has explored what happens when politics are transformed into music. Some of his works refer to a tense social or political context but even more importantly to the probably irresolvable difficulties of ‘true’ translation. He’s had exhibitions at the Göteborgs International Biennial for Contemporary Art in Sweden, Brandenburgischen Kunstverein in Germany, Sudsudvestur in Iceland, and Galleri F-15 in Norway. Kreppa marks his first commission for orchestra.

Ámundason explains the work:

In October 2008 a financial crisis hit Iceland. Three of the major banks went bankrupt and the Icelandic crown lost about half its value. The story of the crisis can be traced back to 1984 when the government issued a fishing quota system, through the privatization of the three major banks in 2000 and finally to the recent financial crash in 2008. It’s a story of greed, revenge, arrogance and poor political decisions.

In Kreppa, I transpose words and speeches from politicians, investors, protesters, banks & the media, all involved with the financial crisis into musical notes. I collected material from various medias, radio interviews with politicians, TV shows about the Icelandic investors and so forth. Having no experience of writing musical notes I used a computer program that altered the voices of these people into musical transcripts.

Investors are transformed into woodwinds, which have cultural references to the snake charmer that hypnotizes cobras often using a wind instrument, as well as the Pied Piper of Hamelin who lured 130 boys and girls from their hometown. The politicians’ voices became string instruments, a reference to Nero, who is said to have played the fiddle while he watched Rome burn to the ground. Banks and press became brass music, which has a specific role in history, as the world’s first adverts were simply people yelling announcements through a speaking trumpet. Protesters become percussion, which were likely the first musical devices ever created and are often referred to as “the backbone” or “the heartbeat” of a musical ensemble.

Metropolis has a great lineup of musicians appearing in the concert:

Double Bass: Doug Balliett
Cello: Brook Speltz
Viola: Wei-Yang Andy Lin
Violin: Emily Smith
Ukulele: Matthew Slotkin
Clarinet: Carlos Cordeiro
Flute: Lance Suzuki
Flute: Steven Kim
Recorder: Priscilla Smith
French Horn: Wei-Ping Chou
Tuba: Ibanda Ruhumbika
Trombone: Steve Dunn
Marimba: Britton Matthews
Conductor: Andrew Cyr

Kreppa is generously sponsored by Stund styrktarsjóður and the Icelandic Art Center. Metropolis Ensemble’s performance is generously sponsored by Robert Bielecki and Fast Orbit.

Bridget Kibbey performing at (Le) Poisson Rouge.

Composers included Kati Agocs (Canada), Kinan Azmeh (Syria), David Bruce (Venezuela), Susie Ibarra (the Philippines), Bridget Kibbey (Ireland), Paquito d’Rivera (Cuba), Ricardo Romaniero (Brazil), and Du Yun (China). Music Box was the result: two sold-out nights of intimate and engaging world premieres at (Le) Poisson Rouge.

The concert was the kickoff of Metropolis Ensemble’s new Resident Artist Series, musical and social gatherings featuring core ensemble artists as solo instrumentalists in creative collaborations with composers from all genres. The series is supported by the generosity of June Wu and the June Wu Artists Fund.

Bridget took a packed house at LPR on a world tour; there was a little bit of everything, from electronic club beats and Cuban bandeneon lyricism to Chinese sleeve dancing. Composer David Bruce commented, “I didn’t for one second think, ‘This is a solo harp recital’; it was like an amazing colorful journey through some extraordinary, impossible worlds.”

Audience members were likewise impressed by the range of sounds that could come from the harp. One member of the audience noted, “The folk song background gives an interesting framework to understand contemporary music. It’s a good pathway to new music because you can listen for familiar tunes in the music, and meanwhile everything sounds so beautiful.”

Another audience member had never heard a harp player perform new music before, and liked that Bridget posed a “challenge” to the composers and enjoyed hearing what each one created in response. Composer Kati Agocs, whose piece Northern Lights features three folk songs from different regions of Canada, described how she responded to this particular commission:

“Part of the challenge of writing Northern Lights was to take something that one knows extremely well—the folk songs on which the piece is based are as familiar to me as breathing—to hear its pure essence and to mine it for new resonances. This required shedding all of my prior associations, focusing on the folk songs’ intrinsic beauty, amplifying and dialoguing with that.”

Watch Bridget perform Kati Agocs’ Northern Lights:

Bridget mentioned that one great thing about commissioning all of these pieces is that these new works start making appearances in all the competition circuits and recitals. It really contributes to the harp repertoire in a big way.

Besides being extraordinarily talented and boundlessly creative, Bridget was so charming with the audience, bantering with composers and playing emcee between pieces, telling entertaining side stories to accompany different pieces. As Metropolis composer Timo Andres in the audience commented, “Bridget is so charming in a very non-New York way,” which, of course, should be taken as a compliment.

Most notable is a surprise hit called The Juilliard Sessions, a new series of EPs in partnership between EMI Classics and The Juilliard School aiming to introduce promising young musicians. Sean, along with fellow Juilliard alumni Paul Appleby (tenor) and Conrad Tao (piano), each have the inaugural releases available exclusively on iTunes, after being selected through a rigorous judging process.

These three albums are also part of a collection of digital-only releases called Mastered for iTunes, described as a unique opportunity to “experience classical music as the artist and sound engineer intended… specially tuned for higher fidelity sound on your computer, stereo, and all Apple devices.”

Sean’s album features Sonata for Violin and Piano in Eb Major by Richard Strauss and he is joined by pianist (and fellow Juilliard classmate) Sean Chen. And this week, his album is receiving some front page exposure in the iTunes Store, and is currently in the top 30 classical bestsellers. On March 12 (8pm at Paul Recital Hall NYC), Juilliard and EMI will celebrate with a free public concert, featuring Sean, Paul, and Conrad performing selections from their new albums.

Here are excerpts from the new recording:

Sean Lee - Sonata for Violin and Piano (I. Allegro non troppo)
 
Sean Lee - Sonata for Violin and Piano (II. Improvisation)
 
Sean Lee - Sonata for Violin and Piano (III. Finale)
 
Purchase The Juilliard Sessions on iTunes now…

Sean sat down with Metropolis’s own Armistead Booker to discuss the story behind the recording process and upcoming concerts.

* * *

Armistead Booker: What draws you to the music of Richard Strauss? You recently played “Morgen” at Metropolis Ensemble’s Love Letter to Haiti concert in 2010.

Sean Lee: The fun thing about recording Sonata for Violin and Piano in Eb Major was knowing that he wrote this work when he was my age! Although it is an early work of his, it already has the wonderful, adventurous harmonic language that is so characteristic of him. I love the way his music takes the listener on a real journey: from the most intimate moments to glorious peaks. Definitely inspires my imagination!

AB: Tell me about your collaboration with Sean Chen for this recording. How do you two know each other and what did he bring to the recording?

SL: The first question that always comes up when programming the Strauss Sonata on a recital is “who is the pianist going to be?.” The piano part for this work is extremely difficult, and even the most skilled, artistic violinist simply cannot give a successful performance of this piece without an excellent pianist! After days and days of contemplating, I heard a live recording of Sean Chen performing this piece with a friend of mine, and was quickly convinced that I wanted to ask him to collaborate with me on this project. I was so attracted to the clarity and beauty that he brings to his part… he is able to play it with such ease! I’ve heard horror stories about musicians being so protective of their best in the recording studio that they simply cannot agree on which “takes” to choose. I was lucky to be able to simply focus on capturing my own best in the studio, and trust that whenever I’m at my best, Sean Chen was right there with me, always sounding great.

AB: You’ve had several recording sessions this year: as concertmaster for Metropolis Ensemble (new albums with Timo Andres and Vivian Fung), accompanying The Roots (their new Undun album), and leading an ensemble featuring violinist Itzhak Perlman and cantor Itche Meir Helfgot (being released soon), and now with EMI. What distinguished this solo session from the others? What was your favorite or most challenging part of the process?

SL: This year has marked my first time doing any kind of recording for commercial release, and it is funny that within a span of four months, I ended up being a part of all of these recordings in the midst of my busy performing schedule! My session with EMI was actually the first one, so I honestly didn’t know much at all about what to expect going into it. Being the featured soloist on this album, I wanted this release to be representative of me as an individual artist, and purposely did not listen to any other recordings of the piece. It was almost a kind of soul-searching process leading up to the studio session! It was a very different experience compared to the other albums I recorded for, in which my goal was to give my absolute best in achieving and serving the vision of Timo and Vivian, Mr. Perlman, and The Roots.

AB: What can the audience expect at your upcoming Juilliard album release concert on March 12?

SL: One of the most important things Mr. Perlman has instilled into my artistic process during my years of studying with him at Juilliard is constant spontaneity. When I play any concert, I do my best to shut down any memory of past performances and make music in the moment with a fresh perspective! So on March 12, I may play a performance similar to my recording (or perhaps not so similar!), but it definitely won’t be an exact recreation.

AB: What are you looking forward to most in 2012?

SL: I really cannot wait for the release of our new Metropolis Ensemble albums featuring music by Vivian Fung and Timo Andres! Also, I am about to start a residency at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and looking forward to performing with such fantastic artists. As for the rest of my performances, they are really taking me around the world, so please check out my website or Facebook to keep up with what I’m up to!

Kicking Up Dust from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.

Michael Ward-Bergeman’s Kicking Up Dust, performed on January 28, 2009 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. Featuring Paul Clifford on freedom boot and the Metropolis Ensemble led by conductor Andrew Cyr. Video by Gareth Paul Cox and Kyrié Cox; sound by Ryan Streber.

Akimi Fukuhara

Metropolis pianist Akimi Fukuhara recently gave the world premiere of Ryan Francis’s Tri Cantae in Tokyo. Akimi is quickly becoming a truly international artist. Dividing her time between New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo, she has set a clear goal for herself: “My hope as an artist is to become a ‘bridge’ between the artistic communities in the U.S. and Japan.” Part of encouraging dialogue between her native Japan and the U.S. has its roots in her interest in contemporary music. “The connections between music, politics and culture are very fascinating to me; working with living composers has been an incredible way to create dialogue between different musical communities.” Among her numerous performances over the past several years, her strong advocacy of Metropolis composer Ryan Francis’s music in Japan stands out.

Fukuhara and Francis have been friends and colleagues for the better part of a decade, and she has been actively championing his compositions in Japan since 2009. One such work she gave the Japanese premiere of is Francis’s Wind-Up Bird Preludes. Francis’s set of preludes was actually inspired by the novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, one of Japan’s most preeminent writers, who has become one of the most internationally recognized authors alive today. Although the Wind-Up Bird Preludes were completed in 2009, it took Fukuhara’s dedication to Francis’s music to bring the new work to a Japanese audience. Fukuhara even took steps to reach out to Murakami himself about the piece, and received an enthusiastic acknowledgement.

“It is really liberating to work on Francis’s music. It has taken me beyond my background of generally standard repertoire, and for Japanese audiences, hearing American new music just fresh off the page from New York is really unusual! It is especially encouraging that younger audiences I have played for are responding to contemporary music like his.”

Akimi performing in Sumida Triphony Hall.

This shared interest of her and her audience in Japan ultimately lead her to commission an entirely new piece by Francis for her latest recital in Japan. This past December, she gave the world premiere Francis’s newest piano work, Tri Cantae in Sumida Triphony Hall, Tokyo.

Listen to the performance:
Ryan Francis - Tri Cantae

“Playing Tri Cantae is like a meditation, and it requires a deep calmness and a great sense of space for its effect to come across. The whole piece consists of three voices spread across the entire range of the piano, but I wanted to play it without moving my upper body at all. The piece gave me a whole new perspective about pianistic sound, and it was really challenging to find a way of expressing each line in the piece.”

Fukuhara’s performance schedule is not exclusive to Japan however, and the Metropolis Ensemble community counts itself lucky to have had occasion to work with her. You might recognize her from her most recent appearance with the group during their appearance on last year’s MATA Festival. Hopefully her busy schedule will bring her rare artistry back to New York again soon!

Bach and Ryan Francis: Sillage from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.

Bach and Ryan Francis: Sillage, featuring Kristin Lee on violin and Conor Hanick on piano. Performed on February 14, 2010 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. This was part of Love Letter to Haiti, a Valentine’s Day benefit concert for Partners in Health, organized by Metropolis Ensemble and artistic director Andrew Cyr. Video by Gareth Paul Cox and Kyrie Cox; sound by Ryan Streber.

Tallis: If Ye Love Me from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.

The world premiere of Thomas Tallis: If Ye Love Me (arranged by David Bruce), featuring Metropolis Ensemble and Friends, Kristin Lee on solo violin. Performed on February 14, 2010 at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. This was part of Love Letter to Haiti, a Valentine’s Day benefit concert for Partners in Health, organized by Metropolis Ensemble and artistic director Andrew Cyr. Video by Gareth Paul Cox and Kyrie Cox; sound by Ryan Streber.

Concerto in A – 1st Movement from Metropolis Ensemble on Vimeo.

American premiere of Avner Dorman’s Concerto in A for Solo Piano and String Orchestra (1995), performed on October 11, 2007 at the Angel Orensanz Center in New York City. Featuring Eliran Avni (piano) and the Metropolis Ensemble led by conductor Andrew Cyr. Video by Timothy Bakland; sound by Nils van Otterloo.

A review of Metropolis Ensemble’s August 12, 2011 concert, Martial Arts Trilogy, by Steve Smith for The New York Times.

The Chinese composer Tan Dun… drew an overflow crowd to Damrosch Park on Friday night for a performance of his “Martial Arts Trilogy,” a splashy multimedia event derived from three popular film scores. Performed by the Metropolis Ensemble and presented by Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the project linked quasi-concerto suites from Mr. Tan’s music for “Hero,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “The Banquet” into an evening-length sequence, with scenes from the films projected on a screen behind the musicians.

…In “Hero Concerto” the soloist Ryu Goto played two violins — one tuned down to a violalike sob — over passages that jolted like Prokofiev and thundered like Basil Poledouris’s potent 1982 score for “Conan the Barbarian.” The cellist Dane Johansen performed the extensive, ravishing solos in Mr. Tan’s warm, eloquent “Crouching Tiger Concerto.”

In the concluding “Banquet Concerto,” originally fashioned for Lang Lang, the exciting young pianist Jiayi Sun barreled through Bartok-inflected combat scenes and tenderly caressed rhapsodic swells plainly inspired by Rachmaninoff.

…The Metropolis Ensemble, a talented freelance orchestra, responded with skill and exuberance to Mr. Tan’s thrusting arms and clutching fingers. Now and then his face, captured by a camera on his music stand, filled the screen overhead: like his film music, oversize and imperious yet clearly meant to entertain.

Read the full review here…

“There’s something irresistibly raw and unpredictable about live performance, and when they’re of the caliber we’ll hear this week, few musical experiences can compare. Kicking off the week is a collection of pieces taken from three concerts.

Pianist / composer Timothy Andres pairs one of his own works, Everything Is An Onion, with a movement from Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata in a live performance taken from the Ecstatic Music Festival Marathon.”

Read the full article…

“The 2011 MATA Festival residency at (Le) Poisson Rouge spans three nights… Metropolis Ensemble closes out the festival on May 12 with works ranging from Brad Balliett and Elliot Cole’s hip-hopera, The Rake, to pieces from Chilean-born, 20-year old Remmy Canedo and New York’s own Ryan Carter.”

Read the full article…

“Creation stories formed the backdrop of the Kansas City Symphony’s inventive concert Friday at the Lyric Theatre… Dorman, a rising young Israeli composer, scored this three-movement work for full orchestra and 23 different percussion instruments, principally marimba and vibraphone. All 23 of which Grubinger played with breathtaking mastery… The audience got so wound up it applauded after every movement, and kept doing it in the second half.”

Read the full article…

“Pianist/composer Timothy Andres made it to numerous top-10 lists last year with his debut album, Shy and Mighty. He also raised eyebrows with an eclectic list of influences that ranges from Radiohead and LCD Soundsystem to today’s other guest, Steve Reich. We hear Andres’ distinctive musical voice, as he joins us to play live in our studio.”

Read the full article…

“On this specially curated week of Hammered! we spotlight a new album of piano music by New York-based composer Ryan Anthony Francis. The record features Bang On A Can pianist Vicky Chow, who, with Francis, joins Hammered! throughout the week with insights on this exquisite new body of piano music.

Among the diverse cast of characters looking over Francis’s compositional shoulder are author Haruki Murakami, artist M.C. Escher and poet Wilhelm Muller. You can hear their whispers: Escher’s interlocking motivic infinities in Francis’s Jacob’s Ladder, Murakami’s polished elegance in the Wind-Up Bird Preludes, and Muller’s prophetic solemnity in Consolations.”

Six Etudes for Piano

Consolations

Wind-Up Bird Preludes

Moonlight Fantasy

Read the full article…

The Symphony also will perform the U.S. premiere of Avner Dorman’s percussion concerto Frozen in Time. According to Dorman, the work was inspired by Earth’s geology.

“It’s divided into three movements: Indoafrica, Eurasia, and The Americas,” he said. “The percussionist Martin Grubinger asked me to write a concerto for him. He knew my music well and felt that my style was very global, and he thought that reflected our generation’s view of the world. So he asked me to write a truly global concerto.”

Indeed, Dorman’s work encompasses the entire planet and its very beginnings.

Read the full article…

“Some of you might know Elliot Cole as a composer of concert music, Contributing Editor here at Sequenza 21, or as a doctoral student at Princeton. But do you know Cole as a… rapper?

De Rerum, Elliot’s debut EP as a fast-talking MC, under the project moniker Oracle Hysterical, tackles lofty subject matter. According to Cole, “It’s a verse history of the world as I understand it (to c.2000BCE, after which, I discovered, history is mostly redundant), and also a general synthesis of, well, most every (nonfiction) book I’ve read in the last decade.

The EP is available for free download via his website. If you enjoy this taste of Oracle Hysterical, you can check out their performance of a retelling of the Rake’s Progress alongside the Metropolis Ensemble at the MATA festival in NYC on May 12.”

Read the full article…